KO Loses Some of His Luster

[Jax Husky]

You don't need a post presence to crack the zone. You need play-design creativity, passes to spots in the creases of the zone which create further openings.

I never claimed JC was an X's and O's wizard either. I'm hoping KO, with his NBA PG pedigree, will turn out to be better. Despite today's alarming performance, he's just getting started and learning the nuances of in-game coaching.

When KO played in the NBA, zone didn't exist, so I don't know why anyone would think that would hlp him.

 

[tentoes4rings]

Guys were coming down and jacking up threes without even setting up. They played dumb too much.

What? Plenty of JC teams came out lackadasical and/or flustered by zone defenses. It is no indicator of KOs coaching acumen. What this terrible loss showed me is that we have NO offense inside game.

That's the real issue. Apart from driving deep into the lane and kicking to our centers for dunks, this team has no inside scoring. Teams will continue to overload up top on Bazz until this improves. My question is, how bad of a practice player is Facey if he can't even sniff the court while Nolan is repeatedly throwing up bricks?

 

[Tenspro2002]

My question is, how bad of a practice player is Facey if he can't even sniff the court while Nolan is repeatedly throwing up bricks?

Facey's problem is he's an inferior version of Daniels, not a superior version of Nolan.

I don't think the lack of post scoring hurt us against the zone. The fact that nobody got open at the foul line made us extremely easy to defend. Why the hell was Daniels not making a living in that spot? Or Giffey? Or Calhoun? Or Kromah? The fact that nobody was doing it suggests KO wasn't demanding it, and that's his fault.

 

[zls44]

Absolutely. There were many games with JC at the helm where we bitched about our inability to adjust against a 2-3 zone. What tonight showed was that we can't just rely on Shabazz to do his Kemba impersonation at the end of every game.

Fair enough. Just shot my mouth off without thinking as I am prone to do.

 

[tentoes4rings]

Fair enough. Just shot my mouth off without thinking as I am prone to do.

No worries, I do it often myself

 

[ASweet3781]

This goes much further than how we performed against the 2-3 zone tonight.

I think time has shown that we should not have been in rock fights down to the final seconds with all 3 out of Indiana, Maryland, and especially Boston College. I can understand a let down or 2 but in every game against a BCS non conference opponent? Even bad ones? That says a lot. Part of the problem is the laughable lack of talent in our front court. The other is the coaches have not crafted out what we are as a team. Is this a team that runs and uses its speed? Seems like it should be but I see us clogged down in the half court a ton with a guard holding the ball for 20 seconds.

 

[CTBasketball]

This goes much further than how we performed against the 2-3 zone tonight.

I think time has shown that we should not have been in rock fights down to the final seconds with all 3 out of Indiana, Maryland, and especially Boston College. I can understand a let down or 2 but in every game against a BCS non conference opponent? Even bad ones?

You're right. The only one that has the killer instinct is Shabazz and sometimes humans make mistakes. It happens you know.

But this team can't put teams away and can't score against decent defenders. We're vastly overrated and lowly Stanford just made us eat crow.

 

[UConn990411]

That happens when you call ineffective plays and don't make adjustments.

The problem with Ollie's adjustments is that he doesn't make any.

The offense has gotten progressively worse just about every time the team steps out on the court. That's not a very good reflection on Ollie.

 

[cohenzone]

Just back from the game. The worst half of basketball I think I've ever seen a decent team play, and the coaching wasn't so hot. How a team with 4 ex-guards as coaches can have no clue about ball movement against a zone is amazing. They were dribbling and not passing and if people thing they were just missing open 3s, the reality is they were almost all forced 3s not coming off ball and player movement coupled with a bunch of forced and purposeless drives.. I'll lhave to look at the tape, but if they had more than 1 good possession in the 2nd half, than I didn't see what was in front of me.

 

[Tenspro2002]

The problem with Ollie's adjustments is that he doesn't make any.

The offense has gotten progressively worse just about every time the team steps out on the court. That's not a very good reflection on Ollie.

These are the growing pains of a guy with only 3+ years of experience on the college bench and 1+ year as the head honcho. This is what we signed up for.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The chance of uconn losing Ollie to the NBA, as ESPn was pimping a few weeks ago, went way down tonight.

The team was not lackadaisical. A team that doesn't know what to do, often does nothing. There is no where else to pin this loss but ollie. It is not the end of the world. Calhoun's teams would sometimes struggle against the zone, even against beilein's junk defense wvu teams. Need to learn and move on.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

The chance of uconn losing Ollie to the NBA, as ESPn was pimping a few weeks ago, went way down tonight.
.

Jesus.

 

[2north]

<sarcasm>
I agree with all of this. Bring back AO and the 11-12 team! That team had no talent and showed heart!
</sarcasm>

Relax people, it's December.

 

[Fishy]

Jesus.

No, he's quite correct.

I've run the numbers and if you know anything about statistics, it's that charts are never wrong.

And I have a chart that shows that as Ollie's luster diminished, so did the NBA's interest in him.

Can he get the luster back? I don't know - I am out of paper.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

No, he's quite correct.

I've run the numbers and if you know anything about statistics, it's that charts are never wrong.

And I have a chart that shows that as Ollie's luster diminished, so did the NBA's interest in him.

