Coaching Search 2023 Edition

[UBinMD]

2 hours ago, enrique14150 said:

All these cases we're talking about - murder, kidnapping, stabbing - this is way beyond the normal dumb things that all college kids do.  

(And if you're reading this and saying to yourself, "I didn't do anything dumb in college" - WOW you must've done some REALLY dumb stuff because you don't even remember it!)

I find it admirable when a coach and a program is willing to give someone who has made some mistakes a chance to move on and show they have improved.  Yet I can understand why a coach and a program wouldn't want to even take the chance on that, whether it's about winning or just about a second chance in life, when it's your career that gets burned if things go wrong.  That said - bad stuff is going to happen. People are going to make some bad choices. What's the reaction though?  I don't think the Bama program (nor any) could hold these kids' hands 24/7 but their reaction to all this has been questionable to most.

Questionable is kind. I have lost quite a bit of respect for Oats in the past few weeks. He seemed like a nice, likeable, standup dude. I guess big time athletics and million dollar contracts can change anyone's perception. 

[DaBulls99]

Honestly if BH were gonna be the guy, and if he wanted to be the guy, wouldn’t it have been done already? Longer this goes I’m guessing his chances dwindle. 

[John]

5 minutes ago, DaBulls99 said:

Honestly if BH were gonna be the guy, and if he wanted to be the guy, wouldn’t it have been done already? Longer this goes I’m guessing his chances dwindle. 

We are all anxious to hear something but because we don’t have any inside information it is all conjecture and opinions for all of us. We are not sure who Alnutt has talked to so patience is a virtue. Do agree with what has happened at Alabama if BH is hired there will always be questions of how the entire coaching staff handled this tragic situation with a loss of an innocent life and Alabama continues to go on with life as usual. All of the coach speak goes on that Miles and Miller are such good kids and never in trouble. Looking forward to hearing good news about our new coach soon.

[Bill]

Honestly, the longer this goes on the better I feel we’ll come out of this with the right coach. I’d rather they take their time and do the proper research and investigating on each candidate as opposed to rushing to a decision. 

[Chet]

Why don't we talk about some positive things that Hodgson has done? Anybody want to talk about how the Blue Collar Bulls honored the victims of the horrific shooting at TOPS by wearing their names on their jerseys and then selling the jerseys to raise money for the victims' families. How about winning the TBT? How about Hodgson being placed in foster care as a child and the adversity that he likely fought through in his life to get where he is.

Edited March 16, 2023 by Chet

[BrooklynBull]

For everyone concerned that a new coach has yet to be named, based on discussions with people in college sports UB will have a coach and staff plus a roster for when practice begins in the fall.

[myBuffalo]

17 minutes ago, BrooklynBull said:

For everyone concerned that a new coach has yet to be named, based on discussions with people in college sports UB will have a coach and staff plus a roster for when practice begins in the fall.

Completely understood and with all due respect BB, having a coach through the Spring and Summer will better be able to recruit and retain future and current Bulls and I am thinking about state playoffs which are going on right now as well as the summer AAU circuit for starters.

[BrooklynBull]

15 minutes ago, myBuffalo said:

Completely understood and with all due respect BB, having a coach through the Spring and Summer will better be able to recruit and retain future and current Bulls and I am thinking about state playoffs which are going on right now as well as the summer AAU circuit for starters.

They will have it much earlier.  It was meant to calm people down because we do not have a new coach in five days.

[DocCas86]

7 minutes ago, BrooklynBull said:

They will have it much earlier.  It was meant to calm people down because we do not have a new coach in five days.

What it feels like:

What we want:

😃

[Dabulls]

The longer it takes it makes me feel that a coach we are looking at is currently coaching in the tournament. Hodgson and Cohen… even if not it’s a good sign that we are being thorough in the search 

[everlast2504]

11 hours ago, Dabulls said:

The longer it takes it makes me feel that a coach we are looking at is currently coaching in the tournament. Hodgson and Cohen… even if not it’s a good sign that we are being thorough in the search 

I think the longer it takes with no news the more Hodgson is out of it. He is known by the school, vetting process won't need to be as long. He also may of already said no. 

 

 

[Blue03]

16 hours ago, myBuffalo said:

Completely understood and with all due respect BB, having a coach through the Spring and Summer will better be able to recruit and retain future and current Bulls and I am thinking about state playoffs which are going on right now as well as the summer AAU circuit for starters.

Definitely, we don’t want to screw our men’s team like our women’s team. Burke drew the short stick when it came to roster picks and it reflected that throughout the season, just seeing things come together in the end. We need a coach and roster before all the good players are gone, and they need time to gel. 

[BasketBull]

36 minutes ago, everlast2504 said:

I think the longer it takes with no news the more Hodgson is out of it. He is known by the school, vetting process won't need to be as long. He also may of already said no. 

 

 

I don't think I agree with this. Alabama has enough distractions right now for a 1 seed, I'd imagine 2 different assistants announcing their intent to depart in in the middle of a tournament run may be something they'd like to avoid.

I agree with Dabulls, I have no idea who is being targeted but my money would be on Cohen or Hodgson.

[Tee4three]

I think the silence/lack of info on interviews is that UB has their coach already and he is probably still in the tournament 

If you're hiring a "recruiter" based coach timing means less in my opinion, you can wait for the perfect time

With the tournament the timing of the announcement can be huge - you want to be in the news cycle.

For instance would it be better to announce hodgson or Cohen now or say when their team is potentially in Houston for the final 4? 

