Durham transferring

[BaZZnBOAT]

I'd be okay with this if we had good recruits coming in to replace all the deification. The guys coming in(Polley, Carlton, Cobb) would normally not be expected to produce much as underclassmen. The one instant impact freshman we had, left. All our prospective recruits fall in the first group of guys I named. Good luck KO.

MAL was not going to play over Adams/Gilbert/Vital. There is only so much room on the floor.

 

[intlzncster]

Saying "I'm no snowflake" is such a snowflake thing to say.

This is cesspool talk. The big league of pot shots. Pros can't be posting that stuff over here.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

MAL was not going to play over Adams/Gilbert/Vital. There is only so much room on the floor.

Disagree on Vital. Most sites had Vital around a top 150 recruit. MAL was around top 30. Big difference in the perceived talent level.

 

[TopDogs]

Anyone who starts of saying "I don't want to be" really wants to be. I gave you a like just because you were a DICK!

Nah, I really didn't want to be. I spent a very long time visiting this board as a non-member and then several months after creating an account before I ever posted anything. We have enough dicks here. My goal is to be... dickless? (that's not right). But, if I came off as a dick, then ok. I'll own that.

 

[uconnever]

This one pisses me off. Loyalty by honoring a scholarship through two ACL tears isn't reciprocated. What a joke.

Yep screw him. Had a lot of potential, but played soft and ran ducking down like he was getting shot at.

 

[ctchamps]

MAL was not going to play over Adams/Gilbert/Vital. There is only so much room on the floor.

No way of knowing in advance who would have been the best players next season.

There are a slew of plausible reasons that impacted MAL's decision. Anyone or a combo of them could have been behind his decision.

Miller being fired. The result of a dismal season.
Massive defections. The result of a dismal season.
Some coach reached out to him from a program with a potentially better situation next season. Plausible based on this years dismal season.
The injury to Alterique resulting in a red shirt. Something that contributed to this dismal season
The unforeseen development with Christian. A positive and now a potential negative from this dismal season.
The belief that Jalen would go pro after this season. Dispelled because dismal seasons rarely help any but the most exceptional college players.
KO did not look and even act his best all season The result of a dismal season.

I won't mention a dismal season contributed to the decision.

 

[ctchamps]

Nah, I really didn't want to be. I spent a very long time visiting this board as a non-member and then several months after creating an account before I ever posted anything. We have enough dicks here. My goal is to be... dickless? (that's not right). But, if I came off as a dick, then ok. I'll own that.

I was laughing when I wrote my post to you. No way you came off acting like a dick. I was the one being a dick by making an issue about it.

 

[milesbran32]

Really, it's getting to the point where people are rationalizing, "well they weren't that good...not a big deal...etc etc" and I get that. Durham was never going to be the player we thought he would be after those injuries. Vance would never survive KO and how he was being used. Enoch needed to go somewhere else to improve. MAL wanted to see other options...These guys are theoretically ALL replaceable.

But really...wtf are we going to do?? Are we going to be replacing these people with kids who can play next year?? Is there a plan?? Or does Ollie have his hands in his pockets and are really going to field a team of about 7 next year? Really I'm at a loss for words not because of the people transferring, but because of the sheer amount of it going on this year. I've never seen anything like this before. What the hell do we do now?

In Chillious we trust..

 

[sdhusky]

This is cesspool talk. The big league of pot shots. Pros can't be posting that stuff over here.

trolling for cheap likes.

 

[RUSS56]

When the Ollie recruiting class was ranked top 10, a lot of people were applauding these players, how good we are going to be. A lot of these same posters are now diminishing all the players leaving, as if they are nothing. Gotta love this place!

 

[ctchamps]

trolling for cheap likes.

 

[nomar]

Disagree on Vital. Most sites had Vital around a top 150 recruit. MAL was around top 30. Big difference in the perceived talent level.

I know Vital was not a top-tier recruit, but he was fantastic for us this year. Anybody new has to beat him out.

 

[8893]

trolling for cheap likes.

Mercy like.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Maybe a few of you remember this article, about the current UConn head coach:

The easy way has never been Kevin Ollie's way.

"When he tells a kid, 'you have to do this or that,' he did it," said Jim Calhoun, who turned the program over to Ollie in September 2012. "I watched him do it.

....

"This team is a reflection of Kevin Ollie, just the way he is in life every day," forward DeAndre Daniels said. "He's always passionate about what he does. He always had the workouts and he used to kill guys, the hardest individual workout you could possibly go through. There is never a day he doesn't bring it in practice or a game."​

Maybe he found out that his recruiters had brought in a bunch of guys that were softer than he wanted to coach, and weren't willing to go through "the hardest individual workout you could possibly go through." I don't think he wants the strongest team. He wants the hardest working team. And he didn't see it.

