The Search for a New Head Coach

[Jeseph]

5 minutes ago, everlast2504 said:

He made of made himself toxic to everyone. 

I think we're the only ones that actually care lol

[McBulls]

I think we should all take a deep breath and read the tea leaves. No way Buffalo or Alabama allow someone to walk in limbo and possibly violate NCAA sanctions in the interim. Hodgson was clearly told that he would not be named head coach without a full nationwide search. He resigned and took the offered assistant coaching position with Alabama. He is employed by Alabama, and is recruiting for Alabama. The chance that Alabama would allow him to actively recruit for them while employed by UB is zero. He still wants the UB job, and as such, has yet to alter his social media profile appreciably because of his desire to coach UB. I certainly don’t doubt that he has attempted to leverage his clout with current and committed players to get the UB job.

Hodgson is a risk, without question. I use him as an example of someone young, hungry, and tied in. As you state, he has no head coaching experience. Lanier and Fife do. I see no reason, however, that they would experience any greater success than the plethora of MAC coaches who arrived as highly touted major assistants. Owens at Miami, Whitfield at Ball St, Murphy at Eastern, off the top of my head. Light versions, at best, of Painter, Miller, and Boeheim. 

I would rather throw my lot in with a successful coach of a national high school program, JUCO, or lower level NCAA program, as DC suggested above. Insist that they hire experienced assistants and a recruiting ace. 

 

 

[ButlerAlumDad]

18 hours ago, 961819 said:

Let me get some opinions on this. Perhaps Oats wasn’t as good of a coach as we all thought and our dominance of the MAC was purely based on having all around better players. Our recruiting recently has been head and shoulders above the rest of the MAC and when we finally went up against teams with equal or better recruits, Oats was exposed (Marquette, Texas Tech) Any thoughts on this?

That's exactly what I've been saying. Coach JW was HUGE as he has the experience and temperament. Not certain he wants to be a HC again. I saw him coach 2x a year when my son was on the Butler team and then almost 1x a year after as I still travelled to Hinkle for home games.

 

[ButlerAlumDad]

REALITY CHECK!!! 6 years ago UB would have been lucky to beat a team like RAP or City Rocks. Hurley left a MAC tournament ready team. Today expectations to continue the last 2 years are high. REALITY... there is no long standing tradition or identification to build on. True, the down & dirty hard hat mentality is being promoted just as the "New York State Bulls" were under DW. Hurley brought attention to the program and upped the donor attention. DW did too. A big fall off under AG. I truly believe MA is looking to define the program long term. He could look to local ties like Lanier or Battle for 5-8 year sustainability as well as develop a program face and identity or risk hiring a Pitino for immediate attention and 2-3 years. Alumni Arena is not Cameron, Rupp, Yum Center, Assembly Hall, Hinkle, or even Rose Hall, etc. Other local schools though 2 have slidden downhill recently have more tradition, especially the one to the south. Comparing UB, to Gonzaga, VCU or Butler is a joke at the moment. Tradition has a lot to do with it. As UB is a public state school, many have to buy in including the State, town and city. Will spectators pay 1/4 of what they pay currently for the entire season for a bleacher seat for just 1 game? I doubt it. I won't reveal my UB seat location however at the Carrier Dome the equal seats would be $365 per seat a game though it includes a buffet and 2 drinks in the club at the 'Dome. At Cameron and Hinkle its even more. 

[sportscliche]

Some perspective on what might be considered Alnutt's lack of urgency in making a hire:

As of today, UCLA has not had an official head coach for 91 days. And counting.

[McBulls]

BAD- agree, we aren’t VCU, Gonzaga, or Butler. I think we all want to reach that level, however, and need to develop a roadmap toward doing so. The first step is setting that goal and determining how to meet such steep expectations. Nothing great was ever accomplished by lowering expectations. Butler certainly didn’t find themselves in the Big East by saying in 1997: “Boy, we haven’t been to the NCAA tourney in 35 years and we’re in the Horizon. Guess it is time to temper our dreams.”

