Donny Marshall On The Coaching Situation

This is part of a larger article written by Goodman where he might as well just said cancel our season and did everything he could to amp the negative by 10, but Marshall's comments are interesting. Not a sentiment that is surprising considering how close knit the the UConn family Calhoun has built is but at least its on the record.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...-these-huskies-ollies-odds-dont-look-good/rss

Donny Marshall entered UConn with Ollie back in 1991. He has the utmost confidence in his longtime friend and his abilities to get the Huskies back to what they were, but even he understands this isn't a fair shake.
"One year may be enough for them upstairs," Marshall said. "But it's not enough for the fans and the former players."
Marshall didn't mince words. He said if Manuel doesn't give Ollie more than just a trial run as Calhoun's successor, a large contingent of former players wouldn't support the program in the same way they have over the years.

Goodman's been insufferable on this topic. Couple of things from this article really stick out...

1) "No disrespect to Tyler Olander, but this year's starting center would have been a walk-on on just about every other Calhoun-coached Huskies squad."
- Not suggesting that Olander was even one of our five most important players in 2011, but the kid scored the first points of both the National semi-final and National Championship game. Not to mention he outplayed Goodman's boy Oriakhi so badly last November that it jumpstarted the funk that plagued Oriakhi all year. Olander's no Okafor, but he's no walk-on either.

2) "The recruiting has been so poor of late that UConn has added three kids from Germany..."
- In the last three years, Uconn has landed Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier, Roscoe Smith, Ryan Boatright, Andre Drummond, DeAndre Daniels, and Omar Calhoun, among others. The 2010 class was instrumental in a championship run, the 2011 class included at least two pros, and the 2012 class included two top-100 kids despite a postseason ban. Our roster is depleted because of transfers and early entries, not recruiting.

Exactly why he needed to get 2-3 years.......if you haven't heard "family" associated with UConn because of how JC made this thing work then you're not listening. If they lose XRM because of the uncertainty then they need to revaluate immediately.......

You know what then, Donny and his friends should just go away now. if Ollie doesn't cut it, the Jim Calhoun days will be officially over and it will be someone else's time. if I were Manuel, I'd make a point of asking Marshall to please keep away from the UConn program. What an arse.

To only have 3 lottery picks in the past 2 years (2 in the most current draft) really shows how the mighty has fallen....

Yeh recruitings just falling apart. Andre at #2, DeAndre at #10, Roscoe at #24 or so .... And wasn't KO the lead recruiter on AD and DD?
Not to mention the mind game the NCAA did with our team last year (boat etc.) and the screw job this year (double jeopardy anyone?). Amazing how 1 year from a NC the sky is falling.

Calhoun said he'll still be around, did no one pay attention? Can't believe he'd let KO fail.

Well, as is noted many a time - "haters gotta hate"!

Nice job taking apart some idiotic arguments. I'm sure Goodman thinks our recruiting was so bad in the late 80s/early 90s, that we had to resort to signing crappy Jewish kids like Henefeld and Sheffer.

I don't think Donny and his friends are talking about walking away from a situation where Kevin "doesn't cut it." They are talking about a situation where it looks like he is not getting a fair shake because Manuel does not want to give him anything other than a chance to surprise over an exceedingly short period with both hands tied behind his back (i.e., an intentionally obvious lack of support from the AD and a post-season ban, on top of short notice).

That's a great idea, disassociate the program from one of our best assets, all of our NBA players.

Great, now we have a clean break from the Calhoun era. Let's see how well the program does.

I'm going to assume you misread his statement. Or hate the Celtics broadcast team. Or maybe you are drunk. I would say you are overreacting, in a major way.

It's going to be a moot point. Everyone should expect the AD to fully explore ALL options for HC starting next year. If Ollie exceeds expectations, both on the court AND in recruiting, then he should be a shoo-in for the position. If he only does an average job on both accounts, Then I see no reason why the AD shouldn't take a very hard look at the other candidates.

Wasn't Ollie able to get a kid or 2 to say yes to UCONN (Facey or Samuels?) without JC ever being on campus? With all the questions surrounding JC's "will he or won't he be back", it was somewhat of a surprise that Ollie was able to close those deals. Now that he's the interim HC with a chance to make it a permanent gig, I would think his sales pitch, while a tad different, should actually be a little easier. "I'm the HC now. If I coach well and recruit well, there's every reason to believe I will be here permanently".

