This program was JC's baby. He built it from a Big East cellar-dweller to a multi-National Championship program. KO was his former player. He was his assistant coach when we won it all in 2011. He's been part of the UConn family. But Calhoun must have seen something else in him for him to hand KO the keys to the program.
The majority of us were all behind him. It was his first head coaching job, and it was at his alma mater, a blueblood program(yeah, I said that). First 2 years we were all behind him, very much engaged in every game, and his players certainly fought for him - getting through the tourney ban year with 20 wins, then the following year a mediocre regular season (by our standards) capped by another magical NCAA Tourney run to the title. We were on top of the world again.
Since then, it's been a fairly steady downhill slide. We've missed the tourney 2 of the last 3 years, and the year we made it it took another miraculous conference tourney run to cement a bid (although we learned after the fact that we were in the dance anyway, but we didn't know at the time). And this year after a handful of games it's been another sluggish showing and the impatience has boiled over.
What's happened? Is KO's inexperience so apparent now that it's blinding? Was he doing things right the first couple years that he's gotten away from or was it all just better players handed down from JC? Bazz, Boat, DD, Giffey, etc. Did they mask KO's inefficiencies with their talent? The consistent lack of offensive flow or play selection, trouble both shooting & defending the 3, and other problems in recent years have gotten too common and too familiar. Has the recruiting eroded so much now since we entered this makeshift conference that there's no way out unless we kick KO to the curb or drop football and go back to the Big East 2.0?
Point I'm getting at is, KO must have had some ability to coach and recruit if Calhoun chose him, no? Or was it mostly Warde's decision all along to pick a coach that he knew would be popular with the fanbase and Calhoun just being supportive? Has JC been mentoring KO through all this? Giving him advice, pointing out the weaknesses of KO's coaching and offering suggestions & tips? Has he been involved at all? Although JC is at St. Joseph's now, I doubt he can still do that if he's been doing it before. But if KO was around JC long enough, he must have picked up some coaching knowledge from him. Didn't he?
It would pain me to see KO get the boot knowing how all this started, but in the end it's about the UConn program, not the individual. We're only 7 games in. He's not getting axed mid-season anyway so I'll hold out a flicker of hope that he figures this all out and has us playing better basketball as the season progresses.