[promotherobot]

25 minutes ago, ButlerAlumDad said:

REALITY CHECK!!! 6 years ago UB would have been lucky to beat a team like RAP or City Rocks. Hurley left a MAC tournament ready team. Today expectations to continue the last 2 years are high. REALITY... there is no long standing tradition or identification to build on. True, the down & dirty hard hat mentality is being promoted just as the "New York State Bulls" were under DW. Hurley brought attention to the program and upped the donor attention. DW did too. A big fall off under AG. I truly believe MA is looking to define the program long term. He could look to local ties like Lanier or Battle for 5-8 year sustainability as well as develop a program face and identity or risk hiring a Pitino for immediate attention and 2-3 years. Alumni Arena is not Cameron, Rupp, Yum Center, Assembly Hall, Hinkle, or even Rose Hall, etc. Other local schools though 2 have slidden downhill recently have more tradition, especially the one to the south. Comparing UB, to Gonzaga, VCU or Butler is a joke at the moment. Tradition has a lot to do with it. As UB is a public state school, many have to buy in including the State, town and city. Will spectators pay 1/4 of what they pay currently for the entire season for a bleacher seat for just 1 game? I doubt it. I won't reveal my UB seat location however at the Carrier Dome the equal seats would be $365 per seat a game though it includes a buffet and 2 drinks in the club at the 'Dome. At Cameron and Hinkle its even more. 

All great points. UB has so far to catch up in so many areas. It's a real shame Oats left because we made some huge gains in alumni engagement and fan support. Buffalo has never been a college sports town. So to win over non-alum fans is huge. Unfortunately, Buffalo also has a big-time inferiority complex. So the way things went down with Oats has your typical WNY sports fan saying "see, we got screwed again!"

But it's also important to look back and see how far we've come. It's slow and incremental progress but it's there. And the last few years of basketball, and now football, has sparked some alumni pride. This hire by Mark Alnutt may be the most important ever (until the next most important one ever.)  

[ed]

16 hours ago, McBulls said:

Does it not bother anybody else that he walked away from a head coaching position to take an assistant role?

doesn't bother me in the least.

[DooleyBull06]

I’m done with the whole Gonzaga of the East. The person who was going to lead us to becoming that is now in Alabama where Alabama will become the Kentucky of the South.

Lets just be Buffalo. I think with Hurley and Oats we’ve established an identity. That above all else is what we need to preserve and grow. The culture of UB being able to win the MAC, get to the big dance and win tournament games. Thus we need a coach who can continue us on that path. And yes the next coach if he wins will leave us again. But hey if we win then it will be worth it. And if we become a school that wins and churns out the next hot shot coach then I’m all for it because it means we are winning. Eventually with sustained winning maybe we will retain a coach, move up in conference affiliation and all our wildest dreams will come true.

I’m done and over Oats and Hodgson. It’s time to move on. 

Edited April 1, 2019 by DooleyBull06

[skrabukes]

4 minutes ago, ed said:

ucla is a highly desirable job that has the resources to grab almost who ever they want, even if they already have a cushy job.  and even with their crappy years, they can recruit.  they don't have to have the same sense of urgency we do.  

What is our urgency at this point? The players haven't outwardly demanded a name. The incoming players haven't adjusted their position, with the exception of Allen and obviously Hawkins who was taken to Bama with the change. We need to get this right, not just pick a name that people throw around. I for one am glad that they are exploring options. Again, without knowing what the players want, it's hard to say what I would want as a fan. I would like someone that could keep the current roster in place, while being someone who could add pieces to it like we have in the past. The country is very large and we should be offering a pretty strong salary to anyone who is interested in the job. Therefore, we should have plenty of strong options. The person coming in is taking over a 32 win team from this past season. Yes, 5 seniors are gone, but it's still a previously ranked team that won 32 games and has been to 4 out of 5 NCAA tournaments in a row. You're not taking over Niagara that has done squat in a bad league, offering limited compensation. You're not even taking over Ohio who has been middling to bottom of the league in recent years. While we aren't "big time" (yet, hopefully), the recent resume should be something that an prospective head coach would be desiring. Additionally, seeing that the past 2 coaches have gone on to make 2 million plus/yr after leaving here is quite the incentive to come here and do well.

