Coach Ollie is Human | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Coach Ollie is Human

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Goat said:
Thanks for the chance to comment on the reaction here without wading through the multitude of posts on the Mathis pages.

The negativity is so frustrating. We won a championship in 2014! We are so spoiled. Please calm down and have some patience and give Ollie the chance to grow a little. To me that would be a showing of UConn character and resilience.

In addition to the P5 issues and the chance to scapegoat somebody and anybody for a series of cataclysmic injuries to top players less than a year ago, (when we incidentally featured a recruiting class ranked in the top 10), I suppose opposing coaches are forwarding Boneyard posts to recruits to promote the idea that the program is taking on water like a sinking ship. Their coach is soon to be sacked, their big men cannot improve and their physical training has been substandard for years, (although Travis looked to have had us more fit than Kentucky in the 2014 Championship game). There probably is someone here who thought Chillious should have told Mathis that if it didn't work out he would be coached by Pikiell without transferring. "Don't go to UConn, see even their most diehard fans see they are doomed! "

Life humbles people. Great people overcome adversity and their subsequent achievements are sweeter. KO is learning and I think he has the character to overcome this adversity. I would give him lots of rope because he is young, is the recipe for success, has a national championship in his pocket and with a spotlessly clean program. Plus, who else is there?

Those of you who are down on him and want immediate gratification, please tell me, who are you so hot to bring in? Are you sure you can steal Pikiell from UNJ of the ACC? The typical negative narrative reads that our conference is a dumpster fire from where recruiting is impossible. Then, there is the likely TV money reduction compounded by us being in a state with much governmental debt. What proven coach is leaving his gig to take on that challenge? Did David Benedict bringing back a former UConn football coach cause anyone to think Jim Calhoun would come back? Do you think Geno wants to try men's basketball?

With a little optimism, we could appreciate what a coveted prize each of our 4 championships are and hope the school (Herbst) can somehow find a, albeit late. route to successfully navigate conference reorganization.

Meanwhile, KO will improve with doing. Currently, I doubt UConn can attract a new coach with the upside that Ollie has. He bleeds UConn blue, is a former player, made it out of LA, hung in the NBA, was coached by legends, and mentored stars. Fire him and we set the stage to long be known for impatience and poor situational awareness. Kind of like selling Babe Ruth for $125,000.

I've bought my tickets.
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Great post, and spot on, Goat. And Harry Frazee needed that 125k after his Broadway show bombed.
 
temery said:
To be fair, if the team was great, he would have tried to work through the back pain until the season was over. They weren't, so he took advantage of the opportunity to have the surgery and be 100% by the next season.
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If the team was any good you best believe Coach K back wouldn't have hurt much then, he wouldn't have felt much pain. He was 100% the following season and finished 18-13
 
Javjudah said:
Two of our three best players were done for the season along with injuries to others Diarra, Durham...FWIW None of the players from the 2014 championship team would have been recruited or made a Kentucky or Duke team.
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That just made 2014 that much sweeter. Love Cal quitting with a minute left. Any decent fan base would have run him out of town on a rail for that.
 
jibsey said:
We are all spoiled rotten and we don't suffer bad seasons well. Our past success is causative but the question is should we not take poor play or coaching lightly? Should we not be as intensive or upset at the team's performance or even argue and debate fixes and solutions?
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I'm a Mets and Jets fan. If there's one thing I can do, it's take bad seasons. I also first really became a UConn fan shortly after moving to CT in the 92-93 season. I don't know if all of that makes me a good loser or just mentally ill.
 
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Fishy said:
It's an ungrammatical paraphrasing of a Hunter S. Thompson quote.
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I think we all know I want to ask who Hunter S Thompson is, but I'll just google it.

These posts are becoming more and more like:

 
Javjudah said:
My friend, two of our best 3 players were done for the season. Diarra would have been a factor but was done for the season. Durham was hurt on and off and was coming off major injuries. Jalen Adams was playing hurt for the most part and missed a few games... Think outside the box and look at it a chess pieces....
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we lost to wagner and northeastern with a full roster....
 
Letsgohuskies11 said:
we lost to wagner and northeastern with a full roster....
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It's not how you start it's how you finish. Majority of the players were new to the team. It takes time to jell... UCONN is always known as finishers, February, March and April belongs to us. We don't do Quickies.
 
