Jacobs

[dtrumpet]

this was just a "mail it in" column for Jacobs. Easier to write an article about a few outliers than what has more often been the criticism, that he hasn't been good recently, not that he's an "awful coach".

 

[Dogdeacon]

this was just a "mail it in" column for Jacobs. Easier to write an article about a few outliers than what has more often been the criticism, that he hasn't been good recently, not that he's an "awful coach".

Yup, very obvious excuse to write a critique yet mask it all as just us ranting lunatics. Jacobs is a poor man's CHB. Shaughnessy usually has the guts to stand behind his hyperbolic piss in cheerios criticism, although he'll do this same thing when it is too obviously out on the contrarian limb just to piss you off.

 

[dennismenace]

Jeff Jacobs: Chill, UConn Fans. Kevin Ollie's Doing All Right


HARTFORD — It took two Melvin Frazier three-pointers in the final two minutes Tuesday night, but the Tulane basketball team managed to match the lowest offensive output against UConn since March 14 when Tulsa scored 42 in a five-point loss to the Huskies at the XL Center.

The last time a team scored fewer than 42 against UConn? USF fell 83-40 before 10,553 fans at the XL Center on Feb. 12, 2014.

In other words, let's talk about how lousy the Huskies' offense is.

With Omar Calhoun scoring 12 points in 20 minutes, Kentan Facey getting eight in 12 and Rodney Purvis seven in 23, the UConn bench not only outscored Tulane 27-10 in this 60-42 victory before 9,516 fans. UConn's bench produced 15 more points than in any of its six previous American Athletic Conference games. Games have been littered with six-point bench outputs this season.

In other words, let's talk about how lousy the Huskies' offense is.

No, no. That's wrong. What we really should be talking about is what a lousy job Kevin Ollie has done coaching the offense.

No, no. Even that's wrong. What we really should be talking about what a lousy coach Kevin Ollie is.

He's awful.

He won 20 games his first season when UConn had nothing to play for because of NCAA sanctions over lousy academic performance.

He's awful.

He won the national championship in 2014 by winning 32 games and beating Michigan State, Florida and Kentucky.

He's awful.

He helped get the program out of the APR mess and fitted into graduation gowns and national championship rings.

He's awful.

After patching together what should be a Top 25 season with graduate transfers, Ollie scored major recruiting coups in the last year that should put the Huskies on a good run the next three-four years. But you just wait until they all decommit, right?

He's awful.

I'll be honest. I've been a little afraid to open up my email the past two weeks. I've been afraid to look at my direct messages on Twitter. When I do, they read something like this: When are you going to have the courage to go after Ollie …

This guy can't coach games. This guy won the national championship with Jim Calhoun's players. This guy is 85-38 since he took over late in 2012 only because he had be-all, end-all floor generals in Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright. This guy not only coaches through games like he's an NBA coach on an 82-game schedule, he wants to be an NBA coach …

What? He has eschewed going to the NBA, you say? He signed a long-term contract to stay in Storrs, you say? Doesn't matter. He'll jump to the NBA first chance he gets.

I've told myself this many times over the years, "Stay off the Boneyard, Jacobs. And if you go on the UConn fans' website, make sure the wife hides all the sharp objects. Cause it's going to be a rough ride."

Do I listen to myself? Of course not. I'll hold out for a few weeks, but then I give in to the worst angels of my masochism. It's just so entertaining being exposed as a nitwit by the fanatics. I also am the first to admit sometimes there really is strong, legitimate provocative thought. Sometimes — sometimes — there is some rational discourse.

Having said that: Stay off the Boneyard, Kevin Ollie. They're killing you. Some of them have gone off the deep edge.

Look, UConn had a bad finish in the loss to Temple, a very bad one.

The offense in the second half in the loss at Tulsa was putrid. The ball movement wasn't good. Guys were settling for three-pointers right and left. Guys were missing three-pointers left and right. Daniel Hamilton and Rodney Purvis combined to hit 1-for-14 from outside the arc that night, and worse Ollie left them out there to keep missing. Afterward, he called that a mistake. It wasn't like Ollie held himself unaccountable. "I've got to coach better," he said.

Has Ollie had an A coaching season so far? Of course not. But what bothers me is how quickly so many seemed to have gone after offensive problems in a finite number of games and made these sweeping generalizations that diminish what he has accomplished and diminish what he can accomplish in the future.

It's unsettling.

Asked what still was missing from his offense after this 60-point output, Ollie answered, "Just make some shots."