[ed]

Just now, skrabukes said:

 What is our urgency at this point?

compared to uc-f'in-la?  locking down the team and making the team an attractive place for recruits, and trying to continue our very short history as a vaguely relevant basketball team.  we've been good for 5 years, and  relevant on the national level for one year.  it the team implodes, any and all good-will from that instantly goes away.

Just now, skrabukes said:

The person coming in is taking over a 32 win team from this past season. Yes, 5 seniors are gone, but it's still a previously ranked team that won 32 games and has been to 4 out of 5 NCAA tournaments in a row. You're not taking over Niagara that has done squat in a bad league, offering limited compensation. You're not even taking over Ohio who has been middling to bottom of the league in recent years. While we aren't "big time" (yet, hopefully), the recent resume should be something that an prospective head coach would be desiring. Additionally, seeing that the past 2 coaches have gone on to make 2 million plus/yr after leaving here is quite the incentive to come here and do well.

how'd that work out for kent after their elite 8 run? an unsustained period of success is basically meaningless in terms of attracting coaches and recruits.  a good mid major team that hits a hiccup basically needs to start from scratch. 

[ButlerAlumDad]

28 minutes ago, ed said:

doesn't bother me in the least.

agree. Chris Holtman was HC at Gardner-Webb and left to be an ordinary assistant under Brad Stevens at Butler. 3 years later he bolted for "The Ohio State" thus the moniker "Boltman".

[Kevin]

According to sources:

Coach Hodgson is not having his phone call returned by Alnutt. 

Clearly, leveraged himself out of the equation. 

Alnutt was caught off guard, so I guess that means we are all naive. Maybe this has something to do with the exit the way it happened?

Edited April 1, 2019 by Kevin

[skrabukes]

27 minutes ago, ed said:

compared to uc-f'in-la?  locking down the team and making the team an attractive place for recruits, and trying to continue our very short history as a vaguely relevant basketball team.  we've been good for 5 years, and  relevant on the national level for one year.  it the team implodes, any and all good-will from that instantly goes away.

how'd that work out for kent after their elite 8 run? an unsustained period of success is basically meaningless in terms of attracting coaches and recruits.  a good mid major team that hits a hiccup basically needs to start from scratch. 

I'm not really concerned with what Ucla does. Honestly, we've been far better than them in recent years, even though they have more resources and tradition. 

We only need to take care of choosing our coach. What they do or don't do doesn't concern us.

[everlast2504]

19 minutes ago, Kevin said:

According to sources:

Coach Hodgson is not having his phone call returned by Alnutt. 

Clearly, leveraged himself out of the equation. 

Alnutt was caught off guard, so I guess that means we are all naive. Maybe this has something to do with the exit the way it happened?

Alnutt would of had to agree to 'Bama interviewing Oats. He knew perhaps he thought it would take quicker than 48 hours. 

[BullBoy]

26 minutes ago, Kevin said:

According to sources:

Coach Hodgson is not having his phone call returned by Alnutt. 

Clearly, leveraged himself out of the equation. 

Alnutt was caught off guard, so I guess that means we are all naive. Maybe this has something to do with the exit the way it happened?

Hodgson acted like a child during this whole event.. I wouldn't return his call either.

[UB05]

30 minutes ago, Kevin said:

According to sources:

Coach Hodgson is not having his phone call returned by Alnutt. 

Clearly, leveraged himself out of the equation. 

Alnutt was caught off guard, so I guess that means we are all naive. Maybe this has something to do with the exit the way it happened?

