Geno on KO

[fatlucy]

I think KO can be as good or even better than JC, and I don't say that lightly. He's still battling the effects of the recruiting restrictions he had nothing to do with, combined by a recruiting drop off by JC a couple years before that. Ollie will have his own team in 2-3 years and then we can judge him.

 

[Paesano]

Wasn't that... you? Not "people"?

And the reason your hypothetical was irritating was because we never actually were in that much danger of missing the tournament. Regardless of what Lunardi and Palm thought. So this was just scaremongering and pessimism.

You are pretty good at saying stuff that isn't true. First, you have no way of proving we would have gotten in had we lost to cinci. You don't know what the commitee would have done no matter how much you say you do. Second, I was not the only one thinking we could miss a second year straight and wondering what should be done if it happened again. Nice try though. Maybe you can get more frat brothers to jump in and help you sell this narrative. Sometimes this board reminds me of a trump rally.

By the way, I'm glad my hypothetical irritated you. How damaged do you have to be to be irritated by a hypothetical?

 

[tzznandrew]

I think KO can be as good or even better than JC, and I don't say that lightly.

Here is the list of head coaches who have as many, or more, NCAA titles in the 64 team era:

Coach K

Every other coach either won all them in a different era (Wooden, Rupp) or won at least one of theirs in that previous era (2 for Knight).

I like the optimism here, but Jim Calhoun was one of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball. That's not a fair measure to hold any coach to.

 

[Inyatkin]

I think KO can be as good or even better than JC, and I don't say that lightly. He's still battling the effects of the recruiting restrictions he had nothing to do with, combined by a recruiting drop off by JC a couple years before that. Ollie will have his own team in 2-3 years and then we can judge him.

Like when he brought in Napier, Lamb, Boatright, Daniels, Drummond -- those guys?

 

[Leebo]

Second, I was not the only one thinking we could miss a second year straight and wondering what should be done if it happened again.

At least you acknowledge that you were involved, and not mysterious "people".

The frat comments are amusing... what kind of flailing is that?

I'm looking forward to hearing about the hypotheticals about missing the '17, '18, and '19 tournaments.

 

[Paesano]

To the guy that proved he can cut and paste just like a second grader in today's tech saavy world, yes, everthing is on the head coach. If the program succeeds, he deserves the credit. If the program struggles to make the tournament, he deserves the blame. It goes both ways, ALWAYS. If this team is a top 10 team next year and makes it to the final four, the coach deserves the credit. If they are a bubble team again, people will question him. That is how is goes in a world of grown ups where people are held accountable for the things they are responsible for.

And this notion that it is ok for the team to be on the bubble every year so long as they turn it on in the post season is insanity. Excellence is a habit. You can construct practices to peak in March but in no way does that imply the team has to be so bad in the regular season that they are a mediocre team in a mediocre conference. It is insane to think it is impossible to win it all in the same year you dominate in a top conference. See UConn teams under Calhoun and especially those first two championship teams. They were nowhere near the bubble. Hell, even the 2011 team was nowhere near the bubble.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

3) 2-pt jumpers. Hamilton and Adams love these. They need to go away and Ollie needs to ram this down their throats. Take a 3 or go to the rim and get fouled. These are almost always bad shots. There's a reason Hamilton is shooting 42% from 2-pt land despite being 6'7.

Hamilton is shooting 32% from 3.

And I find this comment surprising given that the message from Ollie the last few weeks regarding Hamilton has been precisely the opposite.

But I guess i just find posters who deign to "give credit" to the coach for certain things to be insufferable.

 

[CL82]

I'm with KO win or tie.

Probably not tie though, right Pal?

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

You're misunderstanding. I'm saying we don't know what he's doing, but that we should respect him enough to believe that he has a strategy, and he's not just mailing it in until March. Unless you're there every day, and we aren't, you can't know what's really going on.

Fair enough. I was very critical of KO but I never wanted him fired. Posters saying that stuff is crap. But he deserved a lot of criticism this year.

I trust him to figure things out. But if his big picture strategy involves losing 5 or 6 winnable games in the regular season then count me out. We paid for it with out bracket.

Also, just as posters shouldn't call for his head after one season, one 3 game win streak in the AAC tourney just doesn't just erase the other 30 games. It doesn't justify finishing 6th in a mediocre conference.

 

[LIUCHusky]

Specific coaching failures this season that Ollie could be rightly criticized for:

1) Not playing more up-tempo during the season. We were 298th / 351 in pace (252nd longest offensive possession length) this season. We often essentially play 4 guards and a center who wins the team's annual race. Inexcusable. If we had a really efficient half-court offense, sure, slow it down. But it's obvious to everyone we don't.

2) We're leading the nation in FT%*, but we never draw fouls. He hasn't taught the guards how to draw contact or go into the body. We don't have a single player in the top 500 of the country in fouls drawn per 40 minutes. Hamilton should be going to the line on like 1/4 of our possessions. This would take us from a mediocre offense to a good offense just like that.

