Back in December, Shortly before conference play opened up, I addressed the growing murmurs about the Job that Reggie Witherspoon has done for the Buffalo Bulls. After a disappointing showing against the RedHawks those murmurs are only going to grow, but before the hang Reggie crowd gets to loud a few things need to be said.
Reggie Witherspoon inherited a basketball program which was worse off then the Football Team taken over by Turner Gill. In 1999 The Bulls were floundering on the court and facing NCAA sanctions. Witherspoon took over on less then a weeks notice and began to build this program into winners, maybe not champions, but winners. In light of the disintegration of Binghamton's program what value do you put on championships versus 20(ish) win seasons with kid's who have class on and off the court?
To all the folks calling for Spoons head, take a step back and think about where this program is now versus ten years ago.
About tonight’s game; Yes, I am pissed by the inconsistent play. Yes I almost turned the game off at half time. Finally yes, even if UB had pulled off the come back the underlying weaknesses of this team would likely not have allowed them to win the Championship. Despite all of these things do you enjoy being a UB fan more now or in 1999?
Back in December I said:
I have to lean towards supporting Spoon. His contract runs out in 2012 and nobody has presented a compelling reason to fire a coach who gets you twenty wins a year and does so with players who you can be proud to call Bulls.
I've changed, only slightly, in my take. He failed to get 20 wins this season, with 18 I seriously doubt UB will see post season play in any of the four College Basketball Tournaments. While I would still lean towards keeping Coach Witherspoon I can now see better the reasoning used by those who feel the time for a change is now.
- The vast majority of UB's key players are gone after this season, if the team struggled this season what is next season is going to bring.
- Ten years is too long to wait for a dance
- The Athletics program has outgrown contentment with just being competitive.
All of these are valid, and all will be rolling around Warde Manuel's head over the next few weeks. As for me, I just want to sleep off that game before I post specifically about this most recent loss.