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

[Walker11]

Goodness gracious but it's easy to glance at your name and think its whaler11. I'd change your name just so people don't confuse you with him.

I had my name for a full day before whaler11 joined the board so I think I deserve it. To be fair, he was probably whaler11 on the other board when I was some generic uconn themed handle. I don't hate being confused with him, I think he is a great poster. That said, I may be the only person with that sentiment (joking, mostly).

 

[ctchamps]

Trying to knock some sense into some true believers doesn't mean one is 'pissed off at the world'.

There comes a point where one reads so much rationalization, excuses and complete garbage that they have to try and inject reality.

We've been down this road before - how many dozens of people attacked me about Diaco and my opinions of him and his recruiting.

Remember when people used to tell me you had to wait years to judge Diaco's FCS recruiting classes?

This is a program that is completely melting down - you might think you are doing the right thing defending Ollie to the death. I can promise you that you are wrong and pretending this is a 'rough patch' is the last thing you want to do if you want to get back to winning.

Thankfully AD David Benedict seems to understand that better than the crew who wants to shout down anyone who doesn't want to play pretend.

Well I'm glad someone is injecting reality. Of course outside of the Diaco comparison, you're not bringing anything new to the table. But have at it. Just don't think any of us are impressed that Lord whaler has value because he fought the Diaco fight. We have a better person than you amongst us named chief to guide us on our way.

Most of us recognize the dilemma the program is in. Some of us believe that since we have to let the process play out because we can't do anything about it, we prefer looking at potential positives as opposed to living day to day in misery until the events plays out. If a Boneyard consensus misery quotient could impact outcomes, I'd join the brigade and proudly express misery. But the last thing I heard Boneyard commentary has zero impact on outcomes, there is no contest that offers a most miserable fan award, nor is there a consensus that expressing misery denotes fandom.

 

[whaler11]

Well I'm glad someone is injecting reality. Of course outside of the Diaco comparison, you're not bringing anything new to the table. But have at it. Just don't think any of us are impressed that Lord whaler has value because he fought the Diaco fight. We have a better person than you amongst us named chief to guide us on our way.

Most of us recognize the dilemma the program is in. Some of us believe that since we have to let the process play out because we can't do anything about it, we prefer looking at potential positives as opposed to living day to day in misery until the events plays out. If a Boneyard consensus misery quotient could impact outcomes, I'd join the brigade and proudly express misery. But the last thing I heard Boneyard commentary has zero impact on outcomes, there is no contest that offers a most miserable fan award, nor is there a consensus that expressing misery denotes fandom.

Oh thank God someone was here to play the holier than thou card. That was missing from ant's game.

Thanks for letting me know 'most' understand the dilemma - if that's the case you should be supporting me because the dopes I've been replying to don't.

The rest of your strawmen don't even make sense - but I guess they are well constructed.

 

[KingAG]

Oh thank God someone was here to play the holier than thou card. That was missing from ant's game.

Thanks for letting me know 'most' understand the dilemma - if that's the case you should be supporting me because the dopes I've been replying to don't.

The rest of your strawmen don't even make sense - but I guess they are well constructed.

I wonder if i cam change my name to KingDope

 

[whaler11]

That isn't what this about. He compared Ollie to Diaco because he claims ollie "preaches" love but doesnt show it. Thats pure unfounded speculation. The players that transfered sited their reasons as being the way they were being used. Vance went out of his way to say how good a guy ollie was. If you want to say ollie didnt utilize guys correctly or re recruited the wrong guy cool. You can use evidence to back that up. But to use rap lyrics in a tweet to insinuate ollie was "fake" with his players is dumb.

I actually said he preaches love and family and exactly like Diaco has a program that doesn't reflect what he preaches. I know enough players didn't transfer for you to understand this but....

 

[whaler11]

The last few articles and the accompanying quotes from folks in and around the program - on and off the record - are as blatant an example of 'setting up the scaffold' as you'll get in sports.

