Reggie Witherspoon, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., who spent the 2015-16 season as an assistant with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's men's basketball program, has been hired as head coach at Canisius College in his hometown.
Canisius athletic director Bill Maher announced the hire Saturday. According to a release on the school's athletics website, Witherspoon's deal is for five years and the Golden Griffins will hold an introductory press conference at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Witherspoon, 55, was head coach at the University at Buffalo for 14 seasons, then spent two seasons as an assistant at Alabama under Anthony Grant before joining the Mocs after Matt McCall was hired as coach in April 2015. UTC swept the Southern Conference regular-season and tournament titles for 2015-16 to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009.
Canisius, which plays in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, went 14-19 last season. Witherspoon takes over for Jim Baron, who retired May 20 after four seasons at Canisius.
"I am excited to take over at Canisius on a number of levels," Witherspoon said in the release. "Having grown up here in the area, I remember going to see a lot of Canisius games as a kid, and then as I grew older, I started to become friends with guys that played or were playing at Canisius. The college has such a great academic reputation, and I know the school's alumni base and fans are dedicated and passionate.
"I want to thank President (John J.) Hurley and Director of Athletics Bill Maher for giving me this opportunity to return to western New York as a head coach, and I am really looking forward to building on the long history of the men's basketball program."
Witherspoon is the second UTC men's basketball assistant to move on this offseason. Earlier this month, Jesse Bopp became an assistant at New Mexico State.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.