Is anyone else excited?
- Thread starter D$
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Really? You were fine with Ollie coming back, so you couldn't possibly find the notion that appalling?
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Excited might be the wrong word....KO was a UConn guy whom I liked on a personal level but his coaching performance mandated a change.
Based on the current recruiting, player development, player intensity, in-game coaching, and overall offensive and defensive execution, UConn basketball was trending down at a pace never seen out of a prior NC level program. There was no reasonable reason to believe KO could turn it around based on the direction of the program the past 2 years. At least now there is a hope and a future even if we do not know with whom that future rides....
Bottom line....one has to think the AD does not make this move without a suitor already lined up. Firing a coach without naming a new coach limits the ability to retain recruits/current players and creates a negative instability around the program. AD Dave is a smart guy so one has to believe he did the mental calculous and had his ducks lined up before he pulled the trigger.
Based on the current recruiting, player development, player intensity, in-game coaching, and overall offensive and defensive execution, UConn basketball was trending down at a pace never seen out of a prior NC level program. There was no reasonable reason to believe KO could turn it around based on the direction of the program the past 2 years. At least now there is a hope and a future even if we do not know with whom that future rides....
Bottom line....one has to think the AD does not make this move without a suitor already lined up. Firing a coach without naming a new coach limits the ability to retain recruits/current players and creates a negative instability around the program. AD Dave is a smart guy so one has to believe he did the mental calculous and had his ducks lined up before he pulled the trigger.
willie99
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Does that mean you're excited too, even if it means two horrible seasons?
Sorry, I can't get excited about that. There absolutely no reason a UCONN fan should be "excited" today.
We don't even know who our next coach is, and we may lose players too.
If you don't like Ollie and you want to say you're more optimistic, I can respect that, But "excited", there's no respectful way to describe what I think about that.
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Edsall was a good pick. And he has a larger hole to dig out of than a new B-ball coach.
Hankster
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I cannot wait to see who stays. You know the players are waiting to see who the new guy is. At this point, I am in favor of wiping the slate clean. Again all depends who stays. The Freshman(soph) next season, need their skills honed. Plus bring in Freshman. LEAVE THE IVY LEAGUE ALONE!!! No more 10th year seniors. Hopefully get recruits that can gel together. Are we in a tournament next year? Is there one at the Garden? I may be the only one but, we had no business playing in Portland. The hardest and largest tournament that I have ever seen. Not counting the NCAA. Plus the nations best teams. Okay we beat Oregon. We didn't need to start the year coming off a 1-2 tournament. One thing to gain experience but to start off getting beat up did not do us any favors. Next season the team needs to get some confidence. Our cupcakes we played looked a bit more than a cupcake. A few of those cc's didn't look that bad. Would you call next season a rebuild season? I think with a good hire it will be no more than to file off the rough edges. I cannot wait until next year. I'm excited. Hopefully the players are.
Not excited. Ollie was a UConn guy. We were supposed to hand the reigns to UConn people and let them do the same when their time was up. The “family” aspect of the program is dead. And it’s about to get ugly. Should have used a capital U there actually. If we were frustrated this year, wait till next. To answer the question again, no - I’m not excited. I’m terrified.
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Count me in the excited camp. Turning on and watching our games the past couple years were painful and made me think what it must be like to be a Tulane fan. For the first time, in a long time, I have hope. #BleedBlue #UConnNation
joober jones
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I'll be excited once the new team and coaching staff come together or at least begin to be considered. As for this moment, I'm feeling some sympathy for Ollie even though this was a measure that needed to be taken.
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No. This is a sad day for Uconn mens basketball and it amazes me how many of you are so giddy over this terrible situation. Sure im ready to move on and look forward and am really interested in seeing whos next but excited? No! Ill get excited when its announced that BIlly Donovan is hired.
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Honestly I'm really not so excited. I'm more sad.
I remember in the St Joe's game he came out at halftime and said "we'll win this game". Few games later, he let out that last gasp, celebrating the 4th national championship for our program. I thought to myself that this was the man to deliver us excellence for the next 2-3 decades. It honestly is depressing at this time because I really defended him til the moment he was fired. I thought he would turn it around. He's still one of our own, let's not forget. Heck, we nicknamed the student section Olliewood for a bit. As a fanbase we gotta take this step by step because I know for a fact that all of us instilled our trust in him after the 20-10 season he managed during our post season ban.
I remember in the St Joe's game he came out at halftime and said "we'll win this game". Few games later, he let out that last gasp, celebrating the 4th national championship for our program. I thought to myself that this was the man to deliver us excellence for the next 2-3 decades. It honestly is depressing at this time because I really defended him til the moment he was fired. I thought he would turn it around. He's still one of our own, let's not forget. Heck, we nicknamed the student section Olliewood for a bit. As a fanbase we gotta take this step by step because I know for a fact that all of us instilled our trust in him after the 20-10 season he managed during our post season ban.
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Wrong thread to ask you to defend your opinion but I was/am not a fan of the hire.
When Calhoun retired Uconn was a top 10 job. Name coaches from power conferences would have been honored to be considered. Today it is maybe a top 75 job. Top coaches in secondary coaches will have better options. This is a hard sell to a new coach and I hope Benedict has the ability and vision to sell it. I hope he is not handcuffed by finances and paying on multiple years of buyouts. I hope he has a basketball consigliere to advise him. This hire is huge and there is no sure fire 100% turnaround coach guaranteed to be hired.
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Or perhaps we can wait and see who UConn brings in to be the new coach before we decide on its current level of attractiveness?
Maybe after that we'll know whether UConn is "maybe a top 75 job now" ....or you can just keep creating a narrative based on a subjective opinion without any factual anchor....
intlzncster
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The 75th coach's salary is about $300k. The salary of the next coach at UCONN will be $2m+. That alone makes it Top 40 by default. Combine that with the facilities, name brand, recruiting location, etc and you can bump that up even higher.
UconnU
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I really want to see JC come back in some sort of Consultant/Basketball ops job and obviously try to get Glen Miller back in the mix. This freaking NCAA investigation hanging over our heads sucks though, imagine if we get hit with sanctions NOW? Ugh.
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I had a long reply but the bottom line is that I hope I am wrong and you are right.
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I hear you but if two more bad seasons are used to redirect the program then you have to accept it. I really think KO lost control of the program. The player's may have liked him, but it did not seem like they were able/willing to follow whatever his game plan was and every game we came out looking unprepared. The incoming recruiting class was not going to drastically the direction; they are average/slightly above average recruits. But I'd be shock if any of them become more than solid four year players. Akinjo is the wild card, but assuming the guards come back and are healthy, he would not have been a huge piece next year anyway. Like I said, I like KO. He seems like a good person who just had things get away from him. However, he has shown himself to be a very poor coach the last few seasons and I do not see that changing. It was not just that we did not have the talent, we did not have the drive, effort, any semblance of x's and o's/fundamentals, and perhaps worst of all, it did not seem like the players bought into whatever KO was selling. That's a huge problem and even if it means there is a mass exodus for a new coach, at least we will have someone in place who is going to bring something new to the table.