Dwayne Killings

[brewcity77]

Hey guys, Marquette fan and infrequent visitor. I just saw we hired Dwayne Killings. I was wondering what you could tell me about him, as far as recruiting, what role he served on Ollie's staff, and just what he brings to the table as an assistant. Thanks in advance.

 

[UofCT]

I'd ask the Temple board, I don't think anyone really knows what he did while at UConn.

 

[Storrs South]

Hey guys, Marquette fan and infrequent visitor. I just saw we hired Dwayne Killings. I was wondering what you could tell me about him, as far as recruiting, what role he served on Ollie's staff, and just what he brings to the table as an assistant. Thanks in advance.

If your source is the Coaching Changes twitter account, I would hold off and wait for a credible source.

That being said, to answer your questions, IIRC he is known for finding diamonds in the rough (underrated recruits that have good upside). That was his bread and butter at Temple prior to joining UConn.

He was not here at UConn long enough, IMO, to be evaluated on his performance in Storrs. The only player I am aware of that is here because of him is Tyler Polley. Polley had a up and down freshman year but did show in spurts that he can become a valuable contributor for the team down the road. He shot well from 3 in limited attempts but really struggled on the defensive end.

I never got a good sense what Killings role was in terms of player development and Xs and Os. Seemed like a nice guy and I enjoyed hearing the occasional interview he did on podcasts and the like. It should surprise no one that his long term aspirations include being a Division I Head Coach.

 

[freescooter]

Hard to evaluate him on Ollie’s staff because Ollie was a disaster as a coach, but I didn’t get the sense that he brought much to the table...none of Ollie’s hires did. He wanted yes men was my impression. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t know his stuff or if properly used by a coach who has a clue he won’t be a positive addition to your staff. If you used Tom Brady as a linebacker he’d be a terrible player. As a quarterback it’s different. If Ollie coached football Brady is he middle linebacker.

 

[whaler11]

Either way awesome name.

 

[HawkHusky]

Best keep it on the DL. Your HolyLand friends probably won't like you stooping so low as to hire a former Assistant from a horrible UCONN program...

 

[MattMang23]

Hey guys, Marquette fan and infrequent visitor. I just saw we hired Dwayne Killings. I was wondering what you could tell me about him, as far as recruiting, what role he served on Ollie's staff, and just what he brings to the table as an assistant. Thanks in advance.

Supposed to be a great recruiter. I'm waiting for the evidence. Maybe was handicapped by KO incompetence?

 

[BlueMAB]

Impossible to tell whether or not he's a quality assistant or recruiter. Has a decent resume. Seems like a quality individual, hope he works out for you if he lands there.

 

[nomar]

We have absolutely no idea. Seriously.

 

[Fishy]

He did reasonably well here.

Josh Carlton and Tyler Polley were Killings’ recruits.

Hard to judge him after that given that the head coach was off catching butterflies for much of the time.

 

[Storrs South]

He did reasonably well here.

Josh Carlton and Tyler Polley were Killings’ recruits.

Hard to judge him after that given that the head coach was off catching butterflies for much of the time.

That's right, I forgot about Carlton. I would not be shocked if both Killings' recruits Polley/Carlton turned into solid players players in the next 3 years. Carlton showed enough skill around the rim that if he added some bulk and a better ability to grab rebounds he could be very good as an upperclassman.

 

[UC313]

Carlton and Polley both seem to have good attitudes from a far.

 

[rip7774]

Seemed to be ok nothing special. But wasn’t here long enough to make a definitive case either way.

Seemed to be a bit Jeb Bush, low energy. But they all could have been brought down by a bad situation, Love Fishy’s Point about catching butterflies.

 

[HawkHusky]

Seemed to be ok nothing special. But wasn’t here long enough to make a definitive case either way.

Seemed to be a bit Jeb Bush, low energy. But they all could have been brought down by a bad situation, Love Fishy’s Point about catching butterflies.

LOL. So funny. So true.

 

[UconnU]

Honestly he wasn’t here long enough to make any sort of assessment of the guy.

 

[Bryan Lord]

One of our finer bumps on the log

 

[champs99and04]

It's interesting how two years is long enough for the yard to go from revering Ollie to making him a punchline, yet it's not long enough to make any sort of assessment at all on Killings.

It's not an apples to apples comparison, I know...but he was still at practice, in the film room, on the bench, and on the trail every single day. Some of you act like he was stuffed in a closet with duct tape over his mouth as Ollie undid all of his great work. Not the case. If the head coach is a disaster, then guess what type of people he's going to hire? But hey, he signed Polley and Carlton. That would have been a real haul if we were in the Sun Belt.

 

[Goat]

Killings was a friend of former coach Kevin Ollie who decided to make him a part of the UConn family. Ollie was only 127 and 79 as our head coach and 7 and 1 in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, he was an abject failure who recruited players who he allowed to become injured, some before arriving in Storrs! This resulted in 2 consecutive losing seasons. He was late to implement the pizza parlor recruiting techniques favored on this board and it has been 4 years since he last won a national championship and so he was fired for cause. Killings recruited two players, rising sophomores, still on the team, neither of which are as good as Emeka Okafor in his junior year. Simply put, no friend of Kevin Ollie could possibly help your basketball team. Too bad for you.

 

[intlzncster]

Killings was a friend of former coach Kevin Ollie who decided to make him a part of the UConn family. Ollie was only 127 and 79 as our head coach and 7 and 1 in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, he was an abject failure who recruited players who he allowed to become injured, some before arriving in Storrs! This resulted in 2 consecutive losing seasons. He was late to implement the pizza parlor recruiting techniques favored on this board and it has been 4 years since he last won a national championship and so he was fired for cause. Killings recruited two players, rising sophomores, still on the team, neither of which are as good as Emeka Okafor in his junior year. Simply put, no friend of Kevin Ollie could possibly help your basketball team. Too bad for you.

