Assumption, Assumption, Assumption, Ollie

[Cheeky]

Random thought - any announcer pronouncing his name "ah-LEE" should be flogged.

Regarding Ollie's coaching, I've been surprised (foolish me!) at how hard the BY has been on Ollie after the Tulsa loss.

Let me see.
Take over a program entering a ban year. Yep.
Coach them to a very respectable result in that year. Yes.
Follow that up with a NC. Check.
Pass on multiple offers to bolt to the NBA. Check.

Now, we struggle, and fans are starting to say it was, "his worst job coaching." Or that, "he wasn't engaged." Or that, "he didn't have them ready." Or "the team lacked fire and that was on him." "He just sat there on the bench, chin on fist."

I don't know. Maybe I'm not a good fan. The guy won a NC last year. Most pundits thought he did a "masterful" job with the team. I figure that I should do my best to not jump to conclusions, not be reactionary, and not make outlandish assumptions for the purpose of supporting whatever point it is I want to make.

Has it occurred to you. Maybe. That Ollie didn't believe that animation, volume, and pep talks were what was needed? Why do you assume that screaming and jumping around and jamming fire and brimstone up players' asses is the best and only way to get the results you want?

Anyway, I could go on, and I know you don't care what's up my @ss or how I feel about Ollie as a coach, but the guy won us a NC just 9 months ago, and he can walk into a better paying job tomorrow or any day thereafter, probably for the next 10 years. Can you give the guy some leeway and stop assuming the worst about everything?

If coaching was measured by who jumped around and yelled and lit fires the most then Frank Martin and Mick Cronin would be the best coaches in the country.

Can we give Ollie, at the very least, this season before we get on him about not doing his job?

 

[mauconnfan]

If anyone is thinking he's not doing a good job they're whacked because he is. If someone wants to question their strategy as the game was winding down Tuesday they should and can. It wasn't one of his better games thus far but hey, he also can't suit up so most is on the players. The fouls to give were questionable but I was fine with down 5 and making them shoot at 1 plus but not after missing the first rebound, we then needed to hack. Also the 45% shooter should have had a target on his back and that's for the whole staff to point out, not just KO.

No matter, they didn't come to play and anyone who has seen or heard KO before knows that's not on him. He's the guy we want and the guy we will continue to go to battle with, happily too. Everyone has an off night, even JC did a few times!

 

[BJ_Toscano]

Go back to the beginning of the season (for example, games vs. West Virginia and Texas) and watch how Ollie coached the team. He's on his feet throughout the entirety: a coaching style we're all used to seeing from him. After a few of these early losses, I remember him saying something along the lines of "I need to coach this team differently" in a post-game press conference. You'll see in the games following, he suddenly switched to a seated coaching position.

Young players get rattled easily (see Dan Hurley), and we all know this is a young team. Calm coach = calm players (theoretically). I'm not saying what Ollie is doing is right or wrong, or good or bad for the team, but just because he's not moving around doesn't mean he suddenly doesn't care, or his mind is somewhere else.

 

[Cheeky]

"I need to coach this team differently" in a post-game press conference. You'll see in the games following, he suddenly switched to a seated coaching position.

Young players get rattled easily (see Dan Hurley), and we all know this is a young team. Calm coach = calm players (theoretically). I'm not saying what Ollie is doing is right or wrong, or good or bad for the team, but just because he's not moving around doesn't mean he suddenly doesn't care, or his mind is somewhere else.

Nice observation.

 

[pj]

Coaches infuse their own personality into their teams. There is more than one personality that can lead to greatness. Jim Calhoun lived on passion and giving his all at all times. Kevin Ollie is a gritty, persistent, hard-working tortoise-beats-the-hare type. He infused that quality into last year's team but it took all year to get there. By the tourney, they had the grit that kept Ollie in the NBA for 13 years.

Now we have a lot of new players. Purvis, DHam, and Cassell are in their first year. Facey is getting his first significant playing time. 3 new starters (I won't count Brimah replacing Phil). They need to pick up the grit and build chemistry.

We have to give the coach time to do his work. If JC taught us anything, it's that great coaches build toward March, and you can't judge a work in progress by the stat sheet.

 

[Kembacity]

Random thought - any announcer pronouncing his name "ah-LEE" should be flogged.

Regarding Ollie's coaching, I've been surprised (foolish me!) at how hard the BY has been on Ollie after the Tulsa loss.

Let me see.
Take over a program entering a ban year. Yep.
Coach them to a very respectable result in that year. Yes.
Follow that up with a NC. Check.
Pass on multiple offers to bolt to the NBA. Check.

Now, we struggle, and fans are starting to say it was, "his worst job coaching." Or that, "he wasn't engaged." Or that, "he didn't have them ready." Or "the team lacked fire and that was on him." "He just sat there on the bench, chin on fist."

I don't know. Maybe I'm not a good fan. The guy won a NC last year. Most pundits thought he did a "masterful" job with the team. I figure that I should do my best to not jump to conclusions, not be reactionary, and not make outlandish assumptions for the purpose of supporting whatever point it is I want to make.

Has it occurred to you. Maybe. That Ollie didn't believe that animation, volume, and pep talks were what was needed? Why do you assume that screaming and jumping around and jamming fire and brimstone up players' asses is the best and only way to get the results you want?

