What do you think about the one year audition for KO?

[CAHUSKY]

UConn will achieve what in the next year in recruits' eyes?

What are recruits going to see. It's February 15th. What are they seeing?

Quite honestly, I don't care what this one particular set of recruits sees. Im more concerned with the long term viability of the program which i think is well served by Manuels wait and see approach with Ollie. If he likes what he sees and thinks we can be success with KO then extend him. If they do a search and find a number of big name coaches are interested in the UCONN job you need to consider that. If it means one recruiting class tanks in the time being i, for one, am ok with that.

 

[upstater]

Quite honestly, I don't care what this one particular set of recruits sees. Im more concerned with the long term viability of the program which i think is well served by Manuels wait and see approach with Ollie. If he likes what he sees and thinks we can be success with KO then extend him. If they do a search and find a number of big name coaches are interested in the UCONN job you need to consider that. If it means one recruiting class tanks in the time being i, for one, am ok with that.

I'm not concerned either. That's why I was asking a question. Making this a one-year referendum when the program is in transition/probation/banned is a lose-lose-lose proposition. No one should couch things that way.

As for the wait and see approach, put emphasis on the first part of that because players are going to wonder when they go to sign the dotted line. In short, I doubt that this season will tell us a lot. Certainly not in terms of W/Ls. What do you think it will tell us?

 

[CAHUSKY]

I'm not concerned either. That's why I was asking a question. Making this a one-year referendum when the program is in transition/probation/banned is a lose-lose-lose proposition. No one should couch things that way.

As for the wait and see approach, put emphasis on the first part of that because players are going to wonder when they go to sign the dotted line. In short, I doubt that this season will tell us a lot. Certainly not in terms of W/Ls. What do you think it will tell us?

Im not qualified to answer. Ill leave that to Warde Manuel who was hired to make the decision.

 

[upstater]

If they did that, the negative recruiting would just go from "He only has a 1-year deal, the AD wants someone else, how do you know you will even play for him?" to "His deal has a buyout after a year, the AD wants someone else, how do you know you will even play for him?". It's just moving goalposts.

The same thing can be said about every single coach in America.

But those coaches aren't working for $300k for the next several months. DM is right, that makes a huge difference.

 

[upstater]

Im not qualified to answer. Ill leave that to Warde Manuel who was hired to make the decision.

He was hired to make good decisions PLURAL. Not just one decision. The decision not to fully support the coach at a press conference is a very bad one.

 

[CAHUSKY]

He was hired to make good decisions PLURAL. Not just one decision. The decision not to fully support the coach at a press conference is a very bad one.

We agree to disagree. He had no other option in my opinion as stated in previous posts.

 

[upstater]

Honestly, what does being a player have to do with coaching? Seriously, Allan Iverson was coached by Larry Brown, too. Does that make him a head coach? Geez.

Do you have a problem reading?

Read the thread. This has been discussed ad nauseam!

Mike Munchak is a great coach. Terrell Owens probably would be a sucky coach. They are both ex-football players. And there the commonalities end.

 

[upstater]

We agree to disagree. He had no other option in my opinion as stated in previous posts.

He couldn't come up with a 3-year contract that would make it very easy to fire Ollie after 1 year?

if he has trouble with that, how is he supposed to run an athletic dept.?

 

[upstater]

I think there's a difference. Hopkins has been the next-head-coach-in-waiting for nearly 10 years now. He has been our lead recruiter for that long, and was a grunt assistant for several years before that. He has been sharing duties on the local TV shows, running the Elite Camp, working with Team USA, for years.

Ollie may be a great guy, and there is risk to both hires, but the SU transition has been well planned and won't be sprung on anybody a month before practice starts. So to answer your question, no, we don't see it as a power play by the coach. This arrangement has been working well for us for a long time, and our recruiting and on-court performance are as high right now as they have been at any time in Boeheim's tenure.

Small potato differences.

I'm talking about background here. Both are assistants. I'll put Ollie 13 years in the NBA against Hopkins 13 years as an assistant. Ollie was a coach on the floor and a mentor teaching the game.

 

[upstater]

I don't know if he does or not, but he intends to go through a coaching search process otherwise he would have given him a long term deal.

