Yakwe Commits

[businesslawyer]

Slow down.

This is still a team with a well-below average front court and no true outside threat.

If Jalen goes nuts, we might have a fringe bubble team.

I think that's realistic. I would expect Jalen to be much, much better if he didn't have to do literally everything by himself for 40 minutes a game. That is the single biggest thing the Gilbert we thought we were signing originally would bring.

 

[EricLA]

The coaching was bad (and that goes for player development), and I believe the team CAN be better than some think with the pieces we have. Not saying we are an NCAA team or top 3 in the conference yet, but with better coaching, maybe some of the question marks might be better. Having said that, it's not even like Hurley will have these guys for a year. He'll have them for a couple of months before the season starts. Hopefully we see good improvement throughout the year, but I expect it to be bumpy.

For reference, Ollie won it all in his 2nd year mostly with JC's guys. Then he led the team into the tter. Hurley now has mostly Ollie's guys and while we all believe the new staff is better, it will take several years. I just hope to see noticeable improvement each season...

 

[mauconnfan]

The coaching was bad (and that goes for player development), and I believe the team CAN be better than some think with the pieces we have. Not saying we are an NCAA team or top 3 in the conference yet, but with better coaching, maybe some of the question marks might be better. Having said that, it's not even like Hurley will have these guys for a year. He'll have them for a couple of months before the season starts. Hopefully we see good improvement throughout the year, but I expect it to be bumpy.

For reference, Ollie won it all in his 2nd year mostly with JC's guys. Then he led the team into the tter. Hurley now has mostly Ollie's guys and while we all believe the new staff is better, it will take several years. I just hope to see noticeable improvement each season...

Drop the "JCs guys" thing ok it's old, the year prior and the NC he deserves to be commended on.

And as far as Hurley having them for just 2 months that's all KO had last year too, it's not legal to work with them in the offseason except for stipulated times. Expectations are Dan will be a better coach but these guys will also have a year and another summer under their belts in maturity. They should be better just for that reason alone but if he can instill some hard work ethic as well as some kind of winning personality in the air then he will have a fun year. The only question remains will these young men work hard on what they need to in the summer to come ready to work for him so he can just teach and mold? If not he will need to get his kind of roster together with who he likes from the roster as well as 2019. I have hope he can work with this group as well as the recent additions to keep us excited all year about potential post season, that's all we can ask of him as he. It would be unfair to judge him much on this coming year other than maybe a 4-5 win improvement but anything else would be gravy.

 

[Scrutiner]

Poor DO. He was really bad last year, but that's not really on him. He came here and did his best, and loved being a Husky from what we can tell. Feels bad to pile on him this much still.

Agreed. My brother-in-law, former high school coach, thought he did a nice job on defense against ECU (we were there) and if I recall correctly someone noted his plus/minus for the game was very good.
He seems like a thoughtful, nice, kid so why are all the All-Americans on this board piling on him? Why aren't they getting ready for the draft or for their next in-home visit with Coach K or Calipari?

 

[EricLA]

Drop the "JCs guys" thing ok it's old, the year prior and the NC he deserves to be commended on.

I did say "mostly with JC's guys" in my post, but point taken. Ollie still had to coach the team and he did win the NC, deservedly so. I was only trying to determine what expectations are realistic based on the guys we have, the coaching they received, and the coaching they will be getting.

 

[Husky68]

Our offense was supernaturally bad last year.

Of course, the coaching was lousy, but so was the talent and that has not been significantly improved.

We are bad. It will take time to stop being bad.

Either Ollie was a bad coach or he wasn't. Bad coach re team roster make up (to degree - Jalen and Gilbert should have been pretty good together but not to be, TL not efficient nor Vitale [was it more coaching than them], DO and AA just not good enough), bad offensive scheme, bad defensive scheme, bad playing time decisions, bad interviews, bad posture, could go on.
So TL out, AA out, DO out; 3 new guys, Gilbert (hopefully), Wilson, plus does anybody get better (how could better coaching and year older not improve everyone).
Better offensive scheme.
Better defensive scheme.
Better player substitution and game management decisions.
Better referee management (one of big complaints by some posters).

How these changes do not impact 14-18 record to make it much better is hard to come up with Ollie being so bad and Hurley being so good.

A better coach last year wins maybe 17 games (UConn gave away at least 3 games), maybe few more but not less than 14 and must/should have been more.