3) 2-pt jumpers. Hamilton and Adams love these. They need to go away and Ollie needs to ram this down their throats. Take a 3 or go to the rim and get fouled. These are almost always bad shots. There's a reason Hamilton is shooting 42% from 2-pt land despite being 6'7.

4) We need to defend the 3-pt arc better. We do a great job of denying in the paint and having shot blocking and all that, but 3-pt shots can be highly efficient, and when you take away 2s but give opponents good 3's, that's not always a great trade-off.

5) Shonn Miller is our most effective scorer. This became obvious by at least the halfway point in the season. He still only takes the 3rd most shots when he's on the court. Get him the ball!

*I will praise him for teaching foul shooting. Hamilton's improvement in this regard is incredible and this has now become a pattern that is certainly attributable to him.

Auror,

Don't mean to nit pick but regarding Hamilton getting to the line 1 in 4 possessions, he would on average get to the line 17 times per game based on our averaging 68+ possessions per game. LOL.

 

[Catsailor]

To the guy that proved he can cut and paste just like a second grader in today's tech saavy world, yes, everthing is on the head coach. If the program succeeds, he deserves the credit. If the program struggles to make the tournament, he deserves the blame. It goes both ways, ALWAYS. If this team is a top 10 team next year and makes it to the final four, the coach deserves the credit. If they are a bubble team again, people will question him. That is how is goes in a world of grown ups where people are held accountable for the things they are responsible for.

And this notion that it is ok for the team to be on the bubble every year so long as they turn it on in the post season is insanity. Excellence is a habit. You can construct practices to peak in March but in no way does that imply the team has to be so bad in the regular season that they are a mediocre team in a mediocre conference. It is insane to think it is impossible to win it all in the same year you dominate in a top conference. See UConn teams under Calhoun and especially those first two championship teams. They were nowhere near the bubble. Hell, even the 2011 team was nowhere near the bubble.

Your premise is simplistic. Life including basketball is more complicated. Responsibility for Success and failure is a shared responsibility in any team effort. Even second graders know this is true. You really should take a chill pill and be extra careful getting off your soap box, if you ever do.
Ouch on your nasty retort.

 

[Paesano]

Your premise is simplistic. Life including basketball is more complicated. Responsibility for Success and failure is a shared responsibility in any team effort. Even second graders know this is true. You really should take a chill pill and be extra careful getting off your soap box, if you ever do.
Ouch on your nasty retort.

Boo hoo. The leader picks his advisors/assistants. He and/or they pick their team. Then they mentor and train that team. If the program succeeds it is because the leader picked the right assistants, picked the right team members and mentored and trained them properly. If it fails, it is because the leader failed somewhere along the line. Call it simplistic if that makes you feel better but it is reality and anyone that wants to be the big guy in charge has to put on his big boy pants and be accountable. It is difficult but that is why there aren't a lot of great ones. And, if you are a great one, you get the glory. It swings both ways. Calhoun was a great one. Coach K is a great one (that hurts to say). Wooden was a great one, squared. Geno is a great one, squared.

 

[intlzncster]

yes, everthing is on the head coach. If the program succeeds, he deserves the credit. If the program struggles to make the tournament, he deserves the blame. It goes both ways, ALWAYS. If this team is a top 10 team next year and makes it to the final four, the coach deserves the credit. If they are a bubble team again, people will question him. That is how is goes in a world of grown ups where people are held accountable for the things they are responsible for.

Problem is, that is a patently false statement. The best coaches of their generations will tell you that it's ultimately on the players to improve, succeed and win. Coaches put players in a position to succeed (by teaching and coaching); whether they do or not, at the end of the day, is on them, as they do the work. As Belichick says, "players play. it's a players game. they deserve the credit." JC has expressed similar sentiments.


It's not as if coaches are puppet master pulling the strings of marionettes from the sidelines.

 

[auror]

Auror,

Don't mean to nit pick but regarding Hamilton getting to the line 1 in 4 possessions, he would on average get to the line 17 times per game based on our averaging 68+ possessions per game. LOL.

Maybe slight hyperbole haha.

Hamilton is shooting 32% from 3.

And I find this comment surprising given that the message from Ollie the last few weeks regarding Hamilton has been precisely the opposite.

But I guess i just find posters who deign to "give credit" to the coach for certain things to be insufferable.

Not sure what you're saying here. But 32% on a 3 is a significantly better shot than 40% on a deep 2.

 

[J187Money]

Boo hoo. The leader picks his advisors/assistants. He and/or they pick their team. Then they mentor and train that team. If the program succeeds it is because the leader picked the right assistants, picked the right team members and mentored and trained them properly. If it fails, it is because the leader failed somewhere along the line. Call it simplistic if that makes you feel better but it is reality and anyone that wants to be the big guy in charge has to put on his big boy pants and be accountable. It is difficult but that is why there aren't a lot of great ones. And, if you are a great one, you get the glory. It swings both ways. Calhoun was a great one. Coach K is a great one (that hurts to say). Wooden was a great one, squared. Geno is a great one, squared.

