In a nutshell...

[UConnNick]

I'm not convinced the present school administration recognizes the severity of the impact that will come from being in a mid major conference for the long term. They also appear largely clueless and tone deaf regarding the steps which must be taken to reverse our athletic fortunes. Not only is the athletic program suffering because of their total lack of foresight, but academics will also be negatively affected in the long term as a result. UCONN was rebuilt as a result of athletics success. It just as quickly could fall backward in the wrong direction without effective planning and decision making from the current administration, which has a woeful track record so far regarding athletics.

 

[UCfor3]

This tastes great, less filling routine.....It's BOTH the lack of talent AND the coaching. The head coach is responsible for both. He has to go. Worrying about a buyout is shortsighted not taking the long view in to consideration. It's getting worse not better and nothing I see shows me any reason to believe it will improve. I was hoping I was wrong but any lingering doubts I had are gone after this season.

 

[Marty Jackson]

How much of this is Ollie as opposed to the fact we play in a mid major conference. This was all inevitable. We just need to learn to change our expectations. UConn is a basketball school that is now playing in a mid major basketball conference.

that is such a BS question thrown out to explain Uconn's decline while protecting the coach. It's coaches protecting coaches.
the conference is what it is. Cronin doesn't seem to struggle. Brown had zero problem getting talent at SMU. There are some other schools which you may not have heard: Wichita State, Gonzaga, and Butler. I think they're doing okay.

This notion that the American is the reason is crap. It's also a convenient way for people to bring up the 'let's go back to the Big East'. Because going there we instantly be the top team.

Here is a fact nobody who throws that point of view out wants to hear. Uconn basketball sucks right now. It doesn't suck because of the conference. It sucks because we have a coach who isn't recruiting the right players, doesn't have a balanced team, and hasn't proven he can develop his players over 3-4 years.

 

[Vuce]

We were walking out of XL today and there were a decent amount of people doing a "Fire Ollie" chant. It's definitely gotten to the point where it is not isolated anymore. This edition of UConn men's basketball has been beaten by 20+ points more than any since 1968-69 and it is January 20! SMU, Cincy, Houston, etc are all going to roll us. Change is needed

 

[Stinger92860]

UConn offers no more competition to a power conference team than does a low major.

I’m not surprised that we lose to them - our roster is littered with mid-major talent and some of them just prospects at that. That’s purely the result of a head coach who took a sabbatical from recruiting while alienating half of his roster. (“Ten toes in....yours, not mine.”) But we don’t even get in their way - Villanova did not have a single anxious moment today.

What talent is here is on its own. It doesn’t get better, it doesn’t get stronger and it certainly doesn’t enter games with any sort of plan of attack. We have players, they play games and to the extent that he physically occupies space on the bench, we have a coach.

The next and perhaps last round of conference shuffling is coming in a few years and while we’re likely on the outside looking in no matter what, we’re definitely screwed if we head into that scramble with the 200th best basketball program. The money involved in a coaching change is huge, but the money involved in being permanently excluded from the power conferences is much, much bigger.

All this is frustrating and disappointing. Ollie could have been great - 2014 was not a fluke, but he stopped working and I don’t know that he can ever get it back.

Possibly the most spot on post on the Boneyard ever.

 

[MadDogRevival]

2014 was not a fluke,

No, not a fluke, but only attributable to Ollie in the sense that he didn't screw it up. Shabazz was the coach of that team. If we didn't know it then, we know it now.
[Hashtag]
.com

 

[MadDogRevival]

Possibly the most spot on post on the Boneyard ever.

Only if you weren't here for MakersMuppet.

 

[krinklecut]

How much of this is Ollie as opposed to the fact we play in a mid major conference. This was all inevitable. We just need to learn to change our expectations. UConn is a basketball school that is now playing in a mid major basketball conference.

yeah lets just disregard that there are some great teams in the same conference.

 

[my2cents]

Whatever the cause ( I blame Ollie), watching the way we play is just UGLY. Before we even get a chance to miss the shot, we have to catch it or not dribble it off our feet. Its like we are playing on ice with greased hands.

 

[djct1999]

I don't know much but I do know that if things remain status quo, there is a very high probability that next years team may actually be worse. I also know that if AD DB needs to make a few calls to get the buyout money, he should be able to do so. Enough already. KO needs to go at any cost. In fact, the way he has been coaching lately, I am certain he knows that as well. The last two games were perfect examples of a staff that has quit.

 

[InKembaITrust]

Ollie recruited a bunch of high level injured/injury prone players that other schools were smart enough not to gamble on, think it's as simple as that.

The risk reward was great, got the short end of the stick and it blew up in his face. LESSON LEARNED

Now we temporarily do not have nearly the talent to compete with teams this year.

1 more year, if he doesn't piece it together next season, adios

 

[Edward Sargent]

You can be Coach K, Roy Williams, and Bill Self all rolled in to one, and they could have the best designed offense ever and they couldn’t win with this team. We are a team of crappy shooters. Look at the season stats, they don’t lie. Wide open shots missed up and down our lineup. We need to recruit better basketball players who can shoot.

