Not good.

[mauconnfan]

I'm not giving up on Ollie by a long shot, but I don't know how some of the apologists can just ignore the concerns.

They've underachieved for three straight years with rosters that were talented enough to be preseason top 20. Sure, there have been valid reasons for those struggles when you look at each season individually.

But it's the bad patterns that worry me, and I don't know how so many people on here can pretend like they don't exist.

I know I'm somehow labeled as an apologist but reality is this is me^^^^^^^ .

And for me to entertain the thought of throwing the microscope on KO this year is crazy with all that happened, sorry just me maybe but reality is this was not a good basketball team he put on the floor. While some of that is his fault I guess recruiting wise, I just feel like I can wait before I need to evaluate him, until he gets his guys back and the new guys in. And we look at recruiting for '18 etc etc......just don't feel now is the time.

If they are 15-15 next year I won't be all that much nice either than many of you but I don't feel I am being fair to my guy jumping the gun on this whacky year, that's just me. Doesn't make me or any of the other guys many of you like to call apologists that at all. Maybe it's just called reality and fairness to those being unfairly berated?

 

[upstater]

Ok then. So you do deny our history in the modern era then? If you're one of the guys that accepts failure and mediocrity than I don't want to converse with you either. Ban away.

It's the opposite of accepting failure. It is facing reality that the AAC is not the B1G. You seem to think it is. Anyone who comes in here is not going to be able to sell, 1, UConn history because they are not part of UConn history, and 2, anyone who comes in here will not have a national championship under their belt, and 3, anyone who comes in here will not have a long history in the NBA with many NBA contacts and knowledge of the NBA game, and 4, anyone who comes in here is going to struggle heavily in bringing recruits to Storrs. Those New England kids will have every reason in the world to go to a better conference like the Big East and to play for a better coach, like Ed Cooley, and live in a better town, like Providence. UConn will be selling its facilities, and that's it.

 

[Paesano]

I know I'm somehow labeled as an apologist but reality is this is me^^^^^^^ .

And for me to entertain the thought of throwing the microscope on KO this year is crazy with all that happened, sorry just me maybe but reality is this was not a good basketball team he put on the floor. While some of that is his fault I guess recruiting wise, I just feel like I can wait before I need to evaluate him, until he gets his guys back and the new guys in. And we look at recruiting for '18 etc etc.just don't feel now is the time.

If they are 15-15 next year I won't be all that much nice either than many of you but I don't feel I am being fair to my guy jumping the gun on this whacky year, that's just me. Doesn't make me or any of the other guys many of you like to call apologists that at all. Maybe it's just called reality and fairness to those being unfairly berated?

No, that is fair. But you also have to admit that few, if any, are calling for his head right now. Everyone is pretty much in agreement that this is not the time to make a decision or final judgement on the Ollie era. Where the separation begins is the "what if" scenarios for next year. The "apologists" are already cueing up the APR and injury excuses for why we might be a .500 and middle of the AAC team again next year. Some of us are calling BS on that. For me, a SLIGHT impact from the APR plus some rust on the guys coming back from a red shirt year justifies why we probably shouldn't expect to go to the final four or compete for a championship but it does not justify not being able to be a top AAC team and a Top 25 team overall.

 

[yukonyc212]

It's the opposite of accepting failure. It is facing reality that the AAC is not the B1G. You seem to think it is. Anyone who comes in here is not going to be able to sell, 1, UConn history because they are not part of UConn history, and 2, anyone who comes in here will not have a national championship under their belt, and 3, anyone who comes in here will not have a long history in the NBA with many NBA contacts and knowledge of the NBA game, and 4, anyone who comes in here is going to struggle heavily in bringing recruits to Storrs. Those New England kids will have every reason in the world to go to a better conference like the Big East and to play for a better coach, like Ed Cooley, and live in a better town, like Providence. UConn will be selling its facilities, and that's it.

