Bottom line

[UChusky916]

We won the game after a long road trip with Adams and Larrier playing like trash against a team that had nothing to lose that got hot from 3 early.

Not to mention, we were without our lead PG (Gilbert) and best rebounder (Cobb).

Is this team flawed? Yes, no doubt. But regardless of what team you are, if your two best players play like garbage (Adams/Larrier) while missing your top PG and rebounder due to injury... you have to be happy with a win, regardless of opponent. A win is a win... No matter what program you are playing, regardless of what basketball tradition/history the program has... A win is a win.

People need to stop pretending like UConn has been a dominant regular season team. We haven't been that since 2009, and we need some time to get back there.

After a lot of changes on the staff, I still have no doubt that KO is the guy for the job with his supporting cast.

Someone name a better head coaching option for this program, outside of KO, who's available for hire right now? You can't. KO is our best bet for success.

Give it time. This team has talent and promise. When they started playing UConn defense, the game changed. We haven't seen UConn defense since the first half vs MSU. And that team that plays UConn defense competes. We'll get back to where we want to be as a program, I have no doubt. And I can't wait to say I told you so to the KO haters.

 

[UConnDan97]

That's how I feel about it, too. There are a lot of things that need to be improved, but its easier to address them after wins than after losses. Hopefully this team starts to gel over the next few games (rather than coagulate).

I hope That CV and Diarra get the start for the next game because they certainly deserve it...

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Enough of the “Best players didn’t well and we still won” excuses, our best players are supposed to play well, and if they can’t play well against a 1-4 Ivy league team, a BAD team, then that is the real problem.

 

[Huskyforlife]

We are playing like garbage, the only silver lining was the fact we didn't lose. Maybe we win by 7 with Gilbert, that's still not good.

 

[nomar]

 

[UConnDan97]

We are playing like garbage, the only silver lining was the fact we didn't lose. Maybe we win by 7 with Gilbert, that's still not good.

It's not about the margin of victory. Its about the manner of victory.

My two biggest issues with this team are lack of defensive intensity and poor shot selection. If I were Ollie, I would base the players' playing time solely on those two criteria. That would mean that some "stars" would be riding pine until they understood that. 41 points to Columbia in a half is ridiculous...

 

[Huskyforlife]

It's not about the margin of victory. Its about the manner of victory.

My two biggest issues with this team are lack of defensive intensity and poor shot selection. If I were Ollie, I would base the players' playing time solely on those two criteria. That would mean that some "stars" would be riding pine until they understood that. 41 points to Columbia in a half is ridiculous...

You think this team can score without Adams/Larrier? Good luck with that.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

It's not about the margin of victory. Its about the manner of victory.

My two biggest issues with this team are lack of defensive intensity and poor shot selection. If I were Ollie, I would base the players' playing time solely on those two criteria. That would mean that some "stars" would be riding pine until they understood that. 41 points to Columbia in a half is ridiculous...

Ball movement, post presense, both defensive and offensive, lack of creativity, fouling, etc. The only good things I’ve seen thus far is improved rebounding from last year and, well that may be it to be honest. Players have had good stretches, but no where near enough consistency.

 

[UConnDan97]

You think this team can score without Adams/Larrier? Good luck with that.

Yup. Vital with 29. Anderson with 14. Diarra with 11.

I'm not saying don't play them. I'm saying to make their playing time commensurate with their defensive output. That philosophy is very much in line with a guy by the name of Jim Calhoun also...

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Yup. Vital with 29. Anderson with 14. Diarra with 11.

I'm not saying don't play them. I'm saying to make their playing time commensurate with their defensive output. That philosophy is very much in line with a guy by the name of Jim Calhoun also...

Besides Vital’s 2 big games, he’s scored 19 total points in 5 games. Hopefully that averages out to about a 12 ppg total average, but he has been incredibly inconsistent. And Diarra? C’mon he’s barely played besides tonight.

 

[UConnDan97]

Besides Vital’s 2 big games, he’s scored 19 total points in 5 games. Hopefully that averages out to about a 12 ppg total average, but he has been incredibly inconsistent. And Diarra? C’mon he’s barely played besides tonight.

Your reading comprehension seems to be lacking tonight...

 

[Huskyforlife]

Yup. Vital with 29. Anderson with 14. Diarra with 11.

I'm not saying don't play them. I'm saying to make their playing time commensurate with their defensive output. That philosophy is very much in line with a guy by the name of Jim Calhoun also...

The problem with what you're saying is, Adams needs to be on the floor as much as possible for this offense to score more than 40 points a game. You don't win this game, or any game moving forward, if Adams is benched for playing poor defense. You can't tell me you're comfortable with Anderson and Vital being the only guards out there at times, better teams would overwhelm them.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Your reading comprehension seems to be lacking tonight...

You suggested that we can afford to keeo up with other teams points wise while not depending on JA and Larrier. I disagree.

 

[UConnDan97]

You suggested that we can afford to keeo up with other teams points wise while not depending on JA and Larrier. I disagree.

No, sport. That's not what I said. Go read it again.

