Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="UConNation, post: 1975138, member: 2931"] The part of KO's coaching game that I'll rag on, as Fishy and others have said, are the slow starts, the inability to call good time outs, and the inbounding plays. I honestly don't have a problem with the defense. The 2-3 zone is a direct result of the injuries and with the exception of the first few games (where players were falling like flies) we're guarding the 3 point line better and teams are shooting a decently lower percentages of late (excluding Houston and Memphis). I think there's been real improvement there. While some of those things are glaring issues that he needs to deal with, I think that the Xs and Os are going to come and here's why: Jalen - think Kemba for a minute. He was an infuriating player as a freshman. Slightly less so as a sophomore who was in control of the team... but he still made sophomore mistakes. Jalen not only is just a sophomore, but the team that he had the entire off season to practice with is not the team he's practicing with now. That's tough for a second year PG/SG, especially when this is his first year as "the guy." Rodney - benching this guy, while it may actually help the team from an unforced turn over and FG % perspective, is not possible. First of all we don't have the players. Secondly, Rodney's a senior, and whether we like it we don't have many better options. He's one of, if not the most, infuriating player in recent memory at UConn. I get it. But we don't have much better. Those 2 guys, along with AB, are the leaders on this team. AB is a defensive force, but limited at best on offense. When you put Jalen's situation (2nd year player, forced to be a PG, and lost the best talent that he was supposed to lean on being gone), Rodney's limitations, and the fact that freshmen are going to make freshmen mistake (a la Jackson's 35 foot 3 pt attempt with like 25 seconds on the shot clock) you're going to get some of this. Kevin has already stopped to a large degree trying to run a pro style offense because he knows he doesn't have the right pieces. That's an improvement over his first couple years. Fact is the plays he's running aren't terrible, the shots just aren't falling. Take away Rodney's 10-15 bad shots, add in our Jackson/Durham having a year under their belt, AG and Larrier back with the addition of some (hopefully) serviceable bigs and MAL, and I really think Ollie will have something to work with. An offensive minded bench coach will go along way. Last, keep in mind that Kevin is figuring this out too. Give him time. He (and UConn) are going to be OK. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

Forum statistics

Threads: 164,578

Messages: 4,401,995

Members: 10,216

Latest member: illini2013