KO out as Nets coach

[Rich]

I have a strong suspicion that down the road (time will vary, depending on the person) most will have put thwe hate behind them and when they do they'll reflect on it and say to themselves "I really should have gotten past this earlier".

Didn’t he effectively give up on the roster as soon as figured out he would actually have to, ya know…..coach and recruit college kids?

 

[CL82]

Watching that did my soul some good.

Love seeing the bench doing the Senor big swing after deep threes.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I have a strong suspicion that down the road (time will vary, depending on the person) most will have put thwe hate behind them and when they do they'll reflect on it and say to themselves "I really should have gotten past this earlier".

This is my all time favorite takedown of yours

Thank you, sort of. As with most of my posts that can be read as take downs, I'm much more interested in taking down the overreaching and self-certainty.

It has been suggested, by analogy, that a benefit of meditation practice is to still the overactive, perpetually reactive, or prone-to-be-distracted mind. Some describe it as skin to turning off the burner beneath a bubbling boiling pot of water, so that when the water stills, it is readily apparent that a pearl sits in a pot of still water. Upon further consideration, it can be accepted that the pearl was there all along.

There are many sources that recommend the power of forgiveness. But the majority of mature considerations of the subject note that forgiveness shares a quality with grief in not necessarily obeying a fixed or forced time schedule.

While your "strong suspicion" might well move over time in the direction you suggest, and it might generate reflections such as you imagine down the road, impatience and bullying aren't likely to accelerate the pace, or do so with the desired effect of greater harmony. The insufficiencies of such a process continue to be on display here.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

We also won 26 games in 2016 and the AAC Championships. an a NCAA game as
Ollie had more AAC tourney wins than any coach in the league through 2017. .

game

Not untrue factually, though this has not perceptibly moved the needle one way or the over on the issues that remain. Losing to a #1 seed in the second round could not have had that effect. More likely, continuing further would issuenan implicit invitation for others to respond 'in kind' by offering facts about things that happened afterward on & off the court, in and out of court, and so on.

I limited myself to consideration of 2 sentences that comprised a single post.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

I'm probably going to get lambasted for this, but here goes...

I love that Ollie held the team together after the banning and got the 4th title, the first non-Calhoun, in 2014. I think you can say he did it with Calhoun's recruits, he did it with Napier and Boatright and Daniels and Giffey, he did it with centers that included Brimah and Nolan(!), or he did it with luck in the first tournament game. But either way, the first three words are, "he did it."

He clearly has UConn's back with his recent statements after the back-to-back championships.

And recall, he averaged nearly 10 points and 6.4 assists(!) in 1995, starting every game in a 28-5 year that, absent an otherworldly Elite Eight UCLA performance, might have been the first NC for Husky Nation.

He lost interest and intensity as the years rolled on. But stuck in the AAC was clearly limiting recruiting and exposure. The recruits want juice, and the AAC was dry as a bone. Tulsa? SMU? Seriously? I saw a game at SMU during that time on a visit to Dallas, stadium was less than half-full and you could have a normal conversation in the stands and hear every word. His divorce and the social stuff all were factors too, I'm sure. His all-star recruiting class lost Gilbert after 3 games, Larrier after 4, and Durham was coming off ACL surgery and limited. Vital was just a freshman, and Hamilton left a year too early.

As for the legal issue, he's not the first person, nor the last, to sue an employer for wrongful termination. You can hold a grudge, but here we are with 6 NC's - including the last two, and one NC which he coached, and one NC when he was an assistant. Water under the bridge, I'd let it go.

As much as it was amazing seeing Calhoun and Hurley hoisting this year's trophy together, I think the only thing that would have made it better would have been for Calhoun, Ollie and Hurley to hoist it together.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Thank you, sort of. As with most of my posts that can be read as take downs, I'm much more interested in taking down the overreaching and self-certainty.

It has been suggested, by analogy, that a benefit of meditation practice is to still the overactive, perpetually reactive, or prone-to-be-distracted mind. Some describe it as skin to turning off the burner beneath a bubbling boiling pot of water, so that when the water stills, it is readily apparent that a pearl sits in a pot of still water. Upon further consideration, it can be accepted that the pearl was there all along.

There are many sources that recommend the power of forgiveness. But the majority of mature considerations of the subject note that forgiveness shares a quality with grief in not necessarily obeying a fixed or forced time schedule.

While your "strong suspicion" might well move over time in the direction you suggest, and it might generate reflections such as you imagine down the road, impatience and bullying aren't likely to accelerate the pace, or do so with the desired effect of greater harmony. The insufficiencies of such a process continue to be on display here.

I could well be wrong, and if I am I apologize, but I do not believe there was any bullying, or even mild coercion in my post. I was just stating an opinion, which does allow for different people following different timelines when it comes to putting things completely behind them.

I will however add, that in terms of where we are today with who we have running our program, where he is in his career development and his desires both to remain here and to continue to improve the program, I could not be happier and I do truly believe that if things didn't work out as they had for his predecessor, we may not be where we are today.

 

[UConnRock]

"Martelli, Wright, Izzo, Hoiberg, Donovan, and Calipari". This is the part the always blows me away. The guy could coach.....until he couldn't

 

[UCLJ0211]

He must of let the team take elevators

They only had 9 toes in

 

[dante]

He should of found a way to get Napier and Boat

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I could well be wrong, and if I am I apologize, but I do not believe there was any bullying, or even mild coercion in my post.

The misunderstanding arose from me having quoted a post by you AND a post by somebody else within the same reply.

For that, I apologize.

And I only quoted that paragraph for clarity as to what I was referencing. It's not all as though there's any other criticism toward that I'm not apologizing for.

