Introduction
Phillip Reginald Witherspoon (born February 21, 1961) is the head coach of the Canisius College men's basketball team and the former head coach of the University at Buffalo men's college basketball team. He was fired after the 2012-13 season. 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. 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.
Head coaching record
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erie Community College (NJCAA Region III) | |||||||||
| 1997–98 | Erie CC | 19–10 | |||||||
| 1998–99 | Erie CC | 24–5 | |||||||
| Erie CC: | 43–15 (.741) | ||||||||
| University at Buffalo (Mid-American Conference) | |||||||||
| 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) | |||||||||
| 2016–17 | Canisius | 18–16 | 10–10 | T–6th | CITFirst 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 | |||||
| Canisius College: | 66–65 (.504) | 43–39 (.524) | |||||||
| Total: | 307–308 (.499) | ||||||||
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* Hired as interim coach after Tim Cohane resigned after 5 games