AD Dave on Kevin Ollie

[UCweCONN]

This is BS. Why am I not getting PM's with your threats? What does BigEarn have that I don't have?

Why do you assume they were threats? I think two Boneyarders may have 'found each other' . Someone wants to bury the bone, I mean hatchet on the Boneyard.

 

[IMind]

I'm still trying to figure out how Kevin Ollie's Xs and Os or lack there of caused Purvis to miss wide open shots and Brimah's feeble attempts to box out... Maybe his Xs and Os rolled Jalen's ankle when I wasn't looking.. maybe Chief can look into that.

Of course since I'm not calling for the entire staff to be fired or Ed Cooley to be hired or challenging BigErn to a fight then I must not be capable of rational thought.

 

[Chief00]

Also, injuries happen. It's funny in 09 our top scorer and best perimeter defender went down mid season and we still made the final 4. That's what good teams do. They don't make excuses, they trudge on with what they have and overcome adversity. I would say that Dyson was as big a piece to that team than either Gilbert or Larrier would have been to this one.

Agree with many of your points but Dyson was a double edge sword at college age. Stanley never would have blossomed with Jerome in the line-up.

 

[Chief00]

Actually at the time of injury he was the top scorer. Maybe you need to check the stats again genius. The others picked up his scoring after he went down

There's a difference between being a top scorer and an efficient scorer. He threw up a lot of shots and committed a lot of turnovers unfortunately.

 

[tykurez]

Chief's Dyson alert went off

 

[Fishy]

Somewhere in Connecticut, 1967....

Son, promise your momma that if sometime in the future, someone invents a system that remotely stores information connected by a series of protocols that allows access to anyone anywhere in the world provided that they are connected to some sort of global network, you won't let no one come at you. Okay?

Okay, momma.

 

[yukonyc212]

Agree with many of your points but Dyson was a double edge sword at college age. Stanley never would have blossomed with Jerome in the line-up.

Dyson was so much better his junior season than his senior season, when he didn't have to be the go-to guy. He was actually fairly efficient in 08-09.. 41% fg 35% from 3. Senior year he was 39% fg 29% 3. He def was our best perimeter defender. I think we could have beaten UNC with him.. though prob not in a series. I like my chances with a fully healthy Uconn with JC coaching vs Roy in the title game in a 1 game setting... even though UNC was Damn good that year.

 

[Chief00]

Dyson was so much better his junior season than his senior season, when he didn't have to be the go-to guy. He was actually fairly efficient in 08-09.. 41% fg 35% from 3. Senior year he was 39% fg 29% 3. He def was our best perimeter defender. I think we could have beaten UNC with him.. though prob not in a series. I like my chances with a fully healthy Uconn with JC coaching vs Roy in the title game in a 1 game setting... even though UNC was Damn good that year.

Quite frankly, factor in his assists to turnover ratio and Stanley's production with or without Jerome. But, granted many take your view.

 

[tennmike]

For the past four seasons, AAC coaches have tabbed UCONN to finish first or second in the conference. Despite the rationale marginalizing our results, there must have been some reason why we were considered to be competing for the regular season crown. Now to reality; we finished 6th three times and 3rd the other time.

Poor execution, undisciplined play - devoid of fundamentals...hell, it took us 3/4 of a season to figure out who would take out the ball on an opponents made basket. We've replaced our half court lob on inbound plays to passing it to Brimah and running around him to take it away. We have seriously evolved to mediocrity. It took us four years to teach boxing out.

For a program with such a noble past, this is embarrassing...and we have folks passionately defending the status quo?

 

[mauconnfan]

Here we go boxing out again? Understand the game and the people out there before repetitive posts which tell you nothing about the coaching and everything about the players the recruited. Want to whine about recruiting, I'm all in but please know they did their best with Brimah and Facey for 4 years on boxing out and when you still see them back to the rebound 4 years later it's on them period, no one else.

 

[tennmike]

Here we go boxing out again? Understand the game and the people out there before repetitive posts which tell you nothing about the coaching and everything about the players the recruited. Want to whine about recruiting, I'm all in but please know they did their best with Brimah and Facey for 4 years on boxing out and when you still see them back to the rebound 4 years later it's on them period, no one else.

