It's apparent that KO is not a natural salesman.
He should be pitching two things: (1) I can develop guards into NBA players as well as anyone, and my resume proves it -- I learned how to do it first-hand by turning myself into an NBA player despite being undertalented, and then I helped Kemba and Shabazz become NBA players, one an NBA all-star; and (2) I love my players and we build a family environment, a brotherhood at UConn. I live my Christian values, I'll love you, and I'll make sure we all love one another in this program. Because of that, despite all the hard work, it's going to be fun to be here, and you'll have friends for a lifetime.
Then deliver on those promises, and leave everything else to Chillious.
The 2016 class was on paper terrific. It was the first class KO was not restricted by the NCAA. Didn't work out for a number of reasons but as far as any sales pitch went there was no problem.
2017 class was very good until Zach Brown ran afoul and MAL reconsidered. So the sales pitch was not a problem.
The problem was not KO's ability to sell the program and get so called star recruits but his inability to assess certain parameters that fit UConn toughness. And I'd argue it's difficult for coaches to know the mental toughness of players given the limited ability to monitor kids. I also don't subscribe to the argument that KO made mistakes taking players who had injuries in the past unless he failed to discuss those injuries with medical professionals about the probability of reoccurrence.
The big miss and fail was over the summer and the inability to convince some of the better grad transfers to fill in the gaps with kids who left the program. I've seen several factors people have presented they believe contributed to this failure including the conference, the horrible season and mediocre seasons that preceded this season and all the aspersions foisted on KO from a dedicated small group of posters. Personally I don't buy into those arguments.
If anything KO probably has decided to not pander to recruits and to the recruits parents after the fallout that happened this season. Imm there is a high probability this impacted the recruitment of Montez Mathis. A smaller probability that it was a factor with Sid Wilson. And the grad transfers with decent qualifications that didn't come to UConn most likely wanted a guarantee of being starters and I doubt very much KO is making that pitch. More than likely he's telling them they have to earn minutes to play never mind start.
We can debate if my opinion has merit. If anyone else thinks it does, we can debate if it's an over reaction on the part of KO. I don't think it is. To me it's a filter to determine who has the mental determination to prove themselves. I don't know if Kwintin Williams has the skill set to be an impact player. But he has the mental toughness to be a UConn player.
As far as Chillious goes I'm guessing that if the above assertion by me is correct, he, as well as the rest of the staff, have had to reboot which recruits they need to establish relationships based on what KO currently wants to see in his players. So I wasn't as pessimistic as others in this forum that Chillious hasn't delivered yet.
