Article from Goodman

[Goat]

Jim Calhoun had a great first year at Northeastern, but then was a 0.500 coach for the next 6 years. I am completely okay with Kevin Ollie taking more time to fully hit his stride. When he does he has the capacity to be on a trajectory to be the greatest coach in college basketball because he certainly will be one of the greatest recruiters of all time. He is an exemplar of what parents of would be college stars and pro athletes would want for their children after their playing days are over. Further, he cares about his players and identified and recruited players of high character even as he struggled with signing talent. To players, he's been in the league and he'll prove he can get them there. He's certainly smart enough to learn the additional pieces of the puzzle.

Ollie's championship was a big deal. A couple of sweet 16 seasons and we are on our way. How can the boneyard dismiss the NC so easily while blaming him for this anomalous season?

I don't have a personal relationship with any Insiders at UConn, but I think that Jim Calhoun's probably telling them all to shut up and watch Kevin's team play. There's no one I would rather see coaching the Huskies.

 

[jibsey]

I have a hard time holding KO to the same standards we had when we were in the OBE. Not getting a great talented player is hurting us I believe with all due respect to Jalen and Gilbert. KO is recruiting well but we still lack top 10 talent, talented shooters, talented bigs. Is it asking too much for 1 per year? Maybe in our league it is. Have to have the ingredients.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I have a hard time holding KO to the same standards we had when we were in the OBE. Not getting a great talented player is hurting us I believe with all due respect to Jalen and Gilbert. KO is recruiting well but we still lack top 10 talent, talented shooters, talented bigs. Is it asking too much for 1 per year? Maybe in our league it is. Have to have the ingredients.

agreed, i've said before the only two things that have killed us in the last few years and culminated this year is our lack of outside shooting and no big men. IMO Brimah and Facey were reaches do to everything that happened when Ollie inherited the program. Once he starts getting the big men I believe everything will start rolling positively. We have great and good guards and wings now and coming in. Chemistry is another big thing... We've had several to top 100, 50, 30, players. He is way ahead of peoples expectations when it comes to recruiting. He'll get those top 10s soon. I think if we land talented bigs and they dont develop then we need to look at someone else other than Miller. Whether the players put in the time in the offseason is up to them

 

[UCweCONN]

Jim Calhoun had a great first year at Northeastern, but then was a 0.500 coach for the next 6 years. I am completely okay with Kevin Ollie taking more time to fully hit his stride. When he does he has the capacity to be on a trajectory to be the greatest coach in college basketball because he certainly will be one of the greatest recruiters of all time. He is an exemplar of what parents of would be college stars and pro athletes would want for their children after their playing days are over. Further, he cares about his players and identified and recruited players of high character even as he struggled with signing talent. To players, he's been in the league and he'll prove he can get them there. He's certainly smart enough to learn the additional pieces of the puzzle.

Ollie's championship was a big deal. A couple of sweet 16 seasons and we are on our way. How can the boneyard dismiss the NC so easily while blaming him for this anomalous season?

I don't have a personal relationship with any Insiders at UConn, but I think that Jim Calhoun's probably telling them all to shut up and watch Kevin's team play. There's no one I would rather see coaching the Huskies.

I wouldn't mind seeing Geno coaching the men. They'd be damn good at fundamentals, that's for sure.

 

[David 76]

I have a hard time holding KO to the same standards we had when we were in the OBE. Not getting a great talented player is hurting us I believe with all due respect to Jalen and Gilbert. KO is recruiting well but we still lack top 10 talent, talented shooters, talented bigs. Is it asking too much for 1 per year? Maybe in our league it is. Have to have the ingredients.

We didn't get a top ten recruit every year, ever.
Every once and a while we would get a Donyell or Drummond.

 

[Richmondhsky]

Thank you! Spot on post. Under JC we always recruited bigs who were projects. Okafor and Drummond might be exceptions but both were defensive players. We used to complain about recruits who signed with Duke etc got big bumps ratings wise.
Sometimes it appears the majority of the posts here are made by people with little historical perspective. Honestly, it's hard to read. Imagine if your sales team at work lost your top three producers....hmmmm, not pretty right?

 

[mauconnfan]

I wouldn't mind seeing Geno coaching the men. They'd be damn good at fundamentals, that's for sure.