I have to assume that the league's coaches know something about "the game," and their assessment of our talent has been wrong for four straight years. I agree that we have a talent void, but we get less out of them than most would think.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I have to assume that the league's coaches know something about "the game," and their assessment of our talent has been wrong for four straight years. I agree that we have a talent void, but we get less out of them than most would think.

You seriously overestimate how much thought the coaches give to those polls. All that says is the coaches have a lot of respect for our program. That, and we've had a couple of severely overrated players in key roles each of those three years. It's not a coincidence that the presence of those players happens to match the general unmet expectations of the tram as a whole.

 

[tennmike]

You seriously overestimate how much thought the coaches give to those polls. All that says is the coaches have a lot of respect for our program. That, and we've had a couple of severely overrated players in key roles each of those three years. It's not a coincidence that the presence of those players happens to match the general unmet expectations of the tram as a whole.

Maybe true, but how many of our blue colored glasses folks would have pegged three 6th place finishes and a third?

 

[Walker11]

You seriously overestimate how much thought the coaches give to those polls. All that says is the coaches have a lot of respect for our program. That, and we've had a couple of severely overrated players in key roles each of those three years. It's not a coincidence that the presence of those players happens to match the general unmet expectations of the tram as a whole.

All true. Coaches do give very little thought to the polls, do have a lot of respect for our program and we do have overrated players. We also have brought in the top recruiting class each year and have more top 100 recruits on the roster than the rest of the conference combined. This is a guess but I'm sure its damn close.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Maybe true, but how many of our blue colored glasses folks would have pegged three 6th place finishes and a third?

Well, success has a way of skewing expectations away from reality.

I can only speak for myself. If you were to look up my comments before the season started, you'll notice the cautious and non-committal optimism. I honestly thought we'd struggle, particularly early, and i was definitely against the grain with that approach. After the injuries hit, well, then it became all about developing the young guys for me.

Turns out i was much closer to the truth than the AAC coaches. It makes sense, i pay a lot closer attention to our team than they do.

The only disappointing season we've had in Ollie's tenure, from my perspective, was last season. I expected a lot more from our grad transfers. On the other hand, there's been two seasons that exceeded my expectations, Ollie's first two. So i disagree with the urgency of your panic about coaching.

 

[UConn990411]

Last season was disappointing, albeit understandably since they had so many new pieces to integrate into their system.

The year after the title was disappointing, albeit understandably considering who they lost from the championship team.

This year has been disappointing, albeit understandably due to the ridiculous injuries.

See the pattern? There are legitimate reasons for each team underachieving, which shouldn't be discounted ... just as that pattern of disappointment shouldn't be discounted either.

That's why next year is so important in my opinion. I'm not expecting a contender, but I do want to see them break the above pattern and start moving in the right direction.

 

[UConnStats]

Last year we ended up a top 35 team by most metrics and lost in the tournament to one of the best teams in the country in Kansas.

Sure, we had some bad losses when DHam was lost, but we were a good team by year's end. It wasn't a terrible year, and probably wouldn't worry anyone if it weren't sandwiched between 2 other crap seasons.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

You seriously overestimate how much thought the coaches give to those polls. All that says is the coaches have a lot of respect for our program. That, and we've had a couple of severely overrated players in key roles each of those three years. It's not a coincidence that the presence of those players happens to match the general unmet expectations of the tram as a whole.

More excuses

 

[upstater]

We also have brought in the top recruiting class each year and have more top 100 recruits on the roster than the rest of the conference combined. This is a guess but I'm sure its damn close.

In terms of the players on the court this year:

UConn: Durham, Vance Jackson, Purvis, Adams, Enoch, Facey
Cincy: Cumberland, Washington, Clark
SMU: Ojeleye, Milton
Memphis: Lawson, Marshall, KJ Lawson, Crawford
Houston: Knowles
Temple: Enechionyia, Alston

Several players like Sterling Brown in the 100-110 range.

So, overall, combined AAC: 12, and UConn: 6.

