Mr. Alex O, Sr.

[Fishy]

In reading through that cat's complete Twitter history...is it humanly possible that we're overreacting to the plantation reference? I kind of suspect not, but am least willing to keep the powder dry for a bit to see what he says.

He seems bombastic and perhaps it wasn't Calhoun that set him off - he's obviously respectful of Calhoun in Tweets just days/weeks before. After a loss, he's fit in perfectly here.

 

[aceboon]

I actually thought the comments were in reference to Billy Gilispse since the tweets were back to back but then when I looked at the time stamp and how far they were apart I figured they were related to Calhoun. I didn't find his comments to articles very respectful to Calhoun regardless of his wishes to Calhoun for a recovery. Either way dude is too damn old to be ranting and raving on twitter, facebook, etc. What is going on his mind that would make him think tweeting the UConn athletics account his rants about the team is a good idea?

 

[zls44]

After a loss, he's fit in perfectly here.

That's the problem.

Morons like me are supposed to have bombastic over-reactions. Not the adults actually involved with the program.

 

[Kitaman]

He is auditioning for a reality show. I imagine him as one of those out of control fathers, when Alex was young; yelling, screaming, threatening and arguing with the coach.

 

[NOTaDIME]

Maybe his Tweeting problems are a "chink in his armor."' Oh wait this isn't the right racial debate thread.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

There is no reason to ever keep the powder dry on the Internet.

 

[FDNY99]

He sent an email to Amore that he let Don use in his latest blog post. In the email he was very clear he was not refering to Calhoun in his infanous tweet rant. He also was extremely complimentary of Calhoun. My take on him, he has realized that his tweet rants have turned Husky Nation against his son and now he is trying to do some serious damage control!

 

[tzznandrew]

I know the above thread doesn't take him seriously here. I'm with aceboon in thinking they probably are in direct reference to Gillespie.*

That said, given everything going on, he should have known this was a stupid thing to say.

*What happened with Gillespie that made AO, Sr. so mad, because he directly calls him out at one point?

 

[Giovanni]

Mr. Alex O, Sr. sounds like a mental amputee -- dead from the neck up. Leave him to heaven.

 

[Danzz]

In reading through that cat's complete Twitter history...is it humanly possible that we're overreacting to the plantation reference? I kind of suspect not, but am least willing to keep the powder dry for a bit to see what he says.

He seems bombastic and perhaps it wasn't Calhoun that set him off - he's obviously respectful of Calhoun in Tweets just days/weeks before. After a loss, he's fit in perfectly here.

He just feels like his kid got screwed at Uconn and he is angry. Alex was the player who had to adjust to Drummond and not the other way around. I'm in the camp that thinks JC screwed up by starting Drummond and making 4 of 5 national championship players change their game. This is nothing against Drummond who will be an outstanding player once he learns some offensive moves other than the dunk and stays home on defense.It is simply that this team was going nowhere unless Alex and Roscoe mimicked their championship season form and we ended up going nowhere.
Alex took a lot of heat in the national media during broadcasts, the local media and less significantly The Boneyard. I'm not saying Alex's father is completely justified but I can understand why he is upset.

 

[mauconnfan]

He just feels like his kid got screwed at Uconn and he is angry. Alex was the player who had to adjust to Drummond and not the other way around. I'm in the camp that thinks JC screwed up by starting Drummond and making 4 of 5 national championship players change their game. This is nothing against Drummond who will be an outstanding player once he learns some offensive moves other than the dunk and stays home on defense.It is simply that this team was going nowhere unless Alex and Roscoe mimicked their championship season form and we ended up going nowhere.
Alex took a lot of heat in the national media during broadcasts, the local media and less significantly The Boneyard. I'm not saying Alex's father is completely justified but I can understand why he is upset.

Dannz has it ever been different playing for JC and earning time? I mean let's leave alone the fact he had such a "huge" change from the 5 to the 4....that's a joke.....he was in the same position down each end of the floor no matter what...it's basketball, rebound, box out. play some D and get better at your back-to-the-basket stuff and you play - you don't do these things you don't play........it's easy he didn't. It was on noone but himself!!

 

[aceboon]

I know the above thread doesn't take him seriously here. I'm with aceboon in thinking they probably are in direct reference to Gillespie.*

That said, given everything going on, he should have known this was a stupid thing to say.

*What happened with Gillespie that made AO, Sr. so mad, because he directly calls him out at one point?

There were reports that Gillispie made Josh Harrellson ride in an equipment truck back from a game instead of on the team bus, and that he made him sit in a bathroom stall during a halftime instead of the lockerroom. Not sure why he's bringing this stuff up now in March 2012 when this stuff happened 2+ years ago tho.

 

[mattp]

Dannz has it ever been different playing for JC and earning time? I mean let's leave alone the fact he had such a "huge" change from the 5 to the 4....that's a joke.....he was in the same position down each end of the floor no matter what...it's basketball, rebound, box out. play some D and get better at your back-to-the-basket stuff and you play - you don't do these things you don't play........it's easy he didn't. It was on noone but himself!!

before you talk about earning time, you might want to keep in mind that between Drummond and AO they have one championship, and it's not like his play on the court was that impressive. he had no offense ability whatsoever besides the occasional alley-oop, which would result in a turnover about half the times. outside of his rivals ranking i haven't seen anything too impressive from Drummond. personally i'd have him coming off the bench if for no other reason than his historically bad free throw shooting. this guy needs a second year worse than Thabeet in my opinion.

that being said AO didn't exactly do anything on the court to make JC regret his decision

 

[Danzz]

Dannz has it ever been different playing for JC and earning time? I mean let's leave alone the fact he had such a "huge" change from the 5 to the 4....that's a joke.....he was in the same position down each end of the floor no matter what...it's basketball, rebound, box out. play some D and get better at your back-to-the-basket stuff and you play - you don't do these things you don't play........it's easy he didn't. It was on noone but himself!!