Adams fits the mold. Vital fits the mold. And I'll bet Diarra does too. And I'll wager that Polley, Cobb and Carlton have been told they'll be working like they've never worked before, and they're okay with it. And Larrier and Gilbert better be all in with working hard coming off injury.

 

[ctchamps]

A warning again for now and future posts of this nature, I do not have contacts into the program so what I hear is more from the player/AAU perspective. Now we know from the beat writers that MAL was promised minutes, we did not know how much or significant. From those I spoke to, it sounded as if the staff anticipated Jalen would be in the NBA next season and that was communicated to him in terms of how minutes would be doled out. Considering he de-committed on Friday and Jalen assured he was coming back Saturday maybe he knew (or maybe it was just fairly obvious).

Either way, as I speculated a couple days ago in the MAL thread, I think this is just more ammo to the argument Jalen was not supposed to be here next year and it was supposed to be Gilbert/MAL running the show. So I don't think @UConNation was wrong on this as much as Miller being fired may have just been the straw that broke the camels back on this issue. If Miller was his biggest advocate and now he's gone, what was he supposed to expect with Adams/Gilbert/Vital in the fold?

Didn't see this when I posted something about minutes factoring into his decision.
But I wouldn't eliminate that Miller was a factor.

Let's hope the factor of a recruiting coach helps us land Harris.

 

[Robertelamin]

Can Ollie replace this turd for at least a more polished turd?

 

[milesbran32]

I don't think they need to make a public statement, but they need to be in the ear of every potential UCONN recruit, handlers, and AAU connects and letting them know what's going on. I assume they are.

True..you would think if you were a recruit you would be hearing directly from the program..not the media..

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Disagree on Vital. Most sites had Vital around a top 150 recruit. MAL was around top 30. Big difference in the perceived talent level.

But maybe not so big a difference in perceived ability to contribute in the team concept.

 

[milesbran32]

Most likely because you aren't involved, don't know whats going on and why, so you don't get it

em attitude..pretty sure Bazz wasn't worried

 

[Dove]

Wicked Tuna comin' ! Either tomorrow or Wednesday. Has some fishing to do.

Enoch, Vance, Juwan, MAL = the chum.

 

[ctchamps]

But maybe not so big a difference in perceived ability to contribute in the team concept.

At the end of the season Christian demonstrated he could run a team. Mid season he was turnover prone or drove to the basket and got blocked. But by the end of the season the light went off for the kid. It was a shame that as that happened Kentan couldn't buy a basket.

I wish MAL came to UConn. No equivocating how much he might have contributed. But it is not preposterous that MAL considered his path to minutes got more difficult with how things played out this season and part of that consideration is Christian's development.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I disagree with the premise that another bad year will be the demise of the program. Yes, as I've stated, bb teams can go through a rebuild period as opposed to a reload, but the ability to rebuild is significantly easier in bb than football.

Obviously with each successive negative event the rebuild gets more difficult. But the assumption you are making, that we are toast, is too extreme imo. Otherwise, by your logic, everyone on the football forum that believes UConn football can attain a modicum degree of success over the next few years most assuredly have to be kidding themselves. I don't post in that forum but I do read it and I believe that in the future (two or three years from now) things will pick up.

Football will be .500 next year. It's in better shape than basketball right now, and that is terrifying.

I think we vastly overestimate the memory of HS basketball players. It will not take much for UConn to become "yeah, they used to be good". We are almost there now. If we were in the old Big East, I wouldn't worry. We'd have enough cache, and big time opponents to bounce back easily. Now? Winning and a winning culture is all we have to differentiate ourselves and we are pissing it away. Demise of the program? If we are under .500 again and out of the tournament I think Ollie will struggle to recruit anyone at our usual level to come here. Fortunately, I think they may squeak by.

If people want to worry about anything, worry about what the SEC did in the men's and women's tournaments this year. It was damned impressive. Then look at Alabama...yes Bama, bringing in a top ten class next year.

 

[HuskyHawk]

You didn't answer my question. Do you truly believe we won't fill the roster with eligible players?

I do. There is no way he's getting 5 more kids. He shouldn't even try to. I'd be happy if he can get three more players that aren't scrubs.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I do. There is no way he's getting 5 more kids. He shouldn't even try to. I'd be happy if he can get three more players that aren't scrubs.

Agreed. I don't want no scrubs.

 

[tzznandrew]

Injuries decimated this season. But if next year doesn't result in a strong regular season along with a round of 32 or sweet 16, I think he's on the hot seat. Not gone, but certainly getting some pressure.

Look at the roster. If he does that it's a rousing success.

If he has a dumpster fire of a year, he's on the hot seat. If he has a better than expected season with a great recruiting class, he'll look better.

As much as I like him, he does need to improve his regular season performance. I suspect it's the NBA in him that plays the long game. Playing the long game is important (JC sacrificed an occasional win here or there for the betterment of the team), but in our conference you can't have more than one dud a season, and every year we've had far more than one. We had two to start this season with a nearly full team (-Diarra).