For those calling for Ollies head

[UConn990411]

Saying that UConn shouldn't fire Ollie because "who else would they hire?" is a bad argument by itself.

It becomes a dreadful argument when you add in the fact that they can pay their basketball coach $4 million/year.

 

[Confident Carl]

Hopefully KO will get it together. He knows the team needs time to learn how to play together under pressure against quality competition. The Arkansas beat down will create a wood shed moment for KO and the players. He is probably ok coming back from the PK80 1-2 because he knew how good MSU's bigs were. Beating #4 in the USA was not a realistic expectation at this stage of the teams development. They got out played by ARK in every aspect! KO's not stupid and understands what he's up against with all the new players. As he gets the correct rotation down, chemistry and rhythm will improve and shooting percentage will increase. Cobb is going to make a difference when he gets over the high ankle sprain. We'll most likely be 6-2 going into the Cuse game at the Garden. Depending on the outcome we are either 7-2 or 6-3. Then Copin State followed by Arizona, Auburn and Wichita State. If KO and his guys end up 9-4 after that stretch, we're gonna be okay and a lot of the concern will go away for a while.

Today was the worst and most embarrassing loss I can recalll in the modern era for Uconn basketball. I gave Ollie slack last year because of all the injuries. I am not ready to give up on him yet. Let's see where we are after the Wichita State game.

 

[Walker11]

Saying that UConn shouldn't fire Ollie because "who else would they hire?" is a bad argument by itself.

It becomes a dreadful argument when you add in the fact that they can pay their basketball coach $4 million/year.

Serious, not trolling. Can we? We are getting chump change from the AAC, huge budget crisis, prospective big time buy out for KO, our football coach just got hired for the paltry sum of 1mm. per year (extenuating circumstances to be fair). Where does the money come from? Boosters?

 

[UConn990411]

Serious, not trolling. Can we? We are getting chump change from the AAC, huge budget crisis, prospective big time buy out for KO, our football coach just got hired for the paltry sum of 1mm. per year (extenuating circumstances to be fair). Where does the money come from? Boosters?

It's not trolling.

For the record, my position is they should give Ollie through next season to turn around his own mess (provided this season isn't a complete disaster), but I find it weird that people think there's no hope UConn can land a good basketball coach ever again.

Lots of mid-major programs have much better coaches, and UConn's athletic department has about double the budget of most of them.

 

[Javjudah]

UCONN men's basketball coaching job is not a very attractive job at this juncture and its not one many will accept. We play in a terrible conference, UCONN is located in the cow pasture... no top recruit will want to play for UCONN at this Juncture unless Ollie's diamond in the rough start producing and he send players to the NBA. The schools that are having success in the AAC are Cincinnati and SMU. Larry Brown is a legend and laid a great foundation before he left. Mick Cronin has longevity and success. Rome wasn't built in a day, our only chance to not be a complete dumpster is to have Ollie pull us through this tough cycle.

 

[Stainmaster]

I'm not missing the point. Your'e just wrong. Your perception that UConn is not the job it used to be is largely valid. Your argument that UConn doesn't have the same pull as URI is stupid.

Maybe Hurley leaves for the ACC/B1G, maybe he comes to UConn for a few years and then leaves for the ACC/B1G.

The overlap between coaches who are better than Kevin Ollie, and coaches that would come to UConn is far larger than you want to admit. If other programs in the AAC can find coaches to win the conference, we can too. It's moronic to suggest otherwise.

If it were UConn or URI in a binary choice situation, then of course we would have more pull. I also don't think it's unreasonable to assume that Hurley will be one of the most in-demand candidates on the market next March, for many of the same reasons he is so appealing to posters here.

What you are missing is that I don't think the quality of coach on the market should have anything to do with whether or not he is kept. I am fine with him losing his job regardless of what is on the other end.

Looking at the coaches in this conference, save for Cronin (who was hired into the Big East and has spent ten years at his current school), the vast majority are retreads and P5 washouts who are not competing on a year-to-year basis, thanks to extreme inconsistency in recruitment and development of talent. If that is the new goal, then great. However, even the top echelon of AAC coaches look bad in OOC competition and flame out early in the postseason. So expecting a distinct improvement from what we have currently from "coaches who would beat other AAC coaches" seems to make little sense to me.

 

[Stainmaster]

Saying that UConn shouldn't fire Ollie because "who else would they hire?" is a bad argument by itself.

It becomes a dreadful argument when you add in the fact that they can pay their basketball coach $4 million/year.

Who's still making that argument?

 

[UConn990411]

Who's still making that argument?

Please see page 1 of this thread.

 

[Shabazzkets]

What we need is the next Calhoun. Not someone who played for Calhoun...but a guy who is going to come in here determined to build UConn into a dominant force, whose personality is going to drive the program forward, who will go out and recruit and develop NBA talent.

Is that easy to find? No. But there's a reason UConn was a relative unknown on the college basketball landscape before Calhoun. It's a really tough place to win at, especially now when the team has to traverse the country just to play its road schedule in a crappy conference that will never get any respect from the committee.

I don't know how much 4 titles means to recruits or coaches out there. Everyone is trying to look forward. And what they see in UConn's future isn't all that bright right now.

 

[Stainmaster]

What we need is the next Calhoun. Not someone who played for Calhoun...but a guy who is going to come in here determined to build UConn into a dominant force, whose personality is going to drive the program forward, who will go out and recruit and develop NBA talent.

