Jalen Adams on Hurley's coaching style

[Excalibur]

The guy doesn't constantly rip and insult other posters, like several loud, prominent posters here (including our Resident Bully); he doesn't constantly call people names like he's a petulant 9 year old, like one particular high-count poster here (you know who you are); he doesn't get political or ruin threads with off topic comments (no need to say it, guilty), and the tenor of his posts is always suitable and non-offensive.


If we knew that the Chief handle was bogus, then I'd be all about the ragging.

.

Chief does all of the above, though I appreciate your fervor in calling out the guy we all know you’re talking about.

 

[Sphinx]

I really would love to see Ollie employed as a head coach sooner rather than later. I would like another data point to help determine how much of 2014 was the luck of the inheritance and how much was him.
My null hypothesis is that he's a terrible coach and has no business coaching.

I didn't know what a null hypothesis was, so I Googled it and read all the definitions, and I still don't know what it is. But if you mean that KO is a terrible college coach and has no business coaching a college team, than I ditto your hypothesis. I can forgive JC for failing to see this in advance, but it's hard to forgive the posters here who cannot see it in 20-20 hindsight -- and I mean those who qualify the phrase "terrible coach" in any positive way.

 

[navery12]

I didn't know what a null hypothesis was, so I Googled it and read all the definitions, and I still don't know what it is. But if you mean that KO is a terrible college coach and has no business coaching a college team, than I ditto your hypothesis. I can forgive JC for failing to see this in advance, but it's hard to forgive the posters here who cannot see it in 20-20 hindsight -- and I mean those who qualify the phrase "terrible coach" in any positive way.

The null hypothesis is the statement you are trying to disprove in the experiment

 

[Sphinx]

The null hypothesis is the statement you are trying to disprove in the experiment

Thank you. My heartfelt sympathies go out to whomever KO cons next into funding such an experiment.

 

[UConnNick]

Thank you. My heartfelt sympathies go out to whomever KO cons next into funding such an experiment.

Unless he convinces some unsuspecting, delusional AD that he can pull another NC rabbit out of his hat, I seriously doubt he will ever land a HC position at a high major program. Perhaps if he rehabilitates his rep with a lower level program first, he can eventually get back to the big time.

 

[pj]

Unless he convinces some unsuspecting, delusional AD that he can pull another NC rabbit out of his hat, I seriously doubt he will ever land a HC position at a high major program. Perhaps if he rehabilitates his rep with a lower level program first, he can eventually get back to the big time.

He needs to be an assistant coach for a while. Maybe with more time, learning, and perspective, he'll discover a desire to be a head coach. I think his heart wasn't fully in it and that was the biggest source of his problems.

 

[champs99and04]

There's not much nourishment to be gained from either, but generally speaking, it would be regretting the past and worrying about the future.

Further guidance is available in the form of accepting what cannot be changed, seeking courage to change what can be changed, and starting by discerning the difference between which people, places, and things can and cannot be changed.

For the committed, Conference Realignment might qualify as something one could both regret and worry about, but it still might not be the best way to inhabit the present.

Yes you're right but that might be a bit radical for this board. Baby steps.

 

[MadDogRevival]

I didn't know what a null hypothesis was, so I Googled it and read all the definitions, and I still don't know what it is.

Let's suppose that you think that lilac pollen is causing bee die off. You begin your analysis by saying: "Lilac pollen is causing bee die off." That is your null hypothesis. You then seek to show that, statistically, lilac poison is NOT causing bee die off. You might review data on a thousand bee hives, only 20% of which have access to lilac poison. If, statistically, there is no (significant) correlation between hives dying off and lilac access, you have DISPROVED the null hypothesis. For example, if the numbers show that bee die off rate is the same for hives having access to lilac and hives that don't have access, then there would be no statistical connection shown in the data you have. Ergo, you have disproved or weakened the null hypothesis.
Note that a null hypothesis can never by proved. In other words, if you, if fact, found a statistically significant connection between bee die off and access to lilac, you wouldn't (and couldn't) say that you "proved" the null hypothesis - no. What you would say is that null hypothesis could not be rejected (disproved).
A null hypothesis is generally taken as "true" when you begin examining data, and, as you progress, you either reject it or you fail to reject it, depending on what the data say.
In our case, my null hypothesis is: "Kevin Ollie is a terrible coach."
If he goes on to do a good job coaching somewhere else, I'll reject the null hypothesis - something else must explain the last 3 years at UConn.
If he goes no to do a lousy job coaching somewhere else, then I will not reject the null hypothesis and it will stand, pending further data/experimentation.

