Jeff Jacobs: Ollie Will Fight, But Can He Get Better Leading Program?

[Doctor Hoop]

No, the problem is that kids are being told to put ten toes in by people who are keeping some of their own toes out.

If that's the case, then that's the first thing that had to change.

 

[ctchamps]

people want to know why we haven't been very good. they will draw their own conclusions and articles coming out about him being distant and distrusting do not help. I think many are hoping that the divorce is why we haven't been very good because they think he can just "get over it" and get us back to winning championships. It's easier to blame it all on the divorce than it is to consider a multitude of possibilities.

Personally, I think the divorce definitely has something to do with it, but you can't attribute all of the blame towards it. I don't think we need to have a group therapy session to determine the why's and how's it has effected him and the program.

People in this forum have been dissecting everything about the men's bb program including players, coaches, conferences, posters, posters attitudes, posters positions, posters grammar, drinking habits, food choices, travel destinations, music choices, relationships, pro teams they support, whether you're a fan of bb if you only observe UConn and so on. That's the soap opera. We're a reflection of the machinations of the team we passionately support and the society we live in.

Somewhere in all our opinions there may be some accuracy to the problems we discuss or what we observe. If we make up our minds and insist that others are wrong we are validating ourselves and confusing it with searching for answers.

 

[ctchamps]

No, the problem is that kids are being told to put ten toes in by people who are keeping some of their own toes out.

And this brings me back to my question. Why didn't Benedict remove KO?

 

[TRest]

oh no. the infighting has moved on from the basketball team to the boneyard moderator team. we really are in a bad place

Wait, Frasier Crane here is a moderator?

 

[Chief00]

JC and any UConn basketball fan doesn't care if we play man to man, zone, or a junk defense. As long as we implement it well and we win.

Our culture has always been tough man to man defense.

 

[Fishy]

And this brings me back to my question. Why didn't Benedict remove KO?

You would have to ask him, but removing a coach a few years removed from a championship and six months removed from a five-year, $17,000,000 contract is a dicey proposition. And perhaps he thinks Ollie can right the ship.

 

[TRest]

And this brings me back to my question. Why didn't Benedict remove KO?

Because 2014, which is starting to disappear over the horizon.

 

[Chief00]

And this brings me back to my question. Why didn't Benedict remove KO?

Unless there is a compelling case, a new AD isn't going to fire a coach who he just did a $3+ million dollar annual contract with. Especially, after he just fired the football coach early in his new contract. Bad optics nationally.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

You would have to ask him, but removing a coach a few years removed from a championship and six months removed from a five-year, $17,000,000 contract is a dicey proposition. And perhaps he thinks Ollie can right the ship.

The first step before any termination is the so-called probationary period. I think it's safe to say we have entered the probationary period

 

[intlzncster]

4 pages in and nobody has mentioned this:

If, for the sake of argument, UConn had landed multidimensional 6-foot-8 Jayson Tatum, how great would he have fit into Ollie's system? He's a one-and-done guy at Duke. OK, you can't get Tatum? You take a step down and get Vance Jackson.

Good thing Jacobs isn't evaluating players, cause that's if that's a step down...it's a really big fv_king step.

 

[champs99and04]

I think you guys are burying the lead. The bolded is the most significant part to me:

Yet recent weeks in conversations with The Courant, a handful of knowledgeable sources have raised questions about Ollie's reluctance to allow people to get close to him, about his reluctance to listen to his assistant coaches on strategic matters, about a chilly distance from Calhoun, about a disinclination to burn up the recruiting trail.

This was the central sub-plot of the season and I talked about it many times. Ollie's stubbornness in sticking with his flawed offensive and defensive systems was perplexing in a way that was verified by the tape, the numbers, and the eye test. Chief clearly knew something when he talked about the Ollie/Miller dynamic and the match-up zone. Miller wanted to play more zone and he was 100% right. I shouted it from the mountaintops all season and Ollie never gave it a fair try.

The offensive philosophy was also bizarre (i.e. using Brimah as a screener instead of a lurker along the baseline) and the potential fixes were obvious. This was a flawed team that was never going to reach their potential with the injuries, but it still massively under-achieved and I've maintained that they would have won more games with a different coach. I'm starting to think Glen Miller could have been one of those.

A lot of this stuff is abstract but this is not. If the reports are true, the on court play is a direct manifestation of him being closed off. This isn't a hindsight thing. Something was off all year and we're starting to find out what.

 

[intlzncster]

Chief clearly knew something when he talked about the Ollie/Miller dynamic and the match-up zone. Miller wanted to play more zone and he was 100% right. I shouted it from the mountaintops all season and Ollie never gave it a fair try.

For the record, but Chief was arguing against the zone ('UCONN is a man-to-man program' yada yada). He was saying we were playing TOO MUCH zone.