There's obviously a lot going on - but almost all of it has a lot to do with almost everything Ollie. His emotional state, how he interacts with peers, his shortcomings, relationship with parents in his program, his relationship with players - communications issues everywhere. I mean *all of these things* are more or less discussed in Jacobs and Amore's pieces. It's not like people are being quiet about anything. And not to go into low blow land, but yeah - Ollie also got a divorce. There's a pretty significant relationship that took a toll on him in a variety of ways - but also fits neatly (maybe too conveniently 0 and yes, you can crap on me for bringing it up because saying it makes me want to take a shower) into the narrative that Ollie's got a lot going on right now - and not in a good way. The fact that AD Dave is meeting with him on 'future plans' etc - is a pretty bad indicator that the institution wants to - at the very least - know what's up.

I really, really, really, really want Ollie to figure it out. And yeah - he's had a lot of obstacles thrown in his way. But looking at the consistent trends of not only what we're seeing on the floor - but the drumbeat coming from a number of people around the program - it's all pointing fingers at him. And it's not about his recruiting. It's not about his X's and O's. These aren't constructive criticisms of his technical coaching skills. They're kind of going at his leadership. They're going at how he communicates. There's some punches and digs on his integrity. I mean every which way you slice it, it just feels like Ollie's got a lot of personal relationship problems right now - and that to me - is the really concerning part. This doesn't seem to be a coaching thing. This is seems to be a personal thing.

Yeah there is nothing in common with Diaco. Other than you could have copied this post off the football board last December and changed some names.

 

[KingAG]

I actually said he preaches love and family and exactly like Diaco has a program that doesn't reflect what he preaches. I know enough players didn't transfer for you to understand this but....

Okay. Im done with it..

 

[ctchamps]

There are also the consistent rumors that Ollie has played favorites. Now, as to the truth of those rumors, who knows? But it would explain why some players seem to really like Ollie and others transfer or seem dissatisfied.

Well if you're sitting on the bench and other players are playing and you don't want to think that you have a shared responsibility to the problem it's logical to come to the conclusion the coach is playing favorites. Now I'm not saying I know this to be true. But I've had to fire people who had no clue who they were and what they did. Given that people have given me the moniker of Dr. Phil and apologista you could decide for yourself whether I gave said people every chance in the world to figure things out before taking that action. I can guarantee you, even with all the other employees backing me up, these individuals absolutely could not see their faults that resulted in the dismissals.

I don't think KO is free from fault in this situation. If his heart was not fully in coaching for whatever reason than players and other coaches would feel it even if they couldn't understand it or worse misinterpret it. Perhaps if all the horrible events to the players and this season didn't happen, the perception of KO's supposed funk would have been overlooked. But given the events and the outcome of this season the perception not only became noticed it became magnified. With that magnification it's possible there are distortions of things. And that has a way of muddying the real picture.

 

[whaler11]

I don't think KO is free from fault in this situation. .

It's pretty refreshing to hear that the $3 million dollar a year head coach of a college basketball program in the 7th or 8th toughest conference isn't free from fault when they go 15-17 against D-I opponents.

 

[champs99and04]

We don't need an in-depth psycho-analysis on Ollie's divorce but the timing of it is a hell of a coincidence if that is in fact all it is. It could be as simple as he had Shabazz those first two years and hasn't since, but some of the commentary - regarding some of the things @Towney007 outlines in his post a few posts up - seems to transcend the actual play on the court.

I don't know what's going on. I can't know and nor can anybody else on this board, so to a large extent it is pointless to talk about it. But it's also a traumatic event that can't be reduced to "he needs to get over it" and if it's impacted the head basketball coach it only makes him human. If we can speculate on D-Ham's play being effected by his grandma dying or Rodney's play being effected by his friend dying then I don't see what is so different about this. If there has been a perceptible change in his character over the last couple years then it should be identified by the people inside the program. Perhaps it's your normal learning curve for a young head coach or maybe it's something more. As outsiders there are only so many dots for us to connect, but it's 2017 and mental health is something that should be routinely vetted and monitored, and that goes for everybody within the program. Anything to optimize performance should be considered and if something is wrong, whether with a player or a coach, I would hope that the people closest to them speak up.

