If you were AD Dave, what would you do... ? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

If you were AD Dave, what would you do... ?

Team needs rebounding and interior players who can defend and are at least a threat to score.

Get a couple of those and we are fine.
 
You can be sure DB has spoken to JC, just like he talked to Edsall long before firing Diaco. JC knows what the problems are. We need better players.
 
Here is your answer:

List the last 4 national champions, then go take a nap.
 
superjohn said:
That's not at all true about Calhoun and it wouldn't be screwing over Ollie if he doesn't produce. He was handpicked by Calhoun with zero head-coaching experience and only a few years as an assistant. At this level it's produce or you're shown the door. The championship was awesome but he's made a real mess of things lately and needs to turn it around in a hurry.
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People like you are the problem.
 
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CalsNeighbor said:
People like you are the problem.
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How so? Is @superjohn responsible for the recruiting? the transfers? the wins/losses? The collapse of the Big East?

Are any of us?

Or do you just need to blame anyone to make yourself feel better about the current situation?

Pretty ironic to be lectured about reality by one poster, while another claims fans are the problem.
 
CalsNeighbor said:
People like you are the problem.
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Having three rotational players (frontcourt players) transfer leaving us with zero returning frontcourt players isn't a problem? Having our top recruit renege on his commitment leaving us with zero top 100 recruits isn't a problem? Having only two returning healthy players from last season isn't a problem?

Pointing out what's going on with the program isn't a problem. No nothing fans like you who have their head in the sand also isn't the problem but if your willfully ignorant to what's going on with the program you shouldn't consider yourself a fan.
 
Such strong emotions on this. I'll be more dispassionate, because I think we have to be.
  • He coached to a NC. That means something.
  • He signed a $17.9M deal last year. He's under contract until 2021. We can't afford to fire him if we wanted to.
  • He had no head coaching experience when he was hired, and only a brief stint as an assistant. In my view, he wasn't ready for a job of this magnitude and it shows.
  • His staff was essentially Calhoun holdovers and former players. He seems to have recognized that he needs his own guys.
  • This season involved both lousy coaching and preparation and horrible luck and injuries.
  • The program is on a downward trend that continued into this offseason.
  • Time is of the essence. We need an NCAA bid and top 25 ranking next year. Full stop. It is what UConn needs to remain in the conversation of major programs and to recruit going forward.
Net it out. We can't fire him until 2020 at soonest. Three years. If we even want to fire him then, we must be in poop so deep that it would take a miracle hire to get us out of it. It is vital that basketball is hitting on all cylinders and football is respectable in the early 2020's as realignment kicks off again. So if I'm AD Dave I give him every thing he needs to win. If that means dropping academic standards here or there, we do it. I also convey to him that we can't play the long game here. This is a win now situation.

So far I see this. A new assistant with a strong recruiting rep. A focus on bringing in experienced players for 2017-18, so far a JUCO and a defense minded SG. But there are others on the radar, more so than freshmen. I think the reason is obvious. Adams, Gilbert, Larrier are very good players, and we can win now if they are surrounded by complimentary guys who know how to play D, rebound and do the little things that make you win games. Work for a strong class in 2018 and we are back. It's the only recipe we have.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Such strong emotions on this. I'll be more dispassionate, because I think we have to be.
  • He coached to a NC. That means something.
  • He signed a $17.9M deal last year. He's under contract until 2021. We can't afford to fire him if we wanted to.
  • He had no head coaching experience when he was hired, and only a brief stint as an assistant. In my view, he wasn't ready for a job of this magnitude and it shows.
  • His staff was essentially Calhoun holdovers and former players. He seems to have recognized that he needs his own guys.
  • This season involved both lousy coaching and preparation and horrible luck and injuries.
  • The program is on a downward trend that continued into this offseason.
  • Time is of the essence. We need an NCAA bid and top 25 ranking next year. Full stop. It is what UConn needs to remain in the conversation of major programs and to recruit going forward.
Net it out. We can't fire him until 2020 at soonest. Three years. If we even want to fire him then, we must be in poop so deep that it would take a miracle hire to get us out of it. It is vital that basketball is hitting on all cylinders and football is respectable in the early 2020's as realignment kicks off again. So if I'm AD Dave I give him every thing he needs to win. If that means dropping academic standards here or there, we do it. I also convey to him that we can't play the long game here. This is a win now situation.

