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Cam Johnson officially released from Pitt

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JMick said:
But it's the head coaches job to get his guys. We haven't run an efficient offense under Ollie yet, with 2014 as the exception - and that wasn't even a great offensive team. If you can't recruit players to fit your system then you have the wrong system.
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Yeah, but during the sanction years, he dind't have much of a choice. Also, head coaches miss, both in getting 'his guys' and in projecting them. Would anyone on this board have turned down Purvis prior to his transfer? Exactly zero is the answer. But now, I bet there's a number who would have. He missed in landing a bunch of primary options as well. Now it's his fault he didn't allocate resources to better backup plans, but I think that's a young coach mistake.

Or you are targeting the wrong players. Now that he has a gun recruiter, perhaps he can get the guys he needs. We don't know.
 
JMick said:
But it's the head coaches job to get his guys. We haven't run an efficient offense under Ollie yet, with 2014 as the exception - and that wasn't even a great offensive team. If you can't recruit players to fit your system then you have the wrong system.
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And remember, we haven't had an experienced stud PG outside of Bazz since. We had Boat for a year, but the rest of that post sanction team was missing too much. The correlation between a well run offense and an experienced stud PG is very, very high.

Next year we have Adams. I'm guessing the offense looks a lot better as a result. Provided we can bring in a couple more dudes for depth.
 
Pudge said:
Idiotic

Few? Shaka? What planet are you on? They ain't coming. I would take another Calhoun; but, I am over 50 and nostalgic for the Old School. Kevin Ollie was a damn good choice following JC. It is OUR culture we must protect. You ... and various others seem to totally be oblivious to how special "UConn Husky" became. How 50 guys and 10 coaches/etc are stakeholders ... and that right there is our future. Miller doesn't get that - Archie or Sean. We could find a New England / New York guy from the MAAC or something; but we swung with this Ollie kid. I see his struggles. But ... I also saw him pull together a team to Win a NC identifying role players and stars and a system: I believe he has it within him to do that again. And unlike whatever 6 you will name, HE sees that as his legacy. That is important.
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Shaka would have come here, we are a better program than Gonzaga and Ollie gets paid twice as much as Few so I don't see how you can categorically say Few wouldn't have come here.
 
superjohn said:
Shaka would have come here, we are a better program than Gonzaga and Ollie gets paid twice as much as Few so I don't see how you can categorically say Few wouldn't have come here.
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Because he's a lifer. And his expectations relative to success are far more pleasing at Gonzaga. And his family loves the area and is involved in the community. And he's revered there. Not every coach jumps at a (maybe) bump up in stature job wise. From what I know of Few, I doubt he'd come to UCONN.

In a vacuum, Shaka might have come here, but I'm sure he realized he had potential better options coming, given his national stature at the time.
 
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I think KO did a phenomenal job taking the team he inherited and building them into a national champion. I don't think there's any scenario where we win in 2014 without him at the helm.

But doing that, and building a team up with players you recruit are two vastly different things, as we're seeing now. Those damn injuries last year. I wish we could have seen the entire picture of that season. We would know a LOT more about Ollie had everyone been healthy. It was off to bad start by any measure, but there was a lot of time to reel things in.

Instead, injuries, one ball handler, seniors who were limited role players...the season tanks, chemistry probably takes a hit, a bunch of people transfer out, optics look bad from the outside and a top recruit bails. I'm not sure Ollie will ever recover from it. This spring signing period is huge. Ollie needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat and quick.
 
I guess it happens when your team wins four of the things, but this is part of some weird devaluing around here of both the 2011 and 2014 titles. You hear way, way too much of "They just got hot at the right time" or "If it wasn't for Brimah's and-one" or whatever. As if nearly every title team doesn't have some near-miss along the way. Anyone remember Arizona's 97 team?
Meanwhile, the Wisconsins and Gonzagas of the world would give up every single conference title and regular season win for the past two decades to get a fraction of what UConn has experienced, and that's not even mentioning Kansas.
For the last time, look at the list of title winners. There are no Mid Tennessee States on there. You cannot luck your way into a national title.
Criticize Ollie for last year all you want, and maybe he won't last, but 2014 happened, it's his, and your ignorance can't devalue it.
 
intlzncster said:
And remember, we haven't had an experienced stud PG outside of Bazz since. We had Boat for a year, but the rest of that post sanction team was missing too much. The correlation between a well run offense and an experienced stud PG is very, very high.

Next year we have Adams. I'm guessing the offense looks a lot better as a result. Provided we can bring in a couple more dudes for depth.
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I do think it could be a matter of experience in his system. Unfortunately we just lost a lot of that. We really need to see what happens with the front court before next year. I think everyone would agree we need to start bringing in smarter basketball players. I think the recruiting of Carlton and Polley was the first step.
 
