THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBL ICAT ION OF THE UN IVERS I TY AT BUFFALO , S INCE 1950

BasketBall season previewFriday, novemBer 13, 2015 volume 65 no. 32

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBL ICAT ION OF THE UN IVERS I TY AT BUFFALO , S INCE 1950

32 Opinion on the upcoming men’s and women’s seasons

Full roster breakdown for the men and women

BSU holds walkout to show solidarity with students at the University of Missouri 6-7

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Wisconsin-Whitewater head coach Pat Miller was sweating bullets, nervous about the prospects of coaching his first-ever con-ference tournament game. He wanted to dot his I’s and cross his T’s before the big game.

Only, he forgot the most important thing.“We get on the bus, I look and lo and be-

hold, I forgot my bag that included my suit,” Miller said. “Forty-five minutes before one of the biggest coaching games of my career and I had no suit, no pants, no nothing.”

He looked around to his assistants, hop-ing each coach could provide at least one item. Maybe one had an extra pair of shoes, one had an extra pair of pants – maybe he could throw some semblance of a profes-sional outfit together. But as he went to each of his coaches, he began to think it wasn’t going to happen.

And then he approached Nate Oats. Oats smiled and pulled out an extra suit,

pair of shoes and a tie. It was a microcosm of Nate Oats’ life and coaching career.

“He was always so prepared,” Miller said. “Whether it was an extra suit, or coaching, there was never a moment where I thought he was unprepared. He had an additional suit that day and the first thought was relief, but my second thought was ‘Why am I not surprised?’”

Speak to anyone who’s met Oats and they’ll tell you the same thing. His combi-nation of readiness and energy is radiant and contagious. The desire to be one step ahead and outwork others is what made him successful travelling throughout the Mid-west recruiting and turning Romulus High School into a basketball powerhouse outside Detroit, Michigan.

“I always wanted to out work people,” Oats said. “You get out what you put in and the most prepared teams often win. I knew whenever I got into this position, that my teams were going to play tough defense, they were going to hustle and they were go-ing to be prepared.”

And now, after 18 years of being a stu-dent of the game, and just before he makes

his debut as the head coach of the Buffa-lo men’s basketball team, Oats is ready to be the teacher.

Oats was named Buffalo’s head coach af-ter serving as an assistant under Bobby Hur-ley the past two seasons. After Hurley bolted for Arizona State last April, it was Oats who Athletic Director Danny White propped up as the man who would provide stability for a team coming off its first-ever Mid-Amer-ican Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.

But nothing has been stable for Oats’ team or family since then.

Star point guard Shannon Evans joined Hurley at Arizona State after a heavily publi-cized and dramatized transfer and spat with

White. Same for top recruits Torian Gra-ham and Maurice O’Field who also joined Hurley. Then MAC Player of the Year Justin Moss, who Oats coached and mentored at Romulus, was caught stealing from a dorm room over the summer and expelled from UB.

And just days before Oats begins his first-ever season as a D-I head coach, doctors di-agnosed his wife Crystal with lymphoma.

Oats goes between taking his three young daughters to school in the morning to Bulls practice to taking care of his wife undergo-ing chemotherapy treatment.

He knows he’s facing an uphill battle. Be-tween roster changes, the transition from as-sistant to head coach and his wife’s health,

Oats has to shoulder the responsibility of a Division-I program and his own family.

It would be a lot for any man to handle. But based on his journey to this point, Oats just might be the man capable of keeping everything in tact. A desire to coach

Growing up in Watertown, Wiscon-sin, Oats lived in a community of just un-der 20,000 people. He describes it best as a “classic, middle America city.” It was a community of people that looked after each other, both children and adults. It was where Oats and his love for sports grew.

In middle school, basketball captured his interest. He was a guard who did a bit of everything. But Oats will tell you that he

wasn’t that good. “I was never that good,” Oats said, chuck-

ling. “I was a starter, started my sophomore, junior and senior year and we went 24-0 and won the division. I had some moments on the floor, too. I had a couple games where I hit about four or five threes in a row. My best role was defending the opponent’s best player.”

As he continued to get closer to his final season of school and the dream of playing basketball at a professional level seemed fur-ther and further away, Oats looked to stay involved in the game he loved. He began to look at coaching.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be an NBA player, so I started watching coaching more and more,” Oats said. “It became something

that allowed me to stay in the game and be around the game I love.”

Oats started with a coaching DVD. “The Basics,” as he would call it. In a desire to know more about the game, Oats went to the library, taking out a book on simple coaching schemes. Offense, defense, fun-damentals. Whatever was available, Oats would get his hands on.

Oats received several scholarships on the Division-II and Division-III college level, but opted to join his father, an administra-tor, at Maranatha Baptist University in Wa-tertown. Oats balanced a year of football, basketball and school, but also kept his eyes on coaching one day.

“I was always there talking to the coaches, just looking to know all the little things that we did out there,” Oats said. “I was almost like another coach – making sure we had ev-erything we needed on the floor.”

After his career was over, he remained with Maranatha and accepted his first coach-ing position as an assistant.

After three years on the bench, Oats’ de-sire to move up was apparent. After hearing that the Maranatha head coach was retiring, Oats eyed the position from a far.

But he waited.His father and the board of directors dis-

cussed an exit plan for the coach and Oats kept his ear to the ground and waited for a result. He had a plan, he experimented with the playbook, but it was all for naught. Both the head coach and administration agreed to a two-year plan, locking down the job for the foreseeable future.

But it was Oats’ first brush with leading his own program.

“I wanted to be the next guy,” Oats said. “I knew that his time was coming to an end and I wanted that position. Back then, I at least wanted to explain why I deserved the position … Let them know that I was se-rious about the job. He ended up with two more years and I felt a way about it. I re-ally didn’t get the sense that I was getting the job. I was only 25 years old at the time.”

STUDENT OF THE GAME

BY QUENTIN HAYNES SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

Nate Oats has coached basketball for 18 years. He’s waited behind Bobby Hurley. Now he’s ready to build Buffalo by himself.

I always wanted to out work people. You get out what you put in and the most prepared teams often win. I knew whenever I got into this position, that my teams were going to play tough defense, they were going to hustle and they were going to be prepared.

Nate Oats, Buffalo men’s basketball head coach

“ “YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM

MARLEE TUSKESNEWS EDITOR

Donned in all black attire, the Black Stu-dent Union (BSU) and other students stood in the rain Thursday afternoon in a show of support for black students at the Universi-ty of Missouri.

BSU posted a request on social media for students to wear all black and join them in a walkout at 3 p.m. Thursday. After the walk-out, approximately 60 students stood in front of the Student Union to have a dis-cussion about the racial incidents that oc-curred recently at the University of Mis-souri.

Deidree Golbourne, BSU vice president and a junior African American studies major, addressed the group by saying how proud she was with the amount of students who stood out in the rain to show their support.

“Solidarity is necessary,” Golbourne said to the students who were huddled under umbrellas.

The University of Missouri’s president, Tim Wolfe, stepped down earlier this week.

Members of the group Concerned Stu-dent 1950 pushed for Wolfe’s resignation, saying he did not properly handle the racist acts that were occurring on the campus, like black students being called the N-word and a swastika being drawn on residence halls. Graduate student Jordan Butler, a mem-ber of Concerned Student 1950, went on a hunger strike stating he would not eat until Wolfe resigned.