I said players' playing time would be commensurate with their defensive output.

Assuming that Adams and Larrier can't play tough defense is your assumption, not mine. Defense is all about effort. And sometimes, even your best players need a fire lit under their back side. Again, this is not a philosophy that was unfamiliar to our previous coach...

 

[CardiacAndre7]

No, sport. That's not what I said. Go read it again.

I said players' playing time would be commensurate with their defensive output.

Assuming that Adams and Larrier can't play tough defense is your assumption, not mine. Defense is all about effort. And sometimes, even your best players need a fire lit under their back side. Again, this is not a philosophy that was unfamiliar to our previous coach...

But that is who you are referring to, even you can admit that. And my argument is, we cannot afford to have the short leash that Calhoun employed because
1: With AG injured, no one besides those two can consistently create their own
shot, and
2: We don’t have a deep enough bench, something JC almost always had.

 

[champs99and04]

The product on the court right now is bad. There is a decent chance it will continue to be bad unless and until a coaching change is made. I haven't given up on Ollie, but my excitement level for this program is at an all-time low. These games used to be a big deal to me and now they are not. I've already missed two games this season, tonight being one of them, and anticipate that those conflicts - stay home to watch a UConn game or try to have a life, etc. - will more frequently end with me choosing the alternative. So trust, I get it. I respect people who want a change to be made. I respect their right to not be as excited about this. It sucks.

What is harder to respect are the people who are just going to drop the program cold turkey. It's harder to respect the people who want to write emails to the school because this team, at 5-2 with a mostly impeccable track record off the court and in the classroom, is now some major affront to the University. That's hard to respect because it undermines all of those situations - when a program is actually on borrowed time, when the lights are actually flickering and when the absence of change has truly dragged the corpse to the cusp of deterioration - when that type of reaction is actually warranted. Think UConn football last year. This is not that. We're four days removed from being tied with maybe the best team in the country at halftime. What we call this reaction, right now, is being spoiled.

Ollie will be here at least through this season, maybe next season. No amount of histrionics will change that and what certainly will not change it is you not supporting the program. This team might not be good, but they are not without talent or effort and when you combine the two, that's reason enough to watch. The idea that people can't still have fun going to games and supporting a team that is objectively mediocre is strange to me. That's how sports go sometimes. Tonight we got some production from a kid in Diarra that gives you some hope that we can be something. Vital had a career night. We might be bad but so are most college basketball teams, some of which will go to the tournament. This can be one of them and I intend to be there rooting them on because even if it turns out we aren't going to win the championship this year, I still like them. That's just my opinion.

 

[krinklecut]

EDIT: This is in response to the post above me, which was originally its own thread.

While I mostly agree with the sentiment here, these 7 games didn't happen in a vacuum. The program since Jim Calhoun left is in shambles. Is that all on KO? Probably not. But, there were only 3,800 people in Gampel tonight. The lights are flickering. We are no longer an elite program, and there's no indication that we will be anytime soon.

I love UConn and I always will. To expect another coach to come into Storrs and do what Calhoun did is unreasonable. Players didn't come to UConn because of Storrs; They came despite Storrs because of Jim Calhoun. UConn will not be elite again until we have another Calhoun to get players to come here. And that may never happen.

I don't know what I'm getting at or why it's a response to what you said. There are just a lot of words to be said about UConn basketball right now.

 

[champs99and04]

EDIT: This is in response to the post above me, which was originally its own thread.

While I mostly agree with the sentiment here, these 7 games didn't happen in a vacuum. The program since Jim Calhoun left is in shambles. Is that all on KO? Probably not. But, there were only 3,800 people in Gampel tonight. The lights are flickering. We are no longer an elite program, and there's no indication that we will be anytime soon.

I love UConn and I always will. To expect another coach to come into Storrs and do what Calhoun did is unreasonable. Players didn't come to UConn because of Storrs; They came despite Storrs because of Jim Calhoun. UConn will not be elite again until we have another Calhoun to get players to come here. And that may never happen.

I don't know what I'm getting at or why it's a response to what you said. There are just a lot of words to be said about UConn basketball right now.

I think you and I are mostly on the same page, but there can be room between "we are no longer an elite program" and "things are so despondent it's time for me to write to the Athletic Director."

The fact that there were 3,800 people there underscores my point that people are spoiled. You're not making some noble gesture by not going to games, you're just setting the program back further. Rhode Island and Providence have won a combined two tournament games in like 20 years and tickets for Saturday's game were going for like $220 on Stubhub Monday. To a certain extent, a product is what you make it. The people who are boycotting now are doing so because they care too much. Your average person doesn't care what our three point percentage on the season is, they just want to have a good time and feel like they're part of the community. Unfortunately my impression is that a lot of those people are not showing up because people like the ones on this board make UConn sports out to be the plague and they think that this somehow helps.

I'm not sure why my original thread was merged into this one even though our posts say completely different things, but hopefully other people feel the way I do about this. I can acknowledge that the current situation sucks while also recognizing that a lot of people on this board are being brats about it. You don't need to know one thing about basketball to gather that.