Inyatkin said:
I guess it happens when your team wins four of the things, but this is part of some weird devaluing around here of both the 2011 and 2014 titles. You hear way, way too much of "They just got hot at the right time" or "If it wasn't for Brimah's and-one" or whatever. As if nearly every title team doesn't have some near-miss along the way. Anyone remember Arizona's 97 team?
Meanwhile, the Wisconsins and Gonzagas of the world would give up every single conference title and regular season win for the past two decades to get a fraction of what UConn has experienced, and that's not even mentioning Kansas.
For the last time, look at the list of title winners. There are no Mid Tennessee States on there. You cannot luck your way into a national title.
Criticize Ollie for last year all you want, and maybe he won't last, but 2014 happened, it's his, and your ignorance can't devalue it.
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People more about perception and appearance than winning titles. To some, 2014 would have been more satisfying if we were 27-4, ranked in the Top 10 for most of the year, and got knocked out in the 2nd round as a 2/3 seed.
 
superjohn said:
Shaka would have come here, we are a better program than Gonzaga and Ollie gets paid twice as much as Few so I don't see how you can categorically say Few wouldn't have come here.
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Simple. My view of the world and life experiences.

FEW loves the Northwest and he ain't about money. He likes fly fishing and raising a family in that community. Going to Connecticut would be like transferring to Belgrade.

Shaka has done ok at Texas. He is not a clear improvement - YET - from what we were seeing at VCU at a Power 5. Not exactly knocking the socks off.

My problem with the premise of YOU two is: (1.) A low opinion of Kevin Ollie - who you have to admit has more FF and NC and good solid recruiting cred. (2.) Weak overall view on what our issues of the last 2 years have been and even the last 6 years since Kemba Walker left.

You don't win coaches simply by throwing money around. (the NON Squid world) That is how you end up with Kevin Stallings or Larry Eustachy. WE at UConn know we have a special culture and it is our mission to nurture and get that back. As for the Fanbase: most of you are pathetic.
 
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intlzncster said:
Because he's a lifer. And his expectations relative to success are far more pleasing at Gonzaga. And his family loves the area and is involved in the community. And he's revered there. Not every coach jumps at a (maybe) bump up in stature job wise. From what I know of Few, I doubt he'd come to UConn.

In a vacuum, Shaka might have come here, but I'm sure he realized he had potential better options coming, given his national stature at the time.
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It was pretty well known at the time Shaka would have taken the UConn job and UConn was a bump up stature wise over Gonzaga. Some people here don't seem to think all that highly of UConn basketball.
 
superjohn said:
It was pretty well known at the time Shaka would have taken the UConn job and UConn was a bump up stature wise over Gonzaga. Some people here don't seem to think all that highly of UConn basketball.
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Or maybe the prestige of the job has declined since the Calhoun years/banishment to the AAC?
 
Stairmaster said:
Or maybe the prestige of the job has declined since the Calhoun years/banishment to the AAC?
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We are talking about who would have taken the job after Calhoun retired and the job was given to Ollie.
 
Pudge said:
Simple. My view of the world and life experiences.

FEW loves the Northwest and he ain't about money. He likes fly fishing and raising a family in that community. Going to Connecticut would be like transferring to Belgrade.

Shaka has done ok at Texas. He is not a clear improvement - YET - from what we were seeing at VCU at a Power 5. Not exactly knocking the socks off.

My problem with the premise of YOU two is: (1.) A low opinion of Kevin Ollie - who you have to admit has more FF and NC and good solid recruiting cred. (2.) Weak overall view on what our issues of the last 2 years have been and even the last 6 years since Kemba Walker left.

You don't win coaches simply by throwing money around. (the NON Squid world) That is how you end up with Kevin Stallings or Larry Eustachy. WE at UConn know we have a special culture and it is our mission to nurture and get that back. As for the Fanbase: most of you are pathetic.
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I'm not saying Shaka would have been the right choice I'm saying he would have come here.
 
superjohn said:
We are talking about who would have taken the job after Calhoun retired and the job was given to Ollie.
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Ah okay. That's fair on Shaka. I still think Few will never leave Gonzaga, even for Duke or UNC -- doesn't matter if it's a higher-prestige job or they're paying him more. It's all well and good to debate whether or not Shaka would've been better than KO, but given that JC commandeered the situation such that nobody besides Ollie would be hired, it's a moot point.
 
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Inyatkin said:
These are people who do not remember, say, 1996 very well.
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That's a good example.

Although, you could argue that potentially 6-7 straight 1996 type seasons creates a better brand/ more program prestige than one 2014 season surrounded by 5 or 6 20-12, 22-10 type seasons.