Member of the university’s football team also said they would not play their sched-uled game against BYU – which would have resulted in a forfeit and cost the school at least $1 million in fines – until Wolfe an-nounced his resignation as university pres-ident.

“We don’t know the people at the Univer-sity of Missouri but we know their pain,” Golbourne said.

UB has been dealing with its own ques-tions about race this semester after graduate fine arts student Ashley Powell hung signs around campus reading “White Only” and “Black Only.” BSU and other student orga-nizations have been waiting for an official university response and possible new poli-cy concerning the project since September.

UB students are just a few of the many students showing their support for the Mis-souri students.

Smith College, located in Massachusetts, had about 100 students demonstrate to show solidarity for both the University of Missouri and Ithaca College. On Wednes-

day, students at Ithaca College demanded their school’s president, Tom Rochon, re-signs after his lack of response to racial in-sensitivity on campus.

Yale University is also experiencing ra-cial tension after the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity allegedly did not allow black stu-dents into a party on Halloween. A student reported hearing a member of the fraternity say “white girls only.” The fraternity denies the incident occurred.

A 19-year-old Northwest Missouri student was charged Wednesday for posts he made on Yik Yak threatening to shoot black stu-dents on University of Missouri’s campus.

Last week, during BSU’s Black Solidarity Day, several racist posts were made on the social media app Yik Yak, an app that al-lows anonymous posts and is filtered based on location.

Golbourne said the posts were not sur-prising because racism is an issue students deal with at UB.

Golbourne and other members of the BSU said the main takeaway the organiza-

tion wants is for students to form a sense of solidarity. One member encouraged the group to say hello to one another when they pass each other in the halls on campus, even if they do not know one another personally.

During the demonstration, Golbourne said BSU is like a family and it gives stu-dents an opportunity for their voices to be heard.

“This is your home away from home,” she said to the group. “Just know we are here for you … We are your brothers. We are your sisters.”

email: news@ubspectrum.com

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A show of solidarityBlack Student Union

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GABRIELA JULIA, THE SPECTRUM

Students wear all black and stand in the

rain outside the Student Union Thursday

afternoon to show support for the black

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University of Missouri.

TOM DINKIEDITOR IN CHIEF

Well, it was a good story while it lasted.

That’s what I can’t help but think while looking at the Buffa-lo men’s basketball team. The pro-gram had its best season ever last year, but followed it up with an off-season of drama, coaching de-partures, transfers and expulsion.

After all the success and no-toriety the Bulls got making the NCAA Tournament – even Pres-ident Obama picked them to ad-vance – it all went about as bad as it could have with Bobby Hurley’s ugly exit to Arizona State.

Now former assistant coach Nate Oats is at the helms and looking to keep Buffalo as stable and as good as last year’s team as possible. But no matter what he does, this simply isn’t last year’s championship team.

It can’t be.There’s too many new players.

Too many new coaches pulling the strings from the sidelines. Things are just, well, different. If the Bulls are going to get that second MAC title, they’ll do so with different players and in a completely differ-ent way than last year’s team.

And that could take some time. Which is why I don’t expect Buf-falo to even get close to a second straight MAC title come March.

Trust me, it would be easy to blame Athletic Director Dan-ny White for the current state of the men’s team – devoid of its star head coach and players. White, a former Division-I basketball play-er, badly wants a successful basket-ball team and has had no problem putting his hand in to change this team the past three seasons.

White decided to fire 14-year head coach Reggie Witherspoon. Clearly something went wrong in White and Hurley’s negotiations. And White brought in Hurley knowing full well the coach would sacrifice academics and character for flash and talent.

That’s why Jamir Hanner was kicked off the team. That’s why MAC Player of the Year Justin Moss is expelled for robbing a dorm room. That’s why Raheem Johnson and Mory Diane will sit out Friday’s season opener for their role in the theft.

But putting those black eyes aside – and yes, they are black eyes for this program – I can’t say

White has done anything wrong with this team. I say that because it had no NCAA Tournament ap-pearances before he shook things up – and now it has one.

A true judgment can’t be made until we see what happens in the post-Hurley era.

If Oats is able to keep Buffalo on its upward trajectory, whether that’s producing winning seasons after a rebuilding year or staying as a MAC contender without any down period, White will have done his job. Despite all the negativi-ty of Hurley and Moss’ exits, he’ll have put the program in a better place than when he found it.

But if this team never gets close to the MAC Championship again and goes through losing seasons, it is a failure on White, regardless if he’s still here or not. One NCAA Tournament appearance is nice, but Mid-Majors have to consis-tently get there for the appearanc-es to carry any weight.

Obama – or whoever is elected president in 2016 – has to say your name on national TV a few times for it to really stick.

We’ve seen what winning just one conference title does for a team right here on campus: not much. The football team followed its breakthrough MAC Champion-ship in 2008 with four straight los-ing seasons. The program is still just trying to find its way and isn’t in the same class as MAC power-

houses like Northern Illinois and Bowling Green.

Can you imagine how different things would be for the football team right now if it had sustained that 2008 team’s success? Maybe they’d have a field house by now.

That’s what the men’s basketball team has to avoid.

Buffalo should have been a MAC dynasty for a few years with Hurley, Moss and Shannon Evans – but Oats and White have to find a way to reinvent the program be-cause those guys aren’t coming back. No matter how they chose to reinvent this team to stay com-petitive, they just have to do exact-ly that: stay competitive.

Because going backwards won’t help. People will forget very fast – maybe they already have with all the departures – about how great least year was. UB basketball has to gain the Buffalo community’s trust. We’re hesitant to embrace new things as we’ve been hurt be-fore. But win and excite us for even just a few years and trust me, as a Buffalo native, we’ll love you forever.

If the Bulls can do that, then all the negativity this offseason will go away. But judgment can’t be passed until we witness the post-Hurley era.

We’ll start to see that Friday.

email: tom.dinki@ubspectrum.com

QUENTIN HAYNESSENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

This is a young women’s basket-ball team, but let’s backtrack for a second.

Buffalo is coming off its best season in program history, winning 19 games and making its first-ev-er Women’s National Invitation-al Tournament appearance. It was a steppingstone kind for a season for a program that needed one.

But the Bulls lost their best play-er in Kristen Sharkey and the reign-ing Mid-American Conference De-fensive Player of the Year in Chris-ta Baccas to graduation. Mackenzie Loesing retired early due to a career-ending ankle injury. Their fourth leading scorer, Alexus Malone, transfered to Louisiana Tech.

So now, after the losses, head

coach Felisha Legette-Jack and her staff are left with a team that has just two juniors and one senior coming off the bench.

And with that, the goal should be focusing toward the future.

If last year showed anything, it’s that Legget-Jack can acquire talent and get it to play at the highest lev-el. The fact that last season’s team was a few plays from making the Mid-American Conference Cham-pionship game is only a testament that Buffalo’s fast-paced and ag-gressive style of play should be able to sustain success in the MAC.

But Legette-Jack has her work cut out for her.

I’d like to see the roster shoot the ball better. It’s a newer group of players and I hope two or three of them can provide some floor spacing. There were times last sea-son when the Bulls would go down six or eight points and it appeared over because they didn’t have the threat of someone who can hit a 3-point shot.

The backcourt appears set with guards Stephanie Reid and Joan-na Smith. Reid entered the Buffalo rotation midway through the sea-son as a freshman and flourished, stabilizing the point guard position and leading the Bulls in assists.

Smith was a scoring threat the last month of the season.

