I'm starting to think it isn't Ollie.

[Tenspro2002]

It's Ollie, it's the players and it's the league. I don't think anybody is truly wrong, just looking for one cause when there are many

Gonzaga plays in a much s__ttier league and has had no problem.

KO recruits the players, he owns all of it.

 

[HooperScooper]

He didn't pull Gilbert's arm out of its socket.

One player on any team should not be that much of a loss. The rest of the talent on the team just isn’t good enough. And that’s on the coach. Plain and simple.

 

[Stainmaster]

So it's just a coincidence that Geno's teams are the best-passing, best-shooting, hardest-working year in and year out, with different players? Nothing to do with his coaching?

Does it have anything to do with the players, or is it 100% Geno’s coaching?

 

[Tuna]

Of course the parents play a huge role.

But to ignore the motivating factor that Calhoun adds, well, no, I disagree.


Why is it "nonsense"?

How about some culpability for one's own decisions and shortcomings? I know dozens of kids who were afforded ever opportunity to do the right thing in school and consistently did the wrong thing. You want to blame the teachers?

Parents, maybe. But teachers, no way.

 

[traitor71]

I have some problems with Ollie but let's leave that for now.

Red Auerbach would have problems winning with this bunch.

They can't shoot.
They can't rebound.
They have mediocre handles.
They can't draw fouls.

Except for that we should be undefeated.

He is in charge of the program. That is where it starts and ends, period.

 

[Travelman6]

How about some culpability for one's own decisions and shortcomings? I know dozens of kids who were afforded ever opportunity to do the right thing in school and consistently did the wrong thing. You want to blame the teachers?

Parents, maybe. But teachers, no way.

Parents, for sure. But I find it hard to believe a 10 year old or even a 17 or 18 year old can be blamed for "failure". That is up to the parents and also the teacher. Every student can succeed (which is also the title of a good book, I learned a lot) and requires parents that are there in the kids life as well as open, patient, innovative teachers who can do amazing work even if parents are not there.

 

[Danzz]

The deficiencies are obvious. Overall we are very young and the freshmen are getting better. Assuming the recruits stay with UConn next years team will be better no matter who the coach is.
On a positive note, the players haven't given up and continue to play hard.

 

[Tuna]

Parents, for sure. But I find it hard to believe a 10 year old or even a 17 or 18 year old can be blamed for "failure". That is up to the parents and also the teacher. Every student can succeed (which is also the title of a good book, I learned a lot) and requires parents that are there in the kids life as well as open, patient, innovative teachers who can do amazing work even if parents are not there.

To be fair, my comment was made with high school/college-aged kids in mind. From kindergarten to about 5th grade I'm more inclined to agree with you.

 

[Jaker]

I have some problems with Ollie but let's leave that for now.

Red Auerbach would have problems winning with this bunch.

They can't shoot.
They can't rebound.
They have mediocre handles.
They can't draw fouls.

Except for that we should be undefeated.

LOL

you are finally figuring this out now?

 

[UCweCONN]

The deficiencies are obvious. Overall we are very young and the freshmen are getting better. Assuming the recruits stay with UConn next years team will be better no matter who the coach is.
On a positive note, the players haven't given up and continue to play hard.

So at this point next season, we'll be 12-11 instead of 11-12? Yes. Return to glory! I'll never be satisfied with being better than this year. We're worse than last year this year. Why would anyone assume we'll be better next season? I guess we should hope every other school gets worse.

 

[Deadrody]

I have some problems with Ollie but let's leave that for now.

Red Auerbach would have problems winning with this bunch.

They can't shoot.
They can't rebound.
They have mediocre handles.
They can't draw fouls.

Except for that we should be undefeated.

Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. Not disputing that they can't do anything right, just that I don't believe for a second that 1) they don't have enough innate talent to do those things, or 2) that coaching cannot both improve skills or cover up a team's deficiencies.

I just find it exceptionally hard to believe that this group of players does not have the talent to compete in a mediocre conference. That's simply not the root cause here. AND, even if it were, whose fault would that be ? Oh, same guy.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

This ^^^^^ although not all in on not developing guys. I mean yeah it's on him, but some guys just can't develop or learn the game. So going back to the beginning of your post, they are his kids his team. Start recruiting smarter and more talented kids, well may be too late. And yeah how do they lose intensity so often, that's crazy. The #8 team in the country is in your house and you come out like "schmucks".....thanks DanO.

