KO's weakness as a coach is apparent

[upstater]

When the committee seeds Uconn #9, after beating Cincinnati to win the AAC tournament, you're not a "lock" before you win that game. Yes, you're probably in but calling them a lock prior to the win is inaccurate

Lunardi had them at better than 65% in prior to the final game of the regular season, which they won. And he said they are a lock if they don't take a bad loss. Lunardi isn't right all the time, but he is highly accurate with this stuff.

 

[NielsisGood]

Adams has been here 1 1/2 seasons. Tell me when you've seen him flourish as a 2G off the ball?

Last season the offense ran much better when Adams was the primary PG and Gibbs was off the ball. Adams didn't look good when Gibbs was the primary ball handler. And neither did the offense.

This season the team has looked much better when Adams is running the show. And that's when Adams has flourished the most.

I think there's a place for Gilbert to also be a ballhandler in the backcourt. The dual headed PG backcourt that UConn has been so successful with in the past. But Adams is your lead guy.

This. Napier and Boat coexisted with Napier being the lead guy just fine. You can have 2 ball handlers on the floor and still be a successful team, but it'd be both an insult to the team hierarchy and not putting the team in the best chance to succeed by not allowing Jalen to be the lead guard. You can still stagger some minutes where Gilbert is running the show when Jalen is resting, but it'd be nonsense if Gilbert didn't take a back seat when both are in the game. The Houston Rockets let their best player handle the ball and run the offense, and it's resulted in a team playing above their talent level.


As for an Ollie's weaknesses, I do like him as an in game coach (honestly thought the way he handled rotations and literally everything during the 2014 run was as good as anything I've ever seen from JC), but he clearly needs to be more of a presence during games, both with working refs and just being an animated figure for his team. Too often I see him sitting down and holding his face in his hands, which is something I NEVER see any of the greats do. He could also stand to call some disciplinary timeouts or make subs to prove a point once in awhile as well. I think KO could also improve his role defining or recruiting players with specific skill sets and allow players to grow like that, meaning tell players to "just mainly focus on shooting" or "I want you to crash the boards" while underclassmen are in the game. Give players a certain goal and then reward them for achieving it.

 

[CL82]

PS: JALEN IS OUR POINT GUARD IF HE RETURNS NOT ALTERIQUE AND THAT SHOULD NEVER BE MEDDLED WITH AGAIN! SOME OF YOU ARE ARGUING ABOUT TAKING FRESHMAN SHABAZZ(GILBERT) AND HAVING HIM RUN THE TEAM INSTEAD OF KEMBA(JALEN). LET'S BE SERIOUS FOLKS. GILBERT'S ROLE SHOULD BE WHAT BAZZ DID HIS FRESHMAN YEAR AND OR WHAT BOAT DID HIS JUNIOR YEAR.

Your use of all caps convinces me that you are right.

FWIW Bazz in his Soph year and especially Boat in his Junior year spent time at the point so that Kemba and Bazz could look for their shots. I think that is the exactly the plan for Gilbert.

 

[AfgHusky15]

We looked good because we played USF and East Carolina, seems a lot of people here don't realize how horrific a team USF is. We are two games removed from an embarrassing drubbing at the hands of SMU.

We are 4 games away from giving an embarrassing drubbing to a good UCF team. In the past 6 games we have played well, except for 2 halves (2nd half Gtown and 1st half SMU). There has been a significant improvement from the beginning of the year and to do so with so many injuries is encouraging.

 

[Mr. French]

Your use of all caps convinces me that you are right.

FWIW Bazz in his Soph year and especially Boat in his Junior year spent time at the point so that Kemba and Bazz could look for their shots. I think that is the exactly the plan for Gilbert.

People can't distinguish these things, apparently.

I don't get the confusion ...

 

[Matrim55]

People can't distinguish these things, apparently.

I don't get the confusion ...

You freaking repped this post:

there is no question that Gilbert will be handling the point on most occasions when they are both in together and most definitely in crunch time.

I think everybody can get behind the "hey, Alterique is going to handle the ball a bit so that Jalen can focus slightly more on scoring, and so that he can be fresh for the last five minutes" sentiment.

But that's not the argument put forth above, nor elsewhere in the thread. The argument folks are making and that you & a few others seem to be supporting is "Next year, Gilbert will be the primary ball-handler and Adams will be more of a SG than a PG." And so I say again: You all are NUTS. The best thing this program has going for it is that we're finally returning our PG, who also happens to be our alpha.

Only time that's happened under Ollie we won a title. Adams is our PG next year.

 

[CTBasketball]

BTW good luck if you read this sober.

1. Why in the world would we have a guy who averages almost 7 assists a game, with over a 2.0 A/TO ratio come off the ball? This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read since "Bob Diaco deserves Year 4." This is like saying lets make Chris Paul our 2-gaurd and have Austin Rivers play primary point. What.

2. We haven't even seen Jalen Adams when he's most effective. Give him a knock-down 3-pt shooter or an actual post presence and he can average 10 assists a game. I think Vance next year will be this guy, and hopefully a collection of Larrier, Enoch, Durham, or Mamadou. He's playing with misfit toys for 20 minutes a game right now.

3. If KO and UConn stumbles out of the gate next year, sign him up for the hot seat. We're cutting the fat here, and getting better. No reason to "mess with sub patterns" or "we need find eachother out there" or "we gotta play with heart." We will have an All-American caliber point guard and a potential lottery pick surrounded by pretty damn good role players. Gotta show up.

4. KO needs to introduce the quick hook. It'll solve a lot of our problems I think. His inability to pull Purvis and Brimah from games doesn't teach these kids anything about correcting mistakes.

5. KO's offensive and defensive gameplan has proven to work and be successful when he finds the right guys to fit the right spots. I'm not worried here.

 

[Stainmaster]

His inability to pull Purvis and Brimah from games is a result of the complete lack of people on our bench whom he can put in the game in their stead.

FIFY

 

[joober jones]

I remember in the 14-15 season Ollie would yank players out to prove a point and replace them with Dan Guest. It didn't work so well, but I'm (very marginally) surprised he never tried this tactic with Noyes.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Adams is the leader of the team. He spends the most time on the ball, with a few breathers.

Adams is '11 Kemba and Gilbert is '11 Shabazz.