Durham transferring

[Lefty2one]

It's still not.

Knicks had 5 undrafted players on the floor yesterday.

But things ain't good in either place.

Yes, because they're tanking.

 

[businesslawyer]

That's the part that gets me too, this idea that Ollie is automatically the best guy we can have. He's won 65% of his games and never finished better than tied for third in the AAC. I understand the APR thing not helping, and I really want him to succeed, but I think that we should have a higher opinion of ourselves to think that the last few years are acceptable or what we're resigned to. UConn is a great program and there are a lot of talented coaches out there that would love to coach here.

Did you seriously post that without mentioning that he's won a national championship?

 

[GetTheFacts]

A culture shift was needed at UConn. I don't mind a lot of these shakeups.


If it wasn't for a miracle run to the National Championship, and a full-court buzzer-beater from Jalen Adams, the narrative would be even more negative. Way too much inconsistency since Ollie took over.

 

[UCFan1513]

Alright, let me shed some light that will hopefully calm everyone down. As @fleudslipcon said, I've known this was coming for over a week, but because of speculation rules I couldn't say anything on the board. Here's some info from the same source that told me Juwan was leaving that I hope will calm everyone down.

1) There is no team chemistry/hate KO mentality in the locker room
2) Both Vance and Juwan leaving were PRIMARILY because of being homesick. I know that a lot of us don't want to believe that because of what VJ Sr was tweeting.
3) Admittedly, there was some griping by the players that left over playing time (more so by Enoch and some by Vance I would assume), but it was mostly playing time. I know I know I know - "but there was going to be so much time open." That's true, but between a perceived lack of 'proper use' and missing home, 2 of these guys wanted to head back closer to home for that 'home cooked meal.'
4) MAL leaving was primarily because of Miller being let go - not because he was nervous about stepping foot onto a sinking ship
5) This is it. There isn't anyone else leaving. If I end up being wrong on this, I'll take whatever heat you guys can throw at me.
6) Morale is VERY high with the players that are left

This isn't a great look for the UConn Men's BB program right now, but it's not nearly is chaotic up in Storrs as many seem to think it is. Ollie has not lost control of this team.

Thanks for your insight! Just curious, what do you mean by the first point?

 

[Vancat]

I mean maybe Oz meant "has asked to leave. "

It's possible. His grammar/spelling isn't the greatest.

 

[UConNation]

Thanks for your insight! Just curious, what do you mean by the first point?

Some people on here were wondering whether the guys were leaving because they didn't like KO. That's not the case.

 

[JMick]

He's allowed to be emotional. He's a FAN. FAN is short for FANATIC. Just because he's 'OZ' doesn't mean he can't be a little dramatic and emotional. We all care about the program and can be a little emotional. He just happens to be a plugged in fan.

Then Ollie needs to cut him off if he's going to act like a middle schooler on Twitter and rvals

 

[nomar]

Yes, because they're tanking.

Nah. That wasn't what the team set out to do. Rose said they were a dream team. They were down Anthony, Rose and Noah, but the botton line is that they are terrible at assembling talent. Plenty of other teams tank with quality young talent. The Knicks have none, other than Porzingis and Hernangomez.

 

[bballgrda]

What PM list do I have to get on to get this info ahead of time?

This one was basically posted in public though

 

[80shusky]

All good, just gettin out the deadwood.

 

[uconnfan68]

Interesting if true. I think we should give time for the situation to iron out. I have friends still at the University, and I have heard from the scout team and etc. that many of the players were not committed to the cause. After losing to Wagner they did not put in the effort and did not see themselves as a serious contender. Ollie likely noticed, and if husky99 was told that this was planned, I'd like to think he took action. Ollie deserves the chance to make things right.

And it took this many months? Why didn't those bad attitudes show up in practice the day before Wagner?

 

[johnhuskies95]

I keep hearing this pop up - what are some of these guys' names?

Guys like Kevin Keatts, Brad Underwood, Joe Dooley, Steve Forbes(would be a monster recruiter), King Rice. A guy like Mike White never even made the tournament before he got to Florida. Good coaches are out there.

 

[intlzncster]

He's allowed to be emotional. He's a FAN. FAN is short for FANATIC. Just because he's 'OZ' doesn't mean he can't be a little dramatic and emotional. We all care about the program and can be a little emotional. He just happens to be a plugged in fan.

He can be emotional all he wants, and post his opinions whenever. But he's not posting this as if it's his opinions, but as "this is coming from KO."

He poses as speaking for the program. As someone else said, he's got pictures of him and Ollie posted all over his Instagram. He's not an anonymous message board poster.

 

[businesslawyer]

A culture shift was needed at UConn. I don't mind a lot of these shakeups.


