KO Loses Some of His Luster

[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.

 

[Cheddie]

Wondered what was going on myself at the very end - bit more perspective reading the morning papers.

You live by the sword, you die by the sword. Ollie told Shabazz to go to the basket. Shabazz wanted to hoist another long game-winner.

 

[Brochacho]

Well he is going to lose at least 200 more games at UConn. What the hell we gonna do?

 

[uconnfan68]

if its not unusual then you should expect it by now. Good Lord man, the team lost by 1 because the perimeter players who are supposed to score on this team are struggling to score against anyone with a name on their jersey. Daniels is gonna be our only reliable scorer from 15" in this season, get used to it.

If we're relying on DD, we're screwed. Can you say NIT? If we're lucky?

 

[uconnfan68]

Wondered what was going on myself at the very end - bit more perspective reading the morning papers.

You live by the sword, you die by the sword. Ollie told Shabazz to go to the basket. Shabazz wanted to hoist another long game-winner.

Except that he gave the ball to someone else for the last shot...

 

[Huskyforlife]

We didn't run an offense in the second half yesterday. Everyone just stood around and watched one guy take a shot. Not sure why

 

[SubbaBub]

Bad loss last night.
Too much one on one
Too much looking at Bazz
Too much this is my shot
Lack of energy in 2nd half
Bazz had an off shooting night
Stanford took away the straight on three.
And they've seen enough film to know that Bazz has this stand still, quick trigger 3 and they were ready for it.

 

[noeynox]

I think this belongs in the "other coach" gets paid too category. He is going to get outcoached sometimes. It happens. Happened last year against Louisville, happened last night. Olander and Nolan had a couple of head scratching possessions where they tried to create their own shot and put up bullshiit. Just went cold.

I would like to see them run some offensive sets designed to get Giffey a clean look once in a while. Right now his shots just come from the flow of the offense.

 

[freescooter]

I htink as a team this group has gotten a little bit lackadaisical and assumes that Napier will pull something off to save them at the buzzer. They also have no real inside game to speak of.

 

[2north]

If we're relying on DD, we're screwed. Can you say NIT? If we're lucky?

Seriously NIT talk already? You must be off your meds.

 

[aceboon]

If we're relying on DD, we're screwed. Can you say NIT? If we're lucky?

I didn't say we're relying on DD to be our best player, just be a consistent double figure scorer, which for the most part he's been. There are other players I'm far more concerned with as far as pulling their weight, DD has been fine.