 

[Walker11]

People like the divorce speculation because it is a neat and a simple answer to a difficult situation. Ollie is a tough SOB and I have a difficult time imagining his entire personality and presence being warped by a divorce. Its possible, sure, but I think it primarily allows people to skip the part where he is a very inexperienced and possibly in over his head coach who has also experienced bad luck.

 

[FartMan69]

It's pretty refreshing to hear that the $3 million dollar a year head coach of a college basketball program in the 7th or 8th toughest conference isn't free from fault when they go 15-17 against D-I opponents.

My favorite spin zone from the Ollie Stan's are that Calhoun left the cupboard bare and he's had to deal with the aftermath of unimaginable bad luck that is 100% unique to UConn. He had two good coaching seasons and a great month of coaching but the last 3 seasons have been mediocre to terrible and it lies 100% on the coaching staff, they get paid to build and maintain a level of greatness and now we are a laughing stock in a mediocre conference. Great.

 

[KingAG]

My favorite spin zone from the Ollie Stan's are that Calhoun left the cupboard bare and he's had to deal with the aftermath of unimaginable bad luck that is 100% unique to UConn. He had two good coaching seasons and a great month of coaching but the last 3 seasons have been mediocre to terrible and it lies 100% on the coaching staff, they get paid to build and maintain a level of greatness and now we are a laughing stock in a mediocre conference. Great.

Why cant both be true. Calhoun did leave him a mess. And no other major program has gone thru what UConn has. Post season ban, recruiting sanctions, and be banished to a mid major conference. Thats undeniable. His first 2 yrs he overacheived. His last 3 hes underacheived. Thats reality. Not one or the other

 

[FartMan69]

People like the divorce speculation because it is a neat and a simple answer to a difficult situation. Ollie is a tough SOB and I have a difficult time imagining his entire personality and presence being warped by a divorce. Its possible, sure, but I think it primarily allows people to skip the part where he is a very inexperienced and possibly in over his head coach who has also experienced bad luck.

Yeah I can't see the divorce as the main culprit as to why we have no front court next season. I just can't.

 

[FartMan69]

Why cant both be true. Calhoun did leave him a mess. Thats undeniable. His first 2 yrs he overacheived. His last 3 hes underacheived. Thats reality. Not one or the other

A mess that had already played part in a national title and would give the program another one shortly after. Yuck

 

[champs99and04]

People like the divorce speculation because it is a neat and a simple answer to a difficult situation. Ollie is a tough SOB and I have a difficult time imagining his entire personality and presence being warped by a divorce. Its possible, sure, but I think it primarily allows people to skip the part where he is a very inexperienced and possibly in over his head coach who has also experienced bad luck.

I would say you are very likely right, but I'd caution in equating toughness with things like handling a divorce. My completely non-scientific guess would be that it can shake the infrastructure of even the most put-together people.

 

[KingAG]

A mess that had already played part in a national title and would give the program another one shortly after. Yuck

Yes. KO coached and managed his a** off. Just remember to thank KO for that title you speak of

 

[ctchamps]

People like the divorce speculation because it is a neat and a simple answer to a difficult situation. Ollie is a tough SOB and I have a difficult time imagining his entire personality and presence being warped by a divorce. Its possible, sure, but I think it primarily allows people to skip the part where he is a very inexperienced and possibly in over his head coach who has also experienced bad luck.

They are not mutually exclusive issues. I'd prefer people consider all the potential parameters involved in any problem as opposed to settling on one or two and excluding all other considerations. As @champs99and04 we can not know exactly what is going on so all of this is conjecture. But the genie was let out of the box with the OP in this thread. It was inevitable that people would try to understand the underlying reason for the reported behavioral change in KO. And that's assuming their is credibility to that report. I'm still on the fence but leaning in the direction there is some basis.

 

[Walker11]

I would say you are very likely right, but I'd caution in equating toughness with things like handling a divorce. My completely non-scientific guess would be that it can shake the infrastructure of even the most put-together people.

