Conversation With The Microwave

[jibsey]

No not the GE but John Gwynn. I told him we needed a microwave, a guy to come in and knock down some 17-20 footers. Over the summer he said he used to take 600-700 shots a day over the summer with a purpose, and said you have to want to put in hard work, not just hanging out and scrimmaging which can be social. Doesn’t know if players put that work in today. Also mentioned that getting the kind of players we had under Calhoun OBE like Caron, Donyell, Ray and Khalid etc in this conference will be difficult.
He’s in recent contact with KO and one other thing is that the old players aren’t thrilled with the way KO was treated with the administration trying to wriggle out of the contract. Understandable. Says you can’t win without a point guard, can’t be done. I agreed but said that so many blowout losses to better teams created a problem. Doesn’t think Hurley can get the kind of players that Calhoun used to get OBE in the AAC and that means “domination like the old days is not likely.” Thinks we can get competitive to Cincy and better conference teams. Was hoping for a better outlook. Seemed to favor going to the current BE or P 5. Not much to argue with here. Good guy.
IMO he has the best nickname in UCONN Men’s hoop history.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Also mentioned that getting the kind of players we had under Calhoun OBE like Caron, Donyell, Ray and Khalid etc in this conference will be difficult.
He’s in recent contact with KO and one other thing is that the old players aren’t thrilled with the way KO was treated with the administration trying to wriggle out of the contract. Understandable. Says you can’t win without a point guard, can’t be done. I agreed but said that so many blowout losses to better teams created a problem. Doesn’t think Hurley can get the kind of players that Calhoun used to get OBE in the AAC and that means “domination like the old days is not likely.” Thinks we can get competitive to Cincy and better conference teams. Was hoping for a better outlook. Seemed to favor going to the current BE or P 5. Not much to argue with here. Good guy.
IMO he has the best nickname in UCONN Men’s hoop history.

A bunch of Crap! I am so tired of the "we cant recruit because of the conference we`re in" excuse. Thats all it is. AN EXCUSE! Guys didnt come here because of Ollie. How do i know? Because he couldnt even hold on to guys that did came here and others changed their minds and blamed OLlie for it. Ollie from what we know did not put in the recruiting work that needed to be done. Thats on him. Not the school and not the conference.
When a kid chooses a school the big factors are a coach who can get them ready for the NBA, TV exposure and do they have a realistic shot at winning in March. Does Uconn have a history of putting guys in the pros, getting on national tv and winning in March? Hell yeah! Thats what you sell these kids on. Thats how you bring in the recruits.

 

[nomar]

No not the GE but John Gwynn. I told him we needed a microwave, a guy to come in and knock down some 17-20 footers. Over the summer he said he used to take 600-700 shots a day over the summer with a purpose, and said you have to want to put in hard work, not just hanging out and scrimmaging which can be social. Doesn’t know if players put that work in today. Also mentioned that getting the kind of players we had under Calhoun OBE like Caron, Donyell, Ray and Khalid etc in this conference will be difficult.
He’s in recent contact with KO and one other thing is that the old players aren’t thrilled with the way KO was treated with the administration trying to wriggle out of the contract. Understandable. Says you can’t win without a point guard, can’t be done. I agreed but said that so many blowout losses to better teams created a problem. Doesn’t think Hurley can get the kind of players that Calhoun used to get OBE in the AAC and that means “domination like the old days is not likely.” Thinks we can get competitive to Cincy and better conference teams. Was hoping for a better outlook. Seemed to favor going to the current BE or P 5. Not much to argue with here. Good guy.
IMO he has the best nickname in UCONN Men’s hoop history.

I love the Hoya Annoya but his prognosis of UConn Hoops and $2.75 will get you a ride on the subway.

 

[JMick]

all of the Ollie supporters like to make excuses for him. They're not exactly objective. Let's see what Hurley does with the 2019 class before we continue to blame all of our woes on the AAC. If Lecque reclassifies to '18 and is on our roster next season I never want to hear us complain about the conference again until we're winning it annually.

 

[djct1999]

Hard to say without knowing more on whether the school mishandled the Ollie buyout. What is certain is that KO had to go. Even more certain is the guy that we hired was absolutely the right person to move this program forward.

 

[UConnNick]

Understandable and predictable takes from a former player with ties to Calhoun and Ollie. Loyal to the old guard.

The AAC bashing gets really tiresome. Nobody connected with the UCONN men's BB program has any standing to bash a conference in which we've got one conference tourney title in five seasons. The AAC is the best of the G5 football leagues and football is all that matters if you have P5 membership aspirations.

