New Details on Freeman’s Departure

[smoothcriminal]

First time we’ve had an insightful uconn article in a while that doesn’t just contain info already discussed at length on the boneyard

Question - has hurley ever fired an assistant coach?

 

[karstenkibbe]

Some Guy does some speculating in his piece, but he’s a columnist, not a reporter. As such, he has license to stray from putting forth confirmed facts. I have found him annoying for decades. But I really have zero beef with what he puts forth here.

 

[olehead]

He doesn’t connect the dots as to why exactly Freeman stepped aside. Not a good look vacationing when getting your ass beat in the portal tho.

Big point, shades of the last regime.

 

[olehead]

That was a strange article. The line about practicing on Christmas was thrown in to make Hurley look bad, but does it? The players couldn't go home because of COVID. They couldn't do anything else but sit in their dorm rooms. Might as well practice if they were on campus with nothing else to do.

Was Hurley mad about Kimani and Kevin going to Florida without telling him because of the potential of being exposed to COVID and compromising everyone in the program? I can see that.

That too.

 

[Jbirdp5]

He had two pieces of what seem like information, the vacation and reaching out to killings for a possible job. The rest of the article he is doing exactly what everyone on here does and try to speculate what else happened. Jacobs always seems to do so with a negative lense and this comes across that way to me.

 

[dennismenace]

I could not care less about this tabloid BS. This is none of our ducking business

LOL You just reminded me of "Walter Scott's Personality Parade" which was a syndicated showbusiness gossip column that used to be included in the Parade Magazine. "Want to spike rumors" etc. etc.

 

[djct1999]

He had two pieces of what seem like information, the vacation and reaching out to killings for a possible job. The rest of the article he is doing exactly what everyone on here does and try to speculate what else happened. Jacobs always seems to do so with a negative lense and this comes across that way to me.

Yes, its clear this what yet another pathetic attempt of his to paint an ugly picture of who Coach is. He simply can't get over the fact that he is on the outside in terms of receiving UConn news. The article was petty but then again, look who wrote it. Jacobs cant help himself and seems to just dig a deeper hole with every word he tweets or writes.

Where is the article by Jacobs on how the school, and quite possibly Dan Hurley, did right by Freeman and gave him another opportunity internally? If that was any of us in our workplace, we most likely would have simply been terminated. Then again, that article doesn't support his narrative that the reason Freeman was let go was because Dan Hurley is too difficult to work for.

 

[Kenny11]

He had two pieces of what seem like information, the vacation and reaching out to killings for a possible job. The rest of the article he is doing exactly what everyone on here does and try to speculate what else happened. Jacobs always seems to do so with a negative lense and this comes across that way to me.

This is true and he’s been consistently like that no matter who UConn’s coach is. He’s been like that with Geno too. This article wasn’t that bad though. He basically details how intense the grind of an assistant coach at a major program is and that it may not be the right fit for Freeman and is difficult for guys with young families.

 

[aburks41]

I’m glad both sides dealt with this early so we can move on. If Dan Hurley had let this linger another season or two that could really impact our recruiting

 

[Chin Diesel]

First time we’ve had an insightful uconn article in a while that doesn’t just contain info already discussed at length on the boneyard

Question - has hurley ever fired an assistant coach?

Not sure on Hurley firing an assistant. That is pretty rare across the board in college basketball. It's usually more along the lines of what we saw with Freeman. HC and Asst aren't on same page, HC let's assistant go "to pursue other opportunities" and you leave it to the next guy to read the tea leaves.

 

[August_West]

As a player, didn’t Freeman threaten to transfer his last season? Wasn’t it to UMass to develop his outside shot or something? Am I remembering that correctly?

Freeman wanted to play the 3 his senior year because he had pro aspirations and was too undersized to be a 4 in NBA of that era, his size dictated he was a swing. He wanted to showcase his skills. it is one of the only times I can remember Calhoun capitulating to a player's wishes at the detriment of the team. Freeman was not a very effective 3 man.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Does anyone watch Big Mouth? Jeff Jacobs reminds me of the Shame Wizard.

 

[husky429]

Does anyone watch Big Mouth? Jeff Jacobs reminds me of the Shame Wizard.

Love that show. The kids in school would reference constantly after the first season came out, and it was really hard for me to pretend like I didn't understand.