If it wasn't for a miracle run to the National Championship, and a full-court buzzer-beater from Jalen Adams, the narrative would be even more negative. Way too much inconsistency since Ollie took over.

KO coached five seasons for us. In 12-13, he did a fabulous job and with a team witout expectations kept us in the Big EAst race all year (and qualified for the NCAAs but for the ban he inherited). In 13-14, he won a national championship with a team very few saw as a Top Ten team. Yes, some wanted to criticize him for some regular season losses but if you're being realistic .... In 14-15 we were not good enough, but it was coming off a national championship with a team at apex of the pain from earlier scholarship restrictions. In 15-16, it was certainly solid. More regular season losses than we'd like, but conference tourney championship, one win in the NCAAs and then poor seeding running us into a much better team. And last year was a disaster. One that injuries contributed to certainly, but were there were also problems far deeper than that.

So five years. He succeeded strongly in 2 of them, mildly in 1 of them and didn't succeed in 2. We need to do better, but he has hardly driven the program off the cliff at this point. Let's see how they rebuild the roster and what happens. We've had years before where we think we're going to be very average and we achieve.

 

[superjohn]

I keep hearing this pop up - what are some of these guys' names?

Do you only watch UConn basketball? There are a lot of guys around the country who know what they are doing.

 

[johnhuskies95]

Did you seriously post that without mentioning that he's won a national championship?

I think we all know that he won a national championship, and he was incredible coaching during it. But I would argue that 5 years worth of games questions how repeatable that is with Ollie.

 

[uconnphil2016]

How could morale be high amongst remaining players lol? If I saw half of my teammates take off I'd be a little worried.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

He's got to have a longer leash than next season or Benedict wouldn't be letting this reboot/mass exodus/spring cleaning happen. If we're going down this path, KO has to be given at least a few years to turn things around. We aren't going to be very good next year, regardless of who we sign in the next two months.

This is very true.

If Benedict is pressuring Ollie to clean house, then fires him after one more season, that's gross incompetence for an AD.

 

[UConnStats]

How could morale be high amongst remaining players lol? If I saw half of my teammates take off I'd be a little worried.

Probably because the best 4 are still on the team.

 

[HuskyBoi]

we stuck with this kid after all his knee injuries and this is how it ends up. i'm worried about this generation of young student athletes. some of them aren't willing to put their talent to the test when times are testy. in this situation, where a school like uconn was willing to bring him in despite his bad history of knee injuries, he decides to leave us for dust.

 

[UCFan1513]

Some people on here were wondering whether the guys were leaving because they didn't like KO. That's not the case.

That's great news. Thanks man

 

[GetTheFacts]

KO coached five seasons for us. In 12-13, he did a fabulous job and with a team witout expectations kept us in the Big EAst race all year (and qualified for the NCAAs but for the ban he inherited). In 13-14, he won a national championship with a team very few saw as a Top Ten team. Yes, some wanted to criticize him for some regular season losses but if you're being realistic .... In 14-15 we were not good enough, but it was coming off a national championship with a team at apex of the pain from earlier scholarship restrictions. In 15-16, it was certainly solid. More regular season losses than we'd like, but conference tourney championship, one win in the NCAAs and then poor seeding running us into a much better team. And last year was a disaster. One that injuries contributed to certainly, but were there were also problems far deeper than that.

So five years. He succeeded strongly in 2 of them, mildly in 1 of them and didn't succeed in 2. We need to do better, but he has hardly driven the program off the cliff at this point. Let's see how they rebuild the roster and what happens. We've had years before where we think we're going to be very average and we achieve.

I didn't mean that as a diss to Ollie. People forget that he's only 44 years old, which is remarkably young for a coach. He's a bright guy, I think he's only going to improve, just needs to start recruiting players with the right mindset, rather than the most talented player. This is something Calhoun excelled at.

 

[CTBasketball]

We don't need a press conference. You will be able to tell if someone is lying if you just ask KO "why is everyone transferring/leaving/getting fired?"

He gives a bull- "ollieism" about love and brotherhood, then there is a backstory here.

If he's straight up and spits facts, then I'm with him and trust his word.

Insiders like Oz may know if there is an issue, but we won't believe anything unless it comes from KO's mouth. And it needs to be genuine.

 

[Stainmaster]

Do you only watch UConn basketball? There are a lot of guys around the country who know what they are doing.

Yes, and I'm sure tons of them would leave their current jobs to come here.

 

[ctchamps]

This one was basically posted in public though

@intlzncster, 99 posted possible transfers, saw the logic in the no transfer speculation rule so offered to pm people regarding what he's heard. It's a better way of doing things imo.