“Calhoun’s Recruits”

[AZHuskiePop]

.

Actually in 2016 UConn to the Big East was being floated and I’m sure informal talks took place. Contingent on failure to get into the B12.Because we weren’t going anywhere unless we were assured of acceptance. i understand there was resistance from some schools.
I think Fox was hot for our joining and media typically calls the shots
The story was UConn hung around to see what the Next AAC contract would be. The rumor was that if the contract wasn’t in excess of $10,000,000 per year than in all probability we were gone. I‘m also sure they knew that number wouldn’t happen.
So the whole thing was wrapped up using the disappointing AAC contract as the reason.
I think Hurley had an pretty good idea the Big East was almost a done deal or he probably wouldn’t have taken the job.
Conference Realignment is a disease.

 

[MexicoHusky]

Nobody needs my idiotic take but, like the rest of you, I still can’t get over it.

I’ve read quite a few posts lamenting that our expectations were too high for this group of players; 4/5 starters were mid-major level recruits and they simply had hard ceilings. All season long, though, I’ve been wondering what a Calhoun could have done with this group

Gotta let go of JC. Gotta let got of KO as well. To be honest I didn't really think holding onto KO was a thing. Learn something new everyday I guess.

Also, when I say let go I mean really let go. Stop looking for the next JC. We are unlikely to find him.

 

[BapeKidd88]

The logo says it all: the reason the star is angled like it is is because we were the outlier in the Northeast and farthest away from all the others. It killed us competitively on several levels.

What killed UConn competitively was getting outcoached.

Even Hurley hasn't lived up to the grandiose talk that came out of his own mouth. At some point, performance is up to the employees.

Did Houston out recruit UConn? Only in the sense that they identified the better players and developed them.

UConn hasn't had a 5 star or McDonalds All-American in the NBE era.

Josh Carlton just proved he has the talent to hold up the Conference Championship trophies at the end of the year. It just took him leaving UConn to do it.

 

[willie99]

It's always a bit of looney tunes to try and compare how one coach would do in a different era with another coach's players.

OTOH at some point if you want to compare coaches against each other, you have to do some hypotheticals and "what if" scenarios.

Replace "what if" with "wild-@$$ guess" and I totally concur. I find the discussion silly to begin with, and just another unfounded bizarre atrack on Hurley in this case.

What is true is Ollie absolutely won with Calhoun recruits. That can't be debated. SN, NG, TO all played two years for JC and all won a ring with him. RB and DD played one year with JC.

The similarity I see thus far between JC and DH recruits is commitment and loyalty. Kids that work hard.

KO's kids all transfered out after one year, with very few exceptions. A couple of kids transfered multiple times having transfered from the schools they transfered to.

KO did a good job coaching JC's kids

 

[jayfromfla]

I’ll bet Calhoun was a short distance from the bench during the game to assist in the game tome strategy

 

[willie99]

No, not game strategy. but JC established the foundation and work ethic in those kids

AND JC recruited solid kids. Those are the kids that won in 2014

Ollie landed highly regarded classes that all left after one year. Was it the AAC? Maybe, but they knew that when they signed. Was it Ollie? Certainly plausible

 

[yungdowork]

It's gonna be a looooong off-season judging by this thread

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I checked, and UConn won a National Championship in 2014 with Kevin Ollie on the sidelines. You can watch this video if you don't believe me.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I wondered why a dumb thread about Calhoun's Recruits was still up and on page 4, so I opened it up. More of the same crap as every other thread.

We lost a game to a team that shot better than the Globetrotters despite good defense against them. Get over it. This is not to say Hurley hasn't made mistakes and won't continue to make mistakes. He has, he will. But he's not 70 and I think he will grow into the job. In the meantime we finished as a top 25 team and next year should be entertaining as hell. Will probably surprise many of you.

 

[gtcam]

No, not game strategy. but JC established the foundation and work ethic in those kids

AND JC recruited solid kids. Those are the kids that won in 2014

Ollie landed highly regarded classes that all left after one year. Was it the AAC? Maybe, but they knew that when they signed. Was it Ollie? Certainly plausible

JC didn't actively recruit those kids that won in 2014 - Kevin Ollie did all the work for JC also the name UConn coming off off the the success of the 1st decade of the 2000s helped tremendously as well as playing for JC.
KO was the one that was at Bazz's , Boat's and Lamb's AAU and HS games and writing the letters and making the calls. D Daniels told stories of KO talking to the people they both knew in LA about coming to UConn,
JC was the closer in some cases but the recruitment belonged to KO
To use your phrase - that cant be debated

 

[MexicoHusky]

What killed UConn competitively was getting outcoached.

Even Hurley hasn't lived up to the grandiose talk that came out of his own mouth. At some point, performance is up to the employees.

Did Houston out recruit UConn? Only in the sense that they identified the better players and developed them.

UConn hasn't had a 5 star or McDonalds All-American in the NBE era.

Josh Carlton just proved he has the talent to hold up the Conference Championship trophies at the end of the year. It just took him leaving UConn to do it.

