Laughingstock Now, Irrelevant Later

[HuskyHawk]

I was opposed to hiring Ollie, because he had no coaching experience, and was mostly a recruiter for JC in his short time on the bench. He managed a miracle NC run, I have to give him credit where due on that. But the simple reality is that he's still not a very good coach from an X's and O's or game strategy perspective. He recruits really well but his offense is the equivalent of running the Oklahoma Wishbone in football, and his defense is equally lacking in innovation.

Two options at this point.
1. We move on from Ollie while there are still good coaches that would want this job
2. Ollie gets the "come to Jesus" message and is forced to hire a bench coach who understands how basketball is played in this century

Option 2 is the better choice. Ollie has what it takes to be a great HC, if he can move on from some outdated notions and learn to be adaptable.

 

[Walker11]

you people are so sad, why don't you guys just drive off a cliff? If your lives are so sad in every moment that basketball is all you breathe for... why keep going?

I'm so sick of being fellow fans with you whiny negative nancies. Am I proud? Hell no, but its basketball, grow up!

We can still absolutely turn this season around, we're in a joke of a conference which we can still absolutely crush and earn a guaranteed spot in the tourney. I spent 20 minutes depressed about this, then realized Donald Trump is going to be my president so UConn basketball is far from what I'm truly embarrassed about.

Dust yourselves off, put on your clothes, go to work, and love your family and friends, children

Do you really want people to begin every post with the preface that life is good and basketball is just a fun diversion before they express their disappointment?

 

[KembaStepback]

I'm as upset about last night as anyone. Look...does KO need to take some of the blame? Sure. But I'm not looking to get rid of him. I like KO as a coach, it's not really his fault that we haven't gotten a big man or a guy who can consistently make a jump shot. They have no inside presence. Enoch is a mess on offense, as is Brimah. I'd like to see Durham get a shot. Their shooting has been awful. Cant make anything. Other teams pack the lane and force us to shoot. No one can finish at the rim...not sure what the issue is.

 

[djct1999]

Was there a game last night that I missed?

 

[Excalibur]

Our hoops program looks like a company that goes belly-up -- there is often a long period of stagnation and mild decline, with management hoping that some small fixes will right the ship. Then, out of nowhere, the whole operation falls off a cliff, and they're dead before they know what happened.

 

[QDOG5]

Not only are the Huskies playing bad, they are very boring to watch. Passing the ball around the perimeter until someone decides to shoot or dribble into two defenders is not fun to watch. And that is against man to man. Against a zone they look even more inept. The Huskies rarely screen on or off the ball. They rarely pass and cut. They are so easy to defend. Ollie says he wants them to get out and run? They're a lousy rebounding team so I don't see that happening. Three guys played 35 plus minutes and the only reason it wasn't four was because Larrier got an early foul and had to sit. That can't continue all season. I'm not even going to mention their defensive switching(ok, I just did and it was bad) or the fact that they consistently went under ball screens which is a no no. On the upside Wagner lost by 11 to UMass-Lowell last night. I don't want anyone fired but I would like Ollie to fix this early season mess. Also, a shout out to Terry Larrier, he is a baller.

 

[pnow15]

Maybe we should savor the time now when our losing to cupcakes is actually newsworthy. It's already becoming commonplace, media is just slow to catch on.

This program can't afford 2-3 more mediocre seasons where we teeter on the edge of relevance and produce zero NBA talent of note.

KO can recruit guards, he can coach team defense, but it's becoming increasingly evident that that's all he can do. If this keeps up, the well of recruits will run dry.

Rather than being the AAC version of Gonzaga, we'll be Houston, a historical footnote irrelevant in the modern college basketball landscape. We're already well on our way.

So, your idea of a mediocre season is winning 25 games, playing in a 6 overtime game and winning it and winning our conference's tournament game and then winning a first round game in the NCAA before losing to the No.1 seed. Okay.

 

[KembaStepback]

The other thing is...this team is mostly new. With the exception of Brimah (who missed a lot of time last yr) and Purvis...this is a very young team who hasn't been playing together very long. They have a much different look. They lost Gibbs, Miller, and Hamilton. That's a lot of experienced touches to make up for. We're depending on Adams who looks talented but is young and still working on his jumper, Larrier who is very talented but hasn't played in well over a year, Gilbert/Jackson who have barely played any college ball, Facey who just isn't all that good, and Enoch who barely played last yr. I expect this team to get a lot better as the season goes on.

As far as defensive scheme...id let Brimah be the eraser. Protect against open 3s. Let these teams try to drive and put in contested shots with Brimah as the goalie. The one thing they'd have to do is shift to cover Brimah's man under the hoop to not allow open layups as well as box out. These teams are getting way too many open looks from deep.

As far as offense...they need to get Larrier flashing to the middle. He was so good when he got to the middle of the zone. Against man they need to be a little less selfish. Adams can generally beat his man off the dribble, as can Gilbert, but they need to realize if it's not there...kick it out for an open J or a reset. I know Jackson has looked solid from deep, but he's got a way to go in other areas. I don't trust anyone else to make a long range shot consistently. I was hoping Purvis would step up...but he seems to have taken a step back.

 

[Tenspro2002]

So, your idea of a mediocre season is winning 25 games, playing in a 6 overtime game and winning it and winning our conference's tournament game and then winning a first round game in the NCAA before losing to the No.1 seed. Okay.

Yes.

Over a 16 year period from 1994 to 2009 we were a #1 or #2 seed 10 times, a #5 seed or better 13 times.

Winning 25 games in a bad conference, not even contending for the regular season title, getting a #9 seed and winning 1 tournament game before getting blown out in the 2nd round is mediocre by the standards of this program.