Of course the crap AAC isn't the B1G. But look what happened to Indiana when they hired the wrong guy in Mike Davis and the followed it up with an even bigger disaster in Sampson... they've missed half of the NCAA Tournaments the past 15 years. Man if they can fall from grace like that being a blue blood in the B1G imagine what can happen to us with a prolonged downturn. They struggle to field relevant teams on a year by year basis. I cringe when I think of what can happen if we have a few more losing seasons. All I can see is UNLV post Shark. Complete irrelevance.

 

[Walker11]

You're also so stupid that you missed the point of the post completely. We're a blue blood program that pays a coach a top salary. Why should we accept awful results. They didn't at another fellow blue blood program. Why should we?

I disagree often with @upstater (who doesn't) but in this case you are the one who doesn't get it. IU has infinite more leeway as a program. They have built in advantages we can only dream of. The B1G and about 40 million more in revenue account for a lot of that. If we fired KO, we would need a home run hire and while we would attract some promising young coaches with a hefty salary, the job would be a challenge and wouldn't attract IU level candidates. The next 5 or so years are crucial for the program and if we continue on a downward trajectory, the future could be bleak.

Edit. Our best bet is that KO figures a few things out and becomes the great coach many of us expect he will be.

 

[Hungryhusky99]

Is it more ridiculous to keep him on given what we've seen the last few seasons just because he won a title ? I dont think any of us are thinking we are supposed to win a title every season but man, at least be competitive and beat the programs we should be beating. We are going backwards not forwards

Last season we won the aac championship for crying out loud. No team is going to take a step forward with this many injuries . And no it's not ridiculous to give Ollie more leeway for winning a national championship. That's an extremely hard thing to regardless of if he had Calhouns players or not.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

Last season we won the aac championship for crying out loud. No team is going to take a step forward with this many injuries . And no it's not ridiculous to give Ollie more leeway for winning a national championship. That's an extremely hard thing to regardless of if he had Calhouns players or not.

How many years of leeway do you give Ollie for the championship? Do you think Uconn should be losing to a team like ECU even with the injuries they have had?

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

If next year everyone stays healthy and this happens I agree he should be gone , but I doubt that this will happen again.

i'm fine with that. Look, I dont want ollie gone, i want him to succeed. But next year needs to be better on multiple fronts. He needs to be more engaged in games instead of pouting on the chair.

 

[huskymagic]

This team and these players are not in a good state psychologically right now. Ollie needs to make sure that they are prepared from the get-go against South Florida because if they somehow lose the opener in Hartford against USF then Ollie needs to be gone ASAP. Not even a question we would have thought about previously, but it's possible with this team.

 

[Walker11]

This team and these players are not in a good state psychologically right now. Ollie needs to make sure that they are prepared from the get-go against South Florida because if they somehow lose the opener in Hartford against USF then Ollie needs to be gone ASAP. Not even a question we would have thought about previously, but it's possible with this team.

There is a way to critique Ollie in a level headed way. This is not that way. You are way off and are adding nothing to this conversation.

 

[Dove]

At what point does the APR stop factoring in as an excuse. It's 5 years now.

20 minutes. Trust me.

 

[Dove]

If we go .500 next year with Jalen as a junior and a team full of 4 and 5 star recruits it's a major indictment on KO's coaching and time to look elsewhere.

And you just happen to be looking at Ed Cooley.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Our best bet is that KO figures a few things out and becomes the great coach many of us expect he will be.

I don't disagree with this.

But how many more years of this sort of performance do you tolerate from KO before concluding that he won't ever get there?

 

[Walker11]

I don't disagree with this.

But how many more years of this sort of performance do you tolerate from KO before concluding that he won't ever get there?

Two more middling years. Or one abject disaster. I think next years team will be very good and we get back on track as a program. I have a sneaking suspicion that we will experience some addition by subtraction. Lets not get into this too much but successful and cohesive basketball is tough with low-IQ players, regardless of talent.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Two more middling years. Or one abject disaster. I think next years team will be very good and we get back on track as a program. I have a sneaking suspicion that we will experience some addition by subtraction. Lets not get into this too much but successful and cohesive basketball is tough with low-IQ players, regardless of talent.