True. I hesitated even putting that in. Just my opinion. More pseudo speculation - I wouldn't expect a man so grounded by his faith to entirely change his personality due to a divorce. This from a single 29 year old atheist.

 

[ctchamps]

I would say you are very likely right, but I'd caution in equating toughness with things like handling a divorce. My completely non-scientific guess would be that it can shake the infrastructure of even the most put-together people.

I consider most of the people in this forum to be relatively well put together. I believe the majority of us are over achievers. And look at how many people are emotionally upset with the season, the post season, other posters, what people are posting. I remember a poster that I complemented as being someone who presented himself as far more mature than his age indicated and shortly after I did this he went off on Kentan over his performance in a game earlier in the season and insisted he never play another minute.

Emotions are what they are. Some of us are more in control of them than others. Some of us deal with adversity better than others. Some of us get over things quicker than others. Some of us can never get over some things and some of us can't get over anything. Who needs science to tell us what's in front of our faces.

I can't say for certain KO is in a funk. But if he is then certainly his divorce would have to be considered even if it's three years past the time. Stating it shouldn't make it a certainty in anyones mind. It's just a plausible possibility.

It doesn't change the past and none of our conjecture will change the future. The bottom line is KO has to figure things out to get the program back to a state of success and fix the things he was personally responsible for that led to the current state of things.

 

[uconndoit]

Is there a forum on the Boneyard where people discuss UConn men's basketball?

 

[ctchamps]

Do you mean incessant psychoanalysis of people that don't want to be psychoanalyzed, or of situations that don't warrant psychoanalysis

Nah. That's an overblown exaggeration with some underlying basis. People have expressed it recently because unlike the past where I've stayed above the fray I've decided I owe it to myself to be like the rest of the idiots in this forum who enjoy going after one another. I've decided at nearly 70 years old it's time to be a persnickety curmudgeon and get down and dirty instead of always being noble. I've only regretted one recent instance where I went beyond a boundary I still try to maintain. I'm just hoping I've earned enough points for my past behavior to get past those gates that you don't subscribe to.

I was referencing my inability to stay away from this place. Look at the number of posts. And that includes a hiatus from this place for almost two years starting three years ago. The sad truth is outside of @Dogbreath2U I'm not sure anyone noticed my absence. So I'm making certain this time around people will be aware when I'm not here.

 

[ctchamps]

Is there a forum on the Boneyard where people discuss UConn men's basketball?

Yep. You get more content in the forum titled cesspool.

 

[ctchamps]

I had my name for a full day before whaler11 joined the board so I think I deserve it. To be fair, he was probably whaler11 on the other board when I was some generic UConn themed handle. I don't hate being confused with him, I think he is a great poster. That said, I may be the only person with that sentiment (joking, mostly).

He's a knowledgeable arrogant poster. That fits the bill for most of us. I was just joking because of your response to Ant and the back and forth going on between Ant and whaler.

I love hearing the ages of people. Single and 29 with your knowledge and attitude should get you far in this world. How's that for psychoanalysis. You're probably a degenerate in prison.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Kevin Ollie is right around the 10th highest paid college basketball coach in America. We deserve better than what we've seen the past three seasons. With a program with a history like UConn, top notch facilities and the salary to match it, 1 NCAA tournament bid the past 3 seasons doesn't cut it.

The narrative that we are limited as a program as to where KO takes us is BS. The conference isn't attractive, but the program still has cache and the salary more than anything else would allow us to bring in a solid coach.

KO will always get credit for the National Title run and he earned that. The pattern of middling regular season success and this past seasons abject failure is more of an indication to me about his capacity as a head coach than catching lightning in a bottle with the best player in college basketball for that season over 6 games. They don't contradict each other. You can achieve the apex of success in a game, but then also fall off the mountain.

More so concerning than the up and down results of the past 3 years is how the bottom fell off this off season. Given the injuries, this past season would be difficult, but there was at least some hope that returning Jalen, Gilbert and Larrier, and then adding a top recruit in MAL, that we could make some noise next year at least in the AAC.