So far I see this. A new assistant with a strong recruiting rep. A focus on bringing in experienced players for 2017-18, so far a JUCO and a defense minded SG. But there are others on the radar, more so than freshmen. I think the reason is obvious. Adams, Gilbert, Larrier are very good players, and we can win now if they are surrounded by complimentary guys who know how to play D, rebound and do the little things that make you win games. Work for a strong class in 2018 and we are back. It's the only recipe we have.
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Are you sure about the details of the contract and all the contractual clauses? From my understanding if we have another season like this year his seat will be scorching hot.
 
For the record, I don't want Benedict to have to do anything but continue to build a path to P5 status. I want Ollie to succeed as much as anyone else. But he has to do better, or he will not deserve the job he has. It's not personal. Candidly, I'm sure he'd admit he expects more from himself and the program.
 
superjohn said:
Are you sure about the details of the contract and all the contractual clauses? From my understanding if we have another season like this year his seat will be scorching hot.
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Looks like we only pay him $600k if he is fired. So that isn't a big factor.
 
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AZHuskiePop said:
Thsts a great point ,given the conference situation who would come? A screwing over a guy who won a NC
We got JC because we were close to Boston and probably his last chance to get on a big stage. He was rejected by BC . Thst left only PC and us I believe they had Pitino.
The cure is to have a great 2017-18 but even then the narrative will switch back to KO going to the NBA
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Offer 3 million a year, they'll have options. Screwing over, come on. Asking to be a winning team in the AAC is too much to ask for??? Last few years Temple, Houston, SMU, and Cincy have passed UConn by as better teams.

Ollie currently only has two things going for him, a NC ring and a huge contract that I'm sure they wish they could take back. Reality, I know hes not going anywhere for at least three years regardless of how much he under performs.
 
I tend to give ollie some rope because of his injury plagued his team, I mean were people expecting a tourney team with what was trotted out there? Year before he won an NCAA tourney game. As far as the transfers , it's not like the best player transfered, maybe even his two best depending on how you view Gilbert. I expect he'll be in the tourney if he has all his players .

I would probably grade KO's first four years as a HC an A-/B+, he had one bad year and over achieved in the other three. Right now he's solidly in the B territory, I don't get the hot seat talk. This is a conversation for next summer IMO.
 
superjohn said:
Having three rotational players (frontcourt players) transfer leaving us with zero returning frontcourt players isn't a problem? Having our top recruit renege on his commitment leaving us with zero top 100 recruits isn't a problem? Having only two returning healthy players from last season isn't a problem?

Pointing out what's going on with the program isn't a problem. No nothing fans like you who have their head in the sand also isn't the problem but if your willfully ignorant to what's going on with the program you shouldn't consider yourself a fan.
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Here's the deal on the transfers. IF everyone remained healthy and all of these "transfers" had even less time due to better players than them getting more PT then what would everyone be up in arms for? because if all of our guys were healthy and they won 20-22 games and made the tourney those same guys were leaving anyway. No win situations with these kids sj, leave it alone they had their own issues to which they are dealing with their way!
 
mauconnfan said:
Here's the deal on the transfers. IF everyone remained healthy and all of these "transfers" had even less time due to better players than them getting more PT then what would everyone be up in arms for? because if all of our guys were healthy and they won 20-22 games and made the tourney those same guys were leaving anyway. No win situations with these kids sj, leave it alone they had their own issues to which they are dealing with their way!
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Only guessing, but that's what we do here. Enoch wanted to play more this year. Ollie wanted more D. He could have started in 17/18. Now he'll workout Pitinos crew in practices & deal with more playing time issues down the road. There's always somebody who wants your spot Steve.

MAL thought Jalen was leaving. Connection to Miller. Cooley gets in his ear.

Vance/dad. What can you do?

But Durham, who I really rooted hard for as a fan, owed Ollie more. Ollie kept him, rehabbed him, & got nothing in return. Just my observation.
 
Drown my sorrows in cheap win and cheap women. Suddenly college basketball won't seem as important.
 
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Chief00 said:
You're not serious? Celebrate winning when it happens - APR celebrations are for losing teams.
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APR losing is for teams heading down the probation road
Been there done that
I think the 100% is worth celebrating - too bad your idol JC didn't attain that level - some of the programs issue stem from things that did happen before KO took the wheel.
Before you say something stupid - you know I love JC and consider him the best coach in the last 50 years but he really didn't like to keep the operations drawer clean
 
James said:
I tend to give ollie some rope because of his injury plagued his team, I mean were people expecting a tourney team with what was trotted out there? Year before he won an NCAA tourney game. As far as the transfers , it's not like the best player transfered, maybe even his two best depending on how you view Gilbert. I expect he'll be in the tourney if he has all his players .