And there’s depth behind Smith and Reid, too. Junior Camera Mi-ley, senior Karin Moss, sophomores Liisa and Katherine Ups and fresh-man Gabi Bade, all guards, will be factors in a busy backcourt filled with 3-point shooters and smart passers. Miley could have an upper hand, thanks to the ability to play point guard. In the preseason, Bade showcased her ability to shoot the long ball and play aggressively on the defensive end.

The frontcourt is where the questions lie. At center, I’m excit-ed to see freshman Mirte Scheper play. She is going to be an X-fac-tor defensively. When speaking to Legette-Jack last month, one of the things she mentioned was Scheper giving the Bulls the abili-ty to “play bigger.”

But the Bulls could also go small-er, playing four guards and keep-ing Scheper in the middle. Running smaller lineups that could pick up the pace is something the Bulls can do as a changeup, looking to get an advantage against opponents with slower guards on the roster.

Along the small forward and power forward positions are soph-omores Courtney Wilkins, Cassie

Oursler and Mariah Suchan and freshman Tamara Brcina. At 6-foot-3, Oursler should be able to play some backup center, too. Wilkins play a bit in the preseason and shot five threes, possibly attempting to extend her range and space the floor. Brcina and Suchan appear to be more traditional forwards capa-ble of being more post-orientated rather than perimeter scorers.

It’s a far cry from last year’s team. There’s no doubt about it. Loesing will be missed for her en-ergy on the court. Sharkey’s post moves will only be seen through a clipboard on the sidelines. Baccas graduated with her Defensive Play-er of the Year award, leaving many question marks for the Buffalo ‘D.’

But I’m not looking at the past. This team has weapons in all areas of the court. The roster may be depleted, but there are some sol-id skill players that will eventually find a home at UB.

Ohio and Akron are still the team’s to beat in the MAC. But once Buffalo settles down, it may be men-tioned in elite company as well.

It’s just a matter of putting the pieces together.

email:

quentin.haynes@ubspectrum.com

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THE SPECTRUM

Editorial BoardEditorial Board

Friday, November 13, 2015Volume 65 Number 32

Circulation 7,000

OPINION 3Wednesday, September 2, 2015The Spectrum3OPINION Friday, November 13, 2015

THE SPECTRUM

EDITOR IN CHIEF Tom Dinki

MANAGING EDITOR

Alyssa McClure

COPY EDITORS

Kayla Menes Renée Staples

NEWS EDITORSGabriela Julia, Senior

Ashley InkumsahMarlee Tuskes

FEATURES EDITORSTori Roseman, Senior

Dani Guglielmo

ARTS EDITORSBrian Windschitl, SeniorKenneth Kashif Thomas

Tomas Olivier, Asst.

SPORTS EDITORSJordan Grossman, Co-seniorQuentin Haynes, Co-senior

PHOTO EDITORSYusong Shi, Co-seniorKainan Guo, Co-senior

Angela Barca .

CARTOONISTS Joshua Bodah

Michael Perlman

CREATIVE DIRECTORSKenneth Cruz

Pierce Strudler, Asst.

Professional Staff

OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Helene Polley

ADVERTISING MANAGER

Nicole DominguezLee Stoeckel, Asst.

Zach Hilderbrandt, Asst.

ADVERTISING DESIGNERDerek Hosken

Bits and piecesAmid several changes, women look to replicate last season’s success

Men must continue upward trajectory despite less than ideal circumstances

Hitting the reset button

““

At season’s end, Oats opted to continue his career elsewhere, leaving Maranatha for an as-sistant head coaching position at Wisconsin-Whitewater alongside Miller and legendary WarHawks head coach Dave Vandermulen.

The great drive After Oats’ first year, Vandermulen re-

tired as head coach of the WarHawks. Mill-er was nabbed as his replacement and Oats was upgraded to Miller’s first assistant head coach. Miller and Oats had became close during their tenures as assistants.

An admirer of Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, Oats worked with some plays and incorporated some of the Spartans’ out-of-bounds plays.

When they didn’t work as well as they liked, they took the play out of the play-book, providing Miller and Oats with a teaching moment: work with the personnel you have.

“It was a moment that allowed both of us to grow as coaches,” Miller said. “He began to understand that while it was a great play, we just couldn’t execute it well. It showed both of us that we needed to work with what we had and model and tailor our game plan to them.”

Another new aspect to Oats’ job was re-cruiting. Under Miller at Whitewater, Oats traveled to the inner cities in Milwaukee in lieu of recruiting talent to the program. Due to the violent natures of some of the cities, the games often happened during the after-noon rather than night.

But that experience allowed Oats to de-velop his ability to scout and recruit players. He would study a player, find the traits that he liked in them and wait for the right mo-ment to express interest,

As the months went by, Oats expanded his recruiting base by adding the suburbs of Milwaukee to his inner city trips. There, he gained a more adverse ability to find what he wants in a player. From a big man’s ability to run the floor, to a small forward who can pass, Oats discovered the traits he liked. He wanted the “hard-nosed player.”

What impressed Miller about Oats was his ability to do “a bit of everything.” In the dif-ferent aspects of coaching, Oats “checked all the boxes,” according to Miller. He showed the ability to coach, he showed an extreme passion about the game, he was active as a recruiter, knew how to manage people and was good with X’s and O’s.

“He’s a basketball guy 24/7. I’ve nev-er met someone so passionate in working with the game, advancing his knowledge and creating new connections,” Miller said. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t learn anything from him in our time working together.”

In their three years together, Oats and Miller continued the success of Vander-mulen by going a combined 42-14 togeth-er and finishing in the top-two of the Wis-consin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference each year.

Oats then received a phone call that would change his life.

Detroit rolling Southfield Christian School head coach

Josh Baker played with Oats on the Baptist basketball team, but the two first met at a basketball camp in high school. Baker was the new guy, while Oats was the big man on

campus. “I just remember a big flat top hair cut,”

Baker said, “spiked at the top and just preening confidence. He was the man and knew everyone by their first name.”

While Oats was off working at Wiscon-sin-Whitewater, Baker accepted a teaching position at Romulus High School. It was a school in need of a basketball coach.

It was then, that Baker tipped off Oats about an opportunity to run his own pro-gram.

“I knew we were looking for a basketball coach,” Miller said. “I knew that Nate was working his way up the coaching tree, so I told him about the job and thought it would be a good chance for him.”

It was a chance for Oats to show his abil-ity to run his own program. After years of being an assistant coach on the college level, he would be able to call the shots, at least on the high school level.

But he didn’t want it. Oats had concerns about leaving a college

position for a high school position. It wasn’t something he wanted to do because he only

wanted to move forward in his career and he originally considered it a downgrade.

And he was also uncomfortable moving away from Wisconsin. Aside of some sum-mer trips, Oats had lived in Wisconsin his entire life. He was Wisconsin.

So he came up with another plan. “I basically decided to go and apply and

interview for career development,” Oats said. “I wanted them to offer me the job so I can turn it down.”

But during his second visit at the school,

Oats began to find a connection with the people of Romulus. He got a chance to tour the school and speak to the kids and mem-bers of the basketball team. What he found was people who had love for the communi-ty and shared the same love he had for the game of basketball.

“I began to fall in love with the place,” Oats said. “I began to create a connection with the kids there and administration was going to allow me to do what I wanted to do with the team, so I took the job.”

And with that desire of change and the prospects of running the show, Oats accept-ed the position and became the new head basketball coach at Romulus High School.