Is that easy to find? No. But there's a reason UConn was a relative unknown on the college basketball landscape before Calhoun. It's a really tough place to win at, especially now when the team has to traverse the country just to play its road schedule in a crappy conference that will never get any respect from the committee.

I don't know how much 4 titles means to recruits or coaches out there. Everyone is trying to look forward. And what they see in UConn's future isn't all that bright right now.

Calhoun is the greatest basketball coach in the history of the sport. Nobody else has replicated what he did in building UConn up, and it's safe to say nobody ever will again.

 

[BlueMAB]

So expecting a distinct improvement from what we have currently from "coaches who would beat other AAC coaches" seems to make little sense to me.

Fine you think Ollie should be canned, but if you don't think we can find a coach that can do better than 5th in the AAC then do us all a favor and stop posting in discussions on the head coach, because you're just making losing worse by arguing that we can't find anyone to do better.

You keep saying we don't have any pull, but we have more pull than anyone in the conference, so we should be at least able to compete to win the conference in the regular season.

 

[Allbite]

Bottom line, he's most likely gone only if they don't make the tournament. And we only need to wait until the end of the year because they are not making the tournament.

 

[KodiacKemba]

Do y’all see what Michigan State doing to UNC

 

[Allbite]

Hopefully KO will get it together. He knows the team needs time to learn how to play together under pressure against quality competition. The Arkansas beat down will create a wood shed moment for KO and the players. He is probably ok coming back from the PK80 1-2 because he knew how good MSU's bigs were. Beating #4 in the USA was not a realistic expectation at this stage of the teams development. They got out played by ARK in every aspect! KO's not stupid and understands what he's up against with all the new players. As he gets the correct rotation down, chemistry and rhythm will improve and shooting percentage will increase. Cobb is going to make a difference when he gets over the high ankle sprain. We'll most likely be 6-2 going into the Cuse game at the Garden. Depending on the outcome we are either 7-2 or 6-3. Then Copin State followed by Arizona, Auburn and Wichita State. If KO and his guys end up 9-4 after that stretch, we're gonna be okay and a lot of the concern will go away for a while.

Today was the worst and most embarrassing loss I can recalll in the modern era for Uconn basketball. I gave Ollie slack last year because of all the injuries. I am not ready to give up on him yet. Let's see where we are after the Wichita State game.

They are not making the tournament. Period.

 

[UConnDan97]

Do y’all see what Michigan State doing to UNC

Apparently they're a pretty good team.

I've said it before in another thread; the issue for me today was the mentality and energy level of the kids. If they get that right, we can still battle with the big boys. The youngsters have to grow, and the elders have to lead...

 

[Walker11]

It's not trolling.

For the record, my position is they should give Ollie through next season to turn around his own mess (provided this season isn't a complete disaster), but I find it weird that people think there's no hope UConn can land a good basketball coach ever again.

Lots of mid-major programs have much better coaches, and UConn's athletic department has about double the budget of most of them.

I meant me. I'm not trolling. I agree with the entirety of your post. Just curious about the compensation issue.

 

[mauconnfan]

Apparently they're a pretty good team.

I've said it before in another thread; the issue for me today was the mentality and energy level of the kids. If they get that right, we can still battle with the big boys. The youngsters have to grow, and the elders have to lead...

Hmmm don't you dare try to make any sense out this 2 day debacle, it's concerning to me Dan

 

[mauconnfan]

Do y’all see what Michigan State doing to UNC

Yep and if they don't fire Roy Williams tonight the AD should be let go.

 

[Allbite]

Yep and if they don't fire Roy Williams tonight the AD should be let go.

NC will make the tournament. Uconn will not.

 

[KodiacKemba]

Yep and if they don't fire Roy Williams tonight the AD should be let go.

Lmao

 

[ZenConn]

LOL @ these responses.

We've had the following names:

Matt Lottich, Erick Konkol, Steve Pikiell, Danny Hurley, Pitino. Really? 3 of them ain't coming here.

How about we throw out Diaco's name into the mix? The OP has a point, there's no replacement especially 5 games into the season. Let's ride this out and acess at the end of the year.

We've had a number of wtf losses over the year but due to the talent level on this team, the point differential is going to make it worse than years before.

I hope KO holds a practice at midnight like JC did after a loss like this.

 

[ZenConn]

Ollie is bleeding us to death. I don't care if we use a generic band aid to stop it.

You mean a coach like Bob Diaco?

 

[BUConn10]

Love love love this post! KO was handed a mess when he started..and being in the AAC does not help recruiting. Kids want exposure and the top recruits see that the AAC does not get respect. All these so called fans saying fire KO are irrational trolls.

Ok.

But what about the actual, you know, basketball being played on the court?

 

[BUConn10]

Do 4 National Titles really mean NOTHING to a potential coach? And not 4 National titles in the 70s, all since 1999?

I understand losing Big Monday and MSG/BET is devastating, but could you imagine a school that won 4 National Titles in football since 1999 not being somewhat attractive to a COMPETENT head coach? I can't.

Yes, I think we are overstating our recent loss of value as a brand and program a little bit here, but the concern is valid.

 

[TitleTown]

Matt Lottich Valparaiso's coach, Erick Konkol Lousian Tech's head coach, and Steve Pikiell would be 3 I would interview

All good choices. I would add Nick McDevitt UNC-Ashville and King Rice Monmouth to that list.