I would disagree on the development of Players
That’s not as big an issue as it’s made out to be.
The 2014 NC was the direct result of him not only developing players but developing a team
Giffey averaged two pts a game his two years under JC. Did he develop?
DD was a total bust in 2012 as a freshman. RB was a Chicago playground pheno who never knew what a bounce pass was and is now astoundingly making good money as a PG. His defensive skills also shot through the roof here. Even Bazz matured and learned to lead under KO.
Facey, Brimah, and Nolan all got better. Brimah lack of scoring his senior year was more the result of Hamilton’s departure.Who replaced Hamilton ‘s assists? Anderson No one because I believe KO thought he was staying for his junior year. Brimah actually averaged 5-6 rebounds a game as a senior.
The problem is not developing players it’s getting the players here but more importantly keeping a team together to enable it to develop.
Without understanding the problem you will never find a solution.

 

[Palatine]

You want to put the entire season on the loss of a kid who still hasn't played meaningful college minutes, that's your prerogative. We had a backup option in the fold (although, honestly, I think he stinks) but Ollie couldn't keep him around either.

In the four games he played, the team scored over 70 points in each of them. There is no question this would be a better team with him.

 

[Fan4ever]

'Ten toes in' and 'stairs not escalators' were Ollie deliverables and promises for our UConn teams.

You don't need All Stars to deliver that product. Just saying.

Let us not forget the "Championships chase us" out-take from KO as well.

 

[Jaker]

There is no doubt we would be a better team with AG, but only like 2-3 wins better

 

[DMIL]

This ^^^^^ although not all in on not developing guys. I mean yeah it's on him, but some guys just can't develop or learn the game. So going back to the beginning of your post, they are his kids his team. Start recruiting smarter and more talented kids, well may be too late. And yeah how do they lose intensity so often, that's crazy. The #8 team in the country is in your house and you come out like "schmucks".....thanks DanO.

I’all say it again. It’s all the above. This is what it looks like and feels like when a everything stormballs. The Administration, the coaching staff, recruiting misses, bad recruiting strategies which include not having an adequate contingency plan. Recruiting the wrong mix of players.

Current group is bad group because of the team mix and a ton of missing pieces needed for success in today’s game. It’s like making a gourmet meal and all the ingredients matter even the most innocuous ingredients i.e. salt, pepper. So think of it as a gourmet meal because that is what our program has been for 25 years not including the last 3 seasons but including the current one. We know what is missing so let’s stop looking for it on this current team.

- Effective Leadership
…Not getting this from upper class men, not enough of it from the current coaching staff. It’s not there but needed.

- Talent
…Unbalanced mix of raw talent and this includes youth. In addition, significant gaps here driven by lack talent at critical positions i.e. true point guard, center, and shooters which include 3 point specialist starting or coming off the bench. Again, not there but needed.

- Strategy
…Significant recruiting misses. You cannot put all your eggs in this basket and if you do you have to hit. There was no real plan B or contingency in place and this caused an over reliance on grad transfers.

With back to back losing seasons and that is what this is looking like this current team simply does not know what great looks like or even good. These examples are needed in real time on this team and we don’t have it. I think a lot of folks have missed the mark blaming all of this on x’s and o’s. I believe Ollie is solid there meaning he knows what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. The vision is solid. The execution is the biggest thing missing and it has all to do with the other parts of the coaching job at a program like UCONN that Ollie has failed at. Within your strategies you have to include some failsafe controls and essentially our Coach, the program has been caught with our pants down for the world to see. I think if Calhoun did not have to prematurely retire another 2 or 3 years of seasoning from a hall of famer would have benefitted Ollie significantly. The early success of Ollie lead to an arrogance and an inflated sense of confidence that is now blindsiding him and has the last few years.

The venom has always been out there for our program because of how we did what we did. From ground up, gritty coaching, landing tough hard nose players and not recruiting soft choir boy pre madonnas we were able to claw our way to the top of the mountain knocking off traditional basketball powers one at a time including the quote “Bluebloods”. We did it our way. And Guess what......they don’t want us in the club and that is o.k.

We will get back in the mix at some point and I believe sooner than what some would think. Certainly Ollie is at a point where he needs a Hail Mary and maybe that is landing an elite recruit to the incoming class or flooring class. He has to find a way to change the narrative and build some positivity for the near future. Without that the environment is just too toxic for anyone to be effective at this point. I like what we have coming in and do feel it addresses a number of gaps we have now. I also think Chillious was a nice change but it could be too little too late. When the pressure is up that is when a persons character is tested and ultimately revealed.

We will never get used to this losing.

 

[Fan4ever]

Does it have anything to do with the players, or is it 100% Geno’s coaching?

100% Geno. He starts with clay he can mold and continues to spin, and cure, mold, spin and cure. Granted his raw ingredients are carefully culled looking for specific abilities. Case in point, Aja Wilson. The #1 rated player 4 years ago. Geno did not pursue because carefully reviewed her lack of passing ability. She didn't have that skill-set which could be matured and therefore regardless of other many talents, that 1 sore spot stood out.

 

[Kitaman]

Let us not forget the "Championships chase us" out-take from KO as well.

Yeah but it seems we've been running away from them lately. So as cute as he thinks saying that was, its proven prophetic.