UConn last year per BPI had 59th SOS, NC State at 21-12 had 51st SOS and got in NCAA tournament. Getting to 20 wins (not that big a leap from what a good coach would have done with last years team) and UConn is not a BAD team, not great or even good, not an NCAA lock but definitely not BAD. Anything more than 20 wins and a bubble team.

My prediction is UConn will not be BAD next year. Expect nothing less from a better coaching staff and I'm confident it is better.

 

[mauconnfan]

I did say "mostly with JC's guys" in my post, but point taken. Ollie still had to coach the team and he did win the NC, deservedly so. I was only trying to determine what expectations are realistic based on the guys we have, the coaching they received, and the coaching they will be getting.

I think he will be judged more on discipline, effort and improvement on the kids next year more than wins losses. It should be that way but we all know how that changes. If he's as good as people think or say he should win near 18-20. If he's just a solid coach who's getting better, which is fine, then maybe we just see it on how this team plays next year and realize like most coaches he still needs some studs to be really successful. Will be interesting no matter.

 

[Paesano]

Drop the "JCs guys" thing ok it's old, the year prior and the NC he deserves to be commended on.

Why? It is either true or it isn't. If it is, and it is relevant to the discussion, people should be free to express it. The truth doesn't care about your feelings. For me, Ollie deserves credit for taking those guys and winning with them. He proved he can do that. What he never proved is that he can win with guys he picked and then coached from day 1. He isn't the first guy that happened to. If people are going to insist on comparing Hurley to Ollie, these points will continue to be raised.

 

[Towney007]

I'm with Fishy in that this is a bad team until proven otherwise. It has players who have talent but really haven't put anything together - but tbh - haven't shown an ability to outside of Ollie's total incompetence. And until they show that, it's really hard to get excited about anything. I want a step forward next year and a shot to play some competitive post season basketball. I'll take that first.

That being said - all of the recruits theoretically make the team better. First off, whoever compared DO to Yakwe needs to take a walk. This is a guy that led a top-5 hoops conference in blocked shots. DO led the AAC in most minutes given to a guy who should be in a DII program. There's no comparison. If all DO's minutes go to Yakwe only, then we're a better team.

We'll be really unskilled and raw upfront, but with upside. Teams won't be able to just effortlessly penetrate and not get touched. We may foul plenty, but we'll have guys who can really play defense with energy down low and more often than not, that's good enough to get the job done and even be hopeful that they out kick their coverage.

The rest of the team is basically guards and mobile swing guys who were stuck in the world's worst half court offense, ever last year. This time there's actual ball handling depth, so no more point guard Hamilton, Adams, etc. No more NBA style offense for a lot of players who lack the basketball IQ to run it (and talent, mind you... and physical makeup.... and mental makeup.. and..)... those things should make them better.

There's talent in this group; but again - until we can see it teased out (I think Hurley stands a good chance of doing this) - then it's just a bad team that's been upgraded. The rest of the upgrade is going to have to come from the bad players. Again - odds are better than not this happens, but we'll see. Ollie's eye for talent was horrifically bad by any measure... it's going to take a while to get out from under that. The real piece is Brandon Adams this year and then what 2019 starts to roll in.

 

[Towney007]

comparing Hurley to Ollie

I'm honestly just tired of talking about Kevin Ollie. He's no the coach at UConn anymore. The people that can't get over him being fired need to get over it, or throw their tantrum somewhere else. It's exhausting to have to sift through off-topic nonsense like DO = Yakwe which is really a passive aggressive dig at Hurley and a quiet foot stomp over Ollie getting fired. There's points where Ollie's totally worth talking about - but stuff is getting tiring at this point. And I ran out of energy watching him coach the team all year...

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I'm honestly just tired of talking about Kevin Ollie.

And yet you go out of your way to rip him in the post immediately prior to the one I'm responding to. It's not just the "people that can't get over him being fired" - whoever the hell they are at this point - that should move on.

 

[mauconnfan]

Why? It is either true or it isn't. If it is, and it is relevant to the discussion, people should be free to express it. The truth doesn't care about your feelings. For me, Ollie deserves credit for taking those guys and winning with them. He proved he can do that. What he never proved is that he can win with guys he picked and then coached from day 1. He isn't the first guy that happened to. If people are going to insist on comparing Hurley to Ollie, these points will continue to be raised.