 

[jibsey]

A bunch of Crap! I am so tired of the "we cant recruit because of the conference we`re in" excuse. Thats all it is. AN EXCUSE! Guys didnt come here because of Ollie. How do i know? Because he couldnt even hold on to guys that did came here and others changed their minds and blamed OLlie for it. Ollie from what we know did not put in the recruiting work that needed to be done. Thats on him. Not the school and not the conference.
When a kid chooses a school the big factors are a coach who can get them ready for the NBA, TV exposure and do they have a realistic shot at winning in March. Does Uconn have a history of putting guys in the pros, getting on national tv and winning in March? Hell yeah! Thats what you sell these kids on. Thats how you bring in the recruits.

Are we the featured school on ESPN Big Monday or Tuesday? We’ve mostly been on ESPN 3, SNY or CBS Sports. Gwynn is right, top 20 players are not coming to us. I was taken back by his frankness and assessment because I want to return to our glory days too. The question is can Hurley get Jay Wright level players and do the same for us? And our great pros (aside Drummond) are from the OBE and Jim Calhoun.

 

[EBonz30]

Make excuses for Ollie all you want, guy won a championship, can’t say that for over 90 percent of coaches in the nation.

It’s not about Ollie, it’s about Hurley now, let it go.

 

[UConnNick]

Are we the featured school on ESPN Big Monday or Tuesday? We’ve mostly been on ESPN 3, SNY or CBS Sports. Gwynn is right, top 20 players are not coming to us. I was taken back by his frankness and assessment because I want to return to our glory days too. The question is can Hurley get Jay Wright level players and do the same for us? And our great pros (aside Drummond) are from the OBE and Jim Calhoun.

The conferences featured on ESPN Big Monday are all P5's. Unless UCONN eventually gets into one of those conferences, you won't be seeing us on Big Monday. You're living in a past where that ship has already sailed.

Football is the only way for UCONN to ever get back in a power conference like the old Big East was in the days of the BCS.

Currently our TV exposure is far better than the new Big East on FOX. Some of the NBE games are getting beaten in the ratings head-to-head by women's BB games.

 

[superjohn]

Thought this thread was about me.

 

[AdamaNation]

No not the GE but John Gwynn. I told him we needed a microwave, a guy to come in and knock down some 17-20 footers. Over the summer he said he used to take 600-700 shots a day over the summer with a purpose, and said you have to want to put in hard work, not just hanging out and scrimmaging which can be social. Doesn’t know if players put that work in today. Also mentioned that getting the kind of players we had under Calhoun OBE like Caron, Donyell, Ray and Khalid etc in this conference will be difficult.
He’s in recent contact with KO and one other thing is that the old players aren’t thrilled with the way KO was treated with the administration trying to wriggle out of the contract. Understandable. Says you can’t win without a point guard, can’t be done. I agreed but said that so many blowout losses to better teams created a problem. Doesn’t think Hurley can get the kind of players that Calhoun used to get OBE in the AAC and that means “domination like the old days is not likely.” Thinks we can get competitive to Cincy and better conference teams. Was hoping for a better outlook. Seemed to favor going to the current BE or P 5. Not much to argue with here. Good guy.
IMO he has the best nickname in UCONN Men’s hoop history.

I can agree with the “treatment “ of Ollie as I had a dialogue with a former player who is very close to Kevin and the old guard and they pretty much feel he is getting played. They do understand this is a results oriented bottom line industry as well. But KO is really being dogged by the administration. Believe that since ad Dave isn’t one of us he will leave the moment Auburn comes looking for a new AD.

 

[Excalibur]

I can agree with the “treatment “ of Ollie as I had a dialogue with a former player who is very close to Kevin and the old guard and they pretty much feel he is getting played. They do understand this is a results oriented bottom line industry as well. But KO is really being dogged by the administration. Believe that since ad Dave isn’t one of us he will leave the moment Auburn comes looking for a new AD.

Auburn just hired a new AD, didn’t they?

Insisting on “one of us” is what got us in this situation.

 

[AntG168]

Are we the featured school on ESPN Big Monday or Tuesday? We’ve mostly been on ESPN 3, SNY or CBS Sports. Gwynn is right, top 20 players are not coming to us. I was taken back by his frankness and assessment because I want to return to our glory days too. The question is can Hurley get Jay Wright level players and do the same for us? And our great pros (aside Drummond) are from the OBE and Jim Calhoun.

Think you may wanna hold off on saying top 20 players aren’t coming to us

 

[Exit 4]

Did we ever get top 20 guys? Honest question from a football guy. I thought the only too 20 guy we ever had was Drummond.

I don’t buy the conf crap.