You're arguing that he give him a long term deal weather or not he intends to honor it, and knowing full well he wants to do a full coaching search.

Basically you're arguing he pretend to do something rather than be a man and be honest with Ollie about his intentions.

That's what every school does to signal they are enthusiastic about the coach.

 

[upstater]

And yet, Warde Manuel is responsible for hiring and firing basketball coaches at UConn.

Good ADs are good at taking advice.

 

[upstater]

upstater said: ↑

Calhoun is the expert. He knows more about coaching basketball.​

And Calhoun though Ajou Deng would be a star. He's a legend, but he's far from infallable.

He's the expert, but apparently Warde Manuel has never made a mistake, so people hold Deng against Calhoun to show me that Calhoun makes mistakes.

 

[upstater]

he's an expert on coaching basketball. he is not an expert on hiring coaches. None of his assistants have gone on to anything other than modest success as head coaches. Calhoun knows what he wants done and he knows how to get others to do what he wants. Just like being an NBA player proves only that you can be an NBA player, not that you can be a successful coach (and the number of former NBA players who are successful college coaches is pretty small, the number who are really successful is maybe Bob Cousy) hiring assistant coaches means you're looking for someone who can do what you want him to do. A head coach needs a very different skill set. Jim Calhoun has never hired a head coach before.

I got a headache following your arguments. He's an expert on coaching basketball. He's an expert on knowing what it takes to coach basketball. That must mean he is keenly aware of the criteria that a coaching hire for basketball must fulfill.

What do you think Warde Manuel is doing? He's asking other people about who they think is the best coaching candidate? He's going to other experts.

The rest of your post is mind boggling. Cahoun didn't hire his other assistants to be head coach. He wanted Ollie to be head coach. His other assistants left for bigger jobs and promotions.

By the way, Warde Manuel hasn't hired a basketball coach before either.

 

[upstater]

Are you even paying attention? Of course they get long term contracts. After a search and an exhaustive interview process. We didn't have one. And thanks to JC's very intentional timing, having one was impossible. Under those circumstances, giving a long term contract to anyone other than an absolute slam dunk, sure thing, can't-miss hire would be idiotic. Kevin Ollie is not that. Few people are. Had Jim retired in the spring, and a search conducted, whoever was hired would have gotten a 3-5 year deal most likely. Even if it was Kevin Ollie. However, we are forced to hire an interim coach this year, whether called that or not (and I think it was smart not to call KO that). The only anomaly here is not Kevin Ollie, it's the fact that a major university had to hire a coach on such short notice without going through a normal process.

It wouldn't have been Ollie in the Spring. if Ollie were even a candidate at all, no good coach would have thrown their hat in the ring.

This is what ALWAYS happens with inside candidates. Everyone knows this.

 

[CAHUSKY]

He couldn't come up with a 3-year contract that would make it very easy to fire Ollie after 1 year?

if he has trouble with that, how is he supposed to run an athletic dept.?

As has been stated 256,211 times in this thread, that wouldn't have accomplished anything accept changing the argument on the recruiting trail from "Ollie only has a 1 year contract" to "Ollie has a 3 year contract but is going to be fired after the first year". Warde was honest with KO and KO accepted the job under those conditions. If he didn't like it, he didn't have to take it.

 

[upstater]

As has been stated 256,211 times in this thread, that wouldn't have accomplished anything accept changing the argument on the recruiting trail from "Ollie only has a 1 year contract" to "Ollie has a 3 year contract but is going to be fired after the first year". Warde was honest with KO and KO accepted the job under those conditions. If he didn't like it, he didn't have to take it.

That argument could be turned around on every single coach in America. Not many people though are working for $300k until April with an AD that stands up at a press conference and tells people that he is not sold.

How easy is this to do?

People met with Herbst last month and came away thinking that Ollie was the next coach. So they verballed on that basis.

This isn't rocket science. People say all the time, and it's easy to counter.

What's the counter to, "UConn's AD doesn't seem to have faith in the coach, and he only has a small contract for a few months!"?

 

[BlueMAB]

Oh, OK. Tell me why Kevin is a better candidate than Brad Stevens or Shaka Smart, then. Tell me why Manuel didn't offer Kevin more than a 1 year deal if he wasn't almost certain he could find a better candidate. You should be face-palming yourself for not getting this.