The little things Romulus, Michigan is a suburban city

just an hour outside of Detroit. It’s home to more than 25,000, a slight upgrade from

Watertown. Ask about the city and words like “quiet” and “peaceful” come up. It was a diverse area where people worked hard and earned what they received.

It was also the same area where Oats would start his head coaching career.

“In retrospect, I needed those 11 years,” Oats said. “It was the best time of both my life and my career. I probably wouldn’t be ready for [the Buffalo job] if I didn’t take the Romulus job. It allowed me to work on those little things that helped advance my career.”

The first nuance was working on relation-ships with the members of the community. After working and recruiting in Milwaukee under Miller, Oats had a different challenge in building Romulus without recruiting. Coaches aren’t allowed to recruit on the high school level.

So instead of recruiting players to Ro-mulus, players would often switch districts, which isn’t uncommon in high school bas-ketball. In building and recreating Romulus into a basketball power, a part of the con-tribution would come from players moving districts in order to help their career.

But it would all start with work on the court.

“His goal was to challenge people on the floor,” said former Romulus player and cur-rent Bulls senior forward Raheem Johnson. “He wanted to get the best from us. Make us work everyday. If he saw you slacking off, he wouldn’t let it go, even for a second. It was a lot, but it came from a good place because he wanted to us win.”

Oats wasn’t one to be a coaching cliché. But everyone who worked with him will tell you he was a grinder. At Romulus, his en-ergy and grinder mentality was the embodi-ment of the team.

He started with practices. Double practic-es. Under the rules in Michigan, Oats took his teams and began running practices be-fore classes start. Fifteen guys taking jump-ers, running suicides and executing Oats’ playbook at 6 a.m.

It soon became practice before classes and after school, and then practices on the week-end. Oats didn’t want to overwork his team, but he wanted them to be ready. He wanted them to work and always strive for success. He wanted to outwork everyone else.

The grinder mentality. “He was great. When I was there, it was

almost like a college program,” said former Romulus player and current Bulls soph-omore guard Christian Pino. “We had a ton of college guys there on the roster by my senior year. Coach put that drive in us to be great.”

Once Oats got the support and respect of his players, he, along with his staff, be-gan working on the community. A basket-ball city, Romulus High School was seen as something to get everyone together in support. Winning only made it easier.

After two seasons of building the program together, the third season un-der Oats was when everything began to

fall into place. It was there where Romulus made its first-ever Final Four and defeated Persian High School. It was the beginning of the run for Romulus, both on and off the court.

“It was a town with a small town feel, win-ning at the highest level,” Oats said. “Once we got everything up and running, the town began to support us more and more. There was always support, but that third year, we began to get all of the support. The entire town, the local busi-nesses, the alumni, to have all of them support-ing us was a great feeling.”

In attempting to turn around Romulus, he wanted to learn from some of the best of the best in business. He looked around and decided that it was best to the resources that the state of Michigan was offering him.

He started with a road trip to East Lan-sing, Michigan.

Along with Baker, then an assistant coach under Oats at Romulus, Oats geared up for their first Division-I college basketball expe-rience: a trip to Michigan State University to watch an open practice.

He sat down in an open practice and watched Izzo run the show, working with freshman, emphasizing positioning and get-ting the best shot. Oats was amazed with Iz-zo’s presence and work during the practice.

“I remember Nate and I walking in there and Nate having this ‘I run the place’ atti-tude,” cool as ever,” Baker said. “There were times where I questioned if we were going to get into whatever building we were going to, but not Nate.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

I remember attending a game at Romulus and coming away impressed with Nate and his coaching. He ran his Romulus teams like a college team in every aspect. It reminded me of the job I did at St. Benedict's and the way my dad did at St. Anthony's.

Dan Hurley, Rhode Island men’s basketball head coach

KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM

Nate Oats looks down the court during an exhibition game last week. The Bulls won the game,

defeating Daemen 87-68. Buffalo officially begins its season Friday aginst Pitt.-Bradford.

COURTESY OF NATE OATS

Oats poses for a family portrait with his wife, Crystal, and his three daughters, Lexie,

Jocie and Brielle. Last month, Crystal was diagnosed with double-hit lymphoma.

STUDENT OF THE GAME SPORTS4Friday, November 13, 2015

THE SPECTRUM

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

We got into the building every time and got to speak to some of the best coaches in his-tory.”

But the thirst for knowledge didn’t stop there.

The two would continue across the coun-try to basketball camps. Trips to Califor-nia to learn the dribble drive offense from legendary head coach Vance Walberg at Pepperdine. Gathering notes from a Scott Skiles-led Chicago Bulls practice. Learning from Hubie Brown during a Memphis Grizzlies camp.

“It was much better than just watching film,” Oats said. “To be able to sit there and witness these great coaches work their systems live, seeing the things that they were looking for on the floor and being able to identify weaknesses.”

From the tempo and rules of the prac-tices, to different out-of-bounds plays, to defensive ideals, Oats took notes of ev-erything and brought it back to Romulus to add it to his arsenal and replicate success.

“The thing in high school is you can’t just recruit all the time to your system,” Oats said. “You take the best players and learn how to coach them. There’s some re-ally good high school coaches – you have to adapt to your player and learn how to coach. You also learn how to tinker with some things. ”

Path to BuffaloAfter 11 years of success and accolades

earned at Romulus, the feeling for Oats be-gan. The feeling he was ready to coach at the college level.

He wanted to attend a practice at Wagner University in Staten Island, New York. He wanted to see a practice under Dan Hur-ley. Years earlier, Dan had made the move Oats envisioned – moving from St. Bene-dict High School to Wagner. He wanted to pick his brain.

Oats began to make calls to Wagner, see-ing if he could attend a practice, but not just any practice. He wanted to attend a practice while Hurley’s father, legendary high school basketball coach Dan Hurley Sr., was in at-tendance. So he called Wagner’s athletic di-rectory and after several tries, he got an an-swer.

On the other side of the phone was col-lege basketball legend and Wagner assistant head coach Bobby Hurley.

The two chatted about setting up a meet-ing with Bobby, Dan and their legendary fa-ther, but it never worked out. Instead, they kept in touch, and their conversations, Dan included, began to revolve around coaching and some of the intricacies of the game.

“I remember attending a game at Romu-lus and coming away impressed with Nate and his coaching,” Dan Hurley said. “He ran his Romulus teams like a college team in every aspect. It reminded me of the job I did at St. Benedict’s and the way my dad did at St. Anthony’s.”

Keeping in touch became vital two years later.

On March 26, 2013, Bobby was nabbed by White to be the next head coach of the Buffalo men’s basketball team. That left an assistant coach vacancy on Dan’s staff at

Rhode Island. But with a Midwest recruiter already on

staff, Dan decided against hiring Oats. Dan did however recommend his brother hire him.

“Bob needed someone with some expe-rience beside him,” Dan said. “He needed a guy who could help him build the pro-gram up. Someone who help with the vi-sion. Nate crossed off every need for an as-sistant coach at the time and he was a good fit in terms of recruiting and overall team

success.” And it was Oats’ ability to provide a plan

and his Midwest ties that intrigued Hurley. And on April 11, 2014, Oats was named as an assistant coach on Hurley’s Buffalo staff.

“After continuing to learn about Nate as a person, we began to talk about him ac-cepting an assistant head coaching posi-tion here,” Hurley said in email. “I wanted to create a winning culture and program at Buffalo and I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I saw a ton of great qualities in Nate and I wanted him to join my staff. He was a big piece to our team’s success.”