They try and pick a team. But the team picks them. If you can't get what you want you get what you can. Sometimes the players aren't good enough. And you can't spend enough time with them to know everything about them either.

And I'm pretty sure KO doesn't teach people to double dribble at half court with under a minute remaining. So not EVERYTHING is on the coaches.

 

[Paesano]

Problem is, that is a patently false statement. The best coaches of their generations will tell you that it's ultimately on the players to improve, succeed and win. Coaches put players in a position to succeed (by teaching and coaching); whether they do or not, at the end of the day, is on them, as they do the work. As Belichick says, "players play. it's a players game. they deserve the credit." JC has expressed similar sentiments.


It's not as if coaches are puppet master pulling the strings of marionettes from the sidelines.

No, it isn't false and using the word "patently" doesn't make it so. The great coaches deflect the glory to their players and take the blame when there is blame because that is what great leaders do. But the reality is that a program's success always depends on the coach. Again, if he has players that execute, choose to work on their game and are a positive impact on their team it is because he chose them. If they fail, he chose them. The above poster suggested that he may not always get his first choices and may have to settle. That is true. And if you can't or won't cheat your arse off like some of these guys do then, yeah, you might have a bad season now and then. But if you have several bad seasons in a row, you have failed too much on the recruiting trail. Calhoun had an occasional crappy team but they were few and far between because he recruited the right guys more often than not. That, plus picking good assistants plus being a good developer of talent is why he was a great coach.

 

[BlueDogs]

Can .8 seconds in time really change everything? Apparently, yes. Fans may be fickle, but the hand of fate is more so.

 

[80shusky]

Right behind KO on this one. There are times when I scratch my head and wonder why he makes certain substitutions or doesn't take a timeout when it seems like one would help. I think given turning over the program from a hall of fame coach who built the program things could have been much much worse. Ollie clearly recruits well. His kids seem to believe in him and that is half the battle. He will learn more of the Xs and Os as he gains more experience and just get better. Experienced coaches who have all the advantages in the world don't win national championships every year have question marks too. Bill Self, Roy Williams, Cal etc. manage some consistency because of where they coach and how they recruit from those high perches. It takes time to build that consistency. KO hasn't had time yet to build that but took a team with no postseason and coached them to 20 wins, won a National Championship, had a disappointing year and then won 24 more games this year and a tournament championship. That looks like decent progression to me to developing into a great coach. The next part would be to start winning our league consistently and making the dance almost every year without the end of season hand wringing. I think that is coming. I'd like to see a win tomorrow and then see what happens next. I'm behind KO all the way no matter what and Go Huskies!

 

[jayteeman]

JC picked KO....who are these people who speak as if he needed their advice......

 

[David 76]

I love the theme that question's Ollie effort and engagement in some or parts of the games. Brilliant!

 

[Catsailor]

JC (coach) picks KO (coach) who picks players willing to pick UConn, who don't measure up to one posters standards, for whatever reason, not winning enough games to escape bubble talk.....or whatever.

Since it's all on the coach.... is JC now crap and get kicked out of the HOF (roll eyes)

Just curious how the convoluted logic of that poster applies here, you know how the spin room sees it.

 

[Paesano]

JC (coach) picks KO (coach) who picks players willing to pick UConn, who don't measure up to one posters standards, for whatever reason, not winning enough games to escape bubble talk.....or whatever.

Since it's all on the coach.... is JC now crap and get kicked out of the HOF (roll eyes)

Just curious how the convoluted logic of that poster applies here, you know how the spin room sees it.

Just wondering, do you have a clue that what you said makes no sense and you are basically making crap up to create a straw man that never existed? Any clue at all?

First, Calhoun is in the HOF for his work as a head coach and not for his work on strong arming an AD to hire his choice as a successor. If KO ultimately fails to become a great coach with a great resume then, yeah, Calhoun will have proven he should never have been an AD. But, again, that has nothing to do with his work as a head coach sooooooo...nice try.

Second, it is the program, not the players, that have not been up to standards that many, not one, poster have for said program. Again, nice try. The players are what they are. The player choices are on the coach as well as what he does with them and what the assistants, he has also chosen, does with them. It is about the program and every dimension of the program points back to the head coach. Really, it isn't that difficult of a concept. But it is a difficult job. And if KO creates a great and long lasting program, he will deserve all the credit in the world for doing so.

 

[UC990411]

Fact of the matter is, there's a contingent of folks who cannot control their emotions when this team is not performing up to expectations. There are countless examples of posts this year after a loss where the criticism crosses over into petulant whining about how inexperienced and overpaid this Kevin Ollie guy is. And I'm sure those folks will come in here and waffle and say they were so level headed about it all, but Geno is absolutely correct. And also, this thread is a real treat - thanks to @UC990411 for keeping it fresh all year.

Just want it to be known that I was at the AAC tourney, and I like how we finished the season and the upside we have next year. Let's just hope we sweep Houston and Tulsa and are a +6 seed next year instead of a 9. Keep on killin it KO, you're our guy.