You smokin' goat?

 

[Stainmaster]

But hey, he signed Polley and Carlton. That would have been a real haul if we were in the Sun Belt.

Please tell me this is part of your contrarian shtick.

 

[Storrs South]

It's interesting how two years is long enough for the yard to go from revering Ollie to making him a punchline, yet it's not long enough to make any sort of assessment at all on Killings.

It's not an apples to apples comparison, I know...but he was still at practice, in the film room, on the bench, and on the trail every single day. Some of you act like he was stuffed in a closet with duct tape over his mouth as Ollie undid all of his great work. Not the case. If the head coach is a disaster, then guess what type of people he's going to hire? But hey, he signed Polley and Carlton. That would have been a real haul if we were in the Sun Belt.

It probably wasn't easy initially for the Managers and Staff to find jobs after Enron collapsed, but there's a reason you know the name Kenneth Lay

 

[Huskybass]

Killings was a friend of former coach Kevin Ollie who decided to make him a part of the UConn family. Ollie was only 127 and 79 as our head coach and 7 and 1 in the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, he was an abject failure who recruited players who he allowed to become injured, some before arriving in Storrs! This resulted in 2 consecutive losing seasons. He was late to implement the pizza parlor recruiting techniques favored on this board and it has been 4 years since he last won a national championship and so he was fired for cause. Killings recruited two players, rising sophomores, still on the team, neither of which are as good as Emeka Okafor in his junior year. Simply put, no friend of Kevin Ollie could possibly help your basketball team. Too bad for you.

Please stop with this 7-1 garbage. After 2014, Ollie's teams only played 3 postseason games total in 4 seasons and that includes the NIT. After inheriting a veteran laden squad including the MOP of the final 4, Ollie accomplished very little after those guys were gone. KO gets full credit for those first two seasons where he kept the team on course to win big. But he also gets full credit for the mess that was created over the next 4 seasons. To deny that is being obtuse, to use Andy Dufresne's word.

 

[brewcity77]

If your source is the Coaching Changes twitter account, I would hold off and wait for a credible source.

That being said, to answer your questions, IIRC he is known for finding diamonds in the rough (underrated recruits that have good upside). That was his bread and butter at Temple prior to joining UConn.

He was not here at UConn long enough, IMO, to be evaluated on his performance in Storrs. The only player I am aware of that is here because of him is Tyler Polley. Polley had a up and down freshman year but did show in spurts that he can become a valuable contributor for the team down the road. He shot well from 3 in limited attempts but really struggled on the defensive end.

I never got a good sense what Killings role was in terms of player development and Xs and Os. Seemed like a nice guy and I enjoyed hearing the occasional interview he did on podcasts and the like. It should surprise no one that his long term aspirations include being a Division I Head Coach.

And now Coaching Changes seems to be backpedaling, saying that he might not take the job because Wojo is on the hot seat (which would only be true if we miss the tournament in 2019). Glad to hear Killings did the pods, we have a few different MU pods and it's rare that the staff actually does interviews, though I suspect our SID has a lot to do with that. Wojo isn't the most friendly with the smaller local media outlets and MU basketball fan media outlets, so I'm not sure Killings would be able to do that here.

What we need is a coach that knows defense, similar to what Luke Yaklich brought to Michigan. Wojo has been great on the offensive end, but a high school JV team could probably put up 80 on our defense.

 

[Storrs South]

And now Coaching Changes seems to be backpedaling, saying that he might not take the job because Wojo is on the hot seat (which would only be true if we miss the tournament in 2019). Glad to hear Killings did the pods, we have a few different MU pods and it's rare that the staff actually does interviews, though I suspect our SID has a lot to do with that. Wojo isn't the most friendly with the smaller local media outlets and MU basketball fan media outlets, so I'm not sure Killings would be able to do that here.

What we need is a coach that knows defense, similar to what Luke Yaklich brought to Michigan. Wojo has been great on the offensive end, but a high school JV team could probably put up 80 on our defense.

Yea that's there schtick. It's allegedly an account of 20+ people tweeting what they are hearing or just what people DM them and usually multiple folks chime in and say inconsistent and conflicting things so that they can say they were first on something but also cover themselves when things they tweet don't pan out.

I don't believe Killings did any podcasts with the our local media guys (Hartford Courant, New Haven Register, Journal Inquirer) but did make some rounds on the National circuit. If you're interested in hearing the podcasts if he does become Marquette's AC, here's a couple he's done recently:

4 Quarters Podcast: UConn Assistant Dwayne Killings, Montverde Academy HC Kevin Boyle and National Recruiting Update | Zagsblog

Create Your Shot: Dwayne Killings

 

[ctchamps]

It's interesting how two years is long enough for the yard to go from revering Ollie to making him a punchline, yet it's not long enough to make any sort of assessment at all on Killings.

It's not an apples to apples comparison, I know...but he was still at practice, in the film room, on the bench, and on the trail every single day. Some of you act like he was stuffed in a closet with duct tape over his mouth as Ollie undid all of his great work. Not the case. If the head coach is a disaster, then guess what type of people he's going to hire? But hey, he signed Polley and Carlton. That would have been a real haul if we were in the Sun Belt.

You want rationality you shouldn't be posting in this forum. Look at what's going on with Kenya Hunter.

He got big name recruits. He's a big man's coach.

I'm excited. I'm staying excited even though I know that Nebraska had a worse record the last five seasons while Hunter was there than UConn had under KO and company.

That's on Miles. Strange that Nebraska hired Miles given his record was 71-88 his previous five years at Colorado State.