I think that is Fishys point. Fish I also think the sabbatical coincides withe

 

[Lefty2one]

We're at the point where we can't afford to not fire Ollie. It doesn't matter what it takes.

The worst case scenario has been realized post-CR; we're in the bottom half of the AAC as a program, we have a coach who's in way over his head, attendance has plummeted and we're a punchline at the national level. We risked everything to be relevant in football and now we have one of the worst basketball programs in addition to an embarrassing football program.

In the five years we've been in the AAC I have never said we should drop football (either to FCS or completely) but it has to be done at this point as long as the Big East agrees to let us back in. Northeastern schools can thrive just fine without football. No one gives a flip about college football in these parts and no one ever will. We can either sign up to be an even worse version of Boston College for the next three decades or we can put our tails between our legs and try to become Villanova.

 

[The Funster]

When Villanova and other top teams came to town it was a celebration of basketball. We anticipated it, the feeling when you walked in was electric and we were treated to end to end hoops.

Today was the antithesis of that.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

How much of this is Ollie as opposed to the fact we play in a mid major conference. This was all inevitable. We just need to learn to change our expectations. UConn is a basketball school that is now playing in a mid major basketball conference.

LOL. The only thing “made major“ about this conference is us. Can’t believe you would even say that

 

[Dove]

I'm about as moderate as they come. With common sense. Just a year ago I was still all in on KO. Thought he had some good excuses and bad luck. Then the defections. Then the -assed game strategy and inept play happened. I am off the boat.

That divorce stopped his heart and he went ten toes up.

I think the future success of the program, if any, might be on Chillious. Watch if this guy jumps ship this spring. If so, then the bell should toll on KO.

 

[metsfan2323]

We're at the point where we can't afford to not fire Ollie.

You should have stopped right there. It's Ollie not the conference. If we were in the C7 league we would be looking up at St Johns.

 

[Chief00]

@Fishy this is like Deja vu....history has repeated itself with UConn hoops Rowe to Perno..Calhoun to Ollie. It’s time for Ollie to go.

What was Perno’s buyout? LOL

 

[jdb50]

Adams is not getting better playing here. He needs serious work on his 3 point shot. Nova embarrassed him today. I doubt he will be back. Watching the team warmups we rarely made a shot. Nova is working on their 3 point game in warmups. In the second half warmup Larrier made one shot that was not a layup. He has a sinus fx. I know but he can't shoot, period. Then we have his insistence on dribbling into a turnover repeatedly. Diarrra, Williams, DO, mainly dunked in warmups, seriously! We have no coaching. Carlton has a huge upside. Good God I hope he stays. Watching the Nova ginger toy with Polley and get a layup in the second half and I'm thinking this is on national TV let alone Brunson destroying our backcourt in the first half. Yes Nova is #1 but I will be at the SMU game and if we get run off the court there I can't see how KO survives.

 

[zls44]

It's not the talent.

I'm going to laugh when this team wins 20-25 games next year with half of the current roster under a new coach.

This team is not talented. They are not good basketball players. That's in no way a pass for KO, but if you think this team of bad basketball players with no basketball IQ and a total allergic reaction to "dribbling" can win 20 games outside of a YMCA league you are out of your mind.

 

[jdb50]

What was Perno’s buyout? LOL

In many ways this team resembles the Perno teams with Earl Kelly as it all came down to being over matched and EK trying to generate offense when we fell behind all buy himself like Jalen is. EK had a better outside shot than JA and those Perno teams were better than this one. Sad to say.

 

[Kitaman]

I wish I could read the staff's recruiting notes on all of our players. I'd like to see the pros/cons and their assessment of development needs for each one. More importantly what they felt each one was going to bring to the Court in terms of expected contributions.

Sure we aren't competing well against the P5s for recruits but what did our Coaches see in this crop or what did they believe they were getting?

Lastly if their notes indicate thier strategy and observations, and that has not changed then we will for awhile be a team with perpetual missing parts. Ollie always says he wants kids here who will buy into the UConn brand and culture. Well our culture and brand has diminished substantially and it looks like his recruits (i.e players) have adopted his new culture. Its all top-down.

Just saying this is Ollie's team/staff/players, brand and culture. Consequently (and sadly) this also is the new UConn.

 

[Dove]

Is this drunken bacon jalapeno mac and cheese boy?

 

[chickenhead]

Why doesn't everyone see what is so obvious?? I get the buyout sucks. But permanent damage is being done by letting this continue. The disparity between the two programs on the court today is STAGGERING. And let's keep in mind people.Nova is NOT a P5 team in a P5 conference. I would take what they have right now in a heartbeat. In a matter of years, UConn will be no more relevant than St Johns. The time to act is NOW.KO has been given enough time and the results are resoundingly underwhelming. The only message he is getting right now is that it's ok. Well it sure as hell ain't ok to me. My support, and dollars, are gone until someone wakes up and makes a change.

The BE has been consistently ranked in the top conferences in the country since the reboot. P5 is a football term. The Big East is projected to finish as the 2nd best conference this year.