You really going to go there? Please stop

 

[mauconnfan]

Thank you! Spot on post. Under JC we always recruited bigs who were projects. Okafor and Drummond might be exceptions but both were defensive players. We used to complain about recruits who signed with Duke etc got big bumps ratings wise.
Sometimes it appears the majority of the posts here are made by people with little historical perspective. Honestly, it's hard to read. Imagine if your sales team at work lost your top three producers....hmmmm, not pretty right?

Agree but reality is they thought Okafor would be a "project" of sorts too but guess what, he was basketball smart, high IQ and coachable. Another one who started playing late yet was a factor in his freshman year and blossomed thereafter. Not all kids are that as we know.

 

[HuskyHawk]

You really going to go there? Please stop

Obviously was never going to happen, but anyone who thinks that Geno could not have coached men's college basketball is crazy.

My concern with Ollie is the same as it has been in other areas of the athletic department. UConn is in the American. We cannot afford to suck, even for a short time. We don't have the latitude that Michigan or even Indiana has. Our ability to remain relevant is just like Gonzaga's, we have to be ranked all the time, every year...and our name has to be on that ESPN ticker, and our games the highlight games on TV.

In other words, Ollie will be a great coach someday...but he has to start fixing this right damned now. We are out of time.

 

[mauconnfan]

Obviously was never going to happen, but anyone who thinks that Geno could not have coached men's college basketball is crazy.

My concern with Ollie is the same as it has been in other areas of the athletic department. UConn is in the American. We cannot afford to suck, even for a short time. We don't have the latitude that Michigan or even Indiana has. Our ability to remain relevant is just like Gonzaga's, we have to be ranked all the time, every year...and our name has to be on that ESPN ticker, and our games the highlight games on TV.

In other words, Ollie will be a great coach someday...but he has to start fixing this right damned now. We are out of time.

He could coach the men not sure I said otherwise But he wouldn't develop this teams fundamentals any better it's not women playing against women. And it's definitely not the best women playing against worst women. Fundamentals is how they become great players on their end, they can win without athleticism. Different world, just making sure we don't try to develop this thought it's ridiculous.

 

[HuskyHawk]

He could coach then men not sure I said that. But he wouldn't develop this teams fundamentals any better it's not women playing against women. And it's definitely not the best women playing against worst women. Fundamentals is how they become great players on their end, they can win without athleticism. Different world, just making sure we don't try to develop this head it's ridiculous.

I think he'd be different than some men's coaches. Not all of them emphasize the same things. I see Geno as being very much like Bobby Knight, who was able to create great teams without always having great talent. I watch good teams all the time and it's amazing how infrequently anyone blocks out properly anymore. It's a little like what Princeton used to do on the men's side under Carril.

I'd say that right now, this particular UConn men's team could use a big old heaping helping of those kinds of fundamentals.

 

[upstater]

Agree but reality is they thought Okafor would be a "project" of sorts too but guess what, he was basketball smart, high IQ and coachable. Another one who started playing late yet was a factor in his freshman year and blossomed thereafter. Not all kids are that as we know.

Yep. Okafor was top 100. Maybe 10 spots higher than Facey. And Facey was known, NY state player of the year, with many good other offers, recruited over a year before he enrolled. As for Okafor, he came on the scene very late. I believe UConn beat out maybe Rice and Vanderbilt for his services? Thank god Stanford didn't offer him.

 

[storrsroars]

he's proven he can get the great guards and i believe vance and vital can become good shooters... but yeah we need a kid to come in and not be a project but talented at the 4/5 and a kid that can come in and shoot. zone might be a necessity this year due to injuries though

Shooting (mostly finishing) is definitely the #1 problem, IMO. Even with the issues with our big men, I'm generally impressed with the squad's defense - especially considering who's left to play, the minutes our guards have to endure and often playing 2 bigs. We're not playing many blowouts so intensity is needed the full 40 minutes. But recruits generally aren't all that interested in intense defense.

Agree fully on the need to go get some shooters who are ready right out of the gate. One thing JC had even during "down" seasons was that he was still putting guys into the NBA. That still matters to recruits. Even Boeheim keeps putting guys into the NBA despite no NCs since forever. Assuming none for this year, that gives KO three thus far - Bazz and Daniels (not his recruits, and ancient history to current prospects) and DHam (not on an NBA roster).

I think we're nowhere close to seeing Adams' ceiling, and he's likely the next to go to the NBA, unless Diallo comes on board. Until then, we're not a particularly attractive destination compared to the blue bloods and other top tier programs we generally recruit against. We may think differently as we're "insiders", but we're not a kid who thinks he has a chance to make millions playing a game. The optics over the last couple of years aren't all that good.