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 The Canisius University Golden Griffins are composed of 16 teams representing Canisius University in intercollegiate athletics. These teams include men's and women's basketball, cross country, track, lacrosse, soccer, and swimming and diving. Men ...

and the

Buffalo Bulls The Buffalo Bulls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University at Buffalo (UB) in Buffalo, New York. The Bulls compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of Mid-Ame ...

. Witherspoon played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

Erie Community College SUNY Erie is a public community college with three campuses in western New York that serve residents in and near Erie County. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and has locations in Williamsville (North Campus), Bu ...

under

John Beilein John Patrick Beilein ( ; born February 5, 1953) is an American professional basketball coach who currently serves as a college basketball analyst for the Big Ten Network. Before being hired by the Big Ten Network, Beilein served as the head coac ...

and then at

Wheeling Jesuit Wheeling University (WU, formerly Wheeling Jesuit University) is a private Catholic university in Wheeling, West Virginia, United States. It was founded as "Wheeling College" in 1954 by the Society of Jesus (also known as the Jesuits) and was a ...

under Jim O'Brien. He was the head coach at

, 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 African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

named head coach of a varsity sports team in any

Western New York Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all so ...

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 Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

under head coach Anthony Grant. In 2015, Witherspoon was let go by Alabama when Grant was replaced by

Avery Johnson Avery DeWitt Johnson (born March 25, 1965) is an American basketball television commentator, former player and coach who previously served as head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team. He is an NBA and college basketball ana ...

. 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 James Edward Baron (born March 20, 1954) is a retired American college basketball coach. He previously held the position of head coach at Saint Francis University, St. Bonaventure University, the University of Rhode Island and Canisius College. ...

at Canisius College. In the 2017–18 season, the Golden Griffins finished tied for a share of the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 13 full members are located in five Northeastern states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachuse ...

regular-season title and qualified for the

2018 College Basketball Invitational The 2018 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) was a single-elimination tournament, single-elimination men's college basketball tournament consisting of 16 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (NCAA), Division I teams that d ...

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

Head coaching record

University at Buffalo Basketball – 2010–11 Information Guide
/ref>
* Hired as interim coach after Tim Cohane resigned after 5 games

References

External links

Chattanooga Mocs bioCanisius Golden Griffins bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witherspoon, Reggie 1961 births Living people Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball coaches American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New York (state) Basketball players from Buffalo, New York Buffalo Bulls men's basketball coaches Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball coaches Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Erie Kats men's basketball coaches High school basketball coaches in the United States Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Sportspeople from Buffalo, New York Wheeling Cardinals men's basketball players Empire State University alumni SUNY Erie alumni 20th-century American sportsmen