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Jim Whitesell and UB Part Ways


Kevin

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3 hours ago, mikescherrer8 said:

Could have extended oats with that fieldhouse $$$. But Murchie’s said nah I think we’ll invest in mid major football instead.

This seems unfair to the Murchies.  It's their money, they should be able to choose where they want the donation spent.  I know it may be uncommon on this board, but if I'm a donor and I'm forced to pick and choose which of the two sports my money is going toward, I want it to go toward football.  Personally, I'm more invested in UB football than I am in UB basketball.  Everyone's priorities are different.

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9 minutes ago, UBlearns said:

This seems unfair to the Murchies.  It's their money, they should be able to choose where they want the donation spent.  I know it may be uncommon on this board, but if I'm a donor and I'm forced to pick and choose which of the two sports my money is going toward, I want it to go toward football.  Personally, I'm more invested in UB football than I am in UB basketball.  Everyone's priorities are different.

Plus the fieldhouse is a long term investment. An Oats extension might have bought us 2-3 years. It wasn't a long term solution.

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3 hours ago, mikescherrer8 said:

Could have extended oats with that fieldhouse $$$. But Murchie’s said nah I think we’ll invest in mid major football instead.

This makes a lot of sense. We could have extended Oats for a few years with the Murchie money, until he bolted for even more money, or more prestige, or, we could have built a fieldhouse that will be here longer than we will.  That comment was the definition of biting the hand that feeds you.

Edited by ChubbyHubby
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1 minute ago, UBinMD said:

Apologies. I like giving the benefit of the doubt to a coach and support. The regression we are in now though is very obvious there is a disconnect between coaches and players

I honestly do appreciate that. 

I just like history. The best indicator for future success is past history. Everyone was mad at me for bringing up his staff as well. His head guy was even a bigger loser (winning % wise) than he was. 

Once a .500 basketball coach, always a .500 basketball coach.

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4 minutes ago, Kevin said:

I honestly do appreciate that. 

I just like history. The best indicator for future success is past history. Everyone was mad at me for bringing up his staff as well. His head guy was even a bigger loser (winning % wise) than he was. 

Once a .500 basketball coach, always a .500 basketball coach.

Bottom line we wanted to pay under $400k and here we are. I believe JW is a nice guy and I know the players like him, but he’s not a motivator by the looks and with kids these days, you need to be otherwise you get the street ball we are witnessing 

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Just now, UBinMD said:

Bottom line we wanted to pay under $400k and here we are. I believe JW is a nice guy and I know the players like him, but he’s not a motivator by the looks and with kids these days, you need to be otherwise you get the street ball we are witnessing 

Our second team played much better and had better energy and ball movement 

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I mean seriously this is ridiculous at this point. What is Alnutt even doing? Your coach of one of the biggest sports at your school is horribly underperforming. It’s literally your JOB to oversee the schools athletics and place competent coaches in place for them to be as successful as possible. Do your job Marky Mark 

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Been traveling and sort of avoiding the board because everyone gets so sensitive when there is negative comments about a crappy coach. Glad to finally see everyone is in agreement now (I think). Time to face reality, Whitesell is terrible and we must get rid of him ASAP by any means necessary. Each year we wait, easily puts us 2-3 years behind on getting a team that can compete in a tournament. He has taken every piece of talent gifted to him and oversaw their significant regression and hardly recruited even 1-2 top talent players in over 3 years. We should not tolerate this performance. Period. Not coming off the success we had prior to him.

I still think this team is talented/capable of stringing together a few wins in MAC tourney, but their lack of discipline and utterly mind blowing lapses in effort and production will certainly not allow them to make real noise. Whitesell is to blame, no doubt about it. 

