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Continuation Plan


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2 factors matter this season:

1. Make the tournament

2. Show that the future is bright with the younger guys

Whitesell needs to accomplish at least 1 of these to get another year in my book. Otherwise, I'd be willing to start the fund to bring Hodgson home. I can't stand what Hodgson did at the end of his UB tenure, but I was impressed with his support of our guys in the TBT tourney. I would be willing to give him a shot. We know he can recruit and he would be less likely to deviate from the Nate Oats system than Whitesell who has been a college head coach for over 25 years.

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Just seeing this topic now. Coach Quarles had a large role in the success of our offense under Oats. Oats and Quarles together masterminded that beautiful offense and he is young and has plenty of experience. If we were to move on from Whitesell and were to hire from within, he would be smart to give him the nod.

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7 hours ago, clodney said:

2 factors matter this season:

1. Make the tournament

2. Show that the future is bright with the younger guys

Whitesell needs to accomplish at least 1 of these to get another year in my book. Otherwise, I'd be willing to start the fund to bring Hodgson home. I can't stand what Hodgson did at the end of his UB tenure, but I was impressed with his support of our guys in the TBT tourney. I would be willing to give him a shot. We know he can recruit and he would be less likely to deviate from the Nate Oats system than Whitesell who has been a college head coach for over 25 years.

Hodgson hasn’t even run a practice in his life. He’s one of the best recruiters out there but he needs to go elsewhere and prove himself first. Hopefully he’s grown up since leaving UB as well as the tales of some of his antics on the road were not becoming of head coach material. 

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8 hours ago, 121Merrimac said:

then he will be outside UB's pay scale

I just don’t understand the obsession to hire a guy who hasn’t done any actual coaching. Jim has recruited well and our team has improved each year. BH can recruit better but can’t coach a lick. Think about it. In all of his years with Nate, he hasn’t even run a practice. If you can’t win, recruiting will then suffer as well. 

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2 hours ago, DaBulls99 said:

I just don’t understand the obsession to hire a guy who hasn’t done any actual coaching. Jim has recruited well and our team has improved each year. BH can recruit better but can’t coach a lick. Think about it. In all of his years with Nate, he hasn’t even run a practice. If you can’t win, recruiting will then suffer as well. 

I think it depends on what you mean by actual coaching. Neither Hurley nor Oats were a head coach at the Collegiate level prior to UB. I don’t think that’s a prerequisite for getting the position. If you’re a basketball mind, have good energy, connect with your players, and recruit well you can be a damn good head coach.  

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13 hours ago, 961819 said:

Just seeing this topic now. Coach Quarles had a large role in the success of our offense under Oats. Oats and Quarles together masterminded that beautiful offense and he is young and has plenty of experience. If we were to move on from Whitesell and were to hire from within, he would be smart to give him the nod.

Great insight! Thank you! 

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3 hours ago, C1ubP1fanaticM7 said:

I think it depends on what you mean by actual coaching. Neither Hurley nor Oats were a head coach at the Collegiate level prior to UB. I don’t think that’s a prerequisite for getting the position. If you’re a basketball mind, have good energy, connect with your players, and recruit well you can be a damn good head coach.  

This times 1,000!

There’s a reason teams have coaching staffs. The obsession with Hodgson was that he was just named one of the best recruiters in the nation and he’s largely responsible for Alabama having the 3rd best class in NCAA.

He’s not just a good recruiter, he’s one of the best in college basketball.

That’s a game changing attribute. You can mask his deficiencies by surrounding him with a well rounded staff. After a few years, I’m sure he’d be caught up. I don’t think he’ll ever coach UB but his naysayers are being ignorant if they don’t understand his appeal.

Edited by Big 4 Hoops Blogger
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3 hours ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

This times 1,000!

There’s a reason teams have coaching staffs. The obsession with Hodgson was that he was just named one of the best recruiters in the nation and he’s largely responsible for Alabama having the 3rd best class in NCAA.

He’s not just a good recruiter, he’s one of the best in college basketball.

