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Message: [QUOTE="FfldCntyFan, post: 2497578, member: 71"] [LIST=1]Shy of something near criminal (on KO's part) occurring between now and April there is no way he doesn't finish the season (as an in-season firing would not make much sense). I could well be wrong but due primarily to the buyout, unless he does something off the court that embarrasses the university, I don't see KO being relieved of his duties prior to the end of the 2018-2019 season. I agree fully. I still see the first (of a few) things that started the fall of the program was when Donyell was overlooked (I believe in favor of promoting Ricky Moore to assistant and hiring Kevin Freeman as Director of Ops). My belief (I could again be wrong) was that KO didn't want someone with Donyell's [I]veritas[/I] on his staff, basically preferring a weaker than possible staff out of comfort. This is a situation where there is sufficient blame to pass around. Adams has a ton of questionable habits on the floor (and possibly during practice as well) and he seems very content in falling back to them at critical times. KO (perhaps due to the limited roster over the past couple of seasons, perhaps due to his nature) has refused to punish [I]JA[/I] (or any other player) for questionable, insufficient or even misguided effort. The thing is leadership starts at the top and this is fully on KO for not doing whatever is necessary to have the guy leading the team on the court demanding the best from all players, including himself, at all times. Granted, JA is not the type of PG we've become accustomed to here (he really isn't a PG) but there is no reason someone who wants to be the leader (JA obviously does) can't be required to be a leader. I'm curious as to what Larrier's best role (outside of being a scorer in a different setup than what we can offer) would be. He seems to want to be a 20 ft from the basket two (doesn't really have the game for that) and shies away from a lot close to the basket. He did look good at times yesterday and hopefully he'll continue to improve (it could be health of his knee or confidence in the strength of his knee). He's a bit too passive at the moment to be the offensive player we need and I believe he would be more effective if we had another forward who could play close to the basket and somewhat consistently score and rebound. At different times (I believe against Columbia) we had one of Polley, Whalley and Carlton on the floor for decent periods of times. While the game didn't allow for it (once again a questionable effort) I would have loved to have seen a three to four minute stretch with all three (this may be our future front court) on the floor together. Each has some skill, good size and athleticism, each being someone that an earlier version of UConn could have turned into quite a productive player a few years in. Now there is only hope we can do that. This is the most frustrating part. The lead players seem to think they can turn it on at will. Quality teams, teams that win through will when talent is reasonably equal, teams that make runs in March (instead of disappointing their fans more often than not) always put in the effort. This team has taken a game off after every legitimate effort to date. That's on the coach. That's on the players. That's on everyone and everything involved with the program. See my answer to #7. The effort against Tulsa will speak volumes. [/LIST] If Adams and Larrier are gone so be it. They may have talent but neither is a guy a legitimate program can do without. I don't know what either sees himself as but I'll wager heavily that it is far above what most who make a living judging basketball talent sees them as. We will have some nice pieces next year and hopefully KO can learn to again be a teacher. Perhaps within the current freshman class there is someone who can be an on-court leader (something we haven't had since Napier). [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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