Calhoun vs. Ollie

[ucp990411]

We just lost a recruit rated in the 80's to Rutgers! I hope he was not much of a priority, if he was our problems are bigger than we think. Glen Miller was fired for losing the 11th rated recruit. If Mathis was a priority, does someone's head fall? Miller got screwed. I wonder what was the truth.

 

[imno1]

Calhoun vs Ollie. In their prime I'd take JC. He has the weight and reach advantage plus he's a mean son of an Irishman. KO would have the speed and endurance so Jim would have to get to him early. Not sure what everyone else is talking about in this thread

 

[TRest]

Stop skewing facts...Ollie has coached 4 seasons in which he could make the tournament and he made it 2 out of 4 times (that's 50%). Name one other current head coach who has a 7-1 record in the NCAA tournament...you can't.

My fear is that his 7-1 record won't ever change.

 

[huskyrob1]

I just think the comparison is dumb. Calhoun had a whole history of coaching at Northeastern prior to coming to Uconn and essentially building the team from scratch. Ollie had what? 2 years as an assistant under his belt to then coach a team that had at least a foundation? I just dont think its a good comparison.

Ok I'll chime in here. When JC came to Uconn he had a great man with vision, watching over him. That man was John Toner, then after him came another great AD in Lew Perkins. Both did everything they could to foster Uconn's rise into the college sports world, and gave JC every break in the book, because they knew eventually he would deliver. JC did deliver and then some and is in the HOF. Today, money and conference realignment means everything and people want results tomorrow. It's almost comical that while Toner (who also hired Geno in a Dunkin Donuts over coffee) and Perkins oversaw the rise of Uconn, Dave Benedict is has his hand on the trigger ready to can KO at the next dent in the program. As I have said in other threads KO has made some mistakes IMO, that have hurt him in the eyes of his superiors.

 

[HawkHusky]

Quite the delusion here. Do you really think a .500 post-season bid average is acceptable (.400 if UCONN doesn't make the big dance this season)? I don't have anything against Ollie, but come on... A (below) .500 tourney bid record doesn't cut it with me (or any other sane fan of an elite basketball program). What tells/insight do you have that suggest him turning it around? Let's not be another Kentucky-Tubby Smith and hang on way longer than we should have.

 

[mauconnfan]

We just lost a recruit rated in the 80's to Rutgers! I hope he was not much of a priority, if he was our problems are bigger than we think. Glen Miller was fired for losing the 11th rated recruit. If Mathis was a priority, does someone's head fall? Miller got screwed. I wonder what was the truth.

Calhoun vs Ollie? Hmmmmm

 

[huskyrob1]

We just lost a recruit rated in the 80's to Rutgers! I hope he was not much of a priority, if he was our problems are bigger than we think. Glen Miller was fired for losing the 11th rated recruit. If Mathis was a priority, does someone's head fall? Miller got screwed. I wonder what was the truth.

I don't think anyone, even me, has the balls to answer that question. Lol

 

[Palatine]

Jim Calhoun is a hall of fame coach and, IMHO, one of the top five head coaches in college basketball history.

Kevin Ollie is a young coach who stubbed his toe last year and is facing adversity.

 

[pj]

UConn knew when they signed KO that there would be growing pains. If someone from the future told you the first 5 years of the KO era would be a rocky ride, but include a National Championship we would have all been overjoyed. This fan base has become spoiled beyond belief. One mediocre year followed by a year riddled with injuries and we're now a dead program? I think not. There's a reason we had so many guys transfer and it's because KO started taking ownership and making this HIS program rather than JC's program. Ultimately the buck stops with him, but he has that fire back that he had in 2013/2014 and he's now adding that to a few years of coaching experience under his belt. The dead wood in the program (both coaches and players) has been cleared.

The part I've bolded is, I think, one of the leading causes for optimism. KO had a tentative first 4-5 years, with all his assistant coaches holdovers from JC, and only now does he fully have his own staff. After experiencing conflicts with Miller over style, I think he knows how he wants to play, and this commitment to a style makes it easier to identify the recruits who will be a good fit and avoid the disappointed player syndrome.