 

[HadleysHope]

We won the game after a long road trip with Adams and Larrier playing like trash against a team that had nothing to lose that got hot from 3 early.

Not to mention, we were without our lead PG (Gilbert) and best rebounder (Cobb).

Is this team flawed? Yes, no doubt. But regardless of what team you are, if your two best players play like garbage (Adams/Larrier) while missing your top PG and rebounder due to injury... you have to be happy with a win, regardless of opponent. A win is a win... No matter what program you are playing, regardless of what basketball tradition/history the program has... A win is a win.

People need to stop pretending like UConn has been a dominant regular season team. We haven't been that since 2009, and we need some time to get back there.

After a lot of changes on the staff, I still have no doubt that KO is the guy for the job with his supporting cast.

Someone name a better head coaching option for this program, outside of KO, who's available for hire right now? You can't. KO is our best bet for success.

Give it time. This team has talent and promise. When they started playing UConn defense, the game changed. We haven't seen UConn defense since the first half vs MSU. And that team that plays UConn defense competes. We'll get back to where we want to be as a program, I have no doubt. And I can't wait to say I told you so to the KO haters.

1stly I'm way over people that say the 1st half against MSU was good basketball, or that the Huskies somehow frustrated MSU. The Spartans played terribly, Izzo was so angry he couldn't see straight, he said they were going to play better in the 2nd half & they did. Uconn scored 25 points in that half. You think ko is going to turn it around, basing that opinion on nothing but blind faith, cool. But stop throwing the 1st half of yet another garbage half out as proof that uconn can play.

The other issue I take with this post is your suggestion that AG is the best PG. If this offense were different you might be right, but when the offense relies solely on the ball handler to create then JA is by far your best PG, AG it could be said gets in the way. This is one of my gripes with this team, if it returned to the circle offense we saw last year and provided opportunities for Jalen to get open off-ball then 2 ball handlers would create a strength. Unfortunately the only way jalen is getting an opportunity is to put the ball on the floor off of a high screen.

This team hasn't looked good yet.

 

[Austin316]

Thank you CV... that’s the bottom line... cuz I said so.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

We won the game after a long road trip with Adams and Larrier playing like trash against a team that had nothing to lose that got hot from 3 early.

Not to mention, we were without our lead PG (Gilbert) and best rebounder (Cobb).

Is this team flawed? Yes, no doubt. But regardless of what team you are, if your two best players play like garbage (Adams/Larrier) while missing your top PG and rebounder due to injury... you have to be happy with a win, regardless of opponent. A win is a win... No matter what program you are playing, regardless of what basketball tradition/history the program has... A win is a win.

People need to stop pretending like UConn has been a dominant regular season team. We haven't been that since 2009, and we need some time to get back there.

After a lot of changes on the staff, I still have no doubt that KO is the guy for the job with his supporting cast.

Someone name a better head coaching option for this program, outside of KO, who's available for hire right now? You can't. KO is our best bet for success.

Give it time. This team has talent and promise. When they started playing UConn defense, the game changed. We haven't seen UConn defense since the first half vs MSU. And that team that plays UConn defense competes. We'll get back to where we want to be as a program, I have no doubt. And I can't wait to say I told you so to the KO haters.

Couldn't have said it better. If I could give 1000 likes I would.

 

[KodiacKemba]

Michigan State is the real deal!!!

 

[Paesano]

Couldn't have said it better. If I could give 1000 likes I would.

You are quite the proselyte.

 

[krinklecut]

I think you and I are mostly on the same page, but there can be room between "we are no longer an elite program" and "things are so despondent it's time for me to write to the Athletic Director."

The fact that there were 3,800 people there underscores my point that people are spoiled. You're not making some noble gesture by not going to games, you're just setting the program back further. Rhode Island and Providence have won a combined two tournament games in like 20 years and tickets for Saturday's game were going for like $220 on Stubhub Monday. To a certain extent, a product is what you make it. The people who are boycotting now are doing so because they care too much. Your average person doesn't care what our three point percentage on the season is, they just want to have a good time and feel like they're part of the community. Unfortunately my impression is that a lot of those people are not showing up because people like the ones on this board make UConn sports out to be the plague and they think that this somehow helps.

I'm not sure why my original thread was merged into this one even though our posts say completely different things, but hopefully other people feel the way I do about this. I can acknowledge that the current situation sucks while also recognizing that a lot of people on this board are being brats about it. You don't need to know one thing about basketball to gather that.

Mostly agree, especially about most of the fans being casual fans. But they’re not boycotting; they’re skipping games because they aren’t fun to go to.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Mostly agree, especially about most of the fans being casual fans. But they’re not boycotting; they’re skipping games because they aren’t fun to go to.

If I clicked like, I'd be agreeing with Paesano. That in itself says something. And, I've seen such anomolies with greater frequency since Sunday than ever before. I'm agreeing with and even liking posts by people I ignore. I haven't joined the dark side or stopped ignoring anyone yet, but something's afoot. I'll know more on Tuesday.