A 4-27 season is nothing to take lightly. But after his first season as a Division I men’s basketball head coach, George Halcovage III looks at the 2023-24 season at the University at Buffalo as a learning experience, a test of patience and a foundation rolled into a single entity.
Now Halcovage says he has a stronger perspective on coaching, as well as clearer goals for a roster that so far includes four returning players, five incoming freshmen and three incoming transfers. Six players from the 2023-24 roster entered the transfer portal and UB’s leading scorer, Sy Chatman (18.2 points per game), exhausted his eligibility.
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University at Buffalo men’s basketball head coach George Halcovage III calls a play against Western Michigan in January.
Halcovage sat down last week with The Buffalo News to discuss what he learned from his first season and what he anticipates for the program as it prepares for the 2024-25 season.
This interview has been edited for clarity and condensed.
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TBN: You’re preparing for your second season as UB’s head coach. What did you learn from the first year that you’ll apply to your second year?
Halcovage: I learned that until you’re in that seat you don’t really know what you’re going through until you’re actually head coach and you have all those responsibilities day in and day out that fall on you. It’s something you prepare for. I didn’t feel overwhelmed because I kind of felt and I knew what these things were that I was going to have to deal with. But it’s a daily thing. It’s not like you go back to being an assistant. You’re the head coach, so everything that comes your way, you deal with. That was something that I didn’t learn, but I experienced for the first time.
All the things that I did leading up to become a head coach prepared me, and doing each job at Villanova (in multiple roles from 2008-2022, including graduate assistant, director of basketball operations and associate head coach) and then having some responsibilities when Coach (Jay) Wright would go away in the summer when he coached the Olympic team, I had already had to run the program. So I knew what that felt like having to deal with everything and not being able to just go to him and get the answers, having to have the answers myself. I already felt I already knew what that role was and kind of experienced it, in certain ways, but until you’re in that spot, the biggest difference is coaching games.
You’re the head coach, in-game, now. Play well, don’t play well, everything is falling on you, and you have to be the one that stands up, takes all the questions and have to give all the answers. That was the biggest difference.
The Buffalo News: You’re going into your second season, after a 4-27 year. Does this team have to win this year?
Halcovage: We always feel like we have to win because it’s our job to compete and win. I’m very fortunate to have (UB athletic director) Mark Alnutt and the rest of our staff here who understand that we’re really implementing our culture. When I interviewed for the job, we talked a lot about the culture that we want to implement. There’s different ways to do things, and I feel Year 2 is going to be, given the world we live in now with the (transfer) portal and everything else going on, where kids could just really get to choose where they want to be, which I think is a positive … I feel like we’re going to have a team this year of guys that really fits our mentality and is excited about playing Buffalo basketball the way we’ve been talking about it since we got here.
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UB head coach George Halcovage III leads a huddle with players and coaches during a timeout against Western Michigan on Jan. 6.
TBN: What is a winning season going to take?
Halcovage: A lot of hard work from everybody, staff, players, a great summer in the weight room, strength and conditioning, and guys, individually, wanting to be, just living in the gym. There’s no real secret to it. It’s a lot of hard work and playing hard together and being more connected than the other teams. That’s the most straightforward way to win. Obviously, you have to have talent, and I think we’ve done a good job bringing some pieces around guys that did stay that had some good first years for us. I’m really excited to see these guys all together.
TBN: What was the biggest challenge or challenges you faced in your first season, and what did you learn from those, and how will you apply that to your second season?
Halcovage: That’s a good question. Anything in life, experience helps. When you’re not going through things the first time you can lean on some intuition that you already have, to be able to handle things. Just having that experience, you’re not going through anything for the first time. There’s going to be that first-ever game, right? I could go down the list. First conference game. All those different things.