I've never made that point you moron. In fact, I've practically been making the opposite point.

I've only defended Manuel's decision with the understanding he really had no other choice.

Again....

 

[CAHUSKY]

That argument could be turned around on every single coach in America. Not many people though are working for $300k until April with an AD that stands up at a press conference and tells people that he is not sold.

How easy is this to do?

People met with Herbst last month and came away thinking that Ollie was the next coach. So they verballed on that basis.

This isn't rocket science. People say **** all the time, and it's easy to counter.

What's the counter to, "UConn's AD doesn't seem to have faith in the coach, and he only has a small contract for a few months!"?

So he should lie? Im not buying that that is the best long term strategy. I like this strategy and understand that you dont.

 

[HuskyHawk]

He's the expert, but apparently Warde Manuel has never made a mistake, so people hold Deng against Calhoun to show me that Calhoun makes mistakes.

Calhoun knows basketball. He's also wildly, blindly and obscenely biased. If he was a judge he would have to recuse himself. He sees Ollie as a continuation of his legacy, especially since his coaching tree hasn't borne much fruit. But the point is irrelevant, since no one person would have made the decision with a search. Manuel, Herbst and yes, probably Calhoun, plus others would have interviewed the candidates. Instead one extremely biased individual substituted his will. Damn if I don't hope like hell he was right. Don't think otherwise. But the process by which this happed was BS

 

[metsfan2323]

Calhoun knows basketball. He's also wildly, blindly and obscenely biased. If he was a judge he would have to recuse himself. He sees Ollie as a continuation of his legacy, especially since his coaching tree hasn't borne much fruit. But the point is irrelevant, since no one person would have made the decision with a search. Manuel, Herbst and yes, probably Calhoun, plus others would have interviewed the candidates. Instead one extremely biased individual substituted his will. Damn if I don't hope like hell he was right. Don't think otherwise. But the process by which this happed was BS

Successful companies promote from within all of the time, promoting from within is not usually considered a BS process.

Failing companies that need a new direction go on nationwide searches. UCONN basketball is hardly a failing company. Promoting from within and maintaining a connection to JC was the proper thing to do.

BTW Butler promoted from within when they hired Stevens. Stevens had no head coaching experience when he got the job.

Jamie Dixon had no head coaching experience when he took over PITT

Dean Smith had no head coaching experience when he took over North Carolina.

Eric Spoelstra had no head coaching experience when he took over the Heat. Riley promoted from within.

 

[Waquoit]

By the way, Warde Manuel hasn't hired a basketball coach before either.

What you Manuel bashers fail to recognize is that if KO does a good job and gets a new long-term deal, his status will be stronger than it would have been otherwise. He would have earned his position as opposed to having it given to him as a result of a power play.

 

[BlueMAB]

Dean Smith had no head coaching experience when he took over North Carolina.

Eric Spoelstra had no head coaching experience when he took over the Heat. Riley promoted from within.

Did you really just mention Dean Smith and Eric Spoelstra in the same breath?

We're not going to agree on this, and that's fine, but really? Spoelstra? SMH.

 

[upstater]

So he should lie? Im not buying that that is the best long term strategy. I like this strategy and understand that you dont.

Yes, he should

 

[Dan87]

If you like what KO stands for, take the stairs, NOT the escalator, to Twitter and follow him. You'll see how he works hard every day, from 5am workouts to hitting the recruiting trail. Boneyard, how fast can we get him to 10,000 followers???

 

[upstater]

Calhoun knows basketball. He's also wildly, blindly and obscenely biased. If he was a judge he would have to recuse himself. He sees Ollie as a continuation of his legacy, especially since his coaching tree hasn't borne much fruit. But the point is irrelevant, since no one person would have made the decision with a search. Manuel, Herbst and yes, probably Calhoun, plus others would have interviewed the candidates. Instead one extremely biased individual substituted his will. Damn if I don't hope like hell he was right. Don't think otherwise. But the process by which this happed was BS

If Calhoun retired in June and they conducted a search then with Ollie as a candidate, then Shaka Smart does not throw his hat in the ring.