Do you like the shots you're getting, "No," he said. "No. We need to move the basketball. I want to play on the third side. I don't want to play on the first or second side. When we move the basketball great things happen for us. That's the bottom line.

"Our offense is good. When it got down to seven [in the second half], we ran a nice little horns play. Daniel got to the free throw line and missed a one-and-one. We came down and ran the same thing, ran it side to side and Rodney got an open three. That's the kind of movement I want. That ball is getting stuck on one side. Or it gets to the second side, 'It's time to make my play.' I just want the guys to pass the ball and enjoy playing with one and another."

Oh, you knew this was coming.

"But the thing I'm loving is our defense, especially without the big guy … We're just playing some awesome defense right now. That's what we hang our hat on. We'll correct this offense, but I really want to focus in on the defense."

Amidah Brimah, the premier shot blocker in college basketball, has missed nine games. The Huskies are 7-2 without him. Awful. Fire the coach.

When Jim Calhoun talked about defense, everybody wanted to hoist him on their shoulders and shout how much blood and guts he had — which he did. Calhoun was one of the best motivators of the past 30 years in college basketball. Nobody was better than building momentum through a season either. His teams played defense like their hair was on fire. They gave it all. But ask yourself this: Do you think Calhoun belongs on the Mount Rushmore of college offensive coaches? If you do, you have drank too much of the national flag blue Kool-Aid or have amnesia.

"We made them [Tulane] turn the basketball over. We rotated. We dealt with [Dylan] Osetkowski, kept him to seven points and five rebounds, one offensive rebound. We took him out of the game and I think that was a real, real big key."

No, the real key is UConn is 4-2 and isn't 6-0 in the AAC. The real key is UConn is 13-5 and isn't 15-3 right now and ranked in the Top 15. No, no, the real key is Ollie is awful.

In November, did I think the scoring would be better? Absolutely. I thought this team was capable of an Elite Eight. There was one problem in Ollie calling for "alpha dogs" at the beginning of the season. Too many alpha dogs like trying to take the game over with their shots.

Purvis certainly is guilty of that. And at various points, so are others. Leadership can mean moving the ball with speed and precision until a man shakes loose for the best shot. It's on the coach. It's on the players, too. This is a team with two graduate transfers and three transfers in all. This is not a team grown from seedlings and, ultimately, these older players have got to figure this out, too. Maybe the answer really is to bring Purvis off the bench — yes, Ollie has made an adjustment — along with Calhoun for energy. Maybe it is good to get Jalen Adams the minutes he needs to mature. Certainly, it would be good if Hamilton regains his touch.

This is a crazy game, this AAC. There were some great UConn teams that had some stinkers in the Big East, but there were so many chances to rebound for quality victories that those stinkers are forgotten. You lose in the AAC a couple of times and you can find yourself in the NIT. You lose a conference game in an XL Center in front of only 9,516 fans and people start getting squirrely about the future.

That is a tightrope not of Kevin Ollie's doing, but one he must walk.

In the meantime, UConn fans, chill.

The man hasn't forgotten how to coach.

I once read a book called "How to deal with difficult people". The author cites one of the outstanding characteristics' of a "difficult" person as one who always plays "Victim, Perpetrator, Rescuer" The difficult to deal with person in the narrative is ALWAYS the victim or the rescuer, NEVER the perpetrator. This is how they frame every situation. Advice is to avoid such a person as they lack all objectivity and are self absorbed. Self pity, sarcasm etc. are all forms of anger and defensive behavior. I doubt that anyone can't really see through this charade. But the book helped me to identify this characteristic and avoid people who are. It's not "what's wrong" it's "who is wrong".
It's ok to vent and there are many good reasons to. In the end I don't think anyone on the BY is really asking to get rid of KO. I think rather that this is something someone can try to make a story out of; whether it is factually true or not. It's all about him.

 

[imno1]

The article could have been written in three sentences.
1. The Boneyard has a bunch or reactionary lunatics, especially after a loss
2. KO is a good defensive coach, just like JC
2. This team has no leader, probably because of all the transfers

How can it be a legit BY article with not one mention of pizza or ketchup

 

[SixRings]

How did Jacobs find the time to write this article? I thought he was dedicated to find out why UConn isn't in a P5.

 

[August_West]

How did Jacobs find the time to write this article? I thought he was dedicated to find out why UConn isn't in a P5.

He will write that article after a few visits to the CRB board.

