Do you realize how easy it is to recruit against us right now? Can you imagine what any opposing coach must be saying. If I was a high school junior being recruited by the big boys, I wouldn't give us a second thought, and I think Jim Calhoun is the greatest coach there is.
My guess is that it's gonna happen in the next couple weeks, and as we are already down in flames I would love to hear him rip the NCAA a new ___hole, WhyTF not, what more can they do?
I always wish that JC, with the help of PR people, would defend himself calmly and clearly in the media. He and the athletic department don't seem to defend themselves well in the press (if at all), even when they are clearly in the right.
You are the one who should give it a rest. You have a bad habit of jumping on posters. This is an open forum and you are not the editor. Back off!
I do think an official announcement needs to come soon, but I'm not foolish enough to think that having us post on the topic changes anything. My latest thinking is this. I don't think JC has two years left in him. Since he can't recruit with the Sword of Damocles hanging over him in the form of the NCAA ban, and next year we barely have enough bigs to field a team, what good is he doing the program by hanging on? If recruiting for 13-14 is the key as so many say, how can he do that knowing that at the very outside, that's his last season? It's not his fault, and I love and appreciate what he's done, but I think it's better for everyone if he moves on.
In some ways next season will be like Calhoun's first when he lost players to grades and had to field a patchwork team. Ending up where he started. Very ironic. I think he comes back for 2 or this is it, game over. One year doesn't make sense. If he returns it is to make a final run in the NCAA tourney in 2013-2014.
Except Favre actually retired. And then made a comeback. And then Favre retired. And then he did something amazing......Oh no, wait. He came back.
It's clear to me that these frantic calls for JC to make an announcement are coming from each poster's personal frustration - not because of any impact such an announcement would have on recruiting. JMHO.
I just hope JC is keeping the important individuals (recruits, players, coaches, staff) informed. We will all find out soon enough, but I don't think any of us really see JC leaving the program after this past year. We just want that concrete confirmation for some reason
I was informed by a high school coach last night that the staff was in to see one of his players recently and the message couldn't have been more clear - if you come to Uconn, your coach will either be Jim Calhoun or Kevin Ollie. He said one of the first questions asked by the staff was "what are other schools telling you about Uconn" and they had their response ready for every question that was brought up. Now obviously this is coming from Jim Calhoun and not Warde Manuel. But recruits are being fed a message (true or not) that a clear succession plan is in place.
I figured as much. At least they're being honest with the recruits, which is all you can really do at this juncture. Do you know what the HS coaches told the staff about what other schools were saying about us?
Just the obvious one - Calhoun could retire at any moment and you don't want to go somewhere and not know who your coach will be.
Kind of puts a sour taste in my mouth to imagine that JC could have been/still is using lame, underhanded methods like that to get recruits to come to UConn. I mean UConn has basically sold itself for the past decade, but you never know.
IMHO it isn't helping. It reminds me of that ESPN commercial with Van Pelt getting help from Jimmy Rollins. Rollins points something out and Van Pelt asks, "Is that bad?" "It isn't good!"
glad it wasn't me who was being recruited...I'd say "so let me get this straight, I can either play for a Hall of Fame Coach or some guy who writes up the scouting reports...I think I'll go to Georgetown thank you very much..." This idea of a succession plan with Kevin Ollie as the successor is absolutely frightening to me. And I loved Ollie as a player. But come on. If Manuel actually goes for this, he deserves to get shown the door pretty quickly too. What troubles me is that this is that I get the sense that this is gaining momentum for pretty much bogus reasons and it will take a tremendous amount of guts to stand up against it. That, and not who actually ends up as the next basketball coach at UCONN is what will be the real test for Manuel.
But what's the alternative? "Jim Calhoun will be your coach as long as he is here, but I have no idea who will be your coach once Calhoun retires, which almost certainly will be during your tenure at Uconn." If you tell recruits that it will be Ollie, then some recruits may not commit because they don't want to play for him. If you tell recruits you don't know who it will be, nobody will ever commit.