We know he has strengths as a coach, which enabled him to win the NC, and his NBA background will serve him well in recruiting, especially with point guards. No coincidence that the best talents on the current roster, Jalen and Alterique, have point guard ambitions; and that in this recruiting winter, our best chances are with point guards like Carey and Akinjo.

I've said it elsewhere, the key for him is to be a true Christian and love his players well. If he can be fatherly to them, sacrifice for them, develop them, teach them, give his all for them, then players will love him and they will tell recruits and recruiting will pick up, also the wins will come. If he doesn't care for his players, that is bound to come through, the team works too hard together and knows each other too well to not see through a fake. If the love is not there, then he will fail his players and will fail as a coach. The negative recruiting against him right now is, in essence, that he doesn't care for his players and neglects them. He has to make sure that is proven false.

This season he has a plenty of talent, plenty of youth to develop, and plenty of opportunity to prove the negative recruiters wrong (or right). We shall see.

 

[Wordbomar]

Who will be your replacement of choice and will they want to come coach at UCONN? Why will they leave there current coaching position to come to UCONN?

Although it's been tough this last year or so, I hope Ollie succeeds here. He is uconn made and that's an important thing for the program I believe. The brotherhood and uconn family is something that has been important to past players and can be a selling point to future recruits

 

[jayteeman]

Calhoun picked Ollie.....and they still talk....that's fine by me.

 

[SubbaBub]

What are you talking about? The 2017-18 roster has 6 big men whose game doesn't extend more than 5 feet from the basket, 2 small forwards (Larrier, Polley), and 4 guards (Adams, Vital, Gilbert, Anderson). Half the roster is given over to the interior game.

Moreover of the guards 3 are point guards. There's only 3 players who fit your description of "2's, 3's, and 4's who want to play as 3's".

Which ones are going to grab 8 boards a game or can defend a 7 footer?

Putting an F or a C next to a guys name on the roster doesn't make him big man.

 

[Chief00]

Calhoun picked Ollie.....and they still talk....that's fine by me.

I don't know if that's actually true anymore

 

[Northbound]

Man it's apples and oranges.

JC had experience and success as a D-1 head coach when he came (I was at Northeastern when he was there and he had show he could coach as well as identify, woo and cultivate talent).

Ollie was by any measure woefully under qualified for this job when he got it.

His inexperience is showing itself in many areas. I hope he can adapt and right the ship.

JC has some responsibility here - he essentially forced the hire so the errors of Ollie's inexperience need to be partially owned by JC.

 

[Huskybass]

You're right, it's been a crazy fall off with Ollie only winning an NCAA Championship in 20% of the seasons he's coached. Calhoun didn't exactly hand the program to Ollie in pristine condition, but we have a lot of fans with amnesia on this board. People should be more pissed at Warde Manuel and Susan Herbst for botching the conference realignment, but I guess Ollie will be their fall guy instead.

Stop. Just stop. The team has won one NCAA tournament game in the last three seasons and regularly falls behind by double digits against mediocre teams.

 

[Hurleyman216]

Quite the delusion here. Do you really think a .500 post-season bid average is acceptable (.400 if UCONN doesn't make the big dance this season)? I don't have anything against Ollie, but come on... A (below) .500 tourney bid record doesn't cut it with me (or any other sane fan of an elite basketball program). What tells/insight do you have that suggest him turning it around? Let's not be another Kentucky-Tubby Smith and hang on way longer than we should have.

I think 4 years is a small sample size to be complaining about only making the tournament twice. Does anyone think if Larrier, Gilbert AND Diarra didn't miss the entire season last year that we wouldn't have made the tournamnent? I doubt you will find many.

KO has won the National Championship 25% of the time in which he had a shot to do so. Just to put that into perspective for you, take John Calipari as an example. The guy has landed top rated recruiting classes every school he has been at. He has won the tournament exactly one time ONE in his 25 years of coaching. (That's 4%). Does KO deserve another 5 years to turn things around? I don't think so, but letting him go after 5 years, recruiting sanctions and a season riddled with injuries would also be incredibly short-sited. I realize many on here are impatient, but KO is gaining experience and becoming a better coach. He's unfortunately in the position of doing it in a high visibility program. If KO was let go tomorrow I guarantee you that he would be immediately scooped up by a top P5 program. Let's all just take a deep breath and watch this season unfold before we put the nail in the coffin. I still firmly believe that KO is the right man for the job, this is just a bump in the road.