Northbound said:
If you don't know Hunter S. Thompson we need to expand your literally horizons.
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I usually just wait for the movie, even then I usually walk out. Incredibly short attention span.
 
Letsgohuskies11 said:
we lost to wagner and northeastern with a full roster....
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If you really follow college basketball you should know some of the top programs have lost games in November and that includes Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, Duke, Ucla...
 
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I'm glad you've confirmed he's not an alien.
 
temery said:
I usually just wait for the movie. Even then I usually walk out. If there were an Olympics for shortest attention span, I'd be covered in gold metals.
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The movie is out...it was great.

 
temery said:
I usually just wait for the movie, even then I usually walk out. Incredibly short attention span.
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I hear you on the attention span. Am under appreciated Hunter Thompson book is Hell's Angels.

Sadly I lent my first print copy to someone and never got it back.
 
If Ollie's personal life was too much to handle alongside his professional life, then he should have taken a leave of absence. Most people would have been extremely forgiving as he was certainly facing a lot of stress.

He chose to stay on the job, so he owns the results. We can argue about how much longer he deserves; but he's not making excuses for our results, so why should we?
 
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Javjudah said:
My friend we won a title in 2014 that doesn't mean we didn't or don't have any problems or issues
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I love sentences that sound like they are saying something profound but actually aren't.

Just because the sun is out doesn't mean it won't rain. Uh, yeah.

We get it, you support Ollie. A lot of us do. And yes,"Ollie's only human" but the rest of us humans have to meet our job expectations. So does Kevin.
 
CL82 said:
We get it, you support Ollie. A lot of us do.
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A lot? I would say practically everyone supports Ollie. I support Ollie. But man, he screwed the pooch. I don't see how he gets it back. These cultsters have nothing to give us hope. Saying "We're UConn" and citing the good job he did years ago doesn't seem to help.
 
Waquoit said:
. Saying "We're UConn" and citing the good job he did years ago doesn't seem to help.
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The fact that he won a natty under challenging circumstances for both the program and the team sure seems relevant to me. He's been there and that has value. Not a guarantee certainly, but it has value.
 
Let's be honest the All American conference is hurting recruiting in a major way. I remember Coach Calhoun saying he sold recruits on playing against Georgetown, Syracuse, St. John's... and playing in the Big East conference. Eventually we start winning and it became easier to recruit. It was definitely difficult to get top recruits to come to UCONN prior.
With this new generation no one cares about what you did years ago they care about now. Some may say UCONN is in the middle of no where, they play in the All American conference... The question is what are we selling that no else can? Come on people put your affinity for UCONN aside this is an uphill battle Coach Ollie is fighting. He will figure it out.
 
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Javjudah said:
With this new generation no one cares about what you did years ago they care about now.
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This is a silly meme that has popped up lately. The 2011 and 2014 natties are meaningful to kids being recruited now. They watched those games, most of which were really exciting basketball. Think today's guards didn't picture themselves as Kemba or Bazz?
 
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CL82 said:
This is a silly meme that has popped up lately. The 2011 and 2014 natties are meaningful to kids being recruited now. They watched those games, most of which were really exciting basketball. Think today's guards didn't picture themselves as Kemba or Bazz?
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They can picture themselves as Kemba and Shabazz and play at other schools playing against better competition. Not Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis...
 
Javjudah said:
They can picture themselves as Kemba and Shabazz and play at other schools playing against better competition. Not Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis...
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I'll agree that our conference hurts us, but that wasn't your point your trying make with this post.
Javjudah said:
With this new generation no one cares about what you did years ago they care about now.
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To suggest that winning natties 2011 and 2014 is ancient history to today's college players is just nonsense.
 
CL82 said:
I'll agree that our conference hurts us, but that wasn't your point your trying make with this post.

To suggest that winning natties 2011 and 2014 is ancient history to today's college players is just nonsense.
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If this was the case don't you think Recruits would be begging Coach Ollie for a scholarship to come play at UCONN?
 
Javjudah said:
If this was the case don't you think Recruits would be begging Coach Ollie for a scholarship to come play at UCONN?
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Um, just curious, how old are you?
 
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