Reggie: Big on the little things

For a lesson in how to be humble and how to stay focused on your goals, spend a few minutes talking to Buffalo Bulls' head coach, Reggie Witherspoon.

Witherspoon, who is nearing the end of his sixth year as a head coach here at UB, has brought the school to the national stage a few times, and has become something of a local celebrity.

He wouldn't know the difference, though, because Witherspoon is far too focused on the job at hand.

"I guess I never really stop to think about that, I just come in here every day, try to work as hard as I can," he said. "I've never really thought too much about the recognition that's attached to this job, because a large part of what I'm doing, I was doing as a coach when I was a junior college coach. I'm big on the little things."

When Witherspoon started at UB six years ago, there were so many little things that the team needed to fix.

UB had so many holes to attempt to plug, that Witherspoon and his coaching staff weren't really able to make a game-plan for the team's first opponent.

That opponent, when Witherspoon took the position of head coach after the Bull's fifth game of the season, was the University of North Carolina.

"I wasn't thinking too much about North Carolina as much as about the task of taking over a program that was experiencing troubles," said Witherspoon. "I knew the history of the program from being a little kid and being a ball boy. I knew there were a lot of struggles."

From being a ball boy in the years before Alumni Arena, Witherspoon would never have been able to imagine what a UNC crowd would be like, but he didn't have the opportunity to focus on that until it was too late to plan for it.

"We had so many holes that needed to be plugged to be able to think about how they were ranked seventh in the country, and I began to realize that as I came into the game and I couldn't find a parking spot," said Witherspoon. "I didn't give any real thought about North Carolina until the day of the game."

That was the 1999-2000 season.

Just six short years later, the Bulls have done a complete 180, and are saying goodbye to their first recruiting class.

Witherspoon says his biggest moment with his first recruiting class, Turner Battle, Jason Bird, Mark Bortz and Daniel Gilbert, was the first time Alumni Arena was sold out.

"The first time the building sold out, which was last year's Northern Illinois game," said Witherspoon. "I think because when we came here there were very few people who came to the games, and the kind of support that they were able to generate with the students was amazing."

Student support at UB has continued through this season. The Bulls are getting ready to play their second ever home playoff game, again facing Northern Illinois.

The challenge for Witherspoon at this time last year was that neither he nor any of his players had any kind of experience with a home playoff game, and the team had never gone to Cleveland for the later rounds of the MAC tournament.

"I think what you do during the course of the season is kind of preparation for what happens at that time of year," said Witherspoon. "We have played in Cleveland and played at Gund Arena, so the unknowns are known and we don't have to worry about them as much, as far as playing in that building and the travel and that whole thing, but we don't want the novelty to completely wear off and so we're going to keep trying to do better."

Just because the Bulls are starting to become accustomed to success, however, does not mean that Witherspoon has forgotten about the adversity he faced when he started in Buffalo in the middle of the 1999-2000 season.

"We're still trying to climb out of the hole of, 'they don't belong in this conference,'" said Witherspoon. "We still run into that, we're not accepted, we're not really welcome in this conference and we run into those kinds of things, and we just have to deal with it. The best way for us to deal with it is to be as together as we possibly can as a program."

The Bulls have been able to do that and much more over the past couple years, mainly because of Witherspoon's ability to get players to play as a unit, rather than as five individuals.

"I think the first thing, you've got to be sincere in your approach to unselfishness, and the next thing is they have to be about being unselfish and they have," said Witherspoon. "We talk about it every day and for the most part they're being unselfish."

The players who have led the Bulls in their turnaround from the bottom of the Mid-American Conference to where they are today are their four seniors. Turner Battle, Jason Bird, Mark Bortz and Danny Gilbert have put in years of work, and it is finally beginning to show off.

For Battle and Bortz, the recognition is already there. Battle has received many awards, both on the national stage and on the conference stage. Additionally, he has been nominated for the Mid-American Conference's MVP award. Bortz has been nominated as well, for the conference's Sixth Man of the year award.

For Gilbert and Bird, the accolades don't rain in from the national stage. But if it were up to Witherspoon, those two would receive awards that are just as prestigious.

"Jason Bird has had some tremendous success in his time here, he's gotten MAC Player of the Week, one of the few sophomores to get that award. I think that Jason Bird is someone that his teammates will say is a trusted friend, his teammates trust his honesty," said Witherspoon.

And for Gilbert, the award is one that is reflected in the nickname that the fans have given him, "Danny Hustle."

"I think Daniel Gilbert is one of the most accomplished unsung players that I've ever been around. He's a guy who comes across as very quiet. The award I would give him is 'utility guy.' He's a guy who could step in and do anything you ask him to," said Witherspoon.

Witherspoon will coach his 156th game for the University at Buffalo Monday night, and he does not plan to change jobs just because that number is getting bigger.

"I'm a Western New York guy. My wife graduated from here, and my brother graduated from here, my father in law, my brother in law," said Witherspoon, "My roots are really here. But my grandpa said, 'Don't ever say what you'll never do,' so I won't say that I'll never leave. But I would first like to lift this program to a Top 25 level instead of just leaving and going somewhere else where it's already been done."

Five Random Questions

1. Final decision from Reggie Witherspoon: Who has better hair, Roderick Middleton or Mario Jordan?

A. Both of their hairs are a nuisance. I wish they'd both cut it. I can't answer, I think they both need scrunches. That's my answer. I think their hair is more time consuming than they have time for.

2. What kind of music do your players make you listen to and do you like it?

A. Oh boy, most of what the kids listen to now is rap, but there are some guys who listen to gospel music. So I guess there's a little bit of everything. I can tolerate it as long as it's not vulgar, and as long as it has a message in it, and if it displays talent. The problem I have with some of the music now, sometimes it appears as though it's 90 percent vulgarity and 10 percent talent.

3. If you could trade jobs with anyone for a day, who would it be and why?

A. Maybe an analyst for college basketball. The reason I would say that is because I could still stay in touch with a lot of the sport, see a lot of games, watch a lot of teams and not be in the hole of just one program. I'll do it for a day, I don't know if I could do it for a long time, I probably don't know enough about it to be able to do it long term, but I could do it for a day.

4. Last week, you were on ESPN Radio, how did it feel to tell your RPI/RIP joke in front of a national audience?

(Reggie Witherspoon's RPI/RIP joke: "I don't like to concern myself with the RPI, my assistant coaches do that. I am concern with the RIP, Remain In the Present.")

A. I didn't really think about that, at that time, I just was giving them what I really thought was important. I didn't really think about how many people would be listening, I guess a lot of people listen to ESPN Radio. Sometimes when your program gets that kind of national attention, it becomes a target for your opponent.

5. If you had a son, would you want to name him Daniel, Turner, Mark or Jason?

A. I probably wouldn't want to name him any of those names, because it would be a hard thing for him to live up to. If I had a son, I would like him to be a lot like those four guys. You couldn't ask for a better son than those four guys. I feel like their parents have kind of loaned them out to us for four years. I don't have a son, but I feel like those guys are just like my sons. If you ask my two daughters, they'll say the same thing, those guys make great older brothers.