 

[Waquoit]

"Martelli, Wright, Izzo, Hoiberg, Donovan, and Calipari". This is the part the always blows me away. The guy could coach.....until he couldn't

The guy could coach...until Shabazz Napier graduated. His post-Bazz teams were a boring cringe.

 

[Hoophound]

Ollie was fantastic the first few years. He lost his mental edge and let everything slide. Life is tough sometimes. I’m ready to forgive and forget. Life is better that way.

 

[bfs3]

I have a strong suspicion that down the road (time will vary, depending on the person) most will have put thwe hate behind them and when they do they'll reflect on it and say to themselves "I really should have gotten past this earlier".

Yeah, I’m over it. His comments after this title were nice to hear from an Alumni. I’m just glad my many failures as a human hasn’t been covered by ESPN.

 

[Madmannsucks]

Yeah, I’m over it. His comments after this title were nice to hear from an Alumni. I’m just glad my many failures as a human hasn’t been covered by ESPN.

Better yet, the Boneyard...where innuendo becomes reality.

 

[Madmannsucks]

The guy could coach...until Shabazz Napier graduated. His post-Bazz teams were a boring cringe.

Yeah nothing more boring than an 80 foot buzzer beater .

 

[JungleLobo]

I'm just happy they didn't replace him with a NJ guy who once replaced Ollie at another job.

Word is the Nets plan on paying his contract too

 

[mauconnfan]

Trying to figure out which is worst the Ollie haters or the fans who want Cooper Flagg to change his mind?

 

[TheChamps990411]

Possible.

The NJ guy did say he would not coach at another college job other than the one he's at but has expressed interest in coaching in the NBA one day and this one would have allowed he and his wife to reside in a desirable living area unlike another college job that was recently waived in front of him.

I think Dan Hurley is hinting at how long he`ll be here before he leaves to take his shot in the NBA. He keeps saying he wont be coaching past 60. I think thats just to get people used to hte idea that he wont be here forever. I think around that time he will evaluate and weight his options and possibly move on to the NBA. Then Luke comes back if hes at another school to take over and be the 4th coach to win a title.

 

[RichZ]

KO wasn’t considered a permanent solution in Brooklyn anyway, was he? I thought it was a known temp gig.

There's temp gigs and then there's 28 game gigs.

 

[RichZ]

The guy could coach...until Shabazz Napier graduated. His post-Bazz teams were a boring cringe.

At the time, as the season wore on, I felt that the team started paying more attention to their floor general than their coach. By the 2nd or 3rd round of the tourney, it felt to me like the team was looking to Bazz more than Ollie for direction and inspiration.

 

[Travelman6]

Word is the Nets plan on paying his contract too

Ya, you can take a hike now.

 

[Deleted at users request]

At the time, as the season wore on, I felt that the team started paying more attention to their floor general than their coach. By the 2nd or 3rd round of the tourney, it felt to me like the team was looking to Bazz more than Ollie for direction and inspiration.

Even if that was the case, who gets credit for developing Bazz for 3 years?

If Ollie could do nothing else, he knew how to coach guards with the best of them.

That was the natural, intentional, development of our guards during that era it seems. Eventually they got to the point where they can act as an extension of the coach on the floor.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

At the time, as the season wore on, I felt that the team started paying more attention to their floor general than their coach. By the 2nd or 3rd round of the tourney, it felt to me like the team was looking to Bazz more than Ollie for direction and inspiration.

I've heard this revisionist history for far too long. We were getting blown off the court against Villanova until Shabazz got his second foul and needed to sit for the remainder of the half. Not one person who tried to sell the "we had a coach on the floor" line has ever been able to provide a rational explanation for that.

One fact that many attempt to overlook is that KO had his finger on the pulse of that team at a level beyond anything I had seen anywhere, before or after that run. Yes, what he did in the following years running the program was complete malfeasance. I just don't get why people want to believe he never did anything positive while he was here.

 

[husky429]

Thought it would have happened last season after the NC. Didn’t seem that way. After this NC there has been a significant reduction in hate. It’s better for the program to move on and primarily look at the positive.

Six national championships in twenty five years with three different coaches is the narrative being circulated.

I really don't think of Ollie often. I think the answer for me is that when you take the trash out, there ain't any reason to bring it back in. The natty is legit, he had all the potential in the world, and turned into a piece of garbage. That's it.

 

[Madmannsucks]

I kind of remember thinking at the time, This is Napier's team...Right LOL....what a stupid take from someone who needs a hobby. Just stop and get over yourselves.

 

[Madmannsucks]

I really don't think of Ollie often. I think the answer for me is that when you take the trash out, there ain't any reason to bring it back in. The natty is legit, he had all the potential in the world, and turned into a piece of garbage. That's it.

Little harsh. He had his failures. Garbage is such a low life term to use. Be better. Difference between disappointment and taking it personally. Grow up.

 

[husky429]

Little harsh. He had his failures. Garbage is such a low life term to use. Be better. Difference between disappointment and taking it personally. Grow up.

Do you know what KO did in the locker room and after practice? Because I do.

Mind your business if you don't know what you're talking about, or I'm going to have to start calling you boomer again.

 

[Madmannsucks]

Do you know what KO did in the locker room and after practice? Because I do.

Mind your business if you don't know what you're talking about, or I'm going to have to start calling you boomer again.

Sure you do. Call me what you like.

 

[EastConn'er]

Little harsh. He had his failures. Garbage is such a low life term to use. Be better. Difference between disappointment and taking it personally. Grow up.

You're arguing with the biggest con artist on the boneyard. Nobody makes up more lies than that fool. He literally makes up crap all the time... all from his parents basement.