Oats called the move from Romulus to Buffalo the toughest thing he’s ever had to do, but it was also a move he couldn’t pass up.

The golden opportunity For two years, the Buffalo Bulls were the

toast of the MAC. With Hurley at the helm and Oats as an assistant for two years, the Bulls went 42-20 overall, won two MAC East Division titles, one MAC Tournament Championship and eanred the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

While also assisting with some of X’s and O’s, Oats’ major contribution was also re-cruiting in the Midwest, an area he was all too familiar with. Soon, nearly half of the Buffalo roster came from the Midwest.

Oats was responsible for bringing in starting point guard Lamonte Bearden from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He also brought three players from Romulus, in Johnson, Pino and of course the biggest contributor, Justin Moss.

“We had a good thing going,” Oats said. “I was able to get some good guys in here, guys who can come in and help right away.”

But then, everything changed. A 48-hour period in which no one knew

which direction the basketball program was headed.

Hurley, with his success at Buffalo and name recognition, became a hot name in coaching circles to move to a bigger pro-gram. It’s college basketball’s Darwinism. Schools like St. John’s expressed interest and DePaul went as far as conducting an in-terview with Hurley.

But contract extension talks between Hurley and White fell apart. And appar-ently, so did the two’s relationship. They no longer follow each other Twitter.

When Hurley left for the head coach opening at Arizona State, Oats had an of-

fer to join him. But Oats wanted a chance to replace

Hurley at UB. Much like a decade earlier when he want-

ed to become the next head coach of Ma-ranatha, Oats had his sights set on the head coaching position at Buffalo. And this time, he was prepared to use everything he had learned to get the job.

Oats had an inside track on the position. He had the relationships with the players. He had enough experience to warrant to a Mid-Major head coaching job.

White didn’t want much change in the basketball program. With a roster capable of winning the MAC again and returning to the NCAA Tournament, there was little de-sire to go in an entirely new direction.

White and Oats sat down for negotia-tions. One was financial, but the other was a healthy discussion about the game.

“He made it known that we wanted to win,” Oats said. “The thing about it is that he’s a basketball guy. He knows about the game and what he wants on the floor … Once we discussed the parameters of the contract and where we wanted to see the program go, I felt confident.”

On April 13, just 24 months after Hur-ley had been introduced as Buffalo’s coach, Oats took to the podium in Alumni Arena as the new men’s basketball head coach.

The road ahead “Just run the da-,” Oats said, holding

back the last word and grunting in disap-pointment.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon in Novem-ber and the Bulls are running a scrimmage in Alumni Arena. Blue team vs. White team. Oats’ team just messed up a pick-and-roll, resulting in a steal and dunk in transition.

On the court, the teams go back in forth. Bearden and freshman guard CJ Massin-burg are jawing back and forth. Massin-burg gets in Bearden’s ear while he’s at the free throw line, resulted in two missed free throws for Bearden.

With a single minute left, Massinburg comes down and runs a 1-4 pick and roll. Bearden traps Massinburg, resulting in a

jump pass and a turnover. Bearden gets the ball and finishes off the game with a sim-ple dunk.

With his team victorious, Oats runs to the blue team, made up of mostly freshmen and newcomers to the Buffalo roster.

“I told them about some of the things I saw on the court. Nothing too special … I told CJ that I loved the swagger,” he said with a smirk.

Everything looks fine on the court. The Bulls appear more athletic and lon-ger defensively. New assistant head coach Donyell Marshall looks on while Direc-tor of Player Development Julius Hodge jokingly antagonizing a player who got blown by on defense.

“We have the talent returning and some of our newer players will make an im-

pact,” Oats said. “It’s our jobs to get them to be ready and I think with the staff we have, we can certainly do it all again. It’s all about buy-in and working hard.”

As the regular season looms, Oats gets together possible rotations, assess recruits and figures out which players work with whom in possible substitution patterns.

But he does so with a heavy heart. A few weeks ago, he sat with his wife awaiting to hear the results of a CAT scan and blood test.

The result was lymphoma, a group of cancerous blood cell tumors. Crystal’s con-dition is considered to be “aggressive. ”

Over the next five to six months, Crys-tal will undergo chemotherapy treatments in order to treat the double-hit lymphoma.

She has been there every step of the way during Oats’ career and her and Oats have three daughters together. They’ve been married for close to 18 years. In a Facebook post announcing his wife’s diagnosis, Oats said that he would balance the time between the basketball team and watching and caring for his wife and daughters.

Oats said he’s put a plan into action for his family and that he believes God has a plan.

“It was a rough couple weeks once we found out the lymphoma and the type be-cause it’s a hard type to deal with,” Oats said. “Her spirits are good and our daugh-ters are in a place where we trust the plan … We have some family coming in so that I can be able to coach and have my girls tak-en care of while she’s in care.”

Friday night in Alumni Arena will mark the start of Oats’ Buffalo tenure. It’ll have been nearly 18 years since he started coach-ing back in Wisconsin. Between the adver-sity he and his family are going through off the court and departues during the offsea-son, Oats hasn’t had it easy.

But with all his experiences, like study-ing the game and recruiting across the Mid-west, his preparedness, whether it’s creating a thorough game plan or having an extra suit, and his faith and family support be-hind him, Oats is ready for the moment.

email: sports@ubspectrum.com

““

5SPORTS Friday, November 13, 2015THE SPECTRUM

He's a basketball guy 24/7. I've never met someone so passionate in working with the game, advancing his knowledge and creating new connections. I'd be lying if I said I didn't learn anything from him in our time working together.

Pat Miller, Wisconsin-Whitewater men’s basketball head coach

YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM

Nate Oats poses in the Triply Gym just days before he begins his tenure as head coach. Oats

has been studying the game for most of his life. and will use that knowledge to aid Buffalo.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

6 SPORTSWednesday,September 4, 2015The Spectrum

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Zac DiSalvo, FRESHMAN guardA Rochester native, DiSalvo walked on this season and is possibly the fastest player on the team.

20101Lamonte Bearden 2 34Jarryn

SkeeteRodell

WiggintonWillie

ConnerIkenna

Smartsophomore guard senior guard senior/forward

guardjunior wing freshman guard

G G f/g w f

8.3 PPG, 4.4 APG, 38 FG%

9.1 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 38 3PT-FG%

7.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 42 FG% N/A N/A

With the transfer of point guard Shannon Evans to Arizona State, Bearden will step into the role of Buffalo’s No. 1 point guard.

Bearden was impressive as a freshman last season, as he averaged 8.3 points and 4.4 assists per game and was named to the All-MAC Freshman Team. The only knock on Bearden was that he was a bit undersized his first year out of high school, but the point guard said he’s worked on building up his strength this offseason.

“Last year, I had to work on a little bit of strength and my shot, but more this year, my strength,” Bearden said.

Wigginton proved he could perform as a bench player last season, but with all of Buffalo’s departures, the former junior college transfer will take on more of a starting role this season.

Wigginton has the body to play as both a guard and a forward, which makes him a versatile threat in head coach Nate Oats’ system.

Skeete is the last Buffalo player left from the Reggie Witherspoon era. Things change fast.

It seems like just yesterday Skeete was a promising young freshman point guard filling in for the injured Jarod Oldham. Skeete has taken on more of a scoring role the past two seasons, and last year was a three-point specialist with 70 percent of his shots coming from behind the arc.

