OT: Give Kevin Ollie Credit

[Doctor Hoop]

That purple suit he wore all of one time.

Just playing off plumb, as in plumb bob, vs. plum, as in purple.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

KO in years 1 and 2 had it all going right. The students loved him and he had a confident swagger.

Especially coming off the 10th tee.

 

[socal613ws]

I'd take him over Hurley, at least he knew how to coach

 

[Chief00]

In hindsight (how convenient), the two questions that should be asked about KO - was he ready to run a MAJOR program? (No) and was he ready to be the guy to follow/manage JC? (absolutely NO!). His personal situation was some part cause and some part effect to his ultimate demise. But he was over his head from Day 1. When JC's recruits left, it. became painfully obvious.

Kevin Ollie without a divorce doesn't change this.

Let’s be fair, JC players left because the team went on post season probation in 2013. Remarkably he coach them to a Championship a year later.
You are free to feel that a contentious divorce with children, accusations and money involved is a non event in someone’s life. I beg to differ. This is not to say he didn’t make mistakes, but rather Chief is fine with closing that chapter of his life and not letting it define KO in my eyes. Honestly, my most important take away today is that KO is a good dad, he has a great relationship with his kids. That tells me more about him, than various posts here from the usual Glen Miller crew.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

I'd take him over Hurley, at least he knew how to coach

I’d say Ollie was a much better game coach but his inability to have a family of coaches with no dissension was a huge negative, not to mention recruiting falling off a cliff after Calhoun retired, and of course, and I don’t know if the whispers were true, not focusing on all of a coaches duties.

 

[socal613ws]

I’d say Ollie was a much better game coach but his inability to have a family of coaches with no dissension was a huge negative, not to mention recruiting falling off a cliff after Calhoun retired, and of course, and I don’t know if the whispers were true, not focusing on all of a coaches duties.

how much do you think that's playing in the American tho, if Uconn was in the Big East with Ollie I think the recruiting would have been better. It's the honest truth, the American draws no money. Houston has to have the best coachin possible and even then they get beat up by great teams

 

[Hoophound]

I’d say Ollie was a much better game coach but his inability to have a family of coaches with no dissension was a huge negative, not to mention recruiting falling off a cliff after Calhoun retired, and of course, and I don’t know if the whispers were true, not focusing on all of a coaches duties.

Ollie had a great run of in game coaching. However, having two point guards with the ability to take over a game on the floor at all times sure did help. I’m pretty sure if Bazz and Boat were our starting backcourt the last two years, we would have won some NCAA tournament games. Maybe, a lot of tournament games.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

how much do you think that's playing in the American tho, if Uconn was in the Big East with Ollie I think the recruiting would have been better. It's the honest truth, the American draws no money. Houston has to have the best coachin possible and even then they get beat up by great teams

Going on probation and Calhoun’s retirement hurt a lot more than changing leagues. The rumors about Ollie being involved in the recruiting violations hurt the most though.

 

[Chief00]

Going on probation and Calhoun’s retirement hurt a lot more than changing leagues. The rumors about Ollie being involved in the recruiting violations hurt the most though.

I wonder how many head coaches would survive a mole assistant coach in terms of recruiting violations?
At any rate, One lesson KO has hopefully learned is that when you are successful it doesn’t matter who else gets the credit - there’s enough to go around. After 2014 he would have benefited immensely from having Jim around. After what he went through since, was it really such a big deal that Jim was given so much credit for having “Calhoun’s Players” win the 2014 NC with KO? He got plenty of the credit too and he should have just enjoyed that fact, rather than feel disrespected for having to share that coaching credit.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

I wonder how many head coaches would survive a mole assistant coach in terms of recruiting violations?
At any rate, One lesson KO has hopefully learned is that when you are successful it doesn’t matter who else gets the credit - there’s enough to go around. After 2014 he would have benefited immensely from having Jim around. After what he went through since, was it really such a big deal that Jim was given so much credit for having “Calhoun’s Players” win the 2014 NC with KO? He got plenty of the credit too and he should have just enjoyed that fact, rather than feel disrespected for having to share that coaching credit.

The NBA phone was ringing off the hook, he should have answered it, his life from that point on would have been vastly different.

 

[Chief00]

The NBA phone was ringing off the hook, he should have answered it, his life from that point on would have been vastly different.

Perhaps, but he had a lot going on in his life overall and it’s tough having everything change at once.

 

[Improviser]

He had a lucrative long term contract at the time, and based on his NBA playing days, he knew NBA coaches come and go, albeit with higher starting salaries.

I guess he never figured things could go south so fast.

The good thing about terminated NBA coaches is that rarely do the owners haggle about payouts. Seems like the long line of Knicks coaches got good buyouts.

 

[Sonova]

Let’s be fair, JC players left because the team went on post season probation in 2013. Remarkably he coach them to a Championship a year later.
You are free to feel that a contentious divorce with children, accusations and money involved is a non event in someone’s life. I beg to differ. This is not to say he didn’t make mistakes, but rather Chief is fine with closing that chapter of his life and not letting it define KO in my eyes. Honestly, my most important take away today is that KO is a good dad, he has a great relationship with his kids. That tells me more about him, than various posts here from the usual Glen Miller crew.

