The year after a controversial coaching change Buffalo exits early from the MAC Cmahpionships

It is hard to fault a first year Athletic Director for any on field production after his first full season under his belt. Danny was hired May 8, 2012 after Warde Manual left for UConn.  Warde's legacy is instilling a belief UB can compete in the MAC, classroom achievements, and the run to the International Bowl/Gill publicity.

White is ultimately in charge of growing the UB -NY brand and I really like his vision.  I totally agree with the direction Danny is taking the university.  It will certainly help his cause with a winning basketball and football program to help drum up financial and attendance support.  Putting aside the sting of last nights game, Danny's legacy (if he chooses to stay long enough to create one) will ultimately be breaking ground and completion on the construction plan set forth earlier this year with the football stadium, tennis stadium, soccer field, baseball field, and etc.

I really understand the reason for the change at coach at men's basketball.  Was it tough for fans to not see Reggie on the sideline with what is arguably his most talented team with preseason predictions to win the MAC East.  Of course. No one will argue what Reggie inherited and where the program was at when Bobby took over the team.  Danny believed he needed an individual with greater bandwidth to be able to take this team to the next level.  Unfortunately last night you saw that the learning curve for Hurley may be steeper than his "Duke pedigree" prepared him to handle in a season or two.

We are past the meaning of crisis but just barely.  As the season wore on you saw Hurley try to keep the emotions and adrenaline in check and be more cerebral. Last night was a great lesson for Bobby.

Time to move on and look to see what can Bobby do with his famous last name, both of his doing as well as his father's, to bring the talent to Buffalo to get this team into the NCAA tournament.  I know getting to the big dance is not the end all be all, but a SMART goal has to be getting into March Madness.   I look forward to next year and the recruits and no graduating players produce.

Conversely,  you look at Reggie and Jeff Quinn.  Yes Reggie has a much larger sample size to gauge from than Quinn but the argument for replacing Reggie can also apply to Quinn before he was given his extension. In fact where Reggie was coming off of a single bad year following several very good ones pre-extention Quinn had showed nearly zero success against Bowl Subdivision teams.

Regarding Witherspoon, what's done is done. With his UB contract nearly complete he will soon be coaching elsewhere because he is a great guy and coaching is what he loves. With Jeff Quinn Director white made a gamble by adopting Jeff Quinn as his own coach. That gamble may paid off with a winning season, we won't know for sure unless Quinn can win without Mack, Oliver, Neutz, and company.

White took another gamble when he fired Reggie Witherspoon and brought in Bobby Hurley to coach one of the best UB teams, talent wise, that has ever existed. This season showed some flashes of greatness and then some terrible play. Next year White, like Quinn, is going to have to show they can win games once the stars leave. It will be a tall order for two coaches who, with loaded teams, failed to win the big games this season.

The transition time period ends this year.  Next year all results and hopefully all positive will ultimately be on White.