I would probably grade KO's first four years as a HC an A-/B+, he had one bad year and over achieved in the other three. Right now he's solidly in the B territory, I don't get the hot seat talk. This is a conversation for next summer IMO.
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One bad year and overachieved in the others? His best regular season was his first year with the bull APR ban. He kept them focused all year and they played with passion from the opening game until the last which was really impressive considering the postseason bans. His following regular season was just OK considering the talent we had and the league we play in but what he did in the tournament was amazing/historic. Since then it's two disappointing seasons and a disaster of a season followed by half the team leaving for other schools. He has had 5 seasons as head coach, first two good and next three pretty bad to worse.

I wouldn't feel so negative about things if you could see an upward trajectory but everything is going in the wrong direction right now.

I don't understand why so many people are assuming we are a tournament team next season? We return two healthy players who have played a full season, no returning frontcourt talent and a weak recruiting class. Gilbert is really good but is coming off two major shoulder injuries and only a couple of games as a college player, Larrier has talent but basically hasn't played games in a couple of years. If Jalen has a Kemba like junior year, Gilbert and Larrier are injury free and play like studs, we grab another good guard and two post players who can rebound and defend then we would/should have a good season. It's also asking a whole lot to break right. If Jalen and Larrier leave after another subpar season it will be frightening to think what our team and recruiting will look like.

Rooting like hell for Ollie to turn things around but he has a mess on his hands. Some posters here don't seem to want to recognize the reality of the situation. I also wish it was different but pretending things are fine won't make the reality of the situation go away.
 
James said:
I tend to give ollie some rope because of his injury plagued his team, I mean were people expecting a tourney team with what was trotted out there? Year before he won an NCAA tourney game. As far as the transfers , it's not like the best player transfered, maybe even his two best depending on how you view Gilbert. I expect he'll be in the tourney if he has all his players .

I would probably grade KO's first four years as a HC an A-/B+, he had one bad year and over achieved in the other three. Right now he's solidly in the B territory, I don't get the hot seat talk. This is a conversation for next summer IMO.
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I'd hardly consider 2016 an overachieving year. My grades:

2013: A-
2014: A- (B regular season, A+ postseason)
2015: C
2016: B- (a team with this talent should have been much, much better in the regular season)
2017: D+

Overall: B, and trending the wrong way
 
Tenspro2002 said:
I'd hardly consider 2016 an overachieving year. My grades:

2013: A-
2014: A- (B regular season, A+ postseason)
2015: C
2016: B- (a team with this talent should have been much, much better in the regular season)
2017: D+

Overall: B, and trending the wrong way
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How do you get an overall grade of A- for winning a championship in 2014???
 
BFieldHusky said:
How do you get an overall grade of A- for winning a championship in 2014???
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I was evaluating his coaching, which, if you bothered to read the rest of that line, was about worthy of a B during the regular season.

For the postseason, an A+. You can't get much higher than that.

Or would it only satisfy the cheerleaders on this board if I gave an A+++, with rainbow stickers?
 
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superjohn said:
If Jalen has a Kemba like junior year, Gilbert and Larrier are injury free and play like studs, we grab another good guard and two post players who can rebound and defend then we would/should have a good season. It's also asking a whole lot to break right. If Jalen and Larrier leave after another subpar season it will be frightening to think what our team and recruiting will look like.
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You're not wrong about a lot of this, but if the above happens, we aren't just good, we are a prime national championship contender.

That's what's crazy about next years team, the upside really is that, while it's also possible they miss the tournament.

A more up in the air season I can't remember.
 
gtcam said:
APR losing is for teams heading down the probation road
Been there done that
I think the 100% is worth celebrating - too bad your idol JC didn't attain that level - some of the programs issue stem from things that did happen before KO took the wheel.
Before you say something stupid - you know I love JC and consider him the best coach in the last 50 years but he really didn't like to keep the operations drawer clean
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Again, we only had APR sanctions due to a retroactive rule with a four year lookback. As I recall, we could have also obtained a 1,000 in the last year and we still wouldn't have avoid the retroactive sanction.
 
intlzncster said:
You're not wrong about a lot of this, but if the above happens, we aren't just good, we are a prime national championship contender.

That's what's crazy about next years team, the upside really is that, while it's also possible they miss the tournament.

A more up in the air season I can't remember.
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If it breaks right we will have a great three man core. We need some semblance of a frontcourt and we just don't have it yet. KO, Chill and Kill have to bring in a couple more pieces. It would totally suck to waste Jalen.
 