Summary for casual fans: Frank thinks KO is a lousy coach and double dares him to prove it by not sucking at his next stop. Hat tip to CHief.

 

[MadDogRevival]

I’m curious about your story in which the bully’s were spitting on the kid who visited his dads grave, what did you do when this occurred? And by no means am I questioning your toughness or manhood at the time it just brings up similar situations I had growing up, some of which I walked away from and others I stood up for the “different” individual. These are tough situations when we are young for varying reasons.

It's really a weird story.
My bus ride was 45 or 50 minutes long. It traversed a rich neighborhood up on the hill, a poorer neighborhood behind the lake, and my middle class neighborhood. It sounds simplistic, but it's how it was.
A couple of kids behind the lake were horrible bullies. They would scream at kids getting on and off the bus with every rude and nasty insult. "Flabby T-ts." "Mole face." "bleacher girl." Relentlessly, every day. They had been held back one or more years, so they were physically bigger than everybody. They had one dude who was on roids and was huge (5/7, 210 pounds ripped kind of frame) as their enforcer. Several of the younger kids behind the lake were conscripted - they were unwilling stooges or they would get beat up. The bus driver looked like a 20 year old Roger Daltry, with hair down to his butt and 5/4ish height.
I was a 145 pound 1st year completely alone.
They pretty much left me alone. Partly because my older sister was considered hot, and partly because I played sports, I suppose.
They used to give people the "treatment," which was code for 4 or 5 of them would pin a kid down and pound on his shoulder until it was bruised.
At some point they got to me. I was tall, so stood up and looked the lead goon in the face and said, "why don't you go pick on Bret? He's your age." Bret was a senior and could handle himself, and was not part of the bully clique. The goon was visibly trying to process the first comment in protest he had ever received, when I saw his eyes change to "fudge-it" and knew he was about to hit me, when condom lips, the hottest girl on the bus, yelled, "yeah Joey, why don't you try that with Bret?"
At which point the goon's brain locked up, he stood there slacked jawed for a minute, then walked away. A small miracle.
Until the next day. Given 24 hours, he came up with a good solution.
One the conscripted lackey's say next to the next day and hit me on the shoulder. I looked at him and said, "hey man, I don't have a problem with you." He said, "yeah, but Joey is going to kick my --s if I don't do this." He hits me again. I say, don't do that again. He does, I hit him in the face, then I got jumped by 6 guys. Bus driver pulled over and yelled and they all went back to their seats.
The next day (and for the next month) I went to school with a pipe taped to my leg. I was left alone until my stop, in 1.5 acre per lot suburbia, with nobody else getting off at my stop, in a day before cell phones, as a lock key kid, knowing I was completely on my own when I stepped off the bus.
I got up to get off the bus, and 6 guys lined up behind me to get off at my stop. I figured I'd try to kill the first guy off the bus, and then find out what happens after here.
Just as I passed the bus driver and started hiking up my pant leg as I was descending the two giant steps, the bus driver stands up and in front of the 6 guys and loudly says, "anybody who wants to get off this bus has to come through me." It was quite an image, that small dude, with his long hair, looking straight up into the vacant eyes of the 6/2 beta bully. They all sat down. That was in March. The rest of the year passed without incident. The following year I had my license and a car, and I almost never rode the bus again.
So what did I do when they spit on that kid? Every day? Not a damn thing, except wonder why he didn't just cross the street to avoid them altogether. I eventually came to understand why he didn't.

 

[champs99and04]

He needs to be an assistant coach for a while. Maybe with more time, learning, and perspective, he'll discover a desire to be a head coach. I think his heart wasn't fully in it and that was the biggest source of his problems.