 

[SubbaBub]

Again, just stop. These last two seasons have been among the worst in the post 85 era. We could easily miss the NCAA again this season.

 

[Hurleyman216]

Again, just stop. These last two seasons have been among the worst in the post 85 era. We could easily miss the NCAA again this season.

Have to disagree on that...Calhoun had some years that were much worse than last year (and without injuries). For all of you who seem to think UConn made the NCAA tournament every year under Calhoun you may want to go back and check your facts. Calhoun actually never (NOT ONCE) strung together more than 3 NCAA tournament appearances in a row. So we are now expecting Ollie to do what JC never could? Again, without all the injuries last year that is a tournament team and we're making the tourney 3 out of every 4 years which is exactly what JC did. Our margin of error is smaller in the AAC, so we need our team firing on all cylinders in November (again something that JC's teams didn't typically do or need to do).

Sorry to let facts, data and history get in the way of your shotty judgement.

 

[Huskybass]

Have to disagree on that...Calhoun had some years that were much worse than last year (and without injuries). For all of you who seem to think UConn made the NCAA tournament every year under Calhoun you may want to go back and check your facts. Calhoun actually never (NOT ONCE) strung together more than 3 NCAA tournament appearances in a row. So we are now expecting Ollie to do what JC never could? Again, without all the injuries last year that is a tournament team and we're making the tourney 3 out of every 4 years which is exactly what JC did. Our margin of error is smaller in the AAC, so we need our team firing on all cylinders in November (again something that JC's teams didn't typically do or need to do).

Sorry to let facts, data and history get in the way of your shotty judgement.

Please, you are embarrassing yourself.

 

[huskyrob1]

Have to disagree on that...Calhoun had some years that were much worse than last year (and without injuries).

Please name those years. Thanks

 

[Huskybass]

Have to disagree on that...Calhoun had some years that were much worse than last year (and without injuries). For all of you who seem to think UConn made the NCAA tournament every year under Calhoun you may want to go back and check your facts. Calhoun actually never (NOT ONCE) strung together more than 3 NCAA tournament appearances in a row. So we are now expecting Ollie to do what JC never could? Again, without all the injuries last year that is a tournament team and we're making the tourney 3 out of every 4 years which is exactly what JC did. Our margin of error is smaller in the AAC, so we need our team firing on all cylinders in November (again something that JC's teams didn't typically do or need to do).

Sorry to let facts, data and history get in the way of your shotty judgement.

You are misrepresenting lots of things. Calhoun strung together FIVE straight NCAA tournament appearances from 2002 to 2006, and other than his first season, NEVER had a losing record at UConn. You can support Ollie all you want, but don't try to do it by misrepresenting JC's accomplishments. The man turned an average program into an elite program.

 

[TitleTown]

Just for some perspective... here is Calhoun's record at UConn his first 6 years as the head coach:

133-86 (.607)

And here is Kevin Ollie's record in his first 5 years as coach:

113-61 (.649)

In order for them to be equal in winning percentage we would have to go 10-20 this year.

Yes, you can argue Calhoun was coaching in a tougher conference, but he also came in with prior experience as a head coach at a D1 program. Let's just keep this in mind before calling for Ollie's replacement.

Please don't me that you are really trying to compare what Calhoun did with a terrible UConn program in 1986 to what Ollie did with an established national power. This comparison is laughable at best.

 

[Hurleyman216]

You are misrepresenting lots of things. Calhoun strung together FIVE straight NCAA tournament appearances from 2002 to 2006, and other than his first season, NEVER had a losing record at UConn. You can support Ollie all you want, but don't try to do it by misrepresenting JC's accomplishments. The man turned an average program into an elite program.

You are correct on the 5 straight NCAA appearances for JC, that was my bad. How about we agree that I won't misrepresent JC and his accomplishments if you do the same for KO? I don't ever recall JC having a season where he lost 2 starters and a top reserve...but my memory must be fuzzy since I also remember plenty of stumbling blocks that JC encountered along his path to success.