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Leipold and Whitesell

There seems to be a consistent line of criticisms of both coaches. The top of the list is in game management and not winning the big games. That said both coaches have been successful the last few years if you look at just their records. Leipold’s recent success is clearly all his as he has been the head coach long enough that he is responsible for all the players. By contrast Whitesell is living off what Oats left behind. To be fair, Whitesell has been on the staff long enough to have a direct connection to each player.


Expectations for both coaches were radically different when they took over. Leipold came into a dumper fire and for the most part was given the benefit of the doubt for the first two years. That is not to say there were not calls for his head and the jump from DIII to DI was just too much for him. Whitesell on the other hand took over a team that finished the prior year in the top 25. The fan base kind of liked being in the top 25 and just about anything short of that was going to be a letdown. Everyone understood a ton of talent graduated and top 25 again maybe unrealistic but there was still a lot of talent on the team if he could just keep them from transferring out. Yes, the full recurring class de-committed but no roster player left and he deserves credit for that.


Leipold has recruited and developed over the years building teams that have overpowered much of the MAC in spite of game management. On national signing day 3-5 years ago it was not clear Leipold was signing above average MAC talent and he deserves credit for seeing what we did not and/or his development skills. Whitesell in his first few months not only held all current roster players but put together what on paper looked to be a very good first recruiting class. Who is going to argue that Mballa is anything but a home run? Hardnett may be taking longer than expected but if he develops going forward as he has this year, by the time he finishes he should prove to be a solid signing. The jury is still out on Stokman and Gallion but Nickelberry was a miss for the most part. Last year’s class was small but on paper looked good unfortunattely to date looks to be a total miss. A class that is a total miss quickly puts a program in a bad place a few years down the road. What is hurting even more is the misses have all been guards. Given the guard heave style of play, having your guards not work out is a big problem. Whitesell final grade may rest on how fast he can fill the holes in the guard spot.


After two or three years there were just as many calls for Leipold’s firing as there is now for Whitesell. In just a few years the calls for Leipold’s head have been replaced with concerns about P5 schools hiring him away, not if but when. Do I expect bigger programs to be looking to hire Whitesell away in 2 or 3 years, no but I did not think Leipold would be getting the attention he is now getting 4 years ago. To be fair, there was a lot more in Leipold’s resume to indicate future success than there was in Whitesell’s resume.


I think this is the life of mid major programs. Your coaches are either fundamentally flawed in one or more areas or they get hired away. Until there is money to pay proven coaches it will be hard to maintain success unless Buffalo solidifies the reputation of being a proven steppingstone. That said it should be much easier to maintain success than to create success from where there is none. Both football and basketball have been successful unless your only measure is MAC championships. Believe me I have been as disappointed as anyone else with the loses in the last three MAC championship games, but I was rather loss those games then be a bottom feeder program.


Going forward I am not sure what to do about Leipold, it seems part of his success is the continuity of his staff. If he were to leave, I would expect much if not all of his staff to go with him. ADMA needs to have a plan/understanding the whole staff may need to be replaced so there needs to be one or multiple succession plans for Leipold’s departure. The staff addition I would love to see is an up and coming game manager who can learn from Leipold how to build and maintain a complete program.


Whitesell, I agree with most, the odds of him getting fired anytime soon are very low for two basic reasons. He does not cost much and say what you want he is 36-20. The players seem to love him and that may be why no one left but is there a bad cop on the staff? The hire, or emergence from the current staff, I want to see is a game manager/bad copy, the coach that will make sure the team is engaged and knows what to do on the court whatever the situation is.

I think the best thing we have going for us is recent success and what that has meant in terms of our coaches and ADs. Hurley, Oats and Greene all got P5 jobs directly from UB. White and Manuel are P5 ADs with one extra stop. Buffalo is no longer the hardest place to win in college sports, attracting talent to maintain the success should not be as hard as it was 10 years ago, even with our budget.




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