Reggie Witherspoon (basketball)

Reggie Witherspoon

Witherspoon at Alumni Arena in 2006
Biographical details
Born	(1961-02-21) February 21, 1961 Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Empire State College ('95)
Playing career
	Erie CC
	Wheeling Jesuit
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1984–1992	Sweet Home HS (assistant)
1992–1997	Sweet Home HS
1997–1999	Erie CC
1999–2013	Buffalo
2014–2015	Alabama (assistant)
2015–2016	Chattanooga (assistant)
2016–2024	Canisius
Head coaching record
Overall	306–358 (.461) 43–15 (.741) (NJCAA)
Tournaments	1–1 (NIT) 0–2 (CBI) 3–3 (CIT)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
MAC regular season champion (2009) MAAC regular season champion (2018)
Awards
MAC Coach of the Year (2004)

Phillip Reginald Witherspoon (born February 21, 1961) is an American college basketball coach who is the former men's basketball head coach of the Canisius Golden Griffins and the Buffalo Bulls.

Witherspoon played college basketball at Erie Community College under John Beilein and then at Wheeling Jesuit under Jim O'Brien.

He was the head coach at Erie Community College, and head coach and assistant coach at Sweet Home High School before he was hired as the interim head coach at Buffalo in December 1999. Witherspoon was named full-time head coach on March 10, 2000. He was the first African American named head coach of a varsity sports team in any Western New York suburban school district. He was fired after the 2012–13 season, finishing his 14 season run with a 198–228 record. Witherspoon served one season as an assistant at Alabama under head coach Anthony Grant. In 2015, Witherspoon was let go by Alabama when Grant was replaced by Avery Johnson. He was subsequently named as an assistant on Matt McCall's staff at UT-Chattanooga.

In May 2016, Witherspoon was hired to replace the retiring Jim Baron at Canisius College. In the 2017–18 season, the Golden Griffins finished tied for a share of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season title and qualified for the 2018 College Basketball Invitational.

On March 16, 2024, Canisius announced that it had parted ways with Witherspoon after eight seasons.

Head coaching record

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Erie Community College (NJCAA Region III) (1997–1999)
1997–98	Erie CC	19–10
1998–99	Erie CC	24–5
Erie CC:		43–15 (.741)
University at Buffalo (Mid-American Conference) (1999–2013)
1999–00*	Buffalo	3–20 (5–23)	1–17	12th
2000–01	Buffalo	4–24	2–16	12th
2001–02	Buffalo	12–18	7–11	10th
2002–03	Buffalo	5–23	2–16	13th
2003–04	Buffalo	17–12	11–7	5th
2004–05	Buffalo	23–10	11–7	T–2nd	NIT First Round
2005–06	Buffalo	19–13	8–10	8th
2006–07	Buffalo	12–19	4–12	T–10th
2007–08	Buffalo	10–20	3–13	12th
2008–09	Buffalo	21–12	11–5	T–1st	CBI First Round
2009–10	Buffalo	18–12	9–7	T–3rd
2010–11	Buffalo	20–14	8–8	T–5th	CIT Quarterfinals
2011–12	Buffalo	20–11	12–4	2nd	CIT Second Round
2012–13	Buffalo	14–20	7–9	8th
Buffalo:		198–228 (.465)	96–142 (.403)
Canisius College (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) (2016–2024)
2016–17	Canisius	18–16	10–10	T–6th	CIT First Round
2017–18	Canisius	21–12	15–3	T–1st	CBI First Round
2018–19	Canisius	15–17	11–7	T–2nd
2019–20	Canisius	12–20	7–13	10th
2020–21	Canisius	7–6	7–5	4th
2021–22	Canisius	11–21	7–13	T–10th
2022–23	Canisius	10–20	8–12	T–8th
2023–24	Canisius	14–18	8–12	9th
Canisius College:		108–130 (.454)	73–75 (.493)
Total:		306–358 (.461)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

* Hired as interim coach after Tim Cohane resigned after 5 games

External links

• Chattanooga Mocs bio
• Canisius Golden Griffins bio