Can he get the luster back? I don't know - I am out of paper.

View attachment 4541

I stand corrected.

 

[boog204]

REALLY?

For 25 years JC was criticized for his half court offense. We had many, many horrific offensive games under him. The entire 96-97 season comes to mind. This isn't all on KO, but he does deserve blame in that we didn't make one adjustment the entire game. Obviously we do not have any semblance of an inside game, but that doesn't mean that our sets should be regulated to two passes and a forced 3.

 

[David 76]

there were not the adjustments that were needed in the second half. Still we would have won by 6 if our post players shot 50% from within 3 feet.
Bad night for most players right down to not spreading the floor for the last shot. They blew a game after an impressive first half.

 

[Danzz]

The thing is, our zone offense has looked miles better than that other nights. No clue what the issue was tonight.

We just didn't make shots both in the paint and from the perimeter. Our zone offense wasn't good but we beat Stanford 8 out of 10 games. Decent shooting makes up for a lot. No last second miracles from Bazz last night. It happens.

 

[Huskyjoker]

Yes really. Lots of them. S hit happens. Funny that people forget some of the clunkers we saw during the JC era. Let's hope they learn from this and succeed like most of Calhouns teams did

Agree...tons of Calhoun games where we looked just as inept. People are way too reactive, they just came off a long layoff and finals - these games happen. We will be fine, Ollie is not the problem, just one of those nights in December.

 

[Marty Jackson]

We've all been in love with KO, and rightfully so. The energy and passion he brings to this team is infectious, and he's a worthy heir to JC's legacy. But we're naive to assume that those "intangible" qualities as a coach necessarily go hand-in-hand with in-game, X's and O's acumen. Today was the first jarring example of his inexperience or weakness in this area. We spent 15 minutes doing absolutely nothing against the zone, with no adjustment whatsoever. It was as if we didn't have a coach at all. Now I think this is something that he will get better at in time, but it's hard not to view tonight's loss as taking away some of the shine and maybe signaling the beginning of the end of the "honeymoon" period.

We've all been in love with KO, and rightfully so. The energy and passion he brings to this team is infectious, and he's a worthy heir to JC's legacy. But we're naive to assume that those "intangible" qualities as a coach necessarily go hand-in-hand with in-game, X's and O's acumen. Today was the first jarring example of his inexperience or weakness in this area. We spent 15 minutes doing absolutely nothing against the zone, with no adjustment whatsoever. It was as if we didn't have a coach at all. Now I think this is something that he will get better at in time, but it's hard not to view tonight's loss as taking away some of the shine and maybe signaling the beginning of the end of the "honeymoon" period.

 

[Marty Jackson]

i love coming on this board after a loss. you'd swear there are people just waiting and waiting so they can post like this...
STFU!!!
KO lost a game. Big Deal.

too many chicken littles around here.

 

[upstater]

We've all been in love with KO, and rightfully so. The energy and passion he brings to this team is infectious, and he's a worthy heir to JC's legacy.

But we're naive to assume that those "intangible" qualities as a coach necessarily go hand-in-hand with in-game, X's and O's acumen. Today was the first jarring example of his inexperience or weakness in this area. We spent 15 minutes doing absolutely nothing against the zone, with no adjustment whatsoever. It was as if we didn't have a coach at all.

Now I think this is something that he will get better at in time, but it's hard not to view tonight's loss as taking away some of the shine and maybe signaling the beginning of the end of the "honeymoon" period.

Your theory is shot with three simple facts. One, they handled the zone well last year, including one of the best zones in America, Syracuse's. Two, this team is mostly the same team as last year's, minus Evans, with the addition of Kromah and Brimah. Three, Kevin Ollie was coach last year.

Seems to me you need to go back to the drawing board and account for those three facts.

As for honeymoon periods, JC was still in his in 2012, as far as I was concerned.

 

[TheRealKBuks]

We have had many of these types of games with Calhoun too. It happens.

The boneyard after a loss is no place for perspective

No Escalators

 

[pj]

Calhoun teams always looked lousy against the zone early in the season. By March, they were quite good at attacking it.

Calhoun focused practices on defense and rebounding early. I wouldn't be surprised if Ollie has done the same, plus an emphasis on passing on offense -- they've done a really good job of passing against man to man defenses. Since they play mostly man on d, it's not a surprise their offense has mostly seen man in practice.

I wouldn't worry. These games are learning experiences. Break down the film, see what to do, coach it. We have a smart group of coaches and Calhoun as an advisor. They'll know what the team needs. They won't be losing this way in March. They may still lose, but not the same way.

 

[storrsroars]

I don't want to hear about missed shots. Stanford had plenty of misses in 2nd half too - off better looks. Probably should've beaten us by 8-10. I think I only saw two passes kicked out to an open corner for either an open 3 or baseline drive in 2nd half, and none in the last five minutes. That's always been a key to beating Cuse's 2-3, not sure why KO wasn't employing it. And TOs by Boat and DD trying to dribble through 2-3 guys inside were ridiculous.

After watching the final 30 seconds in 1st half, who would've thought this loss was even remotely possible? Seems Stanford's players listened to and employed their coach's adjustments much better than UConn's.