Buffalo Shows Witherspoon the Door

[Rollo83]

Still can't believe Buffalo fired coach Reggie Witherspoon today. Say what you want about his antics, Reggie's teams always were ready to play and played hard.

I know the other coaches in the MAC won't miss playing his teams. Buffalo got a new AD in June last year. I guess he wanted his guy. Plus, I could see Reggie being a pain to work with if he's not "your guy."

[mscarn]

Reggie says he was blindsided by the move. Speaking about disadvantages he had in relation to others in the MAC, he cited not having a graduate assistant or a director of basketball operations and that Ohio and Akron take charter planes to Buffalo for games while they had to bus it. Hummmmm.....

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 19160/1004

[BGFalconfromCincy]

According to CBS Sports Buffalo is going to hire Bobby Hurley as its next head coach

[Falconfreak90]

Just saw the report scroll on ESPN about Hurley getting hired by UB...

[mscarn]

What a great hire.

They took a short-term PR hit and there's probably some kvetching in the faculty lounge, and all they got in exchange was absolutely skyrocketing the standing of their second most important sports program and how 90% of the general public perceives the school at large.

Not a bad trade-off.

[mscarn]

Here's a quote from UB's athletic director on the hire. Think of how excited we'd be to hear similar words:

"After reviewing a large and highly qualified national pool and following my conversations with some of the most respected figures in college athletics, Coach Hurley was clearly the choice to lead the next era of UB basketball," White said. " As we continue to foster our role as the flagship athletic department for the state of New York, the appointment of Coach Hurley sends a clear statement that the University at Buffalo is committed to bringing big time college athletics to the Western New York community and the state at large.

http://www.buffalobulls.com/sports/mbkb ... 03266pwc3r

Instead we basically got this:

"After ignoring the highly qualifed national pool of candidates that would have applied for this job, and speaking with and knowing virtually no-one in college athletics, Coach Orr is clearly the choice to lead the next era of BG basketball," Mazey said. "As we continue to pander to a small but vocal segment of the university community who hate sports, the retention of Coach Orr sends a clear statement that the university is committed to bringing underachieving, uninspired, mediocre college athletics to the thousand-or so people in the community who still care about the basketball program."

[guest44]

Fantastic post.

[Falconfreak90]

I think the Hurley hire is freakin awesome. His name is BiG time, played at arguably the best college hoops program in the country and won a lot. This is exactly the type of individual we need at BG NOW.

[Rollo83]

Who knows if the Hurley hire is good or not? Lets see what he does in his first head coaching job before we call it a good hire...let alone great Just because he had a high profile college playing career doesn't make him a good coach. In general, that doesn't work in most cases.

I predict we'll look back three to five years from now and Hurley will not have accomplsihed as much with the Buffalo program as Reggie Witherspoon did.

[Lord_Byron]

It remains to be seen if this is a good hire or not. It is, most certainly, a splashy hire.

Keep in mind, Danny White, the UB AD is the son of the Duke AD. . .

[zete]

One thing I think we all can agree upon is this: We will be looking for a new bb coach at the end of next season. Who it will be will remain a mystery for the upcoming year.

[BGorDeath]

Hurely is one ugly dude.

[h2oville rocket]

Hurely is one ugly dude.

And its just killing him.