I'm not on board with the idea that DH has been out coached. But I do love the picture. Not too many players deserve this moment more than Josh. Carried us when we sucked. Relegated when we got a bit better. Josh deserves to raise that trophy

 

[willie99]

JC didn't actively recruit those kids that won in 2014 - Kevin Ollie did all the work for JC also the name UConn coming off off the the success of the 1st decade of the 2000s helped tremendously as well as playing for JC.
KO was the one that was at Bazz's , Boat's and Lamb's AAU and HS games and writing the letters and making the calls. D Daniels told stories of KO talking to the people they both knew in LA about coming to UConn,
JC was the closer in some cases but the recruitment belonged to KO
To use your phrase - that cant be debated

JC had the final say, JC closed, JC coached them

Using your reasoning, you should give all of JC's successes to some assistant coach.

I know you know who was the maker of men

 

[AZHuskiePop]

.

I’ve already answered that we recruited better than ever first 4 years in AAC

When you consider we were limited in scholarships due to previous violations recruiting wasn’t the issue.
We were under suspension, our coach retired , an unknown assistant
got an interim job with a one year deal in a conference whose survival was . questionable and the AAC in 2013 was not in the same place as 2016-17. It’s survival was questionable that made for a rocky start true.
Remember he actually he was interim and didn’t get the job until the unanticipated success of the 2013 forced the AD‘s hand.
The AD wasn’t a Calhoun fan and wanted to pick his own successor.
We had one top recruit in the pipeline Calhoun who after a promising freshman year was diagnosed with a hip problem that pretty much doomed the rest of his career. Nolan was also in that class.
The Next Class was TSam, Facey, Brimah ,and Post Grad Kromah not much on paper but all ended up contributing to a NC
The next class was top 100 Hamilton and transfer Purvis two terrific players at anytime.
That was followed by top 100 , Jalen Adams , Steve Enoch, plus top Post Grads Shonn Miller and Sterling Gibbs . They won 26 games the AAC tourney and we’re vastly under seeded and lost in the round of 32 to a 1 seed.
,The following year was a top 20 recruiting class that fizzled as Gilbert, Jackson, Durham, were also top 100.
add in top 100 Larrier and throw in a unknown kid named Vital.
That team had 8 top 100 HS players at least on paper.
Recruiting was not the issue , the AAC bottom weakness hurt with seeding ,which is important but that‘s only part of the story.
Major injuries aliments magnified by scholarship reductions we’re huge but again not the only story
2014 Calhoun
2015 Purvis and Boatright
2016 Brimah
2017 Gilbert ,Larrier, Adams , Diarra ,and Durham was a shell
Enoch was slow to contribute but an immature kid.
2018;Mutiny of two starters , Decommit from our top recruit, and another recruit declared ineligible, and the Coup de Grace Gilbert lost again led to the most undermanned UConn team in 30 years playing the best schedule since the Big East. 8 teams that made the NCAA ,the NC, and Road games at Auburn and Arizona.
Most importantly was the personality change that took place in Ollie with his success attested you by Rodney Purvis.
My take on Ollie is he put in one of the best on court coaching displays ever in winning the 2014 NC. When you look at who we beat it was beyond amazing .
A10 tourney Champs and their great coach
The Big East Champs HOF coach with 2 NC
The Big 12 tourney Champs
The Big 10 Champs and HOF coach with a NC and a bunch of FF
The SEC dual Champs and potential HOF coach with 2 NC
The hottest team in the tourney with 7 McD’s All American and a HOF coach with a NC
I firmly believe after much research nobody but KO could have won with that team.
Calling them Calhoun players is pure ignorance of reality .
They stayed because of love for 2013-14 Ollie
Because he was their position coach and their hero and to Bazz a father figure. Even non guard DD was an Ollie recruit because of their LA connections. Giffey had two choices go back to Germany or transfer to a mid major after two unproductive seasons.
Their confidence fed off his and his confidence was a result of how good he knew they could be not how good they performed.
My favorite Ollie moments in 2014 were as a lower seed falling behind two seed Nova and coming back to even the score at half time with Bazz sitting out and predicting the at half time the game was a lock
After a blowout loss to Louisville he kept the team over to watch a replay not of that nights game but of their win over Fla. telling them that was who they really were
Finally in a FF presser RB was asked when he knew he could be such a great defender.he replied “he told me that I would become a great defender the first day of practice my freshman year and every practice until I became one.
Even when he was a guard coach Calhoun was the grumpy old guy that screamed at them and Ollie was the guy who consoled them and told them how good they were. His 11 . years in the NBA gave him a credibility few teams could offer.
That why his fall is such a tragedy he was swept away by the fame and celebrity , a personality change that cost him a marriage and his dream job. The illusion of invincibility Is death to a coach. Could he coach up guys heck yes , but there is more to the job than playing the game. He probably got more of depleted losing squads than anyone but
his lack off attention to the grind doomed his promising career. In coaching it’s the details that bite you in the butt.
After all that is said ,as an historian Ollie is among the top three most important coaches in our history:
1.Hugh Greer made UConn basketball a force that established it as the pride of the state . Without that foundation, No Big East, No rabid fan base,and No Jim Calhoun
2. Jim Calhoun took the program beyond what us fans ever dreamed possible. But his success came with a downside of being a one coach program. That’s a big hurdle.
3. Ollie‘s championship was a program establishing one that cemented our legacy. The list of schools with NC won by multiple coaches is a very short list. PS Duke isn’t on it.

