Jacobs Q+A with KO

[EBonz30]

It is what it is, Ollie is a solid coach and we are lucky to have a coach this young & good to follow a hall of famer in Calhoun.

Is the current roster & situation rocky? Yes, but the one thing Ollie has shown the world over the years is that he loves facing adversity and always comes out better on the other side.

I believe & back coach 100 percent, let's all be honest here, this all started with the injuries, take away the injuries and look at the current roster....

Gilbert
Adams
MAL
Diallo
Larrier
Polley
Durham
Enoch
Diarra
Cobb

Let's all be honest with ourselves, no injuries, Enoch, Durham, & MAL wouldn't of decided to leave or go somewhere else. Also, no injuries, Diallo commits to Uconn and doesn't watch us lose and look awful verse Auburn @ home.

Vance Jackson was gone before he ever even put a jersey on.

 

[AntG168]

What did he say that offended you?

He was complimentary of each player.

And he took accountability. Lol

 

[Huskyforlife]

It is what it is, Ollie is a solid coach and we are lucky to have a coach this young & good to follow a hall of famer in Calhoun.

Is the current roster & situation rocky? Yes, but the one thing Ollie has shown the world over the years is that he loves facing adversity and always comes out better on the other side.

I believe & back coach 100 percent, let's all be honest here, this all started with the injuries, take away the injuries and look at the current roster....

Gilbert
Adams
MAL
Diallo
Larrier
Polley
Durham
Enoch
Diarra
Cobb

Let's all be honest with ourselves, no injuries, Enoch, Durham, & MAL wouldn't of decided to leave or go somewhere else. Also, no injuries, Diallo commits to UConn and doesn't watch us lose and look awful verse Auburn @ home.

Vance Jackson was gone before he ever even put a jersey on.

Diallo was never coming here.

 

[aceboon]

KO goes out and recruits these guys then proceeds to say stuff like this?

Lol, you're being fake offended for the sake of being fake offended. Dude said nothing at all that was inflammatory.

 

[James]

Diallo was never coming here.

Stop it. That's nonsense don't make me go dig up some your past predictions. Everyone and their momma thought he was coming when he visited before auburn.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

It's amazing to read an article this long with Q and A and have nothing new, no real revelations about the players leaving. He alludes to defense which is no news, and while he does doesn't want to trash anyone he skirts around the questions, says nothing and sounds like a politician being interviewed. Nothing new about MAL either. Understand that 1000 players are transferring and sit just happens. The Glen Miller thing was to go in a different direction, case closed. He talks in a convoluted way about defense (doesn't come out and say Enoch and Jackson couldn't or wouldn't buy in), about going "big" with Brimah and Facey, and making adjustments on the fly. To me that was something he did not do well last year even with the injuries. The one thing I do not question is KO's work ethic and desire to make the team better and he does have a talented and solid core to add to but we don't walk away from this interview with any real insight.

why would a coach want to publicly trash players? You think that would look good on our Men's basketball program and the University?

 

[The Funster]

Good interview. Good read. Very encouraging outlook. It sounds like KO has a good feeling for where both he ad the program are right now and is going about correcting issues his way. Go get em Kev.

 

[tykurez]

It's obvious that KO is learning and changing his approach, which obviously hasn't been working. That's good.

The question is, why did it take 5 years to figure out that you can't just recruit for talent and that you need to have a feel for who actually wants to be here, who's actually willing to buy in and work hard?

It's especially surprising given that KO was a "lunch pail" sort of player himself, and that his success in 2013-2014 was largely predicated on that sort of buy-in and toughness (Bazz, Boat, Giffey, etc.). He should have had an appreciation for this from the outset.

He inherited the recruiting sanctions that finally expired in 2014. When you're limited in visits, contacts, etc. you have to decide what you want to spend your energy on. On top of that, it was basically Ollie and Miller and it's increasingly difficult to have your head coach be your primary recruiter in today's landscape.

So now we're heading into the second class without the sanctions and finally a staff of legitimate, proven recruiters outside of KO. It would have been great to have the ability to implement this plan from the start, but I just don't think that was realistic given the circumstances.

 

[Tenspro2002]

He inherited the recruiting sanctions that finally expired in 2014. When you're limited in visits, contacts, etc. you have to decide what you want to spend your energy on. On top of that, it was basically Ollie and Miller and it's increasingly difficult to have your head coach be your primary recruiter in today's landscape.

So now we're heading into the second class without the sanctions and finally a staff of legitimate, proven recruiters outside of KO. It would have been great to have the ability to implement this plan from the start, but I just don't think that was realistic given the circumstances.

That would be a reasonable argument if we weren't getting highly-rated guys. Yes, we could and should have done better, but we actually did decently in that regard. KO's newfound appreciation for toughness has little to do with that.

The problem is that so many of the highly-rated guys we did get (e.g. Hamilton, Durham, Jackson, MAL, even Enoch) were absolute zeroes in terms of toughness, BBIQ, or willingness to compete.

Getting the "right" guys at a given level of talent should be independent of recruiting limitations.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

Wow this is super accurate and exactly what played out on the court this year.

You do this all the time and it is obnoxious. The poster makes a few good points, and of course all you do is take one line as an absolute fact and proceed to call him out on it while completely ignoring all other points and the larger meaning of the post.

