Let’s face it: Last season was the men’s basketball team’s best shot for the foreseeable future to win a Mid-American Conference Championship.
The Bulls had all-time leading scorer Javon McCrea. It had one of the best defenders in the conference in Jarod Oldham. It had Josh Freelove – a great threat from beyond the arc.
Now, all of those players are gone. And all Buffalo has to show for it is a MAC East regular season title before it was upset by Eastern Michigan in the quarterfinal of last year’s tournament.
But the season was good enough for second-year head coach Bobby Hurley to be rumored for several ‘big-time’ coaching vacancies and ultimately receive a contract extension though the 2018-19 season from Buffalo. And with his basketball pedigree and name recognition, it made sense despite his head coaching inexperience.
But last season’s success won’t define Hurley’s Buffalo legacy – that will be defined by what he does from here on out.
That’s because it was former 14-year head coach Reggie Witherspoon who constructed the majority of that MAC East championship team. Witherspoon brought McCrea and almost every other key piece last season to Buffalo – not Hurley.
And that’s not to take anything away from what Hurley accomplished in his 19-win first season. The Bulls don’t win the East if Hurley doesn’t convince Freelove to transfer from Alabama State and Shannon Evans to recommit to Buffalo. And who can say for sure that Witherspoon would have done better than Hurley with last season’s roster?
But no one can deny Witherspoon put the pieces in place for Buffalo to contend in 2013-14. Now, Hurley must build up the roster to its own championship contention year – and its starts with this season.
Hurley has some left over pieces to work with like Evans, Jarryn Skeete and Will Regan, but he’s essentially starting from scratch. Buffalo’s roster includes five freshmen and three other players who have never logged a Division I minute. They have talent, but it’s clearly ‘raw’ talent at this point.
The young players showed promise in the Bulls’ exhibition game against Wheeling Jesuit, but they also showed they have work to do.
Hurley was not happy with the team’s rebounding and said Buffalo had breakdowns they needed to clean up. He admitted he’s still learning his team and there will certainly be a learning curve with this roster.
But that roster is ‘officially’ his. There are only four players left on it who were recruited by Witherspoon. More than half weren’t even on the roster last season. If the Bulls continue to have success under Hurley, no one can say it’s Witherspoon’s success like some could last season.
Having such turnover and his own new players might even be a good thing for Hurley in the long run. It will allow him to fully implement his guard-heavy, up-tempo system.
Hurley said he knew the ball was going to go to McCrea last season. McCrea was such a skilled player that if he was on your roster, you had to center your offense around him.
The Bulls were successful with that strategy last season, but clearly resetting the play by giving it your big man slows down the pace of an offense. In a few seasons, Buffalo’s roster could exclusively feature Hurley players: athletic, fast and play making.
In two years, Evans will be a senior. Talented freshman guard Lamonte Bearden will be a junior. All of Buffalo’s now inexperienced players will be experienced. This should be the year Hurley builds the roster up to in order to compete for the MAC
It can be Hurley’s version of the 2013-14 year.
If Hurley sticks around and doesn’t bolt early, Buffalo has a good opportunity to win a MAC Championship under him. It just won’t be this season.
email: tom.dinki@ubspectrum.com