Your overall point is spot on though.

I'm starting to think Glen Miller could have been one of those.

Couldn't be more opposite of Chief's perspective if you tried.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

I don't care how certain I may be in my abilities, I'm never closing off a Hall of Fame coach that built this program. That's ridiculous, if true. Clearly, there appears to be some introspection now by KO after looking at his record over the last three years, and the loss of 4 highly rated players over the past month who were unhappy here. That said, I'm desperately looking for something to cling on to in terms of hope going forward. One thing I'm not prepared to cling to is this notion that our problem was a failure to recruit "Uconn players" -- whatever that means. Great leaders lead, and don't complain the problem is the people they're leading. Great leaders lead with the people they have. Anyway, that's my two cents and I'm praying we see some positive change soon, because the last three years have been rough. And with the loss of so many highly ranked recruits (and some who gained in valuable experience last year) the future looks bleak. I will say that next year we do bring back a core of solid players and leaders in their own right in JA, CV, AG, and TL. That type of leadership and talent on the floor (assuming they play to pre-injury potential) gives me hope.

 

[selles]

I think you guys are burying the lead. The bolded is the most significant part to me:

Yet recent weeks in conversations with The Courant, a handful of knowledgeable sources have raised questions about Ollie's reluctance to allow people to get close to him, about his reluctance to listen to his assistant coaches on strategic matters, about a chilly distance from Calhoun, about a disinclination to burn up the recruiting trail.

This was the central sub-plot of the season and I talked about it many times. Ollie's stubbornness in sticking with his flawed offensive and defensive systems was perplexing in a way that was verified by the tape, the numbers, and the eye test. Chief clearly knew something when he talked about the Ollie/Miller dynamic and the match-up zone. Miller wanted to play more zone and he was 100% right. I shouted it from the mountaintops all season and Ollie never gave it a fair try.

The offensive philosophy was also bizarre (i.e. using Brimah as a screener instead of a lurker along the baseline) and the potential fixes were obvious. This was a flawed team that was never going to reach their potential with the injuries, but it still massively under-achieved and I've maintained that they would have won more games with a different coach. I'm starting to think Glen Miller could have been one of those.

A lot of this stuff is abstract but this is not. If the reports are true, the on court play is a direct manifestation of him being closed off. This isn't a hindsight thing. Something was off all year and we're starting to find out what.

We are talking about the Glen Miller who oversaw the demolition of the Penn basketball program, yes?

I had no problem with Glen while he was here and am thankful for his championship contributions, especially the Steve Nash drill. But I think you are jumping to a lot of conclusions.

You also have to keep in mind that Jacobs' main source for the section you bolded may well have been...Glen Miller.

 

[champs99and04]

For the record, but Chief was arguing against the zone ('UConn is a man-to-man program' yada yada). He was saying we were playing TOO MUCH zone.

Your overall point is spot on though.



Couldn't be more opposite of Chief's perspective if you tried.

Oh I know, but I do have to give him credit for somehow knowing about this before anybody else did. We just have much different interpretations of what that rift signified.

 

[King Husky]

I'm not sure what it means. Who needs to adjust to Giffey? He was one of the most versatile players UConn has had recently and would play any role the coaches wanted him to play. Just seems like a weird example.

I think it was a perfect example... Race

 

[ctchamps]

I think you guys are burying the lead. The bolded is the most significant part to me:

Yet recent weeks in conversations with The Courant, a handful of knowledgeable sources have raised questions about Ollie's reluctance to allow people to get close to him, about his reluctance to listen to his assistant coaches on strategic matters, about a chilly distance from Calhoun, about a disinclination to burn up the recruiting trail.

This was the central sub-plot of the season and I talked about it many times. Ollie's stubbornness in sticking with his flawed offensive and defensive systems was perplexing in a way that was verified by the tape, the numbers, and the eye test. Chief clearly knew something when he talked about the Ollie/Miller dynamic and the match-up zone. Miller wanted to play more zone and he was 100% right. I shouted it from the mountaintops all season and Ollie never gave it a fair try.

The offensive philosophy was also bizarre (i.e. using Brimah as a screener instead of a lurker along the baseline) and the potential fixes were obvious. This was a flawed team that was never going to reach their potential with the injuries, but it still massively under-achieved and I've maintained that they would have won more games with a different coach. I'm starting to think Glen Miller could have been one of those.

A lot of this stuff is abstract but this is not. If the reports are true, the on court play is a direct manifestation of him being closed off. This isn't a hindsight thing. Something was off all year and we're starting to find out what.