 

Edited by UBminicre
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I remember when I posted after the Canisius loss. I said at that time for us to begin to realize we are on the decline and our best days with this program were behind us. I got ripped by some people here saying the sky is falling well how about now? This team is a shell of its self, the coach shouldn’t be a HC, the AD shouldn’t be an AD and the leaders of UB have no clue or maybe desire to run a top performing athletics department that can sustain a winning culture. Is winning the past 5 years was a bonus for them. Change the expectations and pay to play to take this to the next level. 

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I do wonder what level of candidates we can even attract at this point. We have lost all momentum from the Hurley/Oats era. 
 

https://watchstadium.com/mac-college-basketball-coaches-rank-the-best-jobs-in-the-conference-01-10-2019/amp/

Even back in 2019, we weren’t considered a top 5 job in the MAC. I can’t imagine our standing has risen since then. 

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7 minutes ago, ub2019 said:

I do wonder what level of candidates we can even attract at this point. We have lost all momentum from the Hurley/Oats era. 
 

https://watchstadium.com/mac-college-basketball-coaches-rank-the-best-jobs-in-the-conference-01-10-2019/amp/

Even back in 2019, we weren’t considered a top 5 job in the MAC. I can’t imagine our standing has risen since then. 

I remember this when it came out. Obviously at that time we were trending up. And for a school that didn’t have the tradition of decades past, to be 6th was good. We built momentum under Hurley and Oats but unfortunately that momentum has come to a screeching halt. And the window of opportunity to keep that upward trend going is barely open at this point. Anything can still happen but this team has given us alum and fans no hope that it can defeat the top teams in the conference. Let alone facing the prospect of having to run the gauntlet of top teams in March…fading(ed) hope.

Edited by DooleyBull06
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13 hours ago, bulls2684 said:

Better prepare yourself for him to return next year

https://ubbulls.com/news/2021/7/22/mens-basketball-whitesell-signs-contract-extension.aspx

 

Your take is not wrong.  He is signed through the 2025 season.  That's four more years after this season completes.  The athletic program got rid of some athletic programs within the last several years and really didn't want to pay what it would cost to hire a coach when Oats left.   Does anyone really think Alnutt will get the backing (i.e. $$$) to fire the coach...which puts them on the hook for another (about) $1.5M overall and then have to pay a replacement?  Not happening.

 

As mentioned last year (in March or so), I have tapped out (for all intents and purposes) on basketball until JW is not the coach anymore.  I will post here and there (like today) to provide some perspective, but as far as commenting on games, posting within the game threads, living or dying with the team, that's not happening.  In essence, that's my protest (though I caved in early this year and went to a game...I still bleed blue).   I suspect the booing at halftime last night as well as the small crowd is the way people are protesting the current state of the basketball team.

 

This is kind-of/sort-of where we are now.  And right now...this will be the peak over the next few years, clearly.  The booing last night was the crowd voicing their displeasure (i.e. demonstrating their concern).  What is going to happen is that there will be less booing next year as we cheer on our plucky, undermanned team, reminiscing about the Oats years while watching the early Witherspoon years, redux.  So much for "Gonzaga of the East".

 

I encourage everyone to get behind our guys for the rest of the year and any run we might make in Cleveland.  We do have talent on the roster and there is still time for them to put together something.   If we make it to the finals in Cleveland, I know I will be there supporting the team.  

As always, Go Bulls!

 

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I do not think drawing a talented coach is an issue. We have done it in the past… should be able to continue to draw. Now whether we have a AD that can even eye talent - assume he will just outsource coaching search in the future - that is what we have to hope for. But I agree the terrible extension of whitesell and lack of resources really puts us in a pickle. It’s more likely we have to wait 3 - 4 years before we can get out of these extremely poor decisions. Then we will need to give new coach 2-3 years to rebuild. So yeah a decade is prob best case at this point…

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14 hours ago, 121Merrimac said:

You’ve had years to think of a replacement.  Who’s on your short list?

What's my budget? I have a few lists based on what I can spend. 

If it has to be 300k, i would pull out my P5 assistants list. 

If i can spend 400k - 500k, im going to my low D1 list, like Dustin Kerns. 

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