Lol is he surprised by that? He’s posing with recruits in Bama gear. Either he’s a few cans short of a 6 pack or he wanted to stay with our ex coach all along. 

Edited April 1, 2019 by UB05

[Nonickname]

Strictly a guess but perhaps Alnutt doesn't want Hodgson because he sees Hodgson as another short timer who will look to make a quick jump. Not that the next guy won't do that also, but if we're going to be a stepping stone he wants that next guy to be his guy. Hodgson is third down the tree from Hurley and the Hurley/Oats/Hodgson as a group we're extremely inexperienced coming in. Maybe an outside coach with real HC experience could replenish that core better and leave behind the next Oats when he makes a jump. Hurley really left us a nice gift.

Another thought, perhaps Alnutt had a conversation with Hodgson saying if he stays as an assistant under Whitsell a few years he can have the keys to the whole thing. You could see if that happened why he'd be so pissed al Bryan posing in Bama gear on recruiting trips. 

[rma]

You don’t get to bang your hot new side chick while waiting for your girlfriend to say “yes” (and you shouldn’t have a side chick).

Terribly managed, not on our side, and we haven’t even heard Alnutt’s side. Next Bull In. 

[dutchcountry7]

55 minutes ago, UB05 said:

Lol is he surprised by that? He’s posing with recruits in Bama gear. Either he’s a few cans short of a 6 pack or he wanted to stay with our ex coach all along. 

I think he seriously thought he had leverage.  Remember there were some key donors that were saying they had to hire Hodgson.  He worked his contacts and thought he could force UB's hand.

That isn't how you get hired. 

The things we have seen make me think that what he did would have worked in the AAU world where he hangs out recruiting and as every day passes I think more and more that his recruiting success was not on the up and up.

[UB85]

30 minutes ago, squire17 said:

Narrow it down. Good or Bad for UB basketball? Is Alnut undermining basketball to goose football? What’s going on? You can’t just leave us dangling.

I wish I knew what Alnut was doing. He hasn’t given anyone insofar as I know clue especially me. I wish he had a press conference at the outset to make a statement about the process, his vision, what he wanted in a new coach, how the players are doing, what the athletic department was going to keep the players moving forward and in a decent state of mind. As I said before, the info I got earlier simply dispelled at least one of the assumptions I and others made. From what I hear the only person that has any sort of line outside of the AD and his office is Josh Reed at channel 4.  

[squire17]

5 minutes ago, UB85 said:

I wish I knew what Alnut was doing. He hasn’t given anyone insofar as I know clue especially me. I wish he had a press conference at the outset to make a statement about the process, his vision, what he wanted in a new coach, how the players are doing, what the athletic department was going to keep the players moving forward and in a decent state of mind. As I said before, the info I got earlier simply dispelled at least one of the assumptions I and others made. From what I hear the only person that has any sort of line outside of the AD and his office is Josh Reed at channel 4.  

Thanks for nothing.

[Kevin]

8 minutes ago, UB85 said:

I wish I knew what Alnut was doing. He hasn’t given anyone insofar as I know clue especially me. I wish he had a press conference at the outset to make a statement about the process, his vision, what he wanted in a new coach, how the players are doing, what the athletic department was going to keep the players moving forward and in a decent state of mind. As I said before, the info I got earlier simply dispelled at least one of the assumptions I and others made. From what I hear the only person that has any sort of line outside of the AD and his office is Josh Reed at channel 4.  

That’s not true. I can say that there are plenty of people that will give out the bits of information that they know.

just like how we got ahold of the 2.4m contract Oats signed, Lanier, it coach B news. 

[961819]

UB needs to get a coach and then get the hell out of the MAC, that’s all I have right now 

[zigo230]

Alnutt has had it pretty cushy so far.  FB, MBB, WBB, Fieldhouse...etc.  all have been on autopilot and in great shape since he joined. This is the first adversity he has faced.