Even with two injuries this is embarrasing and deflating

[scrappy2.0]

I just do not recognize Uconn out there. Teams lose players all year--we have some adversity. But weve had plenty of tight games we couldve won with a tighter floor game and another level of energy. The beat downs have been ridiculous--weve come back a tad in couple of them. The pride the intelligence the fundamentals are severely lacking. When has anyone seen this in the last 30 years?

What I think the remedy short term is.

I think we need to broaden our talent search and include many foreign countries. Our recruiting needs more strategy. I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person? I think diversity of players --just like life is important. We need more basketball IQ out there--more passing more energy and smarter better play.

Right now we are an Amida Brimah hook shot miss away from being a train wreck. Im a loyal fan--just want to see the best--not for selfish reasons but I take pride in my states team for everyone. Of course we can be reasonable about injuries and roster depletion but we should have more than enough to be better than this level.

 

[Stainmaster]

I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person?

This will be good.

 

[deedougie]

All I can say is Jim Calhoun would never accept the energy level out there with this team. How KO can not be getting on these' kids is incomprehensible.

Also, why not play some of the walk-ons for a few minutes? Hell at least they will come out with more energy.

 

[Kitaman]

I just do not recognize Uconn out there. Teams lose players all year--we have some adversity. But weve had plenty of tight games we couldve won with a tighter floor game and another level of energy. The beat downs have been ridiculous--weve come back a tad in couple of them. The pride the intelligence the fundamentals are severely lacking. When has anyone seen this in the last 30 years?

What I think the remedy short term is.

I think we need to broaden our talent search and include many foreign countries. Our recruiting needs more strategy. I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person? I think diversity of players --just like life is important. We need more basketball IQ out there--more passing more energy and smarter better play.

Right now we are an Amida Brimah hook shot miss away from being a train wreck. Im a loyal fan--just want to see the best--not for selfish reasons but I take pride in my states team for everyone. Of course we can be reasonable about injuries and roster depletion but we should have more than enough to be better than this level.

Are you okay? You need to post your phone number so we can reach out. This is as close to a suicidal type post and totally unexpected from you. There is hope My Man and UConn basketball certainly ain't done, there are extenuating circumstances this and this team is exhausted (i.e. completely fatigued) consequently creating all types of performance problems.

Ollie is in despair with limited resources and solutions. Just cheer them on and wait until next year it won't be like this forever.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Race is irrelevant. We need to have our recruiting staff be able to project players from the high school game into the college game. To recognize their court awareness and basketball smarts. And while some of those recruits may come from the McD AA game, there are ... ahem ... notable exceptions. Every recruit needs to be able to shoot consistently when open from 12-15 feet, and half of them need to be able to shoot from 3.

 

[8893]

This from a guy who posted that selfie as his avatar to show how well the Grecian Formula works.

 

[superjohn]

I just do not recognize Uconn out there. Teams lose players all year--we have some adversity. But weve had plenty of tight games we couldve won with a tighter floor game and another level of energy. The beat downs have been ridiculous--weve come back a tad in couple of them. The pride the intelligence the fundamentals are severely lacking. When has anyone seen this in the last 30 years?

What I think the remedy short term is.

I think we need to broaden our talent search and include many foreign countries. Our recruiting needs more strategy. I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person? I think diversity of players --just like life is important. We need more basketball IQ out there--more passing more energy and smarter better play.

Right now we are an Amida Brimah hook shot miss away from being a train wreck. Im a loyal fan--just want to see the best--not for selfish reasons but I take pride in my states team for everyone. Of course we can be reasonable about injuries and roster depletion but we should have more than enough to be better than this level.

Dude, is that really a selfie of you flexing in your avatar?

 

[Robertelamin]

The team definitely has an energy problem.

 

[Kitaman]

I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person? We need more basketball IQ out there--more passing more energy and smarter better play.

I missed this the first read. What are you implying? Never mind its obvious. Shameful post Scrappy!

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Trash post. Leave, never come back.

 

[gtcam]

I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person? I think diversity of players --just like life is important. We need more basketball IQ out there--more passing more energy and smarter better play.
Are you kidding me?
So white players are smarter, better passers, more energetic?
How much did you drink before posting this?
JC was one stepback ankle breaking jump shot miss away from a real crappy year but won #3, thanks to the work that a guy named KO did with someone named Kemba
Did you happen to hear what Jay Williams said about KO and UConn after the game? If not, see if you can find it and listen carefully

 

[Fishy]

As a white person, I can state with certainty that Kevin Ollie has made no effort to recruit me.