Not saying I agree, but I can definitely see how some people would see that.
 
superjohn said:
It was pretty well known at the time Shaka would have taken the UConn job and UConn was a bump up stature wise over Gonzaga. Some people here don't seem to think all that highly of UConn basketball.
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It matters not what you or I think.

You're whistling past the graveyard.
 
husky99 said:
I have not covered this up. I would not wanted my mechanic 1st day working on my car or my cardiovascular surgeon to have zero operations. Sorry call me un-UConn or a crappy fan. Ollie record in the crappy aac is terrible over the last few years (3rd was the best)
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Yea but there are plenty of 1st time coaches who have achieved success but you don't really follow ball like that to know, and not many people besides yourself complained too much about KO after 2 years(you've dumped on him since day 1 however). My issue is your opinion has now distorted things to allow you to basically claim that anyone could have won with the 2014 squad, which is garbage and nobody thought that core was a title contender after JC left and the defections after the 2012 season.
 
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aceboon said:
Yea but there are plenty of 1st time coaches who have achieved success but you don't really follow ball like that to know, and not many people besides yourself complained too much about KO after 2 years(you've dumped on him since day 1 however). My issue is your opinion has now distorted things to allow you to basically claim that anyone could have won with the 2014 squad, which is garbage and nobody thought that core was a title contender after JC left and the defections after the 2012 season.
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That was a joke.... what ollie did that season was amazing. But look at the program last three years. You happy with it?
Uconn was a top tier program, but we are losing that shimmer.
 
SouthBayHusky said:
First next year has not happened so we will wait to see. But how is it controversial that a program of our prestige would provide job security to anyone being paid $3.1 million a year, if they were to miss the tournament three of four years? Not to mention, a losing season. We're all praying, at least I am, that there is a big turn around next season but we can't pretend it's controversial to assume someone's job might be on the line with performing middle of the pack in this conference missing the tournament year after year
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This is a business. And it's not controversial to want the best performance or best options for the program. If that means KO has to go then so be it.

What irks me is people who are insisting on dismissing KO if next season is bad are not stating what the negative fallout could be with that decision. And there could be plenty. People arguing his firing appear to think it can only be positive. That's bullspit. It MAY be positive or negative. If it turn out to be negative than naturally these same individuals will blame AD Dave for a bad hire because that takes them off the hook. Pass the blame. Of course they could never admit that the decision to dismiss was the incorrect decision. That would put the onus of responsibility on themselves.

Now I'm hoping KO turns it around next season. But that is strongly correlated with what recruits can be gotten between now and the end of the late signing period. That is a difficult task under current circumstances. Which is why I'd give him and the other coaches two years to prove themselves.

If after next season he is indeed fired I hope my worst case scenario doesn't follow and your's and any who demand results next season turn out to be correct and the new hire is a win.
 
Mr. Wonderful said:
It matters not what you or I think.

You're whistling past the graveyard.
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I know, just trying to set the record straight. People said we couldn't have had Shaka when it was known he wanted to come here. I was ok with the Ollie hire but this notion that other top coaches wouldn't have come here is nonsense. We didn't do a coaching search, Ollie was handpicked by Calhoun.
 
superjohn said:
I know, just trying to set the record straight. People said we couldn't have had Shaka when it was known he wanted to come here. I was ok with the Ollie hire but this notion that other top coaches wouldn't have come here is nonsense. We didn't do a coaching search, Ollie was handpicked by Calhoun.
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I'll stand corrected on Shaka, no problem. It looks like we may have dodged a bullet there anyway, which shows all of our prognostication abilities.

But I still maintain, Few, Miller, Stevens wouldn't have come.

superjohn said:
Some people here don't seem to think all that highly of UConn basketball.
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UCONN is a good job, no doubt. But a great one? I'm not so sure. If this was, 2004, I'd agree with you. People look at UCONN as the name on the jersey as if it speaks for itself. In some ways it does, given the NCs. But JC was the program. Him leaving is almost like UCONN is not UCONN. This is not UNC. Nor Duke. Nor UK. It's not a blue blood in the eyes of the nation.

And now our conference affiliation is an absolute killer. The Brand is still there, to a lesser extent, but it's not what it was, even with a recent championship. Attendance has been falling recently, even in JCs later years. Storrs itself is in the middle of East Bumbff_ck. It's got crappy weather and a dearth of coeds in bikinis.

I mean, people have to look at it from an 17 year old kids perspective. If I'm offered Zona, UCLA, UK, Duke, UNC, Kansas....I'm taking them over UCONN in a heartbeat. They don't give a ff__ck about Ray Allen. The biggest draw of UCONN was the greatness of it's coach and the greatness of the Big East. Both those things are gone. Hopefully Ollie can turn himself into 'the draw'. Jury's out.
 
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