Nate Oats leaves Buffalo - Blogfather reaction

I’ve been running the Bull Run site for just about 10 years, and in all that time I’ve heard many coaches of many programs talk about how they were happy at their $MidMajor and had no plans to leave unless something perfect happened.

And I have never believed them, until Nate Oats...

Now

And there is never going to be a mid major coach who really means it when they want to say “I’m going to stick around and build this program up into something special”

P.J Fleck didn’t mean it at WMU and Nate Oats didn’t mean it at Buffalo.

I feel like a kid who just learned Santa is not real, or like an adult who really thinks this is the time Brett Farve is going to retire.

Thoughts on Oats:

I don’t hold any animus towards Oats. The man more than did his part for Buffalo Basketball and didn’t owe us a thing. He took the program over from Bobby Hurley and elevated up even higher.

He brought in a lot of kids and ran a clean program not only to the top of the MAC but to a top 25 ranking and back to back trips to the round of 32.

Thoughts on The Next Coach:

When your program loses a coach because of his four years of success... hire one of the assistants

I’m partial towards Hodgson but you could make a case for either Buffalo Assistant. They have both been here for years, they both have good relationships with the players (and alumni, media, administration), and they both have had a hand in recruiting this years class

Players

Were may lose some recruits, and potentially a player or two. It happened when Hurley left and it’s pretty common whenever a coaching change happens.

(1) thats why you hire an assistant

(2) even if we lose a player it’s not the end of the world.

After all we only got CJ Massinburg because Nate Navagato committed from Buffalo when Hurley left.

Buffalo Hoops

Next year was going to be a minis step back as we were losing so many seniors. But if we hire the right coach and he keeps the team together then the Bulls can be contending for and winning MAC titles again in the not too distant future.

Let’s not forget Reggie Witherspoon had three 20+ win seasons in his last five years at Buffalo and the program has much more financial support now than they did back then.

UB Basketball is structurally set up to be one of the best programs in the MAC, we just need a coach who plays to the programs strengths.

Twitter Reaction

The few loud people who are making a mess on twitter need to

(1) let Oats be, the man did not do anything other than give us the best four years of hoops the program has ever known.

(2) stop being fatalistic about the future of UB Basketball... We will be fine if Alnutt makes a good hire.