Did Kevin Ollie outcoach Jay Wright?

[8893]

I'd crawl through a 1000 yards of mind field, under barbed wire, with mortar fire overhead, just to hear her fart through a walkie-talkie.

I had never seen or even heard of her until Thursday night, so I googled her after she was so ubiquitous during our games because I was curious where she came from. Impressive beauty pageant background and pedigree, but she also played hoop in college. Not that it matters, but do you think someone is feeding her the questions, or do you think they are based on her own analysis?

 

[EricLA]

Yes.

Ollie adjusted to Jay's small ball, and Jay never made any adjustments back. I'm not sure how restricted he is in that way, but bottom line is..Ollie fixed his team's problems and Jay didn't. (And didn't look like he tried anything other than stay the course.)

Ollie has done a lot of little visible things with this team that I really like. They box out better than any Uconn team I've seen in a while. I pick on the inbounds plays, but looks like they've even developed (and/or are finally executing) one of those lately. He's figured out the right rotation/lineup..not only that, but he has this team playing at it's peak at the right time.

He's a young coach. He's been outcoached before and he will be again. But he clearly takes them as learning experiences. We've got a great potential coach here. And with Ollie's NBA connections and Uconn proving that it's still the same school, I can't wait to see his recruiting.

I agree with this a lot (not that my opinion matters much). I think there were losses during the season, or even super close wins that seem like they shouldn't have been that close were fans questioned Ollie's in game coaching decisions. Not to belabor the point, but sadly, Calhoun was a zero contributor this season 90% of the time, but it seemed like Ollie stuck with him for a long while. He also had a challenge figuring out how much PT to give Kromah and Giffey (and whether or not to start either), and what to do about our front court.

Still, this is his 2nd year as a HC. I absolutely LOVE what he's doing on the recruiting trail. I love the future of this team and our program. I know I was one of those who did NOT want Ollie to get an instant 5 year contract right out the gate. I had no problem with Manuel letting him coach the 1st year mainly as interim HC. In hindsight, Ollile was the right choice, and the delay really did zero to impact our program in the long run. Ollie's been able to land some outstanding recruits (4 and 5 star both) and some under the radar kids as well.

 

[rman726]

Coach Oliver did a great job.

 

[rw005]

Like KO always says, coaching is overrated. The team that plays the best, wins. At the end of the day, basketball is make/miss. During the 2nd half, Villanova went cold and Shabazz went nuclear. Ballgame.
Just like the UK/WSU game yesterday.. at the end, Young made a long 3 and VanVleet missed a long 3. Ballgame Kentucky.

Ball don't lie.

 

[socal613ws]

Really? Because his team did pretty damn well this year with not a single person that will ever even come close to being in the NBA.

Did KO outcoach JW this game? Yeah, probably. But there is literally nothing JW could have done to help his team make point-blank shots by the rim. They shot awful. UConn played great defense.

If not for scottie reynolds gw bucket who knows if Jay Wright still a coach at villanova. Last year he was getting massive heat for the team struggling.

 

[Edward Sargent]

The last 28 minutes of that he did a terrific job ESPECIALLY after napier went out with 2 fouls. Maybe Jay Wright should stop worrying so much about his DOVE commericals and focus on making some adjustments. I'm happy for Kevin Ollie though, seems he got a lot of heat in both those Ulouisville blowouts.

I don't know if he "outcoached" Jay Wright but he certainly made a number of very good in game decisions which Jay didn't have an answer for. Most notably was simply pushing their shooters just a hair further out of the comfort zone. I think though some other things happened like the two flagrants which I think also had a lot to do with making them a jump shooting team because I think they really thought twice about bringing it inside.

 

[gtcam]

Not to take anything away from KO, but he does have Karl Hobbs sitting next to him, someone who understands the collegiate game and has been in the dance before as a head coach.
KO is a good coach now, especially considering the experience level, and I expect him to get better and better.
UConn is blessed to have him.
GO UCONN