When JC's retirement was up in the air, there was not only no guarantee JC would be around, but no guarantee Ollie would take over for him if he DID retire. Now Ollie has the inside track. Not saying it will be easy, but it's not impossible either. Let's wait and see what Ollie does before anyone rushes to judgment. If he gets no recruits and the team goes 10-20, would it really be a surprise if the administration went a different way?

Wouldn't recruiting top level kids like XRM be a perfect time for the AD and/or Herbst to step in and say "Ollie's doing a great job. If he lands a player like you, there's a 90% chance he will be the permanent head coach" or some statement like that...

The players went away from a meeting with Herbst assured that Hobbs would be the next coach.

I stole your info and emailed it to Jeff.

Really, a silly article, but par for the course with this particular writer. EVEN WITH the defections to the NBA and other schools, they still have TERRIFIC talent in the backcourt with Napier, Boatright, and Calhoun, and a kid that had/has NBA aspirations in Daniels. In addition, "nice piece" Giffey, as described in the article, and a big man who started in the National Championship game.

Certainly NOT a team bereft of talent. They will be at least competitive in 2012/13. Honestly, what in the world to these imbecilic "journalist/bloggers" expect? The NCAA's spiteful penalties of course have taken their toll; they were designed to.

If Ollie is as good a recruiter as has been suggested, he will do well; perhaps very, very well, if everything falls into place after the sanctioned season expires.

In terms of recruiting, geographically, Uconn has some drawbacks to potential recruits. The sanctions are thankfully only a near term nuisance, but a nuisance nonetheless. A good recruiter can successfully overcome both.

Bigger issue for me is continuing to reside in a conference on the fringe of becoming irrelevant; it is an issue that can and must be addressed. Soon. If basketball was the only concern, a nice little basketball conference of Nova, GTown, St. Johns, Providence, Temple, Seton Hall, Memphis, Marquette, Depaul...with maybe some additions from the A-10, could keep the basketball programs nationally relevant.

If football is going to continue being a priority, with future aspirations of achieving national relevancy, Uconn (and Rutgers, Cincy, Louisville) must jump ship to a big money conference.

Remaining in the hybrid abortion of a conference that is currently planned?

Everybody loses.

I agree with you. I think it would have been foolish to give Ollie anything more than a one-year deal. While I fully expect and hope that he will be successful, he may not. He has never coached before so we don't know what decisions he will make at the end of games. We don't know how he will handle a player who had off-court issues or on-court issues. We don't know how he will deal with the press. We have seen that he can recruit and that is a huge plus but even Jim Calhoun did not give him the reins when he had to miss some games.

If you give him a three-year deal and he flops who is going to pay for that. It may be a good decision emotionally to give him a multi-year deal but it is not a good business decision. Besides the expectations for this year are going to be pretty low which will work in his favor.

Donny is an ambassador to the program, and Ollie can continue his legacy. They are a part of the family. If we loose the Ray Allens, Kemba Walkers, et al, then everything Calhoun did will be undone going forward.

Are people OK with this? How is a media member like Marshall making threats like this good for UConn?

I don't love it, but if you think about it, it makes sense. These former players love UConn--but they especially love Calhoun. It's like going back to visit your High School and none of your former teachers are there. Eventually, you would just stop.

I think that's just a fact. We should expect a similar thing when K retires. And UNC went through troubles during the Doherty years--and he was from Smith's tree!

Yes, I am OK with freedom of speech. I also think it's pretty clear that Donny was speaking as a former player and as a member of the UConn family, not as a media member. If what he says causes problems with his job, that's his problem, not mine. As for what's good for UConn, we all have our own beliefs about that, and they are not always the same. For example, my view of that is usually different than yours, but I think we both want what's best for the school irrespective.

I don't think it's wise for Marshall to say that stuff in public, but it's expected. I'm not surprised by his attitude and I think it's a shame. But hold that private.

Then again, I stopped supporting a former school once they got rid of the program I degree'd in. After they axed it, there were a lot fewer ties to the place.