This blame the refs stuff got old years ago. I appreciate the new twist blaming losses on Ollie not working the refs, but it's silly, and makes the site looks like a bunch of whiners.
There are several legitimate things to worry about. Ollie working the refs isn't one of them.
It is painfully obvious that KO wants to play modern, dribble drive basketball. We simply don't have the talent to play that way. This team is fatally flawed.
Gibbs is slow and can't penetrate or finish, Purvis can't finish, has a set shot and his handle is weak, Calhoun and Cassell are very limited and Adams is inexperienced.
I fault KO for not finding a way to accentuate our strengths. While I know our roster is a mish mash of parts assembled during a time of recruiting restrictions, it is still a decent group of talent. However, it is a group that needs to run an offense and create easy opportunities. We are watching a bunch of pounding the rock because we can't penetrate and there is no plan b. KO said the offense would run through Miller in the preseason. He abandoned that plan and it concerns me as to why. We can all see that Miller is our best player. Who is running the asylum? Maybe the two guys pounding the rock?
I said from a few games in that we'd go nowhere if Adams didn't lead us there. KO should have seen this immediately. As a PG he should have recognized within 15 minutes of the first scrimmage that Gibbs could not handle the PG duties. Adams should have played right away come hell or high water. Yes, I'll concede, we might have struggled early, but Jalen would be far better right now. It just wasn't going to happen with Gibbs at PG.
For now, KO needs to take the team back. Jalen should play nearly the entire game looking to penetrate and dish or feed Miller. From there Miller makes a move, looks for Gibbs/Purvis for 3 or Hamilton anywhere he is open. Tell DHam he has 3 seconds to shoot, pass or penetrate. Yank him if he doesn't obey. Gibbs needs to shoot or pass. Very little dribbling is required. If he doesn't obey, yank him. The ball needs to move and rock pounders need to sit.
We'll get better when KO has better backcourt/wing talent to work with. We should see a dramatic improvement in ability to create with Larrier and Gilbert out there. They may struggle at first as well, but we'll have the skills to play our style. Hopefully, we'll see that KO knows what he is doing at that point. I have a hard time blaming him for this debacle because I haven't seen the talent to be a complete team on this roster from day one. My greatest concern about KO is he couldn't see that himself.
As far as recruiting goes, I want El Amin and another scoring PG. We need two capable distributing distributing guards on the floor to be wildly successful. We can't be without them. As we enter the Adams/Gilbert era, we need to prepare with the next generation coming in. That is the UCONN formula. A failure to have those two pieces means a lousy season. Always has.