That's a huge leap there Chief. I never said it was a non-event. I said that I don't believe it was the deciding factor in Kevin Ollie's success or failure as a coach at UConn. Its damn near impossible to go from an assistant to a high major head coach without ANY head coaching experience - even more so in this day and age (we'll see how Hubert Davis and Jon Scheyer pan out in the longer run). KO was put in that position with very little assistant coaching experience in general. Add in the exponentially difficult factor that KO wasn't very well prepared for managing JC (he still wanted to be very involved in the program), and I'm just saying he was the wrong choice from Day 1 - and I certainly give him credit for the National Championship. Btw, the players that I was referring to exiting, wasn't Oriaki and Roscoe. It was when JC's recruits (Lamb, Shabazz, etc) graduated.

Did his divorce hasten him being exposed? Sure. How couldn't it? And did winning a natty in year create an arrogance in KO that he thought he had more answers than he actually did? No question.

I just maintain he was over his head from day 1.

And while being a good dad is awesome, he threw the guy who was his mentor and who is the ONLY reason he got the job under the bus in public, played the race card, and otherwise burned every bridge he could at his alma mater. He also bad-mouthed JC's involvement when KO had "all the answers" to lots of folks within the athletic department. If that makes him a good guy in your book, have it.

 

[Tuna]

I still like the pullover look, heck its my attire with my company name on every color available. That way the boss can't tell whether I'm visiting clients or playing 18. (shorts are in the car)

I wear golf clothes to work everyday in the summer so my wife never knows if I'm going to work all day or to the golf course.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Ollie’s tenure boils down to one thing for me.

Playing in the American. He recruited well and won reasonably until that god awful injury year that led to a huge exodus with no recruits to replace his (I think?) top 5 2016 class. Our recruiting was rolling until that point with Hamilton, Adams, Gilbert and even picking up big time transfers like Purvis and Larrier.

Once the wheels came off though, boy.

 

[Chief00]

That's a huge leap there Chief. I never said it was a non-event. I said that I don't believe it was the deciding factor in Kevin Ollie's success or failure as a coach at UConn. Its damn near impossible to go from an assistant to a high major head coach without ANY head coaching experience - even more so in this day and age (we'll see how Hubert Davis and Jon Scheyer pan out in the longer run). KO was put in that position with very little assistant coaching experience in general. Add in the exponentially difficult factor that KO wasn't very well prepared for managing JC (he still wanted to be very involved in the program), and I'm just saying he was the wrong choice from Day 1 - and I certainly give him credit for the National Championship. Btw, the players that I was referring to exiting, wasn't Oriaki and Roscoe. It was when JC's recruits (Lamb, Shabazz, etc) graduated.

Did his divorce hasten him being exposed? Sure. How couldn't it? And did winning a natty in year create an arrogance in KO that he thought he had more answers than he actually did? No question.

I just maintain he was over his head from day 1.

And while being a good dad is awesome, he threw the guy who was his mentor and who is the ONLY reason he got the job under the bus in public, played the race card, and otherwise burned every bridge he could at his alma mater. He also bad-mouthed JC's involvement when KO had "all the answers" to lots of folks within the athletic department. If that makes him a good guy in your book, have it.

As I have said in various posts, KO’s made a fatally flawed move (Chief won’t even call it a decision since it was all emotion) when he did not want to share credit with Calhoun and made Jim feel unwelcome. Blaney leaving after year 1 also hurt. All that was followed by many mistakes by KO and quite frankly, a personal bad patch. At this point, Chief chooses to close the door on that era. It was true, GM was bad mouthing KO from within, so that added to the paranoia.

 

[Vancat]

I wear golf clothes to work everyday in the summer so my wife never knows if I'm going to work all day or to the golf course.

Is that you, Raymond?

 

[tentoes4rings]

I wonder how many head coaches would survive a mole assistant coach in terms of recruiting violations?
At any rate, One lesson KO has hopefully learned is that when you are successful it doesn’t matter who else gets the credit - there’s enough to go around. After 2014 he would have benefited immensely from having Jim around. After what he went through since, was it really such a big deal that Jim was given so much credit for having “Calhoun’s Players” win the 2014 NC with KO? He got plenty of the credit too and he should have just enjoyed that fact, rather than feel disrespected for having to share that coaching credit.

Despite the Dove commercial and a good public perceptions there was resentment between them in 2013 as well. I don’t know what caused it but Calhoun wasn’t complimentary of KO after the 13 season, I know this for a fact.

 

[August_West]

Going on probation and Calhoun’s retirement hurt a lot more than changing leagues. The rumors about Ollie being involved in the recruiting violations hurt the most though.

and yet he did nothing calhoun didnt ( there is 11 million reasons why Im right)

 

[Billy Bob]

DH take notice. 2 ball handlers have always been behind UConn's success.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

and yet he did nothing calhoun didnt ( there is 11 million reasons why Im right)

Did Calhoun offer a recruits grandmother $36,000 to finish the construction on her house?

 

[August_West]

Did Calhoun offer a recruits grandmother $36,000 to finish the construction on her house?

Did Ollie pay for a recruits Surgery?

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Did Ollie pay for a recruits Surgery?

Did Calhoun fly down to Atlanta to talk to a recruit during a dead period? Did Calhoun spend all his free time playing golf?

 

[tentoes4rings]

Did Calhoun get rid of a collection of long tenured championship assistants and replace them with a bunch of yes men clowns like Raphael Chillious?