Unless he has a phone number with a 786 area code. I keep getting calls from that number, but they never leave a message.

 

[storrsroars]

Are you okay? You need to post your phone number so we can reach out. This is as close to a suicidal type post and totally unexpected from you. There is hope My Man and UConn basketball certainly ain't done, there are extenuating circumstances this and this team is exhausted (i.e. completely fatigued) consequently creating all types of performance problems.

Ollie is in despair with limited resources and solutions. Just cheer them on and wait until next year it won't be like this forever.

This game was the first where I'm considering it's more than just the limited resources.

Memphis basically played four guys all game. Two had 39 minutes, two played 36. Only Rivers sat for any length of time and he was in foul trouble both halves. Memphis had 26 minutes from the bench.

Purv and Adams played 40. Bench played 40. Yes, we could use a 2nd ballhandler. But that can't be the only problem.

 

[superjohn]

Scrappy isn't the first, second or even third person to say Ollie needs to recruit white players. When did this board turn into Stormfront?

 

[willie99]

When has anyone seen this in the last 30 years?

Right now we are an Amida Brimah hook shot miss away from being a train wreck.

1) it's the people that have been around for 30 years that are distraught, the newbies really don't know better (oh no I didn't, chill kids, you're young and that's a good thing)

2) we are not one shot away from being a train wreck, we are a train wreck

 

[Caronimo]

I'm done caring until the AAC tourney. Pathetic and embarrassing. 5-9, 0-3... in this conference. We are UConn. Don't care who is hurt. Ollie should have a more disciplined team than this.

 

[BUConn10]

Someone else said it the other day, this team has become accustomed to losing. UConn losing games to AAC caliber teams as of late is not even newsworthy anymore, and it shows.

 

[upstater]

This game was the first where I'm considering it's more than just the limited resources.

Memphis basically played four guys all game. Two had 39 minutes, two played 36. Only Rivers sat for any length of time and he was in foul trouble both halves. Memphis had 26 minutes from the bench.

Purv and Adams played 40. Bench played 40. Yes, we could use a 2nd ballhandler. But that can't be the only problem.

Memphis is not untalented though. The Lawsons and Markell were all good gets. The bigger problem is the inability to play tough D on their 3 point shooters, and also not to cut off their point guard.

 

[upstater]

But that can't be the only problem.

I think it's 90% of the problem. UConn can't get into an offense, and too many possessions result in 2 things: turnovers, ugly heaves late in the shot clock.

 

[UConn990411]

I just do not recognize Uconn out there. Teams lose players all year--we have some adversity. But weve had plenty of tight games we couldve won with a tighter floor game and another level of energy. The beat downs have been ridiculous--weve come back a tad in couple of them. The pride the intelligence the fundamentals are severely lacking. When has anyone seen this in the last 30 years?

What I think the remedy short term is.

I think we need to broaden our talent search and include many foreign countries. Our recruiting needs more strategy. I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person? I think diversity of players --just like life is important. We need more basketball IQ out there--more passing more energy and smarter better play.

Right now we are an Amida Brimah hook shot miss away from being a train wreck. Im a loyal fan--just want to see the best--not for selfish reasons but I take pride in my states team for everyone. Of course we can be reasonable about injuries and roster depletion but we should have more than enough to be better than this level.

Promise you won't make your preseason prediction next year of half the UConn roster getting drafted?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I just do not recognize Uconn out there. Teams lose players all year--we have some adversity. But weve had plenty of tight games we couldve won with a tighter floor game and another level of energy. The beat downs have been ridiculous--weve come back a tad in couple of them. The pride the intelligence the fundamentals are severely lacking. When has anyone seen this in the last 30 years?

What I think the remedy short term is.

I think we need to broaden our talent search and include many foreign countries. Our recruiting needs more strategy. I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person? I think diversity of players --just like life is important. We need more basketball IQ out there--more passing more energy and smarter better play.

Right now we are an Amida Brimah hook shot miss away from being a train wreck. Im a loyal fan--just want to see the best--not for selfish reasons but I take pride in my states team for everyone. Of course we can be reasonable about injuries and roster depletion but we should have more than enough to be better than this level.

I can't believe there are 4 likes for this post. What is wrong with this board?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Dude, is that really a selfie of you flexing in your avatar?

I'm more of a bench / squat / dead / clean guy myself but that peak needs work. Maybe mix in some concentration curls.