That’s a game changing attribute. You can mask his deficiencies by surrounding him with a well rounded staff. After a few years, I’m sure he’d be caught up. I don’t think he’ll ever coach UB but his naysayers are being ignorant if they don’t understand his appeal.

Having Nate as your head man, with a tremendously fun offensive system, and a winning program, several NBA players over the past couple of years, combined with the allure of a huge name program in Alabama doesn't hurt your recruiting ability. No knock to BH as he clearly did a great job here and is continuing to do so, but let's not forget those points. If he was at the helm at Canisius, the recruiting ability surely goes away swiftly. One would believe that he'd be able to draw here as he did in the past, but the current staff has been drawing some solid guys as well.

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2 hours ago, skrabukes said:

Having Nate as your head man, with a tremendously fun offensive system, and a winning program, several NBA players over the past couple of years, combined with the allure of a huge name program in Alabama doesn't hurt your recruiting ability. No knock to BH as he clearly did a great job here and is continuing to do so, but let's not forget those points. If he was at the helm at Canisius, the recruiting ability surely goes away swiftly. One would believe that he'd be able to draw here as he did in the past, but the current staff has been drawing some solid guys as well.

That’s a fair point but he has elevated the recruiting at each of his stops. Maybe he wouldn’t hypothetically attract 4-star guys to Canisius but he would improve their recruiting which would help their program overall. Obviously, Nate Oats helps him bring in top level players but Hodgson has an ability to identify and attract talent. For example, was Alabama bringing in 5-star recruits before he was there?

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1 hour ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

That’s a fair point but he has elevated the recruiting at each of his stops. Maybe he wouldn’t hypothetically attract 4-star guys to Canisius but he would improve their recruiting which would help their program overall. Obviously, Nate Oats helps him bring in top level players but Hodgson has an ability to identify and attract talent. For example, was Alabama bringing in 5-star recruits before he was there?

Alabama was not bringing in 5 star recruits before Oats because they were not winning in conference that’s way they fired the coach before Oats. Recruiting and winning go hand in hand just as what happened here with successful teams comes better players wanting to come to your program. It is just specullation that Oats would of been successful at Canisius because how many top tier players would go to a MAAC school with the location of the school and a gym that is like a high school gym, It is always fun to talk about the what ifs in basketball. Go Bulls!!!!

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5 hours ago, John said:

Alabama was not bringing in 5 star recruits before Oats because they were not winning in conference that’s way they fired the coach before Oats. Recruiting and winning go hand in hand just as what happened here with successful teams comes better players wanting to come to your program. It is just specullation that Oats would of been successful at Canisius because how many top tier players would go to a MAAC school with the location of the school and a gym that is like a high school gym, It is always fun to talk about the what ifs in basketball. Go Bulls!!!!

Iona took out Alabama, they are 6-0. I guess the right coach can make all the difference.

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18 hours ago, DaBulls99 said:

I just don’t understand the obsession to hire a guy who hasn’t done any actual coaching. Jim has recruited well and our team has improved each year. BH can recruit better but can’t coach a lick. Think about it. In all of his years with Nate, he hasn’t even run a practice. If you can’t win, recruiting will then suffer as well. 

You don’t understand the idea of hiring a guy who hasn’t done any coaching? I assume your talking about head coaching right? By that logic, our football coach shouldn’t have been hired…but people were talking about how great of a recruiter he was. Wonder why he got the job and Bryan didn’t.

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12 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

When that coach is Pitino

Whoever the coach is he still has to have good players. I think the majority of Iona’s team is portal and transfers from other schools. Do agree a coach has to hit on transfers and recruits and turn them into players that play some kind of team ball. I still think all the high end and successful coaches would not be successful without the players that are the the best of the best in the country. All good conversations with fans about coaches and why they have been successful. Looking forward to seeing how both of our UB teams show progress this season. Go Bulls!!!