It is strange no news on interviews has broke other than names to expect to be interviewed, unless I missed it 

[Dabulls]

33 minutes ago, Tee4three said:

I think the silence/lack of info on interviews is that UB has their coach already and he is probably still in the tournament 

If you're hiring a "recruiter" based coach timing means less in my opinion, you can wait for the perfect time

With the tournament the timing of the announcement can be huge - you want to be in the news cycle.

For instance would it be better to announce hodgson or Cohen now or say when their team is potentially in Houston for the final 4? 

It is strange no news on interviews has broke other than names to expect to be interviewed, unless I missed it 

Im feeling the same way, we just haven’t had it publicly announced yet. Especially with Hodgson or Cohen. Imagine being a player in the tournament, getting ready for some of the biggest games of your life and hearing that the coach who brought you to the program is going to leave once the season ends. Teams and players don’t want the distraction. Yes, it happens that coaches announce their decisions during the season but just look at the state of Bama and Xavier. Bama is a championship contender and Xavier is a 3 seed trying to make a run. I could be 💯 wrong on my take but that’s what I think 

[bullsbball]

A few dates and random comments:

• Bowling Green fired their coach on March 5th and hired his replacement on March 15th (10 days).
• Jack announced she was leaving on March 26th and Burke was hired on April 6th (11 days).
• Oats announced he was leaving UB on March 27th and Whitesell was hired on April 6th (10 days). 
• Whitesell was fired on March 11th and so based on this pattern, I wouldn't expect his replacement to be named until March 21-23 (i.e. next week).
• Burke was hired on April 6th and her first recruits were announced on April 18th (Perkins and Watson).
• Last year, Whitesell's first recruits were announced on April 13th (K. Jones and Powell). 
• At this point, roughly a third of the usual transfers have been "announced" but only a handful have actually committed to new schools.
• Currently, UB has only 4 players enter the transfer portal.  Central Michigan (6), Bowling Green (6), and Toledo (5) have more.

[Bluebird96]

1 hour ago, Tee4three said:

For instance would it be better to announce hodgson or Cohen now or say when their team is potentially in Houston for the final 4? 

If you’re Hodgson, do you get bigger offers than just UB if Alabama gets to the Final 4 and maybe even wins the title?  Even realizing he’s never been a HC before, but I would think he’d draw interest from bigger names than UB if they make a deep run but I could be wrong

[Tee4three]

49 minutes ago, Bluebird96 said:

If you’re Hodgson, do you get bigger offers than just UB if Alabama gets to the Final 4 and maybe even wins the title?  Even realizing he’s never been a HC before, but I would think he’d draw interest from bigger names than UB if they make a deep run but I could be wrong

Just curious as to what would be considered bigger than UB? I cant imagine that he'd get a power conference opportunity either way. I could see similar profile or slight higher schools being interested for sure. Is a middle a10 or MVC better than UB?

The waiting is under the assumption that a deal is already made and just not public. As a recruiter I could see timing of announcement being very valuable

[rma]

1 hour ago, bullsbball said:

Oats announced he was leaving UB on March 27th and Whitesell was hired on April 6th (10 days). 

Those 10 days felt like 10 years. Wow.

[Tee4three]

 

 

[rma]

The last few hires have been air tight from a public perspective. I remember Hurley was leaked and Leipold was unintentionally leaked (fun story if you remember).

[RecoveringHillbilly]

Have to think Desmond Oliver and Jim Christian may have interest. Christian is working in the Kent St athletic dept but who knows if he wants back in the MAC. Or if ADMA even wants a sharp, first time young coach vs a proven vet/retread.

[trueblue32]

3 hours ago, Bluebird96 said:

If you’re Hodgson, do you get bigger offers than just UB if Alabama gets to the Final 4 and maybe even wins the title?  Even realizing he’s never been a HC before, but I would think he’d draw interest from bigger names than UB if they make a deep run but I could be wrong

I don't think so. I didn't thoroughly research this so maybe I missed a hire, but Kansas won the title last year and didn't lose any assistant coaches. Prior to that Baylor won and lost Jerome Tang to Kansas State, but he had been at Baylor since Drew took over that shitshow in 2003 and turned them around. Prior to that Virginia won and didn't lose any assistant coaches. The opportunity to make the jump from assistant to head coach doesn't come around that often, it usually requires a drop in level, maybe requires a paycut. I'd frankly be surprised if Hodgson is truly interested in making the jump to head coaching and we offer him the job and he says no.

Edited March 17, 2023 by trueblue32

[trueblue32]

I don't know the quality of sources but this is the first mention I've seen of Michigan assistant Saddi Washington
 

Also mentioned the other usual suspects (Hodgson, Cohen, Hartman)

[MuchMany]

Whoever it is, I want the focus to be on revamping recruiting. I've was a pretty big grouch about the lack of recruiting news/activity in the JW era and I think poor talent eventually burned him.

The best teams in the MAC have pipelines into legitimate recruiting grounds in the Midwest and compete for players with other powerful mid-majors. After Oats, and especially the last few years of JW, it seems we retreated from this battle ground to go for shortcuts/reclamation transfers.

The strategy I'd most like to see is cutting in front of the rest of the country geographically for Canadian talent. Let's be the mid-major power of Toronto (pop. 6 mil) and Montreal (4 mil). There are 130 D1 Canadians this year, 78 of whom are from Ontario. Geography isn't important to every recruit, but having family/friends within an easy drive is significant.

Jack was hardly heralded as a recruit and he exceeded expectations of polish as well as potential. The National POTY is from two hours away. I think we could develop a reputation and brand as a destination for the major concentration of talent up there.