Anyway, I could go on, and I know you don't care what's up my @ss or how I feel about Ollie as a coach, but the guy won us a NC just 9 months ago, and he can walk into a better paying job tomorrow or any day thereafter, probably for the next 10 years. Can you give the guy some leeway and stop assuming the worst about everything?

If coaching was measured by who jumped around and yelled and lit fires the most then Frank Martin and Mick Cronin would be the best coaches in the country.

Can we give Ollie, at the very least, this season before we get on him about not doing his job?

YOU can, but people are free to have their opinions. I agree that the coaching didn't seem great, but all I'm basing it on is them cutting to Ollie from midway in the second half on and rather than standing up barking orders and calling plays, he was seated and passive. When the team isn't playing well but are still very much in the game and able to take it over with a quick change of momentum and a patented UConn run, the team needs the coach to be in their faces and intimidating to them.

I was taken aback by that view of Ollie because I have never seen that, fellow fan I was watching the game with and I had a conversation that we had never seen him look that laid back in the second half of a game, let alone while losing

 

[Huskyforlife]

I

Random thought - any announcer pronouncing his name "ah-LEE" should be flogged.

Regarding Ollie's coaching, I've been surprised (foolish me!) at how hard the BY has been on Ollie after the Tulsa loss.

Let me see.
Take over a program entering a ban year. Yep.
Coach them to a very respectable result in that year. Yes.
Follow that up with a NC. Check.
Pass on multiple offers to bolt to the NBA. Check.

Now, we struggle, and fans are starting to say it was, "his worst job coaching." Or that, "he wasn't engaged." Or that, "he didn't have them ready." Or "the team lacked fire and that was on him." "He just sat there on the bench, chin on fist."

I don't know. Maybe I'm not a good fan. The guy won a NC last year. Most pundits thought he did a "masterful" job with the team. I figure that I should do my best to not jump to conclusions, not be reactionary, and not make outlandish assumptions for the purpose of supporting whatever point it is I want to make.

Has it occurred to you. Maybe. That Ollie didn't believe that animation, volume, and pep talks were what was needed? Why do you assume that screaming and jumping around and jamming fire and brimstone up players' asses is the best and only way to get the results you want?

Anyway, I could go on, and I know you don't care what's up my @ss or how I feel about Ollie as a coach, but the guy won us a NC just 9 months ago, and he can walk into a better paying job tomorrow or any day thereafter, probably for the next 10 years. Can you give the guy some leeway and stop assuming the worst about everything?

If coaching was measured by who jumped around and yelled and lit fires the most then Frank Martin and Mick Cronin would be the best coaches in the country.

Can we give Ollie, at the very least, this season before we get on him about not doing his job?

I wouldn't trade him for any coach in college, screw the Tulsa loss, he's the perfect fit for this programs now and future. He's proved enough and hopefully going forward he keeps shutting up the haters. Great post

 

[Joobie]

Couple of observations...I totally agree with the chemistry issue. Last year's team was totally bonded. There are so many new guys & so many young guys, that just hasn't happened yet. They've been in battles, but there have been no wars, so I think that will happen. Boatright is used to being a shooting guard as opposed to a point guard. That's a whole new position for him, so he's kinda a new guy too.

To put all of the struggles the team is having on the coach, is totally unfair. I think KO is doing a great job & will continue to. This is a frustrating year. Maybe it's just a case where the pieces we got are not equal to the pieces we lost. That's just gonna take TIME...

 

[AZHuskiePop]

If you think this years team is bad wait until next year.
The Post RB moaning will unbearable.
We better hope TSam gets a jumper because he gets the team by default next year.
Unless Adams Is KA, a natural born PG it's going to be a bumpy ride.

 

[Cheeky]

When the team isn't playing well . . . . the team needs the coach to be in their faces and intimidating to them.

Thank you for making sure that the visceral, impulsive, presumptuous, belligerent fan perspective upon which my post was based was set out in text in the thread so that there would be no misunderstandings, Mr. Knight.

 

[AtlHusky]

...Also the 45% shooter should have had a target on his back and that's for the whole staff to point out, not just KO.

One of the problems with trying to foul the Tulsa guard Rashad Ray, who the announcers kept telling us shot FTs at 45% every time he touched the ball near the end of the game, is he actually shoots FTs at a 74% clip. Rashad Smith is the Tulsa forward shooting 45% and I'm not sure he was even on the floor in the final minutes of the game. If he was, I don't think he touched the ball.

 

[mauconnfan]

If you think this years team is bad wait until next year.
The Post RB moaning will unbearable.
We better hope TSam gets a jumper because he gets the team by default next year.
Unless Adams Is KA, a natural born PG it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Nice outlook. Why bother watching then until 2016-17? I'm curious?

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Nice outlook. Why bother watching then until 2016-17? I'm curious?

This is the BY sarcasm is permitted , and actually preferred.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

We actually have a great player this year,hurt but great none- the- less.
When he is 100% this is a pretty good team to start with.
But that's not the point.
I view each year as a lump of Carrara Marble.
Some years are futher along in the road to piece of art than others.
The coach has to take that beutiful marble and give it form by hammer and chisel.
Sometimes you end up with the Piata sometimes the marble shatters into pieces.
We have the right marble this year but maybe just a less formed than in previous years.
So far KO has proved to be the
Master we hoped he would be.why doubt him now.