 

[JMick]

Did we ever get top 20 guys? Honest question from a football guy. I thought the only too 20 guy we ever had was Drummond.

I don’t buy the conf crap.

I thought Kemba was top 20 but I'm not sure. It's hard to compare player ranks before circa 2010. Everyone was all over the place. You really had to look at just offers

 

[Rewster]

Calhoun didn't get a lot of top 20 guys either he just got the right guys.
Ollie pulled a very good class one year recruiting to the AAC I don't see why Hurley can't do the same or better and he will probable be able to keep them in house also.

There is an in state college coach who I know that loves the Hurley hire. He said he is a relentless worker almost to a fault. I thing we are in good hands but time will tell.

 

[JMick]

There is an in state college coach who I know that loves the Hurley hire. He said he is a relentless worker almost to a fault. I thing we are in good hands but time will tell.

well considering that's the opposite of what we had, hopefully we can have opposite results to the last couple seasons, too.

 

[AdamaNation]

Auburn just hired a new AD, didn’t they?

Insisting on “one of us” is what got us in this situation.

I’m just stating what was told.

 

[whaler11]

I can agree with the “treatment “ of Ollie as I had a dialogue with a former player who is very close to Kevin and the old guard and they pretty much feel he is getting played. They do understand this is a results oriented bottom line industry as well. But KO is really being dogged by the administration. Believe that since ad Dave isn’t one of us he will leave the moment Auburn comes looking for a new AD.

They are scapegoating him? I’m not sure you need to be a former player to see that.

Any athletic director we have is going to bolt for a P5 job the second they get an offer. Nobody wants to spend their time papering over a 45 million dollar hole in the budget.

 

[Balker]

The conferences featured on ESPN Big Monday are all P5's. Unless UCONN eventually gets into one of those conferences, you won't be seeing us on Big Monday. You're living in a past where that ship has already sailed.

Football is the only way for UCONN to ever get back in a power conference like the old Big East was in the days of the BCS.

Currently our TV exposure is far better than the new Big East on FOX. Some of the NBE games are getting beaten in the ratings head-to-head by women's BB games.

If UConn plays like UConn there will certainly be Big Monday’s with WSU, SMU, Cinc, or whoever is at the top of the AAC. Or OOC games. That Nova game could have been great if we didn’t suck. Certainly not happening if we turn in more sub 20 win seasons and don’t sniff the top 25.

In response to the top 20 recruit question, we have had 9-10 top 20 recruits depending on how you’re counting.

Daniel Hamilton
Kemba
Gay
Villanueva
Daniels
Robinson...

Even right now we have two PGs that were 23 and 32... I don’t tend to think anyone is winning national titles with great frequency with one and done top 10 players anyway, so if we can get some top 50-100 players to believe in DH and UConn and see past a slightly weaker conference I’m cool with that.

 

[ctchamps]

I can agree with the “treatment “ of Ollie as I had a dialogue with a former player who is very close to Kevin and the old guard and they pretty much feel he is getting played. They do understand this is a results oriented bottom line industry as well. But KO is really being dogged by the administration. Believe that since ad Dave isn’t one of us he will leave the moment Auburn comes looking for a new AD.

So instant offense is now instantly offensive.

Is your contact Ray or John? If not that makes three players who built THIS PROGRAM that have a different narrative to what has been put on the Boneyard.

 

[ctchamps]

If UConn plays like UConn there will certainly be Big Monday’s with WSU, SMU, Cinc, or whoever is at the top of the AAC. Or OOC games. That Nova game could have been great if we didn’t suck. Certainly not happening if we turn in more sub 20 win seasons and don’t sniff the top 25.

In response to the top 20 recruit question, we have had 9-10 top 20 recruits depending on how you’re counting.

Daniel Hamilton
Kemba
Gay
Villanueva
Daniels
Robinson...

Even right now we have two PGs that were 23 and 32... I don’t tend to think anyone is winning national titles with great frequency with one and done top 10 players anyway, so if we can get some top 50-100 players to believe in roadhouse and UConn and see past a slightly weaker conference I’m cool with that.

I thought Zach Brown was top twenty and Durham was as well until he suffered the second ACL injury.

 

[JMick]

I’m just stating what was told.

it just shows they're not very well informed.

 

[JMick]

So instant offense is now instantly offensive.

Is your contact Ray or John? If not that makes three players who built THIS PROGRAM that have a different narrative to what has been put on the Boneyard.

the narrative isn't wrong. there was a huge lack of effort and poor decision making after 2014.

 

[ctchamps]

the narrative isn't wrong. there was a huge lack of effort and poor decision making after 2014.

The treatment of KO narrative over the contract.