CL82 said:
Don't disagree, except for the notion that that the status quo ante wasn't an option for either.
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I agree that AD David Benedict likely told KO that some form of change would have to be made, but the difference is the football program needed to be blown up and completely overhauled from the ground up because of what Diaco, and to a lesser extent P, did. The basketball program is in another realm from that, it needed a few adjustments that were made and we need to recover from a season full of debilitating injuries.
 
I generally don't do too many long posts, but here goes. Until this offseason I've been pretty even-keeled about the direction of the program (at least compared to some other BYers) - our days of being a blue blood are probably over but we were not turning into a mid-major anytime soon. I pictured fielding a team comprised of recruits ranked 50-150 and that makes the tourney /spends time in the Top 25 more years than not. So maybe like a Cincy but with hopefully more tourney success (a low bar). As part of my view, I have been supportive of Ollie - an apologista I guess, even after what I thought was a truly horrific coaching job in '15/16. But no more. To state the obvious, although some people on this board still somehow refuse to acknowledge it, things are bad, really bad.

It took 27 years of deposits in the bank of brand equity to get our program to where it was, and we've withdrawn a lot of our savings much faster than I thought was possible. To me the key evidence is this: we really had 3 out of 4 guys transfer. Not 3 out of 8, since 4 of the returning guys were really stuck here (the 3 injured guys + JA). So we can rationalize it all we want (this one wanted more playing time, the other one's father sucks, etc.) but common sense tells you that if 75% of realistic transfers leave, all of whom would've played significant minutes, something is truly rotten. Even if this is wrong, perception is reality in recruiting and it must be shooting fish in a barrel to recruit vs. UConn these days. So what can be done by AD David Benedict and KO?

1.) KO needs to call in every favor he can this summer. We need to see Ray, Caron, Bazz, Boat, Rudy, Nate Miles (scratch that one) and all the great ambassadors of our program spending time in Storrs and it needs to be blasted on social media. KO has all these admirers in the NBA that talk a great game about him - can you call in a favor and get KD to visit and play pickup for a day or have LBJ talk about how great KO was as a mentor? Having our alumni and maybe others around and demonstrating that they care about the program could help change the dysfunctional narrative that must be going around in recruiting circles.

2.) There is no excitement at the games anymore. Much of this is unavoidable given our conference situation, but I'd like to see more of the games at Gampel and a bigger student section there that rings the whole floor. Probably not possible to do this for all games given that we need every $ from playing at the XL Center due to the pittance we receive from the AAC contract, but every little bit helps. I also 100% agree with the posters who say we need to market our brand more to SW CT. There is a ton of money there in the hands of young families with kids and this program is not currently tapping into any of it. Inexcusable. It's not going to be an overnight game changer, but let's market there, have the team spend a day or two in some of the communities there and move a few marquee games from the XL Center to Bridgeport. If the kids get into it, the parents will.

3.) I like Kill and Chill as recruiters, but think we need someone else on the staff with prior head coaching experience. If Calhoun saw fit to keep a guy like George Blaney around, that's good enough for me.

4.) Only fire KO if next year is a debacle AND we don't have a good recruiting class in 2018. There are no better realistic options at this point who have the potential to recruit good players into this conference. Just the way it is. But he needs to ABC (always be closing) on the recruiting trail in 2018 - he's not here for his Xs and Os.

5.) Stay the course in the AAC until the next round of realignment. Given how fast we are blowing through our brand equity due to the lack of excitement in the AAC, this is not as much of a no-brainer as I used to think it was. It sounds like a long time, but 2021(?) is not that far away. If you were faced with the choice of A.) making $300,000 per year at your current job but with a 20% chance of making $5,000,000 per year in 2021 if you stayed or B.) jumping to a new job where you'd be guaranteed $500,000 but would forego any chances at getting the $5,000,000 job, you'd choose A every time. If we miss out on the next round of realignment, which I think is likely but who knows, then it's hello NBE. And don't believe the PC fans saying they wouldn't want us - Econ 101 tells you there is a spot waiting for us there anytime we want it.

I'll close my longest post ever by saying that if this is the end of our national prominence (I don't think it is), it has been an unbelievable ride. I started going to games with my old man when I was a kid in the mid-80s and Gtown would come in with Alonzo Mourning and win by 30 points. Hell, I was on top of the world when they won the NIT in 1988. To think of the success and memories they've given us since then is mind-blowing - I would've said its more likely we'd be living on Mars in 30 years than UConn winning 1 championship in that period, let alone 4...But no need to get sentimental as this is not the end, just a massive bump in the road.
 
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