 

[HooperScooper]

When you consider we were limited in scholarships due to previous violations recruiting wasn’t the issue.
We were under suspension, our coach retired , an unknown assistant
got an interim job with a one year deal in a conference whose survival was . questionable and the AAC in 2013 was not in the same place as 2016-17. It’s survival was questionable that made for a rocky start true.
Remember he actually he was interim and didn’t get the job until the unanticipated success of the 2013 forced the AD‘s hand.
The AD wasn’t a Calhoun fan and wanted to pick his own successor.
We had one top recruit in the pipeline Calhoun who after a promising freshman year was diagnosed with a hip problem that pretty much doomed the rest of his career. Nolan was also in that class.
The Next Class was TSam, Facey, Brimah ,and Post Grad Kromah not much on paper but all ended up contributing to a NC
The next class was top 100 Hamilton and transfer Purvis two terrific players at anytime.
That was followed by top 100 , Jalen Adams , Steve Enoch, plus top Post Grads Shonn Miller and Sterling Gibbs . They won 26 games the AAC tourney and we’re vastly under seeded and lost in the round of 32 to a 1 seed.
,The following year was a top 20 recruiting class that fizzled as Gilbert, Jackson, Durham, were also top 100.
add in top 100 Larrier and throw in a unknown kid named Vital.
That team had 8 top 100 HS players at least on paper.
Recruiting was not the issue , the AAC bottom weakness hurt with seeding ,which is important but that‘s only part of the story.
Major injuries aliments magnified by scholarship reductions we’re huge but again not the only story
2014 Calhoun
2015 Purvis and Boatright
2016 Brimah
2017 Gilbert ,Larrier, Adams , Diarra ,and Durham was a shell
Enoch was slow to contribute but an immature kid.
2018;Mutiny of two starters , Decommit from our top recruit, and another recruit declared ineligible, and the Coup de Grace Gilbert lost again led to the most undermanned UConn team in 30 years playing the best schedule since the Big East. 8 teams that made the NCAA ,the NC, and Road games at Auburn and Arizona.
Most importantly was the personality change that took place in Ollie with his success attested you by Rodney Purvis.
My take on Ollie is he put in one of the best on court coaching displays ever in winning the 2014 NC. When you look at who we beat it was beyond amazing .
A10 tourney Champs and their great coach
The Big East Champs HOF coach with 2 NC
The Big 12 tourney Champs
The Big 10 Champs and HOF coach with a NC and a bunch of FF
The SEC dual Champs and potential HOF coach with 2 NC
The hottest team in the tourney with 7 McD’s All American and a HOF coach with a NC
I firmly believe after much research nobody but KO could have won with that team.
Calling them Calhoun players is pure ignorance of reality .
They stayed because of love for 2013-14 Ollie
Because he was their position coach and their hero and to Bazz a father figure. Even non guard DD was an Ollie recruit because of their LA connections. Giffey had two choices go back to Germany or transfer to a mid major after two unproductive seasons.
Their confidence fed off his and his confidence was a result of how good he knew they could be not how good they performed.
My favorite Ollie moments in 2014 were as a lower seed falling behind two seed Nova and coming back to even the score at half time with Bazz sitting out and predicting the at half time the game was a lock
After a blowout loss to Louisville he kept the team over to watch a replay not of that nights game but of their win over Fla. telling them that was who they really were
Finally in a FF presser RB was asked when he knew he could be such a great defender.he replied “he told me that I would become a great defender the first day of practice my freshman year and every practice until I became one.
Even when he was a guard coach Calhoun was the grumpy old guy that screamed at them and Ollie was the guy who consoled them and told them how good they were. His 11 . years in the NBA gave him a credibility few teams could offer.
That why his fall is such a tragedy he was swept away by the fame and celebrity , a personality change that cost him a marriage and his dream job. The illusion of invincibility Is death to a coach. Could he coach up guys heck yes , but there is more to the job than playing the game. He probably got more of depleted losing squads than anyone but
his lack off attention to the grind doomed his promising career. In coaching it’s the details that bite you in the butt.
After all that is said ,as an historian Ollie is among the top three most important coaches in our history:
1.Hugh Greer made UConn basketball a force that established it as the pride of the state . Without that foundation, No Big East, No rabid fan base,and No Jim Calhoun
2. Jim Calhoun took the program beyond what us fans ever dreamed possible. But his success came with a downside of being a one coach program. That’s a big hurdle.
3. Ollie‘s championship was a program establishing one that cemented our legacy. The list of schools with NC won by multiple coaches is a very short list. PS Duke isn’t on it.

@DogMania would be proud that someone took over for him.