Are we just going to continue to ignore the elephant in the room on this one or is it possible that the stuff in his personal life knocked him off course? That's a rhetorical question. Of course it's possible, if not likely. All the writing is right there on the wall.

Clearly he had weaknesses as a coach, independent of that, but one doesn't simply fall from winning the title at 100/1 odds to the biggest tire fire in the country unless there are some serious mitigating circumstances.

Pending the result of the NCAA investigation, he will have no shortage of suitors if he decides to coach again. No, he's not going to get the Arizona job, but there are plenty of A-10 level jobs he could walk right into. People tend to underestimate how many retread coaches who have accomplished considerably less than Ollie continue to find employment.

The question, as you said, is his desire. I'm not sure he wants to be a college coach. My guess is that if he puts in some time as an assistant in the NBA, he'll eventually get a shot there.

 

[Stainmaster]

Pending the result of the NCAA investigation, he will have no shortage of suitors if he decides to coach again. No, he's not going to get the Arizona job, but there are plenty of A-10 level jobs he could walk right into. People tend to underestimate how many retread coaches who have accomplished considerably less than Ollie continue to find employment.

Most of those "retread coaches" do not carry even one of the many risk factors Ollie carries with him. Athletics administrators at large are aware of his issues, and none of them will touch Ollie as a result. He's not getting a job in either the amateur or professional ranks anytime soon.

 

[Tenspro2002]

He needs to be an assistant coach for a while. Maybe with more time, learning, and perspective, he'll discover a desire to be a head coach. I think his heart wasn't fully in it and that was the biggest source of his problems.

I can see either two paths here:
1) He re-surfaces in a few years as an assistant in the NBA -- where he should have been from the beginning -- and never coaches in college again
2) He does some major soul-searching and lands a lower-profile college HC job, say in the A-10 or MWC. Some mid-level AD will take a flyer on a NC-winning coach, despite a horrible track-record since then.

I don't see him taking an assistant job in college, even for a high-profile program.

 

[champs99and04]

Most of those "retread coaches" do not carry even one of the many risk factors Ollie carries with him. Athletics administrators at large are aware of his issues, and none of them will touch Ollie as a result. He's not getting a job in either the amateur or professional ranks anytime soon.

OK, but it seems like people that know about these things are speaking an entirely different language than the ones I'm replying to. If things went off the rails to the extent that nobody's even going to touch him, then it's futile to discuss the matter in the first place. For as bad as some of the rumors may be, they still don't necessarily support the narrative that a lot of people have been pushing.

 

[superjohn]

Are we just going to continue to ignore the elephant in the room on this one or is it possible that the stuff in his personal life knocked him off course? That's a rhetorical question. Of course it's possible, if not likely. All the writing is right there on the wall.

Clearly he had weaknesses as a coach, independent of that, but one doesn't simply fall from winning the title at 100/1 odds to the biggest tire fire in the country unless there are some serious mitigating circumstances.

Pending the result of the NCAA investigation, he will have no shortage of suitors if he decides to coach again. No, he's not going to get the Arizona job, but there are plenty of A-10 level jobs he could walk right into. People tend to underestimate how many retread coaches who have accomplished considerably less than Ollie continue to find employment.

The question, as you said, is his desire. I'm not sure he wants to be a college coach. My guess is that if he puts in some time as an assistant in the NBA, he'll eventually get a shot there.

You're mistaken, he's not going to have a lot of suitors.

 

[pj]

You're mistaken, he's not going to have a lot of suitors.

Not at A10 level schools, but at the bottom of D1. If he could convincingly persuade the school that he wanted to coach there, someone would take a chance on a 13-year NBA veteran with a national championship on his record. You're not seriously going to argue that the likes of, e.g., Big South schools UNC Asheville, Radford, Winthrop, Campbell, Liberty, Gardner-Webb, and High Point, one school wouldn't take a chance?

For KO it would be a chance to prove himself. But I don't think he's that eager to prove himself at college coaching.

 

[Stainmaster]

If things went off the rails to the extent that nobody's even going to touch him, then it's futile to discuss the matter in the first place.

It is indeed futile. I don't why anyone's entertaining it, especially people who are actually privy to the off-court stuff.

