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Jim Whitesell and UB Part Ways


Kevin

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6 minutes ago, Jeseph said:

Was this another quality game in the metrics column?

another game that shows we’re in good shape as a program?

what is Whitesells home record?

He's 13-9 at home. 

That's after Buffalo having a 26 game winning streak that was ended by Dartmouth.

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I didn't post during / after the game as I really wanted to be less emotional about what happened last night.

As a fan of UB sports for 30+ years, I have perspective.  It is hard not to after watching those early 2000s teams get consistently out-talented (especially in depth).

I really liked those Hurley and, especially, Oats' teams.  I liked to watch them.  This is why:

  • They played fast...I loved those transition baskets they scored off the other team's miss
  • They played hard.  
  • Guys developed, especially on defense.  If they were a defensive liability, they didn't play as much.
  • There was some accountability.  If you made a bone-head shot or play, you sat.  I remember Williams shooting an early shot clock 3, Oats getting pissed and calling a time out to take him out of the game. 
  • They had a bit of an attitude.  They knew they were going to beat you, but wanted to beat you by 20.  
  • They were still hungry, even after making it to the tournament.
  • They seemed to play as a team...they were having fun out there.

 

Within 1.5 years and with some of those same players, we now have:

  • Getting bullied down low.  How many points did Ohio score in the paint?
  • Team seems like five guys playing pick-up ball, all looking to run their own play
  • No accountability.  Mballa...you want to drive from the three-point line to try and score...only to have it go out of balance?  No worries.  Shoot a contested 3 that missed by a lot instead of making another pass?  Ah...you'll get them next time.
  • Defense is, seemingly, optional, especially down low.
  • The passion, speed and desire is gone.  The players are going through the motions.  Sure...there is talent (more than on Ohio's team, clearly) and, thus, they can talent their way to baskets, but the level of togetherness is not there and a step slow.  They seem complacent and not hungry. 

 

Whitesell may be a good assistant coach (I don't know), but he does not have the skills set to get what is needed out of his players as head coach.  It kind of "is what it is" at this point.  I mean, nothing is really going to change until we find our next head coach because what we have is not what we need.

So even though I bleed blue, I will just quietly wait until the Whitesell era ends and we can move on.

 

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2 hours ago, Erie County said:

7-7 is what he's always been. That's to be expected. 

I defer all other comments to @961819

 

With coaches, you get what you pay for. The same goes for their history. Whitesell has a long head coaching career and a .500 career record. I don’t understand how Alnutt thought that would change. Not every good assistant coach is cut out to be a head coach.
Whitesell is a great guy, nice person, but personally I think the good coaches have to be able to say the unpopular opinion. The good coaches are motivators and firey competitors that hate losing more than anything else. If you want to stand out in this industry, you have to have a chip on your shoulder and something to prove 

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On 1/29/2021 at 9:43 PM, Kevin said:

I had my concerns with Whitesell when he was the "defensive coach" during his seasons under Oats. If UB had it's slight challenges, it would come on the defensive side of the floor. We are now seeing many of those issues without the defensive talents of Jordan and Caruthers. 

As of the end of today’s games, Buffalo has the 2nd best ranked MAC defense. Offense is where they fall short.

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10 hours ago, squire17 said:

As of the end of today’s games, Buffalo has the 2nd best ranked MAC defense. Offense is where they fall short.

Based on what? It must be due to the high rebounding numbers, a number that should have went way down after the Ohio game. 

They've allowed the 284th most points

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4 hours ago, Kevin said:

Based on what? It must be due to the high rebounding numbers, a number that should have went way down after the Ohio game. 

They've allowed the 284th most points

The team has been really bad on defense almost the entire season. They’ve show flashes but I’d put them in the bottom half for sure in 2021.

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1 hour ago, NYS Bulls said:

The team has been really bad on defense almost the entire season. They’ve show flashes but I’d put them in the bottom half for sure in 2021.

