"I was a bit caught off guard when the Athletic Director, Mark Alnutt decided to go in a different direction with the basketball program. I've played my first two seasons under former coach Jim Whitesell. While I did learn some under coach Whitesell I feel there was definitely a clash of styles amongst him and the players. Coach Whitesell had us playing a very methodical style while we as players felt a more up tempo best suited the personnel of the team. Towards the end of the season, I feel he lost the locker room which played a part in a disappointing end to our season."

"I don't know much about the new coach that was hired, Ricky Tyler. From what I heard in his press conference upon getting the job is he served as an Assistant Coach at Villanova, here at Buffalo, and most recently at the University of Alabama. He's a really young coach, only 30 years old so he should be able to relate to the players better. Coach Tyler did say his style of play is All Gas No Brakes. He really wants to push tempo and play fast so I am looking forward to working with him. I feel if we buy into Coach Tyler's system, we will surprise a lot of people this season."

"I've been asked quite a bit on the decision to hire Ricky Tyler as our new Men's Basketball Coach. In interviewing Coach Tyler, and interviewing coaches he has worked under Coach Tyler brings a number of positive qualities to the table.


Despite his young age he has a very impressive basketball pedigree. During his playing career he played four years at Villanova under Jay Wright. He then started his coaching career as a Graduate Assistant at Villanova, after getting his Master's Degree he became an Assistant Coach at Villanova. During his time at Villanova as a coach he was a part of two National Championship teams and played a part in the development of a number of NBA players.


I first met Coach Tyler when he was hired to be an Assistant Coach here at Buffalo on the staff of Nate Oats during the 2018-2019 season. Even then anytime I conversated with Coach Tyler it was evident he was going to be a Head Coach one day. He is a confident individual, and very diligent in his planning. Coach Tyler then followed Coach Oats to the University of Alabama as an Assistant Coach.


Coach Tyler comes very highly recommended by former coaches he has worked under. Former Villanova Coach Jay Wright said Ricky even as a player was a coach on the floor. He praised Coach Tyler for the role he played in helping to develop the guards of Villanova into better players. Coach Oats echoed those sentiments, in addition highlighted the rapport Coach Tyler builds with players which enabled him to be a key recruiter during his time at Alabama.


Finally, I felt the program had become stagnant since Coach Oats departed. Attendance has been down, we haven't been back to the NCAA Tournament since Coach Oats, and the fans feel the style of basketball has not been fun to watch. Coach Tyler intends to bring a fast-paced system, similar to what Coach Oats is doing at Alabama. We have already received a number of requests to put his quote of "All Gas No Brakes" on t-shirts. I am very excited to welcome Coach Tyler to the Buffalo family."

PointGuard wrote:Good start. Lookign forward to seeing how your team (and your dynasty) develop and progress.

I've begun to settle into my new life as a Head Coach, I was confident I'd be in this seat at some point, but I didn't think it would come this soon. Critics will bring up my age but that doesn't faze me as talent will always shine. It helps that Drew Valentine at Loyola Illinois was hired the year before at the as of 30 and had great success in his first season. Getting the Buffalo job was a bit of a whirlwind. When the Buffalo job became available, I was in Tennessee recruiting a kid Brandon Miller who will be great at Alabama. I called Coach Oats to recap the visit, he was the one who informed me of the Buffalo job and said I should apply. He knew I was ready to be a Head Coach, he even called the Buffalo AD to personally recommend me as a candidate. I flew up to interview for the job, obviously I aced the interview because I was offered the job.


The move has been fairly easy, as a single man I didn't have to worry about uprooting a family. It's just me and my dog Interceptor. I've spent the core of my time watching game tape, getting to know the players and staff, and becoming a part of the Buffalo community. I've done what I call a blitz in terms of appearances and interviews. Being a Philadelphia native and sports fan I don't think that will be a problem in Buffalo. My Eagles and Flyers aren't in the same division as the Bills and Sabres so I'll be alright in that regard. Due to proximity to Toronto, I've already made a few visits there, quite enjoyed my time in Toronto.


