Honeymoon is over

[superjohn]

We all love Ollie but he just isn't doing a very good job with this group this year. We have shown some flashes of good play but haven't played a 40 minute game once this year and instead of seeing improvements we seem to be regressing. Not sure what we are doing in practice but whatever it is nothing seems to be working. I know it's early in the season but I'm pretty dejected right now.

 

[EricLA]

I sadly agree with the team regressing. They have gotten worse, not better. It's very frustrating. I know it's just 3 losses, but suddenly it feels like we are a bubble team.

 

[uconngb]

I sadly agree with the team regressing. They have gotten worse, not better. It's very frustrating. I know it's just 3 losses, but suddenly it feels like we are a bubble team.

we have aspirations of being a bubble team, let's be honest. almost every conference game will result in a drop in our RPI no matter what the result.

 

[UCDaveD]

Catchy sayings and one-liners are great, but that isn't what he's getting paid for....

 

[Jerry1714]

They have not been good all year, they struggled to beat a 4-10 BC team by 1, shoould have lost to a very average IU team, these poor performances are nothing new, the team is not very good. This SMU game is not an upset, they are clearly the better team

 

[UChusky916]

Lets just hope we sneak into the tourney and make an early round upset.

Can't believe how poorly this team has regressed. Lack of rebounding and post-game is demoralizing to the team.

 

[fortebleedsblue]

The team is absolutely regressing. Player skill is getting less and less fundamental... But we do have behind the back passes, no look throws and street ball dribbling, and three on one plays, there is no denying that. It's pretty obvious the style of BBall KO has brought to UConn... Street ball

 

[UConn990411]

Aside from Giffey (sort of) and Nolan (a little), did anyone on this team improve from last season?

You really have to question why not.

 

[Thirty Three]

How about learning to call a timeout when your defense is sucking wind instead of letting your team get down 13 with 2 minutes left??? Seven minute mark gave up an ally oop while the defense was sleeping which put smu up about ten and got the crowd going wild, no timeout. Give up a couple wide open threes, no timeout. Let smu run out for a dunk with no one getting back, no timeout. Now you're down 13 with 2minutes left and almost no chance to win. It doesnt take a hall of fame coach to know you need to call a f&cking time out at some point instead of just giving up and letting the game get away from you. WTF???

 

[blackbird]

I like Ollie, but there are things that this team needs to improve on.

We need a set rotation. That'll help chemistry.

We need to run plays. Actual plays. Plays to get players shots other than Boat and Bazz.

We need to play better defense. I have seen improvement in the boxing out area, and the truth is this is a small team and rebounding will be hard. But there still needs to be more effort there. It's cute that Bazz is leading the team in rebounds. But he shouldn't be.

Ollie needs to start treating Giffey like he's the second best player on the team. Because he's the second best player on the team. He's an excellent defender. The team plays better when he's in. And he needs more shots. Stop the quick hooks and run some plays for him. He's the most likely individual to help out Bazz, so give him that opportunity.

Practice some passing, ball movement, screening (off ball) and player movement drills. Seriously, do middle school fundamental just to make the point. These guys are a elite college players, and it's inexcusable.

 

[SaeHusky]

We do need some sort of set rotation at this point

 

[Kitaman]

He still gets two more years for me. One because he is still coaching JC recruits, he really doesn't have a strong cast and also because he IS new.

In 2015, he will be coaching his team, no leftovers and all players recruited for his coaching philosophy.

Can we be a little more patient?

 

[babysheep]

He still gets two more years for me. One because he is still coaching JC recruits, he really doesn't have a strong cast and also because he IS new.

In 2015, he will be coaching his team, no leftovers and all players recruited for his coaching philosophy.

Can we be a little more patient?

I think evaluating after the 15-16 season would be fair. PN and Omar will be seniors, AB, TS and Facey will be juniors, DHam and Rock will be sophomores, and Prince will have finished his first year. By then I think we will have a good idea of how his long-term plan has worked out, as well as long-term development of HIS players.

 

[champs99and04]

When UConn extended Ollie, they committed to him as the future of the program. It's funny though that the same ones that were bashing Warde for taking the wait-and-see approach are now the people who want a second year coach to have everything figured out.

 

[Deepster]

What's funny is how long it took JC to win a final four....but if Ollie doesn't have us on pace to win a title a third of the way through year two???? He's not the guy!!