And yes, great comparison.

 

[CTBasketball]

Hit piece.

 

[Deepster]

Freeman wanted to play the 3 his senior year because he had pro aspirations and was too undersized to be a 4 in NBA of that era, his size dictated he was a swing. He wanted to showcase his skills. it is one of the only times I can remember Calhoun capitulating to a player's wishes at the detriment of the team. Freeman was not a very effective 3 man.

Right. And the following season all he did was brick line drive jumpers off the back iron.

The fact of the matter is this. Dan Hurley is not a UConn alum or a branch on the Calhoun coaching tree. There will always be an attachment from some alumni to the school, as with all schools. But the ties with people like Freeman or Ollie or other former players is not the same as it was before and likely going to weaken further over time.

Said differently. I want the best coaching staff to position us to win....and I don't care if the new guy wore a UConn jersey.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Read it on Outline. Don't get the big deal here. This is common across all sports and all of the business world. Some people are insanely driven, and put their job and career above all else. It does not surprise me at all that Dan does this. Other people want and expect a work life balance, and it seems Kevin was such a person. I've seen it over and over in my career as well.

Dan is going to burn out at this pace. And he is going to burn out his staff and maybe some players if what is reported is accurate. It's not sustainable. I recognize that it's the rebuilding phase, but at some point you need to leverage the fact that you're UConn, as they do at all the big schools. Then reloading the roster gets a bit easier.

 

[polycom]

Why did we create a position for Freeman? Did someone else lose their job? I thought our AD was broke? Don't we have to replace him as a coach? We are just going to accept that we a retirement fund for former athletes?

 

[Magic32]

Why did we create a position for Freeman? Did someone else lose their job? I thought our AD was broke? Don't we have to replace him as a coach? We are just going to accept that we a retirement fund for former athletes?

Position already existed and doubt the money is actually out of athletics budget.

 

[polycom]

Position already existed and doubt the money is actually out of athletics budget.

Did someone have the position? Had it been vacant for years? I'm just confused on how we are making this math work here...

 

[UCDaveD]

Did someone have the position? Had it been vacant for years? I'm just confused on how we are making this math work here...

One of Geno’s assistants held the job before returning to his bench I believe. I think it was only vacant for this past year.

 

[Hugo]

Freeman wanted to play the 3 his senior year because he had pro aspirations and was too undersized to be a 4 in NBA of that era, his size dictated he was a swing. He wanted to showcase his skills. it is one of the only times I can remember Calhoun capitulating to a player's wishes at the detriment of the team. Freeman was not a very effective 3 man.

I remember this as well as Kevin expressed his desire to play the 3, but with a slightly different scenario as background. If I remember correctly, we really didn't have a serviceable 3 on the team at that time, but we did have Saunders who could play the 4. My initial reaction was the same as yours in that JC may have capitulated. However, after thinking it through I believed it might work with Saunders at the 4, but was never really confident about Freeman succeeding at the 4. Not sure there was a win-win option back then.

 

[tcf15]

Transfer talk was after the 97-98 season:

PUTTING AN END TO TRANSFER RUMORS

Kevin Freeman said there have been “false things” spread around about him lately, and he doesn’t know where they are coming from. He does know this: He will be in a UConn uniform …

www.courant.com

 

[Adios]

Read it on Outline. Don't get the big deal here. This is common across all sports and all of the business world. Some people are insanely driven, and put their job and career above all else. It does not surprise me at all that Dan does this. Other people want and expect a work life balance, and it seems Kevin was such a person. I've seen it over and over in my career as well.

Dan is going to burn out at this pace. And he is going to burn out his staff and maybe some players if what is reported is accurate. It's not sustainable. I recognize that it's the rebuilding phase, but at some point you need to leverage the fact that you're UConn, as they do at all the big schools. Then reloading the roster gets a bit easier.

Unfortunately, the NBA wants people who think like Dan.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

'talented' people are a dime a dozen.
'He led the Huskies to a Big East Conference tournament championship, and was named the tournament Most Valuable Player. Connecticut then went on to win the 1999 NCAA Basketball Tournament, with Freeman gaining All-West Regional honors to get the Huskies to the Final Four.'
'In the national championship game, Connecticut defeated Duke 77–74 to win their first ever national championship, snapping Duke's 32-game winning streak, and scoring the biggest point-spread upset in Championship Game history. '

kfree's grit was the soul of our first national championship. for most of the 100s of other programs, they'd prolly put up a statue of him with a plaque stating 'persevere!' i certainly haven't forgotten this champion of 'average' talent. the man's been scratching and clawing his entire life.