At this point I don't think Championships even know where to find us.

 

[TRest]

100% Geno. He starts with clay he can mold and continues to spin, and cure, mold, spin and cure. Granted his raw ingredients are carefully culled looking for specific abilities. Case in point, Aja Wilson. The #1 rated player 4 years ago. Geno did not pursue because carefully reviewed her lack of passing ability. She didn't have that skill-set which could be matured and therefore regardless of other many talents, that 1 sore spot stood out.

I don't know, but this sounds like bs to me. Geno went after her until it was clear she was staying home. And his "raw ingredients are usually some of the top kids in each class.

 

[ASweet3781]

100% Geno. He starts with clay he can mold and continues to spin, and cure, mold, spin and cure. Granted his raw ingredients are carefully culled looking for specific abilities. Case in point, Aja Wilson. The #1 rated player 4 years ago. Geno did not pursue because carefully reviewed her lack of passing ability. She didn't have that skill-set which could be matured and therefore regardless of other many talents, that 1 sore spot stood out.

Look I think Ollie is a trainwreck. But this is just a lie. Yes Geno is a great coach. But you need players. First of all he did recruit Aja Wilson so there goes that. Geno has basically picked his recruits the last 15 years. Taurasi, Strother, Tina Charles, Moore, Lewis, Stewart/Jefferson/Tuck, Samuelson, Walker, etc and those are just the #1 ranked players he's landed the last 15 years. That doesn't even include the ones he landed that were simply All Americans. The 2 year stretch that time he failed to get his desired recruits after Taurasi and before Moore resulted in a 3 year stretch without a Final Four which is about as far as UConn can possibly fall in women's basketball. He didn't look like a molder of clay those 3 years. The "ingredients" were not top chef quality apparently.

 

[Stainmaster]

100% Geno. He starts with clay he can mold and continues to spin, and cure, mold, spin and cure. Granted his raw ingredients are carefully culled looking for specific abilities. Case in point, Aja Wilson. The #1 rated player 4 years ago. Geno did not pursue because carefully reviewed her lack of passing ability. She didn't have that skill-set which could be matured and therefore regardless of other many talents, that 1 sore spot stood out.

That's not how team sports work, but believe what you want.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

Ollie underestimated and misjudged the difficulty to have Top 30 players commit and come play at UCONN in the American Conference. I am certain he would have had his fair share of Top 30 recruits commit to UCONN had we still been in the old Big East. Ollie recruited as if he was still in the Big East and this is still UCONN. He was in many players Top 3-5 but was never able to to secure commits. These players and families discuss quality of teams and players in our conference. His A, B and C were all Top 50 players. He went so hard after the top players and struck out each time. He used grad transfers to fill out his roster after striking out each year. He has since change his strategy in recruiting but is it too late.

Except he recruited the TOP 10 class in Nation just last year in the .... wait for it… The American Atheletic Conference.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

I would disagree on the development of Players
That’s not as big an issue as it’s made out to be.
The 2014 NC was the direct result of him not only developing players but developing a team
Giffey averaged two pts a game his two years under JC. Did he develop?
DD was a total bust in 2012 as a freshman. RB was a Chicago playground pheno who never knew what a bounce pass was and is now astoundingly making good money as a PG. His defensive skills also shot through the roof here. Even Bazz matured and learned to lead under KO.
Facey, Brimah, and Nolan all got better. Brimah lack of scoring his senior year was more the result of Hamilton’s departure.Who replaced Hamilton ‘s assists? Anderson No one because I believe KO thought he was staying for his junior year. Brimah actually averaged 5-6 rebounds a game as a senior.
The problem is not developing players it’s getting the players here but more importantly keeping a team together to enable it to develop.
Without understanding the problem you will never find a solution.

A top 10 national recruited class is who replaced Hamilton and he still failed.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Didn’t see the game today, unfortunately, but I followed a bit online. I also haven’t read this entire thread, so forgive me if I duplicate someone else’s work.

The argument here is chicken & egg. These aren’t dominant players on the roster. The ceiling is lower than anyone would like. However, there are skills and abilities that haven’t been developed, or rather, the players with them haven’t been put in a positive to utilize them.

We have few shooters, but for the ones we have we don’t run plays to catch and shoot. They are forced to create for themselves, something they don’t do well (i.e. Larrier).

We don’t have penetrators but one, yet we run a dribble-drive offense. On screen and roll 9 times out of 10 we ignore the roll.

We have some length, but we play 3 guards frequently negating that. And when the length is on the floor they rarely see the ball.

However, with the players that are here and the ones currently committed and waiting their turn I think there is likely a significant improvement if they all stay with the program.

Regardless of the coach.

 

[Fan4ever]

That's not how team sports work, but believe what you want.

You're saying team sports don't start with passing? If that is your take-away your result is the 2017-18 UCONN MBB team.