All that would make a lot more sense if they were playing well with Alex and Roscoe on the bench.They weren't. Sometimes you have to let players play through mistakes although I agree that has never been JC's way although Drummond got to play through a million mistakes on the defensive end and he still started.
The original subject was Alex's father and I'm not trying to defend him but if Alex was your kid getting hammered you would be pissed too even if there was a lot of truth to it.

 

[husky711]

Dannz has it ever been different playing for JC and earning time? I mean let's leave alone the fact he had such a "huge" change from the 5 to the 4....that's a joke.....he was in the same position down each end of the floor no matter what...it's basketball, rebound, box out. play some D and get better at your back-to-the-basket stuff and you play - you don't do these things you don't play........it's easy he didn't. It was on noone but himself!!

I have to agree with mau. First, if AO hopes to play in the NBA he, plain and simple, had to develop more of a PF game as he will be significantly undersized against many NBA centers. And he certainly doesn't make up for the lack of height with the "blue collar" type toughness that Jeff Adrien had, where he would fight and battle for position and would not be pushed around.

Plain and simple, it wasn't as much a matter of adjustment... I think it became more an issue of ego (after the championship) and losing the killer instinct and will to develop/dominate. If it was a matter of adjustment, why was Oriakhi able to play with Ater Majok two years ago? I just think that plain and simple the correct mindset wasn't there for whatever reason (because it seemed to be there the past two years of his career).

And yeah... I agree, I think Drummond did get a bit of a pass on the "quick hook" for a number of mistakes. But that is because JC is a HOF coach and has purpose behind his tactics... he doesn't just do it arbitrarily to be an *sshole. He knows Drummond is very raw and needed to play through mistakes and learn the game (by playing IN the game) as much as possible. Alex, on the other hand, was an upper classman and had very poor body language throughout the season (which I never saw from Drummond). If something didn't go Alex's way, he'd pout, throw his arms up, shake his head, roll his eyes, etc. etc.

Calhoun isn't going to play an upper classman (captain at that) that is setting a bad example for the younger players around him with such actions. ESPECIALLY one who is supposed to help lead the younger guys.

I really don't know... but there was just something going on mentally with AO the entire season and it wasn't about adjusting to AD (at least in terms of physically in the game of basketball). I think it was more an issue of mentally adjusting to the fact that he had the highest rated recruit in UConn history playing next to him (more pressure, etc.).

Bottom line... if AO had simply worked his ass off to box out, rebound, fight for position, and such then he would've certainly seen a lot more time. It likely (ideally) also would've rubbed off on Drummond at some point too, I would like to think. Unfortunately, he got pushed around all season and didn't take any initiative to play as though he and his team had something to prove.

 

[Chief00]

To me it was giving Tyler minutes over AO. AD deserved his Big East minutes. Calhoun does let the Tweeter stuff bother him more than it should. While AO did not have a good season i do think he gave the team an upside that Tyler did not.

 

[tzznandrew]

I don't think AO's attitude was appropriate, and I really like TO--I think he can be a very productive senior--and he was a part in the National Championship team.

But for AO and AD to work together, they needed time together. Perhaps JC thought AO and AD would split time at center mostly. Even if that were, the case, they'd need someone to guard more athletic 4s. That should have been Roscoe.

I just think that the minute situation for the bigs was a disaster. RS-AO-AD should have been the main guys getting minute, with Giffey and Daniels spelling RS, and RS, TO, AO, and AD* rotating around the center.

*I am aware of how ludicrous the initials are in this situation, but I found it a bit amusing nonetheless.

 

[mauconnfan]

There's some funny stuff in this thread. I mean from "...Andre is only good at alley oops..." to "...if they played better when AO and Scoe were out.." to the Tweeter crap........

You know coaching and basketball are much more simple (and sometimes much harder ) than you would like to think and many of you should leave it to JC and the staff.

First off if AD was only good at alley oops then you know what, he was better at one thing than AO....but besides that he was a better rebounder and shot blocker too just because he was bigger and so much more athletic...did he work harder to rebound? No he didn't box out either but whether it's by mistake or not he did get more boards. He has a long long way to go I agree and so much to learn but they still needed his presence on the court.

Alex and Roscor played awful early and often and to say they needed to allow them to play through mistakes is ridiculous. Roscoe early was a TO machine, couldn't throw a pass to anyone that wasn't wearing the other teams jersey, it was scary where he was with his confidence. He needed to work that out in practice in order to not be a detriment. He did and to his credit he finished the year pretty damn good and improved in many aras, obvioulsy through hard work and practice time. AO? Besides a couple games he underachieved basically all year, couldn't catch the ball, didn't rebound (actually so many opps went through those hand into putbacks for the other team I can't begin to count) and his back-to-the-basket game may have lost any momentum if possible. He had no right bitching about his minutes and the tweeter thing was immature for a 21 year old captain of the UConn Huskies.........I realize he's a kid but c'mon, they aren't like our kids. They've seen the world, they've been through things so many of us would love. The expectations are higher and the chances to be more if you WANT them are right there at your doorstep......he won a NC and obviously didn't care about being better but accepted who he was........

Best thing for all involved as AO moves on in life....he allowed his dad to make a bad decision for him but hey, he needs a new coach and place to settle in so I wish him luck. This has little impact on the program other than a kid opting out with a ring. For those who actually believe Tyler can't be as good, well he already was this year so maybe he improves his feet and gives more than we would've expected from the departed. No matter JC and the staff will move on as will UConn basketball and I look forward to seeing other people have an opportunity to work real hard and earn minutes by bringing their lunchpail!!!!!