Reggie Witherspoon Head Coach 10th Season Phone: 716-645-3025 Office: 206 Alumni

A native Buffalonian, Witherspoon was officially named head men’s basketball coach at the University at Buffalo on March 10, 2000 after guiding the Bulls through the remainder of the 1999-2000 season as the interim head coach. He became the 11th head coach in Bulls’ basketball history and the third since Buffalo returned to Division I play in the 1991-92 season.

Witherspoon enters his 10th season as the head coach at UB. He has taken a struggling basketball program to new heights since his hire. Since 2004, the Bulls have emerged as one of the most improved college basketball programs in the nation, following a 23-win season and NIT berth in 2005 with a 19-win season in 2005-06. The Bulls have posted 81 wins over the last five seasons - including wins over Rutgers, Fresno State, Miami (FL), South Florida, Tulane, Temple and Penn State.

Witherspoon earned his 100th win at UB when the Bulls defeated Evansville, 81-60, on December 1, 2007. He became just the fifth UB men’s basketball coach to reach the milestone win.

Witherspoon has produced an Associated Press All-American, an Academic All-American and six All-Conference players.

He led UB to its first-ever appearance in the championship game of the Mid-American Conference Tournament in 2005. Although the Bulls didn’t win the game, they did earn a spot in the National Invitation Tournament for the school’s first postseason berth as a Division I program. UB defeated Drexel in the opening round of the NIT. Witherspoon was named the 2005 NABC District I co-Coach of the Year along with Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim. His accomplishments haven’t gone unnoticed by the city of Buffalo as he was also named the 2005 Man of the Year by the Buffalo Club of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club, Inc.

In 2006, Witherspoon became a member of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee. He was also named a court coach for the USA Basketball Under-18 National Team Trials.

Witherspoon was named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year, collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Coach of the Year and the Division I Co-Coach of the Year by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York following the 2003-04 season. He guided the Bulls to a 17-12 overall record and an 11-7 conference mark, their best effort since joining the MAC in 1998. Buffalo won 12 of its final 15 games of the season, beating their opponents by an average of 14.2 points. The 12-win improvement from the previous season was the second best turnaround in the nation in 2003-04. He led UB to its first ever home playoff game in the opening round of the MAC Tournament and, after defeating Northern Illinois, led the Bulls to Cleveland for the quarterfinal round for the first time in school history.

In 2002-03, Witherspoon guided a very young UB squad to a 5-23 mark. With freshmen and sophomores playing over 80 percent of the minutes, the Bulls proved to be competitive in nearly every game as they lost 13 games by 10 points or less.

In 2001-02, Witherspoon led the Bulls to a 12-18 mark. The Bulls’ eight-win improvement from the previous season was the sixth- highest among Division I teams. Witherspoon’s biggest win of the season occurred on January 9, 2002 when the Bulls knocked off Kent State, 66-65. It was the Golden Flashes’ only loss in the MAC and their last loss for before falling to Indiana in the Regional Finals of the NCAA Tournament.

The 2000-01 season saw Witherspoon guide the Bulls to a 4-24 record and their second MAC Tournament appearance. However, the record was not reflective on the strides the program made as they dropped 12 regular season games by 10 points or less, the second most in the country to American University’s 13. Included in that list were seven of Buffalo’s first nine games and four overtime games.

During his period as interim coach, which began five games into the 1999-00 season, Witherspoon tripled the team’s win output in the highly-competitive Mid-American Conference from the previous season. Buffalo also saw its first three-game home court winning streak since the 1997-98 season.

Witherspoon has 20 years of collegiate and high school coaching experience in Western New York and has enjoyed considerable success during his coaching career. In his two-plus seasons at Erie Community College, he produced a 44-23 record and, in 1998-99, earned Region III Division I Coach of the Year honors after leading the Kats to a 24-5 record and a Region III title.

In his first season at ECC, Witherspoon led the program to a 19-10 record and was named Western New York Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, an honor he repeated in the 1998-99 season as well. During his tenure at ECC, Witherspoon produced four Division I players, two All-Americans and one Academic All-American.

Prior to his stint at Erie CC, Witherspoon spent 13 years at Sweet Home High School, eight as an assistant and five as head coach. During his five years as head coach, his teams won four straight divisional championships, the first and only time that happened in school history. He was the first African American to be named head coach of a varsity sports program in any Western New York Suburban School District.

Witherspoon earned his associate’s degree from Erie Community College and bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Empire State College. While at Erie Community College, he played for Michigan head coach John Beilien. He played for Indiana Pacers head coach Jim O’Brien at Wheeling Jesuit College.

Witherspoon resides in East Amherst, NY, with his wife, the former Dawn Taggart, and the couples two daughters, Lydia (16) and Rachel (15).