Skeete sees himself handling the ball more this season, but is still confident in his shooting ability.

“I mainly focused on ball handling because I know I’m going to be handling the ball a lot more this year,” Skeete said. “Me shooting threes so well last year opened up more aspects of my game as far as driving and getting my teammates open … I’m the best shooter in the gym, so I’m not going to lose.”

Conner said growing up in the West side of Chicago “was all survival of the fittest.”

The junior college transfer from Odessa Community College will look to bring that toughness to the court as a leader of Buffalo’s defense.

“They’ve picked me to be the guy to get everyone in order and play defense,” Conner said. “I’m going to be that guy.”

Conner also knows how to score. He averaged 18 points per game and shot 50 percent from the field at the junior college level. He also added in 18 points in Buffalo’s lone exhibition game.

Smart sat out as a redshirt last season, but it was hard not to notice him on the Buffalo sideline and during practice.

Smart is tied with teammate Raheem Johnson as the tallest member for the Bulls at six-foot-10. The big man will look to use that height to his advantage on the court this season.

“I want to get offensive and defensive rebounds,” Smart said.

Smart said the coaches want him to take on a more of a defensive role. But he also has improved on his jump hook and post move this offseason. He’s also worked on getting even bigger.

“My body tried to put a little weight on,” Smart said. “The bigger you are, the harder it is for the other guys to push you around.”

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Tyler Moffe, FRESHMAN guard

Moffe is a walk-on player who’s known mostly for his speed and

spot-up shooting.

Raheem Johnson, SENIOR forward

Johnson is entering his second and final season with Buffalo.

He’s a defend-first big man with a developing offensive game.

Blake Hamilton, JUNIOR wing A spot up shooter, Hamilton brings explosiveness and excelled ball handling to the guard position. The junior college transfer will likely be one of the first guards off the bench.

CJ Massinburg, FRESHMAN guard Massinburg is a 6-foot-3 true point guard that is expected to see large minutes in his first season as a Bull. He will back up starter Lamonte Bearden.

David Kadiri, JUNIOR forward Kadiri is an explosive big man that is polished in the paint. He is a rebound machine and will prove valuable as a big man off the bench.

Mory Diane, SOPHOMORE guardDiane is in his second season with the Bulls. He played only four games last season due to academic ineligibility, but is expected to have a role in the backcourt this year.

Nikola Rakicevic, FRESHMAN wing

The lanky Serbian product can play a guard/forward/wing hybrid and can shoot from anywhere on

the court. He got his NCAA issues resolved on Thursday, so he will be

active on Friday night.

Christian Pino, SOPHOMORE guard

Although he’s only 5-foot-7, Pino possesses a versatile game filled

with 3-pointers, precise passes and the ability to spread the floor.

Nick Perkins, FRESHMAN forward

Perkins may be the most polished freshman in the recruiting class. His

size, speed and shot is similar to former forward Justin Moss.

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Liisa and her twin sister Katherine joined the Bulls as freshmen from Australia last season and saw minimal playing time. But with all of Buffalo’s departures, Liisa will have a much larger role this season.

She said it’s a “whole different story” this season compared to last season.

“Freshman year you’re here to learn. It’s a whole different environment,” Liisa said. “Now as a sophomore I feel more comfortable. I can have fun. I can do more for the team and just play basketball.”

Liisa said she’s worked on her fitness and agility and is looking to shoot more this season.

This may be Reid’s second season with the Bulls, but this is the Australian’s first preseason in Buffalo.

Reid joined the team midseason last year after graduating high school in December and instantly solidified herself as the team’s starting point guard.

“I didn’t get the full year last year. So coming in and knowing we’ll have the full season head, conference and nonconference, is exciting,” Reid said.

Reid takes her role as a point guard seriously, especially considering all the inexperience on Buffalo’s roster this season.

“It’s my responsibility to make sure everyone knows what’s going on all the time,” Reid said.

Smith says she has the “green light” to score.

She averaged 15 points a game during Buffalo’s final six games last season, and said the Bulls’ coaching staff wants her to continue that pace this season.

“My mindset now is more of a scorer rather than pass,” Smith said. “Coach wants me to be that way. I still want to get my teammates involved.”

Smith will form what she calls a “dynamic duo” with Reid in the backcourt and also serve as a leader – as she is one of just three upperclassmen on the roster.

Katherine saw almost zero minutes down the stretch last season, but now with the experience of a full college season, she also figures to have a greater impact.

She said the biggest thing she’s worked on this offseason is the psychological part of her game.

“I think I’ve definitely worked on my confidence and my mental game in terms of just seeing what’s happening on the court and being able to react differently,” Katherine said.

Scheper joins the Bulls from the Netherlands. She said the recent changes to women’s college basketball, like new 10-minute four quarters and one-and-one bonus shot on the fifth foul, will only help her adjust to the American game.

“It’s more similar to what we have in Europe,” Scheper said. “It’s a little more physical, but other than that I have to adjust to people actually giving me the ball.”

That’s because Scheper considers herself a defensive player, but Buffalo will ask her to contribute offensively as well.

“I really want to improve on my offense because I’m mostly a defensive player,” Scheper said. “Of course I want to improve on my defense too, but having an offensive role on the team is also one of my goals.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

341Stephanie Reid 5 23Joanna

SmithLiisa

UpsKatherine

Upsmirte

Schepersophomore guard junior guard sophomore guard sophomore guard freshman center

G G g g c

6.7 PPG, 3.4 APG, 42 FG%

5.6 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 33 FG%

1.0 PPG, 0.5 RPG, 30 FG% N/A0.9 PPG, 0.9 RPG,

20 FG%

Tamara Brcina, FRESHMAN forwardBrcina has not made an impression on the team yet, but her 6-foot-1 frame says otherwise. Expect to see her in a limited role this season.

Brittany Morrison, FRESHMAN guard

Morrison has the ability to run the point guard and switch into a forward set. She is multi-talented

and will help Buffalo on the court.

Kandance Satterwhite, FRESHMAN guardSatterwhite stands a 5-foot-10 and may be the spot-up shooter that the team has been looking for.

Camera Miley, JUNIOR guardThe junior guard will assume her role off the bench in her third season with the team. She ended her season early due to a knee injury, but is ready to go for the season opener.

Gabi Bade, FRESHMAN guardBade already dazzled with her 3-point shooting and ball handling during the preseason. She is expected to get heavy minutes as a true freshman.

Courtney Wilkins, SOPHOMORE forwardWilkins did not play last season, but she will be a valuable post player coming off the bench this season.

Mariah Suchan, SOPHOMORE forward

Suchan saw limited action last season as a freshman, but her role

is expected to increase. She is a defend-first forward, especially

around the paint.

Ayoleka Solede, FRESHMAN guard

Solede is a rebounding guard who can also shoot from many areas

of the floor. She averaged over 16 points and nearly eight rebounds in

high school last year.

Karin Moss, SENIOR guard

Moss brings energy, spot-up shooting and ball handling to

Buffalo. She is the team captain as the only senior on the team.

Cassie Oursler, SOPHOMORE center

Oursler would be Buffalo’s starting center if her old team would

release her, said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. Robert Morris is

refusing to do so, but the talented sophomore will be key asset to

Buffalo when she gets on the court.

