Two things I would like to add to my post earlier:
1. I was incorrect to say that we only have 1 senior or junior contributing serious minutes, as of course Omar Calhoun is a starter, and a junior. Unfortunately, Omar still looks like a shell of the young man we saw as a freshman. Seems to be mostly about confidence for him... an underrated aspect of sports played at this level. I hope he gets it back, for I for one really enjoyed watching his game when he was a freshman, even when he made mistakes.
2. This is the first time we have seen Coach Ollie face real adversity with his players, game plans and in-game coaching since he has been the head coach. Yes, the first year he faced adversity because of the post season ban, but he had help from Shabazz to keep it all together. Coach has been unable to reverse the negative momentum with this team to this point - but let us give the coach some time. Maybe it will not happen at all this year. If that be the case, I want to see how he handles it this off season, and takes what he learns and transforms the knowledge into being a better coach.
Remember, the best learning is almost always done from failure. I believe we should give him the benefit of the doubt for the following reasons:
- As much as we all love and revere Coach Calhoun (no one does more than me... he did the single greatest building and sustaining job in the history of men's college basketball; period, end of discussion), he left Ollie with a big, hot mess when he retired... and Ollie never, every complained about it. How many of us would have taken this job, with ZERO backing from the administration, a 9-month contract, and no hope of post season play in the one season you had to prove yourself? Not many of us. That should tell all of us what kind of person, man and coach Kevin Ollie is...
- He did a great job his first two years... and I agree with 7774 when he earlier mentioned the fact that Ollie and his staff absolutely outcoached every opponent in last year's tournament except for Phil Martelli... Including the likes of Jay Wright, Tom Izzo and Billy Donovan. Yeah, and that guy from Kentucky, too... although I think he is the easiest to outcoach during games.
- He bleeds UConn blue and white, and is incredibly loyal. We tend to take this for granted, but if he was a bit less of a loyal man he would have jumped at his chance to go to the NBA in the offseason. That would have caused a lot more turmoil than anyone wants to admit... and might have well tipped Jalen Adams to either Louisville or Kansas and Steve Enoch somewhere else, which would be a disaster, as the next few years will prove.
- He seems to be a man of integrity who has his coaching priorities in the right place. He is trying to be a molder of productive young men for their futures, and not just an exploiter of them.
So, have some patience, and let us see how this plays out over the next several years, and not just the last several months.