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Buffalo Bulls Coaches - Bobby Hurley hires his assistants

Levi Watkins and Eric Harrield will serve as assistant coaches and Ben Wood has been hired as director of basketball operations.

Danny white stuck to his roots when looking for assistants going to Sain Anthony's high school and into the great state of North Carolina.

Levi Watkins has spent eight years with the Wolfpack men's basketball program. He has experience as both the director of basketball operations and video coordinator in his time at NC State. He ended coaching at NC State after playing for them from 2002-05.

"Levi is the complete package for what I'm looking for in an assistant. He had a tremendous playing career in the DC area as a high school player and as a collegiate player at North Carolina State. He has transitioned very well into a variety of roles at a high-level program at NC State. I'm excited about him joining the staff and all that he'll bring to the table."

Eric Harrield has spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach for the heralded St. Anthony's High School boy's basketball program where he worked alongside Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley, Sr. Now he will be an assistant to the younger Hurley.

St. Anthony's is a legendary program and while Harrield was on staff the team won consecutive state championships in 2011 and 2012 and the team had a stretch in which it won 83 straight games.

He has good recuriting ties as a lone time coach at the AAU level. He was the head coach of the Sports U Elite Basketball Club based in New Jersey. His teams won every major national AAU tournament entered over the past two years.

"Eric specifically worked with the big men at St. Anthony's for a number of years and I have tremendous confidence in his abilities as a coach and as a recruiter of student-athletes, particularly in the Northeast. He comes from a championship program with a lot of tradition and that is the type of culture we want to build here in Buffalo." -- Bobby Hurley


Ben Wood is coming over from Rhode Island where he was the director of basketball operations. At Buffalo he will be doing pretty much the same thing. Wood earned two degrees from the University of Connecticut where he served as the head manager for the men's basketball team. He was part of the staff that won the 2011 National Championship.

"Ben is a future star in coaching. He is extremely bright and extremely organized and a terrific basketball mind. He has been around high-level programs. I had a chance to work with him closely last year at Rhode Island and I feel tremendous that he has joined the staff here at UB." - Bobby Hurley

UB is not quite done as the department has indicated that they will be adding one more assistant coach to his staff in the near future.