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4 hours ago, John said:

Whoever the coach is he still has to have good players. I think the majority of Iona’s team is portal and transfers from other schools. Do agree a coach has to hit on transfers and recruits and turn them into players that play some kind of team ball. I still think all the high end and successful coaches would not be successful without the players that are the the best of the best in the country. All good conversations with fans about coaches and why they have been successful. Looking forward to seeing how both of our UB teams show progress this season. Go Bulls!!!

Sorry but this is significantly down playing how good a coach Pitino is. Yes I agree a coach needs players. But let’s not act like the players on Iona are stud recruits. And he got them to the tourney last year and battled Alabama deep into that game. Pitino wins wherever he coaches. Players or not. Hookers and all.

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22 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Sorry but this is significantly down playing how good a coach Pitino is. Yes I agree a coach needs players. But let’s not act like the players on Iona are stud recruits. And he got them to the tourney last year and battled Alabama deep into that game. Pitino wins wherever he coaches. Players or not. Hookers and all.

I did not mean that these coaches cannot win to some degree with players that are not highly rated. There are many coaches that just have the it factor when dealing with young players on how to treat them and many coaches that are better recruiting and better at game decisions. It really is just the nature of sports that makes it exciting.  Go Bulls!!!!

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On 11/25/2021 at 9:52 AM, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

This times 1,000!

There’s a reason teams have coaching staffs. The obsession with Hodgson was that he was just named one of the best recruiters in the nation and he’s largely responsible for Alabama having the 3rd best class in NCAA.

He’s not just a good recruiter, he’s one of the best in college basketball.

That’s a game changing attribute. You can mask his deficiencies by surrounding him with a well rounded staff. After a few years, I’m sure he’d be caught up. I don’t think he’ll ever coach UB but his naysayers are being ignorant if they don’t understand his appeal.

He is a good recruiter because he lives on the road.  
 

He doesn’t do any player development.  He doesn’t run practices and doesn’t lead a program. 
 

Everywhere he has been he has been a recruiter and not an X and O coach or an individual workout coach.  
 

He is the riskiest kind of hire you can make.  
 

I believe he is not a good basketball coach and that is why he has been asked to be on the road so much.  
 

When you have someone with strengths and weaknesses you have them focus on their strengths to hide their weaknesses.  
 

I am not convinced Oats can recruit.  But it doesn’t matter.  He doesn’t need to as long as he can hire good recruiters to bring him players.  
 

Part of being successful is finding the right staff to surround you.  But I don’t think you can be a successful head coach when your strength is recruiting.  You can be great in a midmajor but you will hit a ceiling pretty quickly.  

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On 11/25/2021 at 9:44 PM, UBinMD said:

Iona took out Alabama, they are 6-0. I guess the right coach can make all the difference.

Pitino is a great coach.  He doesn’t need the recruits to win.  
 

I would never want to hire Pitino because I think character matters which is part of the reason I wouldn’t want to hire BH. 

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On 11/26/2021 at 1:01 AM, MKBullsfan said:

You don’t understand the idea of hiring a guy who hasn’t done any coaching? I assume your talking about head coaching right? By that logic, our football coach shouldn’t have been hired…but people were talking about how great of a recruiter he was. Wonder why he got the job and Bryan didn’t.

It’s not that he hasn’t had the title of Head Coach; Hodgson doesn’t coach.  

Sure he attends some practices and games but he doesn’t run work outs and he doesn’t do coaching activities.  
 

He is the one always on the road.  He has less coaching experience than Oats did when Oats came in from Michigan high school. 

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On 11/26/2021 at 3:59 PM, DooleyBull06 said:

Sorry but this is significantly down playing how good a coach Pitino is. Yes I agree a coach needs players. But let’s not act like the players on Iona are stud recruits. And he got them to the tourney last year and battled Alabama deep into that game. Pitino wins wherever he coaches. Players or not. Hookers and all.

He absolutely can coach.  Which is why he is still around.  
 

It is also why I can’t stand him.  I am so jealous for all of the coaches with great character who put in all the work and simply don’t have the talent Pitino has.  
 

I like coaches of character even if they aren’t as good. 

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