By the way, Memphis brings in more top 100s than any other school, by a lot. They have had 8 top 100s transfer out in the last 5 years.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

More excuses

Says the guy who's whole analysis stops at wins and losses.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I'm somewhere between, this is unacceptable, but understand why we're so bad. People are right that we've underachieved since KO's first two years, and not finishing in the top two of this conference since its creation is unfathomable. We'll know for sure the answers to our questions next offseason.

 

[Walker11]

In terms of the players on the court this year:

UConn: Durham, Vance Jackson, Purvis, Adams, Enoch, Facey
Cincy: Cumberland, Washington, Clark
SMU: Ojeleye, Milton
Memphis: Lawson, Marshall, KJ Lawson, Crawford
Houston: Knowles
Temple: Enechionyia, Alston

Several players like Sterling Brown in the 100-110 range.

So, overall, combined AAC: 12, and UConn: 6.

By the way, Memphis brings in more top 100s than any other school, by a lot. They have had 8 top 100s transfer out in the last 5 years.

Yea, I totally forgot about Memphis which kills my entire premise. Just for fun though, none of Enechionyia, Alston or Clark were composite top 100 players. Like with Diarra, a service or two had them in the top 100 but all were between 100-150. I pointed this out in the first place to show why UCONN would be predicted to be top of the conference every year and this year, on paper, UCONN had 8 top 100 players and the rest of the league had 9. Of course, 2/3 of our best players were hurt but it is understandable to see why the coaches were so optimistic about our squad.

 

[Huskyfan990411]

This whole idea that KO is a bad coach is so funny to me. When he had an experienced team that could run his system we won the whole damn thing. Take a look at the past few national champions and I think you can see a pattern:

2016 - Nova - Almost every key player was Jr/Sr
2015 - Duke - Team had 4 guys who have played in the NBA
2014 - UConn - Dont need to explain this one
2013 - Ville - Another team full of Jr/Sr that carried the team
2012 - Kentucky - Had 5 NBA players on it including Anthony Davis

Notice the pattern here? The best teams in the country either have teams that are heavily experienced or are littered with NBA players. Each one of these teams have great coaches that also have struggled when they don't have the players to run their system. Everyone regards Coach K as one of the best all time but somehow his teams only seem to be elite when they have elite talent.

Look at the structure of our roster. Our 3 seniors are all limited players who just don't have the skills to be the lead guy. That happens sometimes and should also not be surprising since 2 of the 3 were not high ranked recruits to begin with so that they have some limitations should not be surprising in the least. Purvis was highly ranked but just didn't pan out to be an elite guy. He is a solid player but not the lead guy.

Of the remaining roster its all Fr and So and of that group 2 of the 3 most talented guys sat out all year. How is anyone surprised that this team has struggled?

 

[SouthBayHusky]

This whole idea that KO is a bad coach is so funny to me. When he had an experienced team that could run his system we won the whole damn thing. Take a look at the past few national champions and I think you can see a pattern:

2016 - Nova - Almost every key player was Jr/Sr
2015 - Duke - Team had 4 guys who have played in the NBA
2014 - UConn - Dont need to explain this one
2013 - Ville - Another team full of Jr/Sr that carried the team
2012 - Kentucky - Had 5 NBA players on it including Anthony Davis

Notice the pattern here? The best teams in the country either have teams that are heavily experienced or are littered with NBA players. Each one of these teams have great coaches that also have struggled when they don't have the players to run their system. Everyone regards Coach K as one of the best all time but somehow his teams only seem to be elite when they have elite talent.

Look at the structure of our roster. Our 3 seniors are all limited players who just don't have the skills to be the lead guy. That happens sometimes and should also not be surprising since 2 of the 3 were not high ranked recruits to begin with so that they have some limitations should not be surprising in the least. Purvis was highly ranked but just didn't pan out to be an elite guy. He is a solid player but not the lead guy.

Of the remaining roster its all Fr and So and of that group 2 of the 3 most talented guys sat out all year. How is anyone surprised that this team has struggled?

No one is surprised that they struggled, given the injuries, what's surprising is who they struggled against. Moreover, they struggled before the injuries.

 

[UConnNick]

I can't see most of it because in order to stay above the law I've needed to "ignore" the posters who make little to no sense. And damn that's a lot of them!

"Censorship is an outrage!" - from "First Monday in October".