The fact that so many players are leaving (spare me the public comments of support for KO, if they truly believed what they are saying, why would they leave) and the stories that have come out about KO and how he's been running the program are what is really painting a dark picture here.

I want KO to succeed and prove me wrong. I love the idea of the continuity of a former player keeping UConn elite. However, nobody is bigger than the program. KO needs to get his act together, because at $3M a season, there would be a lot of guys out there that would be up for the challenge.

 

[tykurez]

Kevin Ollie is right around the 10th highest paid college basketball coach in America. We deserve better than what we've seen the past three seasons. With a program with a history like UConn, top notch facilities and the salary to match it, 1 NCAA tournament bid the past 3 seasons doesn't cut it.

...

I want KO to succeed and prove me wrong. I love the idea of the continuity of a former player keeping UConn elite. However, nobody is bigger than the program. KO needs to get his act together, because at $3M a season, there would be a lot of guys out there that would be up for the challenge.

Cool - let's start seeing some suggestions then. Because a few folks are finger-on-the-trigger, so we might as well starting thinking of some names of guys who would a) realistically come here and b) be in a better position to right the ship and c) be as up to the "challenge" as KO is.

There is no greater lose-lose than the position Kevin Ollie was handed nor is currently in. To take over for a hall of fame coach while the program is still sanctioned and playing Tulane and ECU in its conference schedule is the imagery of nightmares for most.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Cool - let's start seeing some suggestions then. Because a few folks are finger-on-the-trigger, so we might as well starting thinking of some names of guys who would a) realistically come here and b) be in a better position to right the ship and c) be as up to the "challenge" as KO is.

There is no greater lose-lose than the position Kevin Ollie was handed nor is currently in. To take over for a hall of fame coach while the program is still sanctioned and playing Tulane and ECU in its conference schedule is the imagery of nightmares for most.

Kevin Ollie was handed an elite, arguably top 10, college basketball program of all time with only a couple of seasons as an assistant coach and was paid handsomely to do so.

How is it lose-lose? Either start winning more games and the players and fans will embrace him again, or he continues to lose and he'll be relieved of his duties. Fairly simple.

Say what you want about the scholarship limited, the conference, the ban whatever. Those excuses hold up to a certain extent. The fact we are continually losing games against we have no business losing to and then are blown off the court by other 'peer' AAC programs has little to do with the aforementioned sanctions/league.

I don't hear a lot of people out here demanding Elite 8s and Conference Titles. I see a lot of people out there saying that 5th place regular season finishes in the AAC and no NCAA Tournament aren't acceptable for a) our programs standards b) the salary we are paying these coaches.

 

[Huskybass]

Cool - let's start seeing some suggestions then. Because a few folks are finger-on-the-trigger, so we might as well starting thinking of some names of guys who would a) realistically come here and b) be in a better position to right the ship and c) be as up to the "challenge" as KO is.

There is no greater lose-lose than the position Kevin Ollie was handed nor is currently in. To take over for a hall of fame coach while the program is still sanctioned and playing Tulane and ECU in its conference schedule is the imagery of nightmares for most.

Not just playing Tulane and ECU as part of its conference schedule, but LOSING to ECU in addition to losing home games to Wagner and Northeastern with a full roster. Any way you slice it, it's a mess.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Not just playing Tulane and ECU as part of its conference schedule, but LOSING to ECU in addition to losing home games to Wagner and Northeastern with a full roster. Any way you slice it, it's a mess.

The schedule is the least of our problems. If anything, the schedule next season could end up being one of the better ones we've had with the Nike Tournament, Cuse, Villanova, Arizona, Wichita x 2, SMU x 2, Cincinnati x 2.

 

[champs99and04]

True. I hesitated even putting that in. Just my opinion. More pseudo speculation - I wouldn't expect a man so grounded by his faith to entirely change his personality due to a divorce. This from a single 29 year old atheist.

One more year in the bottom of kenpom's luck rating and I may join you as an atheist.