A little on my background, I was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA by my mother Naomi Tyler and my father Kenny Tyler. Both of my parents are teachers, so education was always stressed to me as the top priority even ahead of basketball. I was introduced to basketball by my mother who is a high school girls basketball coach. Both of my parents played sports with mom playing basketball and dad playing soccer. I was a decent soccer player, but basketball was the sport I stood out in. I attended St. Joseph's Prep playing varsity basketball as a Sophomore, Junior, and Senior. I started my last two seasons at point guard and was a good player. I ended being a 3-star recruit just making the Rivals top 150 as a Senior.


I was recruited by all of the city schools, and a few others in New Jersey and New York. I decided on attending Villanova because I was a huge fan of Jay Wright and how his teams played. During my four years at Nova, I played with a number of talented players, Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, Maalik Wayns, Mo Yarou, Dominic Cheek, Ryan Arcidiacono, Daniel Ochefu, Josh Hart, and Kris Jenkins. I was no more than a role player at Nova, and I accepted that because the players ahead of me were better players. I didn't play much but whenever Coach Wright put me in the game, he knew I'd run the team in the manner in which he needed his point guard to. During my Senior year Coach Wright would ask me questions about teams and players we were going to face. He even let me sit in during film sessions and a few coaches' meetings. I didn't know it at the time, but he was grooming me to become a coach, he saw something in me way before I saw it in myself. The most disappointing aspect of my playing career at Nova is we never advanced past the second round of the NCAA Tournament. My Senior year we had a 29-5 record but got knocked out by UConn in the 2nd Round. The irony of that loss was the game happened in Buffalo.


I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Secondary Education, my initial plan was to get a teaching job until Coach Wright offered me the chance to become a graduate assistant on his coaching staff. I accepted his offer and began my coaching career. After two years I earned a master's degree in education and was promoted to an Assistant Coach on Coach Wright's staff. I spent a total of four years at Nova as a coach. During that time, I was a part of two National Championship Teams. I was able to coach a number of talented players, Ryan Arcidiacono, Daniel Ochefu, Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins, Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Donte Divincenzo, Eric Paschall, Omari Spellman, and Collin Gillespie. I worked with a lot of the guards, helping them to develop into better players. One of the things I learned the most under Coach Wright was the value of player development.


I was working at a camp with Coach Wright and some other coaches when I first met Nate Oats. We hit it off immediately and he happened to have an opening on his staff, the role would give me more responsibilities including recruiting which I was very interested in. After speaking with Coach Wright, we agreed moving to Buffalo on Coach Oats staff would be great for my progression. I joined Coach Oats staff for the 2018/2019 season, it was my only season at Buffalo, but we had a great season. Led by CJ Massinburg the team went 32-4. When Coach Oats took the Alabama job, I immediately went with him. At Alabama I coached such players as Kira Lewis Jr, Herbert Jones, John Petty Jr, Jahvon Quinerly, Josh Primo.


Despite my youth I feel like I have a Doctoral Degree in coaching from coaching under Coach Wright and Coach Oats. From Coach Wright I've taken player development, his half court principles of ball and player movement, using guard friendly sets such as a 5-Out or a 4-Out offense, and the 1-2-2 Press. From Coach Oats I've taken playing offense at pace and full court pressure. I intend to blend that with some philosophies I've developed, my goal is to play even faster than we did while I was at Alabama.

"Upon getting the job one of my very first basketball related moves was the hiring of Scott Simmons to be our Strength and Conditioning Coach. Scott was highly recommended to me by the Strength and Conditioning Coach from the Alabama basketball team. To play the system I want my players need to be extremely well conditioned. Scott immediately went to putting together individual training routines for each player. I provided my fair share of input into the conditioning regiment as not only does it play a major role in getting the players in shape to play my system, but it is aligned with my player development philosophy. As a college coach I am a dream maker, players at this level have dreams of playing at the next level whether that is the NBA, G-League, or overseas. Each player has been given a weight and body fat goal which is based upon their heights as we're trying to give them a target for what they will have to physically be playing at the next level.



I decided to keep the assistants from the previous regime on board, they have a rapport with the returning players, and they know the Northeast area in terms of recruiting. So far, they have been very open to learning my system so they can better coach our players in it. We've been spending much of our time planning our recruiting strategy. We have two scholarships available, so we have to really lock in on the types of players who best fit our system.