 

[joober jones]

There's already some degree of diversity. Brimah is from Ghana and Facey is from Jamaica. I don't think that has much to do with our struggles though.

 

[Jay-Bone]

I can't believe there are 4 likes for this post. What is wrong with this board?

I'm a big scrappy2.0 fan, as optimistic about him as he usually is about Uconn, but that was off.

 

[Athlete94]

Hey there's always football season to look forward to!

 

[CTBasketball]

We have no "system" to fit players into. It's either Ollie's eye for talent is not as keen as the average college coach, or he fails so miserably at coaching and player development which results in this mess.

There's no way, with how we've recruited (on paper) we should be this bad. The injuries excuse is getting old. This is the hand we're dealt. We've had this team for over 70% of the games. It's almost like Larrier and Gilbert didn't even play this season.

So was this season's success really based off an unproven, injury-prone freshman point guard and small forward transfer who has a tendency to jack shots? What does that say for the rest of our players?

 

[CTBasketball]

I just do not recognize Uconn out there. Teams lose players all year--we have some adversity. But weve had plenty of tight games we couldve won with a tighter floor game and another level of energy. The beat downs have been ridiculous--weve come back a tad in couple of them. The pride the intelligence the fundamentals are severely lacking. When has anyone seen this in the last 30 years?

What I think the remedy short term is.

I think we need to broaden our talent search and include many foreign countries. Our recruiting needs more strategy. I hate saying this but has Kevin Ollie recruited even one white person? I think diversity of players --just like life is important. We need more basketball IQ out there--more passing more energy and smarter better play.

Right now we are an Amida Brimah hook shot miss away from being a train wreck. Im a loyal fan--just want to see the best--not for selfish reasons but I take pride in my states team for everyone. Of course we can be reasonable about injuries and roster depletion but we should have more than enough to be better than this level.

@DaveWingett

 

[jibsey]

Gilbert and Larrier make this team competitive but not the contender we thought we had. I think with them we are middle AAC this year with a chance to go to the NCAA. WE ARE A HORRID SHOOTING TEAM. We don't shoot the 3 or even the mid range with any consistency. Yes we have big man issues but we need to recruit shooters. Jalen is a good player but his shooting is a big disappointment. Every game that we play it's the same story and while Gilbert and Larrier improve our chances they were not knockdown artists. No cakewalk next year.

 

[Northbound]

I've made some really dumb posts in the past and some that have aimed to be purposefully inflammatory, but holy Christ now we're looking for the great white hope.

Start the recruiting trail from the public schools in northern NH, VT and ME and get that spigot turned on - maybe we get ourselves a Coppenwrath - which come to think of it this team could use.

I don't drink enough for this and I drink plenty.

 

[Storrs South]

In my opinion, this team's biggest issues are as follows:

• This team is awful at free throw shooting
• This team is awful at shooting three points
• This team turns the ball over a lot

The first one can be explained by Miller, Gibbs, and Hamilton all leaving (all very good free throw shooters) being replaced by freshman coupled with Brimah falling off a cliff. It can and will have to go up as they continue to coach this up.

The second one can be attributed to Purvis just being inconsistent and at times unwatchable missing open looks as well as asking freshman Vance Jackson and Christian Vital pick up the slack from Sterling Gibbs and Daniel Hamilton who were great and good outside shooters. This will get better as they get more experience (but man VJ needs to stop hitting the side of the backboard).

The third one has been a function of Gilbert/Larrier getting hurt: Jalen at times trying to do too much considering what's around him missing Larrier/Gilbert, some freshman mistakes from Vital, the bigs losing the ball a lot on double teams, Purvis just being flat out awful on fastbreak opportunities.

So now the blame game since I think that's why many of us come here...for answers: the first two I don't blame on Ollie. KO runs his teams extensively on free throw drills (this was talked about at length during 2014 Final Four run) and VJ, CV, Purvis are getting open looks on 3s. I'm not sure what I could ask from Ollie if guys are getting great opportunities to score and yet miss them repeatedly.

The last I chalk up to 50/50 players & Ollie. Youth and a short bench come into play, but at the same time Ollie needs to coach up some discipline and being more careful with the ball. 12.8 turnovers a game is too high (tied for #119 in the country) when you have problems 1 and 2.

I'm not calling for firing Ollie, I like him, I respect what he's done for the program, and still believe he can be the leader of this program going forward, but I do not believe this team has been playing up its potential even when accounting for injuries.