Did the poster actually mean that literally every single time we went down low to Brimah, the ball ended up out of bounds? Of course not, and you know that. Does his larger point stand? Absolutely.

Time to give that shtick up.

 

[Stainmaster]

You do this all the time and it is obnoxious. The poster makes a few good points, and of course all you do is take one line as an absolute fact and proceed to call him out on it while completely ignoring all other points and the larger meaning of the post.

Did the poster actually mean that literally every single time we went down low to Brimah, the ball ended up out of bounds? Of course not, and you know that. Does his larger point stand? Absolutely.

Time to give that shtick up.

Maybe I wouldn't be so eager to do so if people had the ability to raise legitimate criticism of KO without dressing it in hyperbolic garbage. You guys need to do better.

 

[CL82]

Maybe I wouldn't be so eager to do so if people had the ability to raise legitimate criticism of KO without dressing it in hyperbolic garbage. You guys need to do better.

 

[UConnfan8]

Stop it. That's nonsense don't make me go dig up some your past predictions. Everyone and their momma thought he was coming when he visited before auburn.

Diallo was never coming here after Calipari spoke to him. Auburn loss or not. We could have been 15-0 and top 5 in the country and as soon as Diallo flew into UK it would still be game over. Its the kind of effect Cal has on the country today.

Sad, but true.

 

[Chief00]

Stop it. That's nonsense don't make me go dig up some your past predictions. Everyone and their momma thought he was coming when he visited before auburn.

Sorry not true.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Sorry not true.

Obviously we all humor you but you had Diallo committed a dozen times over the past year - including a bunch of your BS "stay tuned" nonsense that never became anything - so your shtick doesn't play on this one.

 

[Chief00]

Obviously we all humor you but you had Diallo committed a dozen times over the past year - including a bunch of your BS "stay tuned" nonsense that never became anything - so your shtick doesn't play on this one.

Not true. I was even more blunt with people who IM me.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

Maybe I wouldn't be so eager to do so if people had the ability to raise legitimate criticism of KO without dressing it in hyperbolic garbage. You guys need to do better.

Just because you took what he said in absolute terms doesn't mean it was "hyperbolic garbage". I guarantee you are the only person who took it that way.

People raise legitimate criticisms on here all the time. Unfortunately, there has been a lot to be critical of lately.

Some people clearly go overboard and need to be called out. But you pretty much take offense every single time a post is negative.

You know a lot about the school and our program. When you sarcastically call people out on every detail, while completely ignoring the actual meaning of the post, it doesn't add anything to this board.

 

[upstater]

It's obvious that KO is learning and changing his approach, which obviously hasn't been working. That's good.

The question is, why did it take 5 years to figure out that you can't just recruit for talent and that you need to have a feel for who actually wants to be here, who's actually willing to buy in and work hard?

It's especially surprising given that KO was a "lunch pail" sort of player himself, and that his success in 2013-2014 was largely predicated on that sort of buy-in and toughness (Bazz, Boat, Giffey, etc.). He should have had an appreciation for this from the outset.

Because up until this year his guys worked hard?

 

[jibsey]

Jacobs could have done better. The one thing he admitted that was decent was that he's specifically looking for more basketball IQ in players but you don't come away from the interview with much that we didn't know IMO. In the next one I expect "ten toes in" and "UCONN basketball."

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Not true. I was even more blunt with people who IM me.

Hilarious. You posted some variant of "good news in the next day or so" a dozen times with Diallo. You can pretend otherwise, though, it's cool. You can pretend that people IM you too.

 

[husky429]

Hilarious. You posted some variant of "good news in the next day or so" a dozen times with Diallo. You can pretend otherwise, though, it's cool. You can pretend that people IM you too.

It's called a PM on here. Makes me wonder if anyone has actually ever PM'd him if he doesn't know the name...

 

[David 76]

It's obvious that KO is learning and changing his approach, which obviously hasn't been working. That's good.

The question is, why did it take 5 years to figure out that you can't just recruit for talent and that you need to have a feel for who actually wants to be here, who's actually willing to buy in and work hard.

Probably wasn't trying to change a lot when they won the championship.

 

[Chief00]

Hilarious. You posted some variant of "good news in the next day or so" a dozen times with Diallo. You can pretend otherwise, though, it's cool. You can pretend that people IM you too.

No, I was immediately critical of them spending the official visit going over the course catalog and class schedule. I was upset they just didn't put a uniform on Diallo and get him out in the court.

LOL - In case you missed it, I have been rather critical of Coach Miller's recruiting approaches for at least a couple years.

You seem like you are living in a surreal World - people on the BY IM me all the time and some follow me.

 

[whaler11]

Some interesting parts:

KO mentioned a core 5 rather than 4. Seems to be bullish on Diarra being an impact player.

This also caught my interest as it confirms what we thought. Vance Sr's twitter rampage early in the season was like dumping chum with Jaws in his vicinity.

Looking back at the Jackson Sr saga - at the time I was happy he stayed hoping to
improve the season but in hindsight I wish he just left then.

 

[ucp990411]

I like KO but this is a bunch of BS. He recruited these guys. He probably said they were his type of players. He has a lot to prove I believe.