In terms of the type of player I'm looking for the very first thing is shooting, whether that is in the midrange or from three-point land. We are going to try to space the court and the best way of doing so is having plenty of shooters. Second, I want high IQ players, offensively I'm not big on calling plays, it is more about flow which means players have to be able to read and react to what they are seeing on the court from a defense. Finally, we are going to look for players who can play multiple positions, that will give us a lot of lineup options to create mismatches that will benefit us. I call it the Mikel Bridges blueprint; he was the most versatile player I ever coached. Personality wise I don't need players to be choir boys, but I have no interest in recruiting bad apples no matter how talented they might be. Locker room killers have no room on my team. Academics are very important to me, if a recruit is lazy in the classroom than I'm not interested. If a recruit isn't willing to put the work in the classroom to be a decent student than they probably won't put in the work required on the basketball court.

2022/2023 Buffalo Bulls Roster

#10 Joseph Anderson PG 6-5 204 Jr. Harrisville, IN* 3.5/4
#44 Keith Best SF 6-5 205 So. Lansing, NY 0.5/2
#12 Marcus Buchanan PF 6-8 229 So. Long Island, NY 1.5/3
#42 Chris Bullett PF 6-9 213 Fr. Wilmington, DE 0.5/3.5 Redshirted
#41 Wendell Campbell C 6-8 249 Fr. Walton, NY 0.5/1 Redshirted
#2 Nick Capel SG 6-2 174 So. Lancaster, NY 0.5/3.5
#11 Clifton Cox SG 6-3 175 Sr. Palmyra, NY* 4/4
#40 Lamont Fisher C 7-1 281 So. Niskayuna, NY* 2.5/3.5
#3 Lennox Gaines SG 6-3 205 Jr. Goshen, NY 2.5/3.5
#52 Dana Hughes C 6-8 266 Sr. Cicero, NY 0.5/0.5 Walk On
#55 Casey Mcdyess C 6-9 243 So. Ontario Center, NY 2/2.5
#24 Darryl Newman SF 6-8 241 Jr. Watertown, NY* 2.5/3.5
#23 Adonis Thomas SF 6-6 214 Jr. Mamaroneck, NY 0.5/0.5 Walk On
#1 Donte Westbrooks PG 6-5 192 Sr. Deer Park, NY* 3/3
#14 Brian Wilson SF 6-4 234 Fr. Voorheesville, NY 1/3.5

Staff

Head Coach Ricky Tyler 30
First Assistant Jamie Quarles 37 Scouting
Second Assistant Angres Thorpe 51 Recruiting
Third Assistant Brendan Foley 35 Practice



In watching tape of the previous season, the thing that stood out to me is we have a number of good shooters, I'd say 7 to 8 of our players are good shooters. That will allow us to space the floor which will open the offense up. Joseph Anderson and Clifton Cox are the best players we have, both have good size for guards and can play both guard spots. We will go with a three-guard lineup with Donte Westbrooks being the third guard. Donte didn't play much last season and I'm not sure why, he's an excellent defender and is one of the better playmakers on the team. Not only will Donte start, but he will be the point guard for our second unit as well. Darryl Newman will play a strecth four role in our offense, he has good height and shooting ability which will make him effective in that role. Lamont Fisher rounds out the starting five. Off the bench guard Lennox Gaines and center Casey McDyess will be our main guys off the bench, Gaines has shown flashes of being a microwave type scorer off the bench while McDyess proves rebounding, shot blocking, and will make gritty type plays that contribute to winning. Gaines will be given the green light with the second unit, that is how good of a shooter he is. This particular team is not as deep as I'd want, as we will go 8-9 deep at most. Nick Capel is another good shooter, but he will need to round out other aspects of his game if he wants to become a better player.


Offense: Shuffle: 55 Motion: 30 5 Out: 15
Defense: Man to Man: 80 3-2 Zone: 20 Full Court Man: 100

In working with Coach Tyler the thing that has stood out the most to me is how diligent he is as a worker. He is very meticulous in everything he does. By the team I arrive in the morning to the facility he's already been working for a few hours. There has been many of days where he's spent the night at the facility working. I attribute being able to function without much sleep to his youth, Coach Tyler says it's coffee and tea that fuels him. We were able to fill our two scholarships quickly which made the entire staff happy.