 

[jibsey]

Actually, Jacob's remarks show a profound ignorance of the purpose of any board of this nature. In truth, it is a mild debating society in which people hold different perspectives and represent them. If everyone agreed and no one was provocative then we might as well have a town hall meeting in Amish county America. How boring would that be?
Sports fans argue sports. It's part of the fun.

Agree, and he knows this. He also knows that many fans do not want to delve that deeply into Husky hoops. Look around you even in Ct. most people are like "did they win?" We are a hyper focused bunch with a lot of detailed analysis some good some bad. Even sportswriters can gain a thing or two from other's opinions.

 

[tykurez]

I don't always agree with Jeff but he nailed it with this one.

 

[aceboon]

alot of hit dogs hollering in here...Jacobs is right

 

[Caronimo]

Jacobs should walk to Storrs from Hartford if UConn ends up in the NIT. Until then, I'll chill. I agree with his article but I do think he has a hard on for KO. I do too, but I'll still criticize him when needed.

 

[UConn990411]

The people who still hold grudges against Jacobs are missing out on one of the only quality UConn writers. I don't agree with everything he says, but he writes a lot of good stuff that's worth the read.

 

[8893]

Who is Jacobs?

 

[champs99and04]

Let's not mistake playing crap offensive teams with awesome defense.

UConn is ranked 13th in the country in adjusted defense (which accounts for competition). They've held eight straight opponents to 40% or less from the field.

Ollie has earned some criticism this year. But if you're going to bash him for the offensive execution and not credit him for how far the defense has come, you're not being reasonable.

And, on the topic of that offense, well, as Jacobs said, the man didn't forget how to coach. Ollie is absolutely correct when he says the offense needs to get the ball to the third side. This offense is night and day when they reverse the ball from strong side to weak side andthen sometimes back again.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Two things that are mutually exclusive:

1) Many of us often overreact (on a message board...go figure)
2) Jacobs is a hack. 70% of the Husky Fan Base has never seen the BY, yet a few yahoos here now represent the entire base.....idiot.

 

[BoatShow]

I don't know, I thought he hit it pretty well

Yup

 

[Ozone21]

Jacobs should go to the car wash for his next article on P5

 

[willie99]

is Jacobs right about Ollie? or the Boneyard?

the BY thinks Ollie will be fine too, the BY has not called for his firing at all. JJ is a lying buffoon, which is what his profession does best

 

[willie99]

next week, JJ will tell the world the BY said Ollie can't recruit either

 

[Stainmaster]

next week, JJ will tell the world the BY said Ollie can't recruit either

If he framed it in the past tense, it would be 100% correct. Remember last season?

 

[Mr. French]

Not only do I agree with this article at or almost 100%, but it hits on why people (like myself) had quick retorts for people criticizing only Ollie: Just because his players continue to do the wrong things in certain instances doesn't mean he thinks that's ok or is telling them "that's how it's done."

People DID make assertions like that and contend that he had no clue and could be out of his element and a junky coach.

If your assertions were "he made some mistakes and it's on the coach to get rid of the players' mistakes" that's fine, it's true, and most agreed. People claiming that some mid-season stagnant offense and poor play by his players meant he had no idea how to run an offense and is lost as a coach, in general, is the ridiculous part.

 

[Fishy]

You'd have to be stupid or a Courant columnist to think that UConn is putting a team playing up to its potential on the court right now.

This team lost to Syracuse, Temple, Tulsa and Gonzaga. Which one of those teams would you trade rosters with?

But yeah, blame the Boneyard. It's our fault.

 

[Dove]

@Fishy...I really liked your monkey.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

You'd have to be stupid or a Courant columnist to think that UConn is putting a team playing up to its potential on the court right now.

This team lost to Syracuse, Temple, Tulane and Gonzaga. Which one of those teams would you trade rosters with?

But yeah, blame the Boneyard. It's our fault.

Tulsa...but it could have been Tulane that night.

 

[Fishy]

Tulsa...but it could have been Tulane that night.

Ugh. I constantly use Tulane instead of Tulsa - I don't think I'll ever accept being in a conference with Tulsa.

But the Tulane game was a wreck as well.

 

[gtcam]

JJ is a - always was always will be
If you think what he wrote was right on - so be it
The guy is an antagonist whose only aim is to rile - it may be players, coaches, officiating people or fans.
The Courant is a rag and is only in business because it has no competition in it's market
If he thinks a majority of BYers want KO gone - he is sadly mistaken
Ask everyone at a sold out XL or Gampel and I would wager 85% don't know what the BY is
No sense wishing he would not write for the Courant because that's the only rag that would hire/employ him