That's the problem though. We have no way of knowing how much the injuries impacted things. I'm not saying your analysis is incorrect. But like most of us trying to analyze things there are a lot of parameters that factored into this season. Bad start is on everyone but KO bears the brunt. But some players improved over the season so the argument can go either way with what would have happened with a healthy Diarra, Gilbert and Larrier to work with or Jalen not suffering one but two injuries, or Christian missing games because of a "faulty" concussion protocol, or Steve and Juwan having foot/leg issues or Juwan getting mono during the season (never knew that). With that type of disruption there is no realistic way to get any type of rhythm for a team.

 

[intlzncster]

I don't care how certain I may be in my abilities, I'm never closing off a Hall of Fame coach that built this program. That's ridiculous, if true. Clearly, there appears to be some introspection now by KO after looking at his record over the last three years, and the loss of 4 highly rated players over the past month who were unhappy here. That said, I'm desperately looking for something to cling on to in terms of hope going forward. One thing I'm not prepared to cling to is this notion that our problem was a failure to recruit "UConn players" -- whatever that means. Great leaders lead, and don't complain the problem is the people they're leading. Great leaders lead with the people they have. Anyway, that's my two cents and I'm praying we see some positive change soon, because the last three years have been rough. And with the loss of so many highly ranked recruits (and some who gained in valuable experience last year) the future looks bleak. I will say that next year we do bring back a core of solid players and leaders in their own right in JA, CV, AG, and TL. That type of leadership and talent on the floor (assuming they play to pre-injury potential) gives me hope.

JC jettisoned a lot of guys in his time at UCONN. And the same things could have been said about a number of them.

I don't have a great handle on what exactly happened with all these guys {I suspect it was individual to each), nor am > absolving ollie. Just saying this has occurred here before to some degree.

 

[intlzncster]

You would have to ask him, but removing a coach a few years removed from a championship and six months removed from a five-year, $17,000,000 contract is a dicey proposition. And perhaps he thinks Ollie can right the ship.

Question with zero snark. Do you?

I'm curious of the opinion of all naysayers.

I'm a middle of the road guy myself. Jury's out.

 

[Chief00]

For the record, but Chief was arguing against the zone ('UConn is a man-to-man program' yada yada). He was saying we were playing TOO MUCH zone.

Your overall point is spot on though.

Couldn't be more opposite of Chief's perspective if you tried.

No, he is not spot on. A zone is not the UConn culture. Glen and his anonymous buddies should focus on him getting a job rather than making him so bitter and toxic no one will hire him.

A teachable moment after their sabbaticals Beau and Pat got jobs because head coaches want loyal assistants not back stabbers.

 

[ctchamps]

No, he is not spot on. A zone is not the UConn culture. Glen and his anonymous buddies should focus on him getting a job rather than making him so bitter and toxic no one will hire him.

A teachable moment after their sabbaticals Beau and Pat got jobs because head coaches want loyal assistants not back stabbers.

Pot calling kettle?

 

[upstater]

Here's the key to KO's career:

Last month, Rodney Purvis tweeted out about "fake love." So did Jackson. It stemmed from a lyric by Drake, and while it was unclear if it was directed at Ollie, the term took on a life of its own among some fans and some around the program. ... I'm not buying for a minute that Ollie is a phony. Nevertheless, Ollie has to close out any notion of this with his players.

If KO truly loves his players and they are conscious of it, then no matter how tough and demanding a coach he is, they will love him back and everything will work. If they think he doesn't love them, then a demanding coach becomes tiresome, the players will get demoralized and look elsewhere. Ollie needs to make sure his actions live out his beliefs.

I think we have a great coach here, I really do. I'm looking forward to KO proving all the doubters here wrong.

This is the sort of reasoning that yields craziness. So now Rodney Purvis's tweet refers to Ollie?

 

[ctchamps]

This is the sort of reasoning that yields craziness. So now Rodney Purvis's tweet refers to Ollie?

That's a quote from JJ. Take it with a grain of salt. My guess is JJ saw people arguing in a thread when that tweet appeared and many thought initially Rodney was directing it at KO. Most people now believe that Rodney was directing it at some of the players.

JJ just being JJ with this.

 

[Fishy]

Question with zero snark. Do you?

It's going to be very difficult.

The transfers and the essentially lost recruiting class this year create bubbles down the road. They'll pop over the next two or three years, so we already have a built-in headwind.

Also, news travels faster inside the game than out. With all these high-profile transfers and recruits breaking loose this spring, how many even gave UConn a courtesy call? Perhaps one, and he only did so because of Chillious. That tells you what you need to know about the word of mouth about the program.

Can he fix it? Yes. Will he? I think so. Is it a sure thing? No.

He needs to nail a big class in 2018 and he needs to be who we thought he was - an overachiever who fights for every inch.

 

[AntG168]

This is the sort of reasoning that yields craziness. So now Rodney Purvis's tweet refers to Ollie?

I dont understand how your the first one to call out that nonsense. A professional journalist shouldnt even imply such things with ZERO eveidence to back it up. That was jeff jacobs "piling on"