A lot of coaches I know have said, “What you went through is actually a real positive for your career. Because it takes some guys four or five years to probably deal with everything you’ve dealt with in one year.” I look at that and I’m grateful for that. I’m not grateful that we went 4-27, but I’m grateful that we came out of this, and our staff did a great job staying together. I give credit to our entire team. They stayed together through a tough year. And the guys that are back are excited about just building on what we’re trying to establish here.
TBN: What’s changed in this program, besides the roster? What are people going to see that’s different in 2024-25 about UB men’s basketball?
Halcovage: They’re going to see that we were pretty deliberate and that we knew we were going to keep doing what we want to do. We had some tough losses. We played really well, believe it or not. Most people wouldn’t, but if you were here and you saw some of the teams we were playing down the stretch, and how our team played against some of the top teams in our conference, we were right there.
They’re going to just keep seeing a program where there is a constant push of everybody getting better, every day. I’m excited for the four guys that are coming back. The Buffalo fan base is going to see those four guys (Ryan Sabol, Anquan Boldin Jr., Bryson Wilson and Lloyd McVeigh) make big jumps in Year 2. The guys that come in, they’re going to see guys that are going to play hard. They’re going to come in and be great teammates, but also going to add value to us and be big contributors.
I’m really excited about some of the older guys we’re bringing in who have this great mentality that we talked about. We keep talking about being all in with grit. And those guys are all into what we’re doing and they’re going to bring a level of grit every day. That’s how we brought those guys in, and then we have a really good group of young guys that are all committed. I think some of those guys are equally going to have years kind of like what Ryan or AJ (Anquan Boldin Jr.) or even at the end of the year, all four of those guys are playing great at the end of the year. I don’t know what guys are going to be more ready yet, those young guys, but I feel great about the three older guys we’re bringing in, Tyson (Dunn), Armani Mighty and Noah (Batchelor). Those are going to be able to make an impact right away for our program, with four guys that we already know have already done some really good things in their first year. We’ll see where these young guys come along because one or two of them I think are really going to be able to help us immediately. I feel really good about that, and I think we’re going to have even more depth.
TBN: What do your returning players need to build off of, from last season? They’ve been through a 4-27 season. Have you had those conversations with the four returning players?
Halcovage: The best thing I can say is, keep doing what we do. You’ve got to get better, and you’ve got to always be about the team. Those guys did 16 workouts this spring with our coaching staff, and they were getting after it and getting after each other. That’s the mentality we want to have.
We always talk to our guys. They’ve got to keep growing. They’re going to be lifetime learners and they’ve got to be guys who want to keep getting better, gradually, every day, as players. They all did that. I’ll quote a guy who I love and was able to coach (at Villanova), Jalen Brunson. He has this quote he uses, “The magic is in the work.” There’s no secret potion or you snap your fingers. You’ve got to put the work in. And those guys put the work in.
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UB head coach George Halcovage III talks to an official during a timeout against Niagara on Dec. 29.
UB men’s basketball roster breakdown
Returning players from 2023-24
Ryan Sabol, sophomore guard: 8.1 points, 1.5 rebounds, 62 assists in 31 games.
Anquan Boldin Jr., sophomore guard: 7.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 23 steals, 18 blocked shots in 22 games.
Lloyd McVeigh, sophomore guard: 1.9 points, 2.3 rebounds in 30 games.
Bryson Wilson, sophomore guard: 2.3 points, 1.3 rebounds in 23 games.
Incoming transfers
Noah Batchelor, guard: 1.7 points and 0.7 rebounds in 48 games in two seasons at Maryland.
Tyson Dunn, guard: 15.5 points, 5.8 rebounds 6.4 assists and 63 steals in 24 games at Western University in London, Ont.
Armani Mighty, center: 0.8 points, 1.2 rebounds in 35 games at Boston College.
Incoming freshmen
Brayden Jackson, small forward, Milton, Ont.
Tim Oboh, forward, Orpington, Great Britain
Sam Akot, guard/forward, London, Ont.
Ben Michaels, forward, Ipswich, England
Kavon Bradford, guard, Portland, Ore.