Recruits

Dan Brown (Juco) PF 6-7 197 Wappingers Falls, NY National Rank: 272
Cedrick Coleman SG 6-0 182 Chappaqua, NY National Rank: 783


Dan Brown is a forward from the Junior College ranks, he's a rangy type of defender who is a good athlete. He has a decent jump shot and we as a staff feel with the right amount of work, he can become a capable shooter from deep. We are going to lose two guards to graduation, so it was important that we signed a guard. Cedrick Coleman is undersized for a shooting guard but is a very good shooter.

"I have been enjoying basketball playing for Coach Tyler, I hadn't played much under the previous Coach but Coach Tyler from day 1 saw something in me, he's given me the confidence to play my game. Off-Season wise we did more conditioning that we have ever done, Coach Tyler stresses the importance of conditioning to play his system and we have seen the results of our work early in the season. Last season we average 70 points per game, through our first five games we are averaging 88 points per game. I can hear Coach Tyler throughout games encouraging us to push the tempo. All Gas No Brakes has become our team motto, it is even on our warmup shirts.


Though we lost our opening game at Furman 93-97, Coach Tyler continued to be positive with us telling us to trust the system. As players we were even surprised, we hit 93 points in our opener. I've never played in a system like this, we are in attack mode for 40 minutes and we are loving it. In our home opener we cracked 100 points, we were letting shots fly making 18 three pointers in the game. Road wins at Rhode Island and Temple were good building blocks for us, being able to win on the road will really help up come conference play."  


November 2022

@Furman 93-97

UC-San Diego 104-78

@Rhode Island 89-64

@Fresno State 66-77

@Temple 88-82

"I've been playing more of a combo guard role this season, initially I was concerned how it would work but I've really been able to adapt to facilitating more. During our December slate of games, I had three games in which I dished out more than 10 assists. For the month I averaged 7.5 assists per game. Despite looking to setup for others I've still be able to score for myself as I'm averaging 16 points per game."


"Team, wise we had a great month with a 7-1 record, we have really surprised a lot of people around campus with how we are playing. Beating three power five conference teams are definitely confidence builders heading into conference play. We took the momentum of scoring 100 points in both games over to Hawaii for the Hawaii Airlines Diamond Head Classic. I can speak for everyone on the team, we were extremely happy to trade Buffalo winter for the warmth of Hawaii. After a 74-58 opening round win against St. Joseph's, we faced Wake Forest in the semifinals. Being from the mighty ACC I feel like Wake was looking past us. Joseph, Donte, and I took it upon us to really push the pace. Midway through the second half the three of us are looking at each other knowing we had Wake right where we wanted them, they were gassed. As they fatigued, we got stronger eventually running out 95-78 winners."


"The Championship game of the tournament put us against Northwestern who came into the game 9-0. Little did I know how epic this game would turn out to be. Inside of the last four minutes of regulation the lead switched 8 times. Up 90-87 with 9 seconds left Coach Tyler instructed us to foul which we did. The Northwestern player made the first free throw, intentionally missing the second one the ball ricochets to one of their forwards whose shot goes in the net sending the game to overtime. I scored a baseline jumper to put us up 101-99 with 33 seconds, Northwestern tied the score with 11 seconds left. Coach drew up a player for Joseph, I would be facilitating the play looking for Joseph who would be coming off a curl. Northwestern did a good job denying Joseph the basketball, with 6 seconds left I started to drive to the rim when I noticed Dante filling in the vacant spot in which I left so I stopped on a dime and whipped a pass to him. With no hesitation Dante rose up for the shot and drained a three pointer with 3 seconds left. Northwestern threw a length of the court pass which we were able to steal and secure a 104-101 win."


December 2022

@Georgia 101-86

Youngstown St 106-91

*St.Joseph 74-58 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic

*Wake Forest 95-78 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic

*Northwestern 104-101 OT Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic

@Canisus 87-68

@Bowling Green 88-75

@Western Michigan 86-96