GRAPHIC BY PIERCE STRUDLER

PB ADVERTISEMENTSSPORTS8Friday, November 13, 2015

THE SPECTRUM

DAILY DELIGHTSBut that mindset doesn’t stop him from

shooting the deep ball.“Willie is a big-time shooter and he is ex-

actly what we need to complement our ros-ter,” Oats said. “His ability to space the floor and make shots will really allow us to open up our offense. He guards well, he can knock down threes, that’s kind of his deal. We need him to make shots for us.”

Freshmen guard CJ Massinburg averaged 22.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists, and won Offensive MVP of his district dur-ing his senior year of high school. He also scored a game-high 25 points against Dae-men. He’s expected to be a backup but fill into the backcourt.

“He has a real chance to be a big contrib-utor for us over the next four years,” Oats said. “He is a big guard with a huge upside that can play multiple positions. He has won everywhere he has been, playing on extremely successful high school and AAU teams and we are thrilled that he will bring that winning attitude to Buffalo.”

In their first exhibition game, Conner and Massinburg nearly accumulated for half of Buffalo’s point amassing 43 points out of the Bulls’ 87, on 16-of-25 shooting which included Massinburg exploding from 3-point range, going 5-of-6.

Sophomore guard Lamonte Bearden headlines the list of the returning players and is expected to carry a heavy load this season as one of the remaining stars from last year’s team. Bearden, who will replace Evans as Buffalo’s No. 1 point guard, aver-aged 8.3 points and 4.4 assists per game as a freshman and has been committed to in-crease his weight lifting.

As of October, Bearden has put on at least eight pounds of muscle since last season.

“I feel like I have a much bigger role this year,” Bearden said confidently. “During the summer, I went back home and I did nothing but lift … I really worked on my strength and when I got back to school I kept lifting heavy. I think it’ll make me a lit-tle bit faster, more athletic, and allow me to finish around the basket more.”

Buffalo still carries a fast-paced perso-na, but the forwards are more tradition-al. Freshman forward Ikenna Smart will assume the center position. Smart, who stands 6-foot-10, will be Buffalo’s tall-est player and be a primary rim defender. But his game is still developing as well. He learned under former forwards Xavier Ford and Will Regan while sitting out last season, which prompted him to work on his offen-sive and post game.

“I’ve been working a lot on my jump hook and a lot on my post move,” Smart said. “My post move has gotten so much better and my read, so I know how de-fenses play me. I worked a little bit on my strength.”

Last season under Hurley, the Bulls ran a 3-guard set that included an 8-man rotation. The rotation was rarely altered throughout the season. But the addition of new talent could prompt Oats to give players more playing time.

But the players have to earn it first.“I hope I can, but I’m not playing any

more that earn it,” Oats said about the rota-tion. “I’m not going to play 10 [players] just to play 10 [players]. If there’s only seven or eight players that earn minutes, then that’s all I’m going to play.”

Buffalo’s season begins on Friday as the team hosts Pitt.-Bradford at Alumni Arena. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m.

email: sports@ubspectrum.com

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

Reigning MAC champs are underdogs

YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM

Sophomore guard Lamonte Bearden makes a call in a game in Alumni Arena last season. Bearden and the Bulls are moving on without some key pieces from last year’s championship team.

JORDAN GROSSMAN SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

Kristen Sharkey was given one day to de-cide about her basketball future.

Once she graduated UB, she was in posi-tion to continue her basketball career over-seas either in Germany or France.

Or she could take a vacant assistant coaching position next to her former wom-en’s basketball head coach Felisha Legette-Jack.

“Overseas, I probably would have only gotten a year playing because of my knee,” Sharkey said. “This was a long-term deci-sion.”

Sharkey is one of the most prolific play-ers in program history. She ranks fifth in program history in both career games (120) and free throws (305), 10th in rebounds (759) and 11th in blocks (98). Sharkey re-turns as an assistant coach to teach the young wave of new Bulls what it’s like to play in Buffalo.

“I always try having one of my players on my staff. A lot of times, it didn’t work out,” Legette-Jack said. “It’s like forcing a circle into a square just to have a player of mine on my staff. With Kristen Sharkey, it made sense. Her total understanding of my system, an understanding of what we’re trying to create at her alma mater. She got it. She got it from day one.”

Sharkey noticed an opening on the bas-ketball coaching staff following the de-parture of assistant coach Blake Dudonis. Sharkey quickly called Legette-Jack – some-thing she would have never sporadically done without playing for Buffalo, she ad-mits – to inquire about the opening.

She was hired as the team’s new post coach.

“Before I met coach Jack, I never would

have had the confidence to do that,” Shar-key said recalling her sudden phone call about the interview. “That’s just a testa-ment to how much she means to me and that she would even think this would be a possibility. It was a long stretch, but she went with it.”

But it may not have been as far of a stretch as Sharkey plays it out to be. The post is one of the hardest positions to dominate. Sharkey said she dominated be-cause she knew it wasn’t OK to take even one second off while playing under the basket. You don’t have to be the biggest, strongest or fastest player, but you have to be the most aggressive.

And to Legette-Jack, having a weapon like that is key.

Due to her age, Sharkey occasionally lac-es up her sneakers and trains the young post players during practice this offseason and is expected to do so for the remain-der of the season. Her knee, in which she tore an ACL before her sophomore year, is healthy enough to keep up with a minimum workload for practice and is strong enough to go 100 percent to give players a game-like look.

Legette-Jack wants post players and coaches like Sharkey.

“She was a post player that really couldn’t jump, really didn’t have a great 3-point shot and wasn’t the best back-to-the-bas-ket post player,” Legette-Jack said, “but no one could stop her … I needed that type of toughness and elasticity on our staff.”

It was a weird feeling for Sharkey to change up her usual offseason regimen. For the past four seasons, she would spend her offseason rehabilitating, conditioning and training. Tireless hours working out in the weight room and on the court are no lon-ger needed.

She traded in her basketball shorts for a clipboard and suit jacket. Her two-hour practice is now planning post plays for young forwards like freshmen Brittany Morrison and Mirte Scheper.

It was a weird dynamic for Sharkey to ac-cept at first, but she now feels comfortable on the other side. Yet, the player dynamic was never in question.

Sharkey said all of the players respect her the fact she was teammates with some of them eight months ago. She finds it “neat” to watch her former teammates grow. Shar-key admires how guards Liisa Ups and Jo-anna Smith have changed “before her eyes.” She’s ready to see what senior guard Karin Moss can do as a first-year captain – a position Sharkey held for two years.

Legette-Jack never doubted her transi-tion.

“When she was a player,” Legette-Jack explained, “there was a separation between her and the players because her commit-ment to do it the coaching style way.”

Sharkey said players would joke around and call her “coach” last season because of her professional demeanor to the game. She, like Legette-Jack, preaches enthusiasm and going 100 percent. And she knows it will be worth it in the end.

Sharkey took the job because she wants to see what the program can grow to. She has been involved with the program in some of its darkest and brightest days and realized there is too much potential to pass up a coaching opportunity.

She wants to keep telling the team that their voices matter and it will take a team effort to have success in the program. It was an idea she bought into during Legette-Jack’s first season four years ago.

“You have to bust through the door. You have to raise your hand and you got to

scream from the rooftop,” Legette-Jack ex-plained. “She did have a voice and she was the best person for the job. Not the best woman, not the best man, not the oldest, not the youngest. She’s the best person for the job for what we’re trying to create here for our women’s basketball program.”

email: sports@ubspectrum.com

From the post to the sidelinesFormer forward Kristen Sharkey transitions to assistant coach

COURTESY OF UB ATHLETICS

Kristen Sharkey, one of the most prolific

players in Bulls history, looks on as an

assistant coach under current Bulls head

coach Felisha Legette-Jack.