'well i know what's right, i got just one life.'
'you can stand me up at the gates of hell, but i won't back down.'


#FreeKFree!

 

[TRest]

Transfer talk was after the 97-98 season:

PUTTING AN END TO TRANSFER RUMORS

Kevin Freeman said there have been “false things” spread around about him lately, and he doesn’t know where they are coming from. He does know this: He will be in a UConn uniform …

www.courant.com

I distinctly remember Kelis Fisher coming back and shooting a lot more threes his last year, with what appeared to be JC's blessing.

 

[CL82]

Read it on Outline. Don't get the big deal here. This is common across all sports and all of the business world. Some people are insanely driven, and put their job and career above all else. It does not surprise me at all that Dan does this. Other people want and expect a work life balance, and it seems Kevin was such a person. I've seen it over and over in my career as well.

Dan is going to burn out at this pace. And he is going to burn out his staff and maybe some players if what is reported is accurate. It's not sustainable. I recognize that it's the rebuilding phase, but at some point you need to leverage the fact that you're UConn, as they do at all the big schools. Then reloading the roster gets a bit easier.

Remember that you’re reading these facts through some guys lens. I agree though there may have been different job expectations. Coaching at a top major DI program should be a demanding gig. These guys are paid a premium because of it. There are plenty of programs with lower expectations, less stress, and a lower salary.

As for Danny burning out, who knows? But we had a guy here for a while who was pretty intense and somehow managed to last long enough to get us three national championships. The right guy thrives in that atmosphere.

 

[JimCtheGOAT]

Read it on Outline. Don't get the big deal here. This is common across all sports and all of the business world. Some people are insanely driven, and put their job and career above all else. It does not surprise me at all that Dan does this. Other people want and expect a work life balance, and it seems Kevin was such a person. I've seen it over and over in my career as well.

Dan is going to burn out at this pace. And he is going to burn out his staff and maybe some players if what is reported is accurate. It's not sustainable. I recognize that it's the rebuilding phase, but at some point you need to leverage the fact that you're UConn, as they do at all the big schools. Then reloading the roster gets a bit easier.

True, but Hurley probably realizes the rebuild is going well, but next year is our chance to really become UConn again. This year was undercut by injuries and COVID, which prevented us from having the year we could have. And now its year 4 for him so no more "the program was in shambles" crutch. We're also potentially one shooter away from taking a step up to true contenders, so that's not a huge ask.

In short, I'm not so sure he would react this way every year, but he realizes this is a huge year and I can see why he would be pissed if we weren't going all out in the portal.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Remember that you’re reading these facts through some guys lens. I agree though there may have been different job expectations. Coaching at a top major DI program should be a demanding gig. These guys are paid a premium because of it. There are plenty of programs with lower expectations, less stress, and a lower salary.

As for Danny burning out, who knows? But we had a guy here for a while who was pretty intense and somehow managed to last long enough to get us three national championships. The right guy thrives in that atmosphere.

Agree with you and @JimCtheGOAT that this may be temporary while he gets us to "back". I know Calhoun was intense. I really doubt that Calhoun got angry with assistants for taking a long weekend with their families. Maybe Dan was angry he wasn't told. But if he wasn't told, why? Because he'd say no? If that's the answer, he has a problem with his approach as a manager. I seem to recall Jim spending a fair amount of time at Hilton Head.

 

[8893]

Agree with you and @JimCtheGOAT that this may be temporary while he gets us to "back". I know Calhoun was intense. I really doubt that Calhoun got angry with assistants for taking a long weekend with their families. Maybe Dan was angry he wasn't told. But if he wasn't told, why? Because he'd say no? If that's the answer, he has a problem with his approach as a manager. I seem to recall Jim spending a fair amount of time at Hilton Head.

Maybe he's just pissed that they didn't invite him?

 

[BGesus4]

Maybe he's just pissed that they didn't invite him?

Either that or too much air in the chip bag