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

[Danzz]

He was saying he changed what they wanted to do offensively when Giffey started hitting the 3 his senior year. Giffey shot up like 15-17% from 3 in the one off season.

　"My philosophy on the offensive end, I want flexible basketball players. I want versatile basketball players. I want basketball players that have great basketball IQs. Everybody gets caught up in the system, the system, the system. I'm a coach, 'Make me change my system.' For instance, Niels Giffey. I didn't know he was going to come back and be this prolific three-point shooter. I didn't have that in my system. We were pick-and-pop DeAndre [Daniels]. He came back and I adjusted my system to the development of my players. I'm not this guy who is just in this rigid system. This is how I got to be. I think the greatest coaches are the ones who are able to make adjustments to their personnel. I played big mostly the whole year with Kentan Facey and Amida Brimah."

Giffey was pretty much one dimensional until the last half of his senior year then all of a sudden we saw a different player who could rebound, play good D and of course hit 3's. Either Giffey figured it out on his own or he got some really good coaching but we don't win a national championship without his improved play.

 

[Banta55]

I've said this on here before ,Kevin has changed because of his divorce and will continue to do things his way without much regard of the outcome..He feels that the only one he can trust is himself, the only way he will see things differently is with professional help....I hope I'm wrong but this isn't going to end well.

 

[Dove]

Niels defended the 3, 4, and 5 at various times, all capably. He rebounded effectively. He was a very flexible defensive player. On offense, he was a spot-up shooter, but that inflexibility was not a problem when you had Bazz and Boat in the backcourt. I don't see that Niels was a rigid player, certainly not rigid like Vance Jackson who couldn't defend anything and demanded to play the 3 and get shots.

I think KO just means that he adjusted his offense and defense to the capabilities of the players he had, e.g. slowing the game down to compensate for lack of rebounding by Amida and Deandre or lack of footspeed by Niels. There's no one system, in other words, there is a flexible repertoire of approaches and the best approach for his group of players is what KO will choose. He is rebelling against having a single "system" that everyone has to fit into.

The quote I cited seemed to be from Jacobs' readers digest column. Someone later afded the whole quote that made your point correct.

 

[superjohn]

She may have expected that after the NBA travel ended he'd be home with her and found that didn't happen with college recruiting. She had a reduced financial incentive to stay every year as their wealth rose relative to his earnings. It was a selfish and loveless move no doubt, but it's not too surprising that a selfish person might prefer to be rich and free to play around to being rich at home alone.

What???

 

[Stainmaster]

Am I the only one who finds it a little sick how in-depth posters here are going in hashing out the details of Kevin Ollie's divorce and psychoanalyzing his mental state?

 

[Robertelamin]

Am I the only one who finds it a little sick how in-depth posters here are going in hashing out the details of Kevin Ollie's divorce and psychoanalyzing his mental state?

No, you're not the only one.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I don't know if this means anything, but I found very interesting the juxtaposition that was pointed out between KO's NBA career where he had to scrap and fight for every opportunity, vs. his head coaching career where he was anointed the position without doing much to earn it and in any objective sense was badly underqualified.

 

[JMick]

Am I the only one who finds it a little sick how in-depth posters here are going in hashing out the details of Kevin Ollie's divorce and psychoanalyzing his mental state?

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.

 

[ctchamps]

You know you spend too much time on these forums when you can recite an oral history of a message board feud.

You think!

 

[UConn990411]

Am I the only one who finds it a little sick how in-depth posters here are going in hashing out the details of Kevin Ollie's divorce and psychoanalyzing his mental state?

It's one thing to privately wonder if the divorce has had an impact, but the armchair therapists really need to tone it down with their analyses.

 

[ctchamps]

This is the strangest thing I have read here in a very long time.

Almost as strange as the angry post you directed towards me two nights ago but chose to remove.

 

[JMick]

Almost as strange as the angry post you directed towards me two nights ago but chose to remove.

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

 

[Chief00]

She may have expected that after the NBA travel ended he'd be home with her and found that didn't happen with college recruiting. She had a reduced financial incentive to stay every year as their wealth rose relative to his earnings. It was a selfish and loveless move no doubt, but it's not too surprising that a selfish person might prefer to be rich and free to play around to being rich at home alone.

I wouldn't blame his wife or assume it was a calculating plan. Wealth can also bring ego which can lead to bad things. Divorce can be complicated and no one should judge from a far. Emotions not calculations can ignite divorce, the calculations come later.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

I think we have a great coach as well. I think his motivation for his leadership is very high as well. When you say "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" it presupposes that his players are "10 toes in as well". I suspect that the failure lies, for the most part, in the players who left not living up to their end of the bargain. I think Calhoun also got across his "love" message as a "tough love message" from the get go. I recall sometime ago reading about a player who comforted a teammate after an epic rant by JC as "don't take it personally, he does that because he just really wants you to do well". In the military, the leaders will tell you take everything they say about training as extremely important because your life and the life of your brothers depends on it. And they take their responsibility very seriously. They've been there and seen it in action. They will say that "I can use positive motivation or negative motivation but in the end I am going to get my way". You have to buy into that in your head in order to put your heart into it. It is not about "feelings." A mother gets up in the middle of the night to feed a hungry baby even though she doesn't "feel" like it. Running away from a demanding situation is not going to make someone in a better position necessarily. To each his own. Choices have consequences.
I think we are back on track and I think over the years KO has more than proved his resiliency. I am looking forward to the coming years because I think there is a unity in vision among the AD, Coach and assistants.

Some of this "lack of 10 toes in" by recent players may be due to the presentation during recruiting. You can't promise playing time, or shots, or NBA probability. All of that comes from hard work. As I recall, Calhoun's approach was geared toward getting high-character, resilient sons-of-b*$ by telling them about how playing in the BE would challenge them to better themselves and prove it against great competition, and by telling them that they would earn PT with effort and attention to detail as much as ability. Part of the problem is that the top 150 recruiting lists are chock full of guys that have had it handed to them on a platter based on ability. Ollie (and Chillious) need to identify guys that fit the high-character, resilient mold who are willing to work hard to earn their time and laurels, and sell them on UConn history, his NBA career and credibility, and NCAA tournaments. And it's been tough to sell the AAC and NCAA tournament widgets, particularly lately.

 

[Fishy]

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.

 

[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.