CLASSIFIEDS Friday, November 13, 20159THE SPECTRUM

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10 SPORTSFriday, November 13, 2015THE SPECTRUM

TOM DINKIEDITOR IN CHIEF

When Felisha Legette-Jack was growing up in inner-city Syracuse, it took more than her mother to help raise Legette-Jack and her four siblings.

“We needed other people in the commu-nity that could help make certain we stay on the straight and narrow,” Legette-Jack said. “We called that ‘the village.’”

Now she wants to use that mentality to help raise her Buffalo women’s basketball program.

Legette-Jack has built up Buffalo up over the last three years – culminating in the pro-gram’s first Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) invite last season. But Legette-Jack starts her fourth season at UB on Saturday with the youngest squad she’s ever coached. Actually, Buffalo may just be the youngest squad in the country – Legette-Jack says if the Bulls are not one of the top-20 youngest teams, then they’re 21st. So they’ll need all the support they can get this season.

“I’m asking this community to help grow our program,” Legette-Jack said. “To help support these young women as they go out and try to fulfill their dream of bringing great notoriety to this university and to this community.”

Buffalo has just three upperclassmen – 12 of its 15 players are freshmen or sopho-mores. And that inexperience was on display in practice Wednesday, as Legette-Jack made her team do an extra lap and told them they “came out with a bad attitude” and needed to “get humility.”

“Our freshmen are getting tight. They’re saying, ‘Oh my goodness the season,’ and ev-ery shot is the end of their world,” Legette-Jack explained afterward. “They got to play free. They got to have fun … They were so ‘freshmen,’ if you will. And we’re just trying to get them to understand we’re better than that.”

Buffalo’s roster was decimated by depar-tures this offseason between the gradua-tion of Kristen Sharkey and Christa Baccas, the transfer of Alexus Malone to Louisiana Tech and the early retirement of Mackenzie Loesing due to an ankle injury.

Those four players alone accounted for 68 percent of the Bulls’ scoring last season.

“Losing the big scorers last year, that was huge for us,” said sophomore guard Stepha-nie Reid, “but it gives everyone else a chance

to step up. If it means people have to go to the gym late at night to get extra reps, they do it … We may not have the same scorers, but we have new scorers and they’re step-ping up.”

Buffalo will most likely turn to Reid her backcourt mate, junior guard Joanna Smith, to lead the way on offense. Reid is Buffalo’s unquestioned No. 1 point guard after join-ing the team midway through last semester, while Smith will take on more of a scoring role after averaging 15 points a game during the Bulls’ final six games last year.

Reid has embraced her role as a point guard. She knows if she doesn’t tell her teammates what to do, everyone will start scrambling.

“I’m the head of the body – figurative-ly,” Reid said. “I think with the freshmen, they have a lot of respect for me as a point guard, which is good because when I tell them to go somewhere they go.”

Buffalo’s frontcourt is more of a question mark.

Buffalo has several young forwards like freshman Mirte Scheper and sophomores Courtney Wilkins and Mariah Suchan that

will try to replace Baccas, the reigning Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year, and Sharkey, who will be an assis-tant coach this season.

But the player who Legette-Jack said would be Buffalo’s starting center currently can’t play because her former school won’t release her.

Sophomore center Cassie Oursler trans-ferred to UB from Robert Morris last win-ter break. But Robert Morris has refused to release Oursler, despite the NCAA clearing her, Legette-Jack said.

“It’s unfortunate Cassie has been put in this position by her institution she came from,” Legette-Jack said. “She has been do-ing nothing but doing the right thing.”

Robert Morris head coach Sal Buscaglia coached the Bulls from 1990-98.

“It’s unfortunate he’s taken this stance,” Legette-Jack said. “It’s about the kid. It’s un-fortunate he’s making it a personal vendet-ta against her.”

But Legette-Jack said Oursler’s absence won’t change her team’s plans – she said “the strangest person could be the one” the team relies on the most. And despite her

team’s lack of experience, she doesn’t plan to change what her philosophy’s been since she arrived at UB.

“We’re going to stay the same way. We’re going to be passionate. We’re going to de-fend. We’re going to go hard,” Legette-Jack said. “That is always been who I am and we can’t change that.”

Legette-Jack wants the UB community to help her program as it sticks to that mentali-ty. She wants to see crowds of fans at games supporting the young team. She wants a vil-lage. After all, it has something to prove to people.

“A lot of people don’t know about us. They don’t know about the talent we have coming in,” Smith said. “They don’t expect Buffalo to win. They don’t expect Buffa-lo to be great. It’s all about improving our-selves so we can show people what we’re all about.”

Buffalo opens the season Saturday against LIU Brooklyn at Alumni Arena. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.

email: tom.dinki@ubspectrum.com

THE VILLAGELegette-Jack looks to create community of support to help young women’s team

ROMULO ROMEROSTAFF WRITER

The men’s basketball team, the reigning Mid-American Conference Champions, isn’t even nationally ranked in the top-100.

That’s according to CBS Sports. And even Buffalo’s own conference’s media has picked it to finish no better than fourth – in the MAC East.

But it’s nothing of concern for first-year head coach Nate Oats. He said he embrac-es adversity and the underdog persona. His plan for success is simple: to bring togeth-er inexperienced players that are motivated to win a second championship in as many years despite what skeptics have to say.

“I don’t know how anybody ranks any-one before they play a game – it’s purely subjective,” Oats said. “Whoever ranked us 126th is assuming that some of these guys aren’t as good as what I anticipate them be-ing … We have a good schedule … So we’ll get our chance to get our RPI back up like it was last year if we take care of our busi-ness.”

It’s no secret that Buffalo is in the midst of a rebuilding year when it should have been going into the season as favorites. Af-ter contract extension talks fell apart, for-mer head coach Bobby Hurley left Buffa-

lo to coach Arizona State and brought star point guard Shannon Evans and some oth-er high-profile recruits with him. Reigning MAC Player of the Year Justin Moss was expelled from UB for a dorm theft this summer. Impact seniors Xavier Ford and Will Regan graduated.

But Buffalo wasn’t supposed to win the conference last season either after losing three starters. The team still defeated Cen-tral Michigan 89-84 in the MAC Tourna-ment to advance to the program’s first-ev-er NCAA Tournament.

Nine out of Buffalo’s 15 players have never logged a minute for the Bulls. Most of freshmen or junior college transfers. But if past accolades and Buffalo’s exhibi-tion win over Daemen is any indication, the recruiting class may be ready to contribute immediately.

Oats is excited about junior college transfer Willie Conner, who is expected to crack Buffalo’s starting five. Conner, a ju-nior wing, averaged 18.0 points and 5.0 re-bounds for Odessa Community College.

He considers himself Buffalo’s organizer. He knows the team is chock-full of shoot-ers, but he wants to be the player to slow the game down and have everyone realize defense is just as important as scoring.

Reigning MAC champs are underdogsNew-look men’s squad looks to bring home a second championship in as many years

YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM

Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack coaches in a game in Alumni Arena last season. Legette-Jack wants to create a “village” of support for her

young Bulls team this season.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM

Lamonte Bearden, a sophomore guard, dribbles down the court during a preseason game

last Friday. Bearden will be Buffalo’s starting point guard and will help the Bulls replace the

loss of Shannon Evans.