 

[CL82]

Pending the result of the NCAA investigation, he will have no shortage of suitors if he decides to coach again. No, he's not going to get the Arizona job, but there are plenty of A-10 level jobs he could walk right into. People tend to underestimate how many retread coaches who have accomplished considerably less than Ollie continue to find employment.

I'm not sure. The past two years, lawsuit and the FOIA looking for stuff about Calhoun and Auriemma may have made him a question mark. I'm also not sure that he wants to coach anymore.

 

[Vancat]

I can’t wait until the gag order is lifted - so much to share!

Who is giving the gag order and what has to happen before it is gone?

 

[superjohn]

Who is Frank Ivy? I see numerous references to him on the boneyard. I am curious about Chief. I have not been around long enough to really know what is going on. Is chief an insider? Part of the athletic dept. at Uconn? Just curious, thats all.

Chief is the most connected of insiders, he also goes by the handle Fishy. Frank Ivy lives in Erie, Pennsylvania and can be seen on the Netflix documentary "Evil Genius" about the pizza bomber, he goes by the handle MadDogRevival.

 

[JMick]

Chief is the most connected of insiders, he also goes by the handle Fishy. Frank Ivy lives in Erie, Pennsylvania and can be seen on the Netflix documentary "Evil Genius" about the pizza bomber, he goes by the handle MadDogRevival.

Do people actually think chief and fishy are the same person? I feel like that started as a joke and people didn't realize it

 

[HuskyHawk]

Are we just going to continue to ignore the elephant in the room on this one or is it possible that the stuff in his personal life knocked him off course? That's a rhetorical question. Of course it's possible, if not likely. All the writing is right there on the wall.

Clearly he had weaknesses as a coach, independent of that, but one doesn't simply fall from winning the title at 100/1 odds to the biggest tire fire in the country unless there are some serious mitigating circumstances.

Pending the result of the NCAA investigation, he will have no shortage of suitors if he decides to coach again. No, he's not going to get the Arizona job, but there are plenty of A-10 level jobs he could walk right into. People tend to underestimate how many retread coaches who have accomplished considerably less than Ollie continue to find employment.

The question, as you said, is his desire. I'm not sure he wants to be a college coach. My guess is that if he puts in some time as an assistant in the NBA, he'll eventually get a shot there.

The reason I've "ignored it" is that I have no real proof and it is all conjecture. But here are the "facts" as I understand them.

• Kevin was an incredibly hard worker as a player, at UConn and in landing all those 1 year NBA contracts
• Kevin was deeply religious and very much a devoted family man
• Kevin was lauded as a future coach by NBA teams he played for, and mentor by young guys he played with.
• With only a few years as an assistant, he got the UConn HC job.
• Two years later he won a national championship with a roster that really had no business even reaching a final four
• Sometime around 2014-15 his marriage fell apart, and he got divorced in 2015
  
• His 2015 team went 20-15, which wasn't bad
• His 2016 team was 25-11, which was an under achievement given their talent. They looked worse than that, and players were used poorly.
• Rumors surfaced about excessive partying, etc.
• The 2017 team was terrible despite being ranked pre-season, although injuries played a key role. His recruiting was not strong, and he seemed disinterested in doing the job
• Players transferred out. Recruits from in state who knew the program and players did not come to UConn.
• The 2017-18 team was even more terrible. It looked completely over-matched, and struggled even against bad teams.
• He seemed completely unwilling to admit the truth. He was fired.

The conclusion I have privately drawn is that following the 2014 NC, something in him changed. That change caused him to destroy his family, and ultimately destroyed his will to do what was necessary to coach the UConn basketball team. That's my null hypothesis if you will.

 

[mauconnfan]

Do people actually think chief and fishy are the same person? I feel like that started as a joke and people didn't realize it

They are actually Jamal Mashburn.

 

[HuskyHawk]

They are actually Jamal Mashburn.

Jamal could really punch some throats.

 

[mauconnfan]

Jamal could really punch some throats.

And amazingly enough he danced like Bunkey!

 

[Waquoit]

I know several guys that got divorced. Not one was able to stop working and still get paid. All that changed was Bazz running out of eligibility.