Please you can't be this ignorant can you? They were JC's but none performed as well as they did for KO, it's real live with it. No one said he could with anyone else you're just a broken record now. He sucked after that, please read before you post. And who said anything about my feelings? lol blah blah blah

 

[mauconnfan]

I'm honestly just tired of talking about Kevin Ollie. He's no the coach at UConn anymore. The people that can't get over him being fired need to get over it, or throw their tantrum somewhere else. It's exhausting to have to sift through off-topic nonsense like DO = Yakwe which is really a passive aggressive dig at Hurley and a quiet foot stomp over Ollie getting fired. There's points where Ollie's totally worth talking about - but stuff is getting tiring at this point. And I ran out of energy watching him coach the team all year...

This makes no sense. Of course people are going to try to compare a grad transfer big to a grad transfer big a year later, especially after one didn't work out. This has nothing to do with Ollie or Hurley just how it will work out for the team. Nonsense is you trying make something of people talking about UConn basketball like it's a dig at Hurley I see that no where.

 

[UCDaveD]

A 1-year guy, added late, for a season where we're not expected to be world-beaters anyways? I have absolutely no problem with it.

 

[Paesano]

Please you can't be this ignorant can you? They were JC's but none performed as well as they did for KO, it's real live with it. No one said he could with anyone else you're just a broken record now. He sucked after that, please read before you post. And who said anything about my feelings? lol blah blah blah

You have become unhinged where Ollie is concerned. Calhoun chose those players. It is not easy choosing the right players because intangibles matter. Calhoun disciplined those players. Also not easy in today's world. Ollie took those guys and two more years of development and led them to a championship. Calhoun picked them and disciplined them. Ollie mentored them. He was a great assistant coach. If you still can't see that, you may be the ignorant one.

 

[PAHusky]

Agreed. My brother-in-law, former high school coach, thought he did a nice job on defense against ECU (we were there) and if I recall correctly someone noted his plus/minus for the game was very good.
He seems like a thoughtful, nice, kid so why are all the All-Americans on this board piling on him? Why aren't they getting ready for the draft or for their next in-home visit with Coach K or Calipari?

Agreed, feel pretty bad for DO and AA. I think they caught a lot of unfortunate flak as they were the physical embodiment of KO's failures in terms of team building and recruiting.

 

[CL82]

You have become unhinged where Ollie is concerned. Calhoun chose those players. It is not easy choosing the right players because intangibles matter. Calhoun disciplined those players. Also not easy in today's world. Ollie took those guys and two more years of development and led them to a championship. Calhoun picked them and disciplined them. Ollie mentored them. He was a great assistant coach. If you still can't see that, you may be the ignorant one.

See your point, but KO coached them 2 years. He gets some credit for that, right?

 

[Yardigan]

I was on the inside
When they pulled the four walls down
I was looking through the window
I was lost, I am found

Yakwe, Yakwe
Yakwe, Yakwe, I will follow

 

[ctchamps]

I see this team doing much better next year. It has nothing to do with DO vs. Yakwe, Wilson vs. Larrier, Gilbert in or out of the lineup, replacing Anderson with Adams,
coach Hurley vs. KO.

Nope. Next year this team makes the NCAA tournament and it’s all because of the “Some Guy” mojo thread!

Do not underestimate the mojo.

 

[MadDogRevival]

Drop the "JCs guys" thing ok it's old,

Disagree. It's critical to any rational assessment of how Ollie did here.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Was looking for Yakwe info saw this post that might be the least right thing ever said on the internet.

 

[Stainmaster]

Disagree. It's critical to any rational assessment of how Ollie did here.

No, it’s not. As I’ve hashed out with you multiple times, folks like you and Paesano come at this topic from a place of emotion and irrationality.

 

[mauconnfan]

You have become unhinged where Ollie is concerned. Calhoun chose those players. It is not easy choosing the right players because intangibles matter. Calhoun disciplined those players. Also not easy in today's world. Ollie took those guys and two more years of development and led them to a championship. Calhoun picked them and disciplined them. Ollie mentored them. He was a great assistant coach. If you still can't see that, you may be the ignorant one.

Ok I'm unhinged lol.

 

[mauconnfan]

Disagree. It's critical to any rational assessment of how Ollie did here.

No it's not he won 20 games his first year without playing for anything with most guys who were half way out the door because of the APR etc etc.. Most of them played very little for JC or were in the doghouse. Then they won a NC so how does this help assess the last 2 years which were just plain horrible? There's no comparison, he went from a guy who could motivate at the very least to a coach who was watching his team lose by 30 every 4-5 games while scratching his head.

 

[dennismenace]

Welcome Kassoum!
Bolsters our rebounding, interior defense, and gives us a rim protector. I'm sure Hurley will find the proper ways to use him on offense.

Yes; like starting fast breaks.