 

image.thumb.png.3635ff829e233491e063f928d602612f.png

Kenpom has Buffalo’s defense ranked 2nd best in MAC as of now. Buffalo has been digging itself a hole by its inability to come out of the gate and scoring. The problem would seem to be offense, or more precisely - a lack of offense.

image.png

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13 hours ago, squire17 said:

 

image.thumb.png.3635ff829e233491e063f928d602612f.png

Kenpom has Buffalo’s defense ranked 2nd best in MAC as of now. Buffalo has been digging itself a hole by its inability to come out of the gate and scoring. The problem would seem to be offense, or more precisely - a lack of offense.

image.png

I agree the problems with this team have been predominantly on offense.  The bad starts and poor execution at the end has lead to team being 4-4.  In the four losses the team is shooting 3s at 30% or less, while in four wins, the team shot nearly 40%.  You would expect this variability in shooting 3s, but the team should have found a way to win at least 2 of the 4 games they were shooting poorly (arguably all four).  If they are 6-2 or better at this point, I would have more faith in the team.  It is possible that they get to Cleveland and shoot the lights out on 3s for three straight games but I wouldn't bet on it.

On defense, I compared our opponents Points Per Possession to their average as this takes into account that we play at a faster pace, so is better than average points allowed.  Based on this, I would say that our defense has been good, but not great.  We have held our opponents to less than their average 5 out of 8 games.

image.png.0bf5920fe497ba31953af46dc566bb1c.png

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2 hours ago, clodney said:

I think at this point, Kenpom can go suck an egg. If you have to create a field called "luck factor" to explain why your model deviates so far from wins and losses then your model is crap.

Exactly. Luck should be relabeled coaching. 

Then we’d all agree that coaching factors more into a game and is the reason for the model deviation. 

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Doesn't it make coaching look bad when all your metrics are fine but the results aren't there?

Also as far as 'luck' on kenpom I have always taken it to mean how confident kenpom is in the ranking of the team. If luck is high then the team should probably be ranked lower, if luck is lower the team should be ranked higher

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5 hours ago, Tee4three said:

Doesn't it make coaching look bad when all your metrics are fine but the results aren't there?

Also as far as 'luck' on kenpom I have always taken it to mean how confident kenpom is in the ranking of the team. If luck is high then the team should probably be ranked lower, if luck is lower the team should be ranked higher

I always thought it meant more for wins. Meaning teams that have a higher luck ranking are justified being ranked higher on their calculations but might have a bad record "luck". Teams ranked lower on luck (top) might have a good record, but not be ranked high based on their other metrics. 

I think it directly looks bad for a coach when advanced stats are there and results aren't. 

Whitesell has been disastrous to start games and to close games. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Is it me or does the regression of Jayvon Graves this year has been a big part of the story w this team. There was talk of Mac player of the year before season started. He consistently looks lost out there, shooting percentage way down, defense is subpar, shooting 50% from free throw line, turns ball over way too much, and can’t close at all, ever. For a senior with so much experience he’s just been a bust this year no other way to say it unless he has a big turnaround fast. 

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I've had a lot of different thoughts going through my mind and I hope what I am about to say makes sense.  Yes Oats and Hodgson left us with some of the highest recruited players in school history, but Oats and Hodgson are not at Alabama because of that.  They are at Alabama because of under recruited guys like CJ, Perk, Caruthers, Harris that nobody would give a shot to and they had a chip on their shoulder.

Look at the best players in the MAC... They were all under recruited,  Marreon Jackson didn't turn down Power 5 offers for Toledo, Jason Preston had no offers other than Ohio and the list goes on.

We have a ton of talented players, but I think we have guys who think they are too good for this league and they can just cruise through the season.

Jim Whitesell was the lead recruiter on the greatest players in school history in Massinburg... Oats was the lead recruiter on Perkins.  I'd almost like to see us get back to finding these diamonds in the rough that have something to prove over these Top 150 kids that maybe think they are better than they actually are.

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