He's a UConn guy. He's committed to the school. He ties the eras together where we still have JC, Ray Allen, Kemba, et al as part of the family. He is showing promise in a large chunk of what you need to do to be successful. Let's be glad we are in the situation we are in. Even with a couple of losses.

 

[Cassius Klaiber]

I agree that Ollie has made some questionable coaching choices, but I'm not going to pretend that I (or most people here) know more about basketball than he does. A lot of it comes down to recruiting - not many D1 coaches would do much better given the front court he inherited. If he's able to bring in impact bigs, KO will be able to add new aspects to the coaching game. If he only attracts shooters, the offense, and thus results, likely won't change greatly.

I think KO has a ton of potential to go along with his faults. Hey, better to hit the bumpy roads now than discover the problems in March, right?

 

[joober jones]

I'm not going to blame Ollie unless I somehow find out that he's telling his bigs to avoid weights like the plague.

 

[ZenConn]

Notice these won/loss records?

Season 1:
9–19 (3–13 in conference)

Season 2:
20–14 (4–12 in conference)

Season 3:
18–13 (6–10 in conference)

If the board existed then, we'd be looking for an annulment from Coach Calhoun in December.
Let's give Coach Ollie some time here ....

 

[RM99]

Does anyone remember JC's first year? We lost to Yale, and lost two players because of grades. It's a good thing he stayed around. Give Ollie a chance.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Notice these won/loss records?

Season 1:
9–19 (3–13 in conference)

Season 2:
20–14 (4–12 in conference)

Season 3:
18–13 (6–10 in conference)

If the board existed then, we'd be looking for an annulment from Coach Calhoun in December.
Let's give Coach Ollie some time here ....

I think we all agree the Uconn JC took over in 1986 is ABSOLUTLEY nothing like the program KO inherited last year. The expectations are incredibly higher and he will, and should, have a much shorter rope.

 

[rw005]

Blaming Ollie is a moot point, we need to improve on all facets, with driving into the lane and getting into the opposing player's head and making them take bad shots or bad decisions in passing, just watching some of the highlights, it looks like we got caught with our pants down, either stop this or finding ourselves at the bottom of the AAC.

It's bad enough when we see our players chucking shots and having faces like "Did I get it in?" "Oh man I think I got it." or on Breakaway dunks... "Wow, nice."

 

[Scoe]

Everyone is to blame including Ollie and including Shabazz. I don't remember being on a honey moon, I wouldn't call a tourney ban a honey moon.

 

[Northbound]

I think we all agree the Uconn JC took over in 1986 is ABSOLUTLEY nothing like the program KO inherited last year. The expectations are incredibly higher and he will, and should, have a much shorter rope.

This is absolutely correct. JC took over a "program" that could be argued wasn't as good at the time as what he had created at Northeatern, but it was clear that UCONN had a tremendous about of growth potential (state school, conference affiliation, etc.). Now with three national titles on the shelf it's a significantly different set of expectations and latitude. Now it's not about building, it's about maintaining and not regressing. Similar challenge to what Dorethy (sp?) had at UNC that didn't work out so well, I'm hopeful that UCONN will be different.

I'm not saying bad hire in the least, I'm still at the point I was last year and that's a wait and see, while supporting approach. However I didn't chuckle when people seriously talked final four and that was to me proven even when the team was 11-0 because there was nothing in those games that showed me that this was close to a complete team or a team that could realistically expected to beat the top tier teams on a regular basis. Was it possible, yes, probable, no.

 

[Athlete94]

This team has shown nothing from last year. Last years team really played with a chip on its shoulder, and was very gritty. This year has been very disappointing in many areas. It's hard to create more of an offense other than ball screens when there isn't much to go with other than Boat, Bazz and occasionally DD. This team on the interior scares nobody and I think Ollie realizes that so he's trying to do the best with what he has. Having said that, UCONN needs a big man now, so hit the JUCO ranks for a top dog that can apply a band aid until one of our current Bigs gets a clue. UCONN can't finish near the bottom of the league or we'll be in trouble even with a solid crew coming in next year. Remember the old UCONN teams that pressed and had that big man back waiting to swat your shot if you broke through the first and second wall of the press?wheres that been?

 

[gtcam]

Maybe its time for the "consultant" Coach Calhoun to step in and ring a few bells and "mentor" KO a bit