We are on exactly the same page, though I am more cautious about next year.

If we're .500 next year, he's gone.
If we're no better than borderline bubble teams the next 2 years, he's gone.

And I agree about addition by subtraction. I thought losing Hamilton would be problematic in tangible ways, but provide a lift to our toughness. We have seen some of that. Likewise the loss of our seniors may hurt us materially in some ways, but provide a lift to BBIQ.

The lack of both of those things -- IQ and toughness -- have been the most distressing aspect about the last 3 years.

 

[jdb50]

At the start of the game today our guards- RP and JA- actually went over the top of a pick. Wow progress! But Facey could not shoot well and we got killed on the offensive boards and faded away. This team had poor fundamentals all year and Cinci just shoved us under water. Heading to next year the players have to decide if they want to get better with the work they put in during the off season. Everything from fitness to physicality to free throw shooting to passing to running a decent fast break filling the lanes which our seniors this year struggled to do. Much of this can also be improved on in practice but without the players really being serious about self improvement in the off season we will struggle next year too. And next year that I don't want to hear about how UCONN came out with no energy and that is why we lost. Watch the opening HBO special on the Women's program and Geno tells his team the expectation of the program and that he should not have to coach energy level and effort. How great players never get tired and when good players get tired, great players kick their ass. This UCONN Men's program problem of energy level is on Ollie and his staff.

 

[buddy]

I think we could've beaten cinci and houston especially with gilbert

Couldn't beat Northeastern and Wagner with him. What makes you think they would have beaten either of those teams with him? If he was recruited for potential, now with the injury that is going to be a big question mark if he can recover fully.

 

[Fishy]

Two more middling years. Or one abject disaster. I think next years team will be very good and we get back on track as a program. I have a sneaking suspicion that we will experience some addition by subtraction. Lets not get into this too much but successful and cohesive basketball is tough with low-IQ players, regardless of talent.

That is where I'm at.

I became an expert on predicting when UConn was about to go into one of their funks and the origins were often a bad three point attempt leading to a run out or an errant pass leading to a runout or a missed layup in transition leading to a runout.

There will be fewer of those next season because....there will be fewer of those next season.

I also think putting Alterique in the backcourt next to Jalen will cut down on those weird moments where a ball that Jalen was previously holding is now mysteriously rolling towards the defense.

 

[huskymagic]

That is where I'm at.

I became an expert on predicting when UConn was about to go into one of their funks and the origins were often a bad three point attempt leading to a run out or an errant pass leading to a runout or a missed layup in transition leading to a runout.

I also think putting Alterique in the backcourt next to Jalen will cut down on those weird moments where a ball that Jalen was previously holding is now mysteriously rolling towards the defense.

Fish I agree with you on Ollie. Here is my question if we somehow lose to USF in the opener of the AAC tournament which is not out of the question considering this team's mental state right now, what do you think the right course of action should be? How much leeway should Ollie get?

 

[Edward Sargent]

We're not even competitive against the top three schools in this conference. Those games are basically over before the tip - that's a bad, bad sign.

There wasn't one minute where we threatened SMU or Cincy and outside of the first half against Houston, they clobbered us as well.

This year needs to be put in a lead-lined vault and buried under a volcano. If next year is in any way similar, there are some coaches who will need to be put in that vault as well.

And we can't argue that we were down to 6 players against SMU can we?

 

[HuskyHawk]

You missed the whole point. Indiana is in the B1G! UConn isn't.

And Gregg Marshall just wrapped up another MVC title with a ranked team in a much worse conference than this one, and with lower rated recruits than UConn has. Coaching matters. Ours hasn't been good. Anybody watching that game yesterday can see clearly that one team is prepared and well coached and the other isn't. It's been like that all year, from game 1, where we looked completely unprepared against a team with dramatically worse talent.

I'm still hoping that it clicks for Ollie soon, because I do think having him rise to the occasion is UConn's best bet. But it wasn't just injuries this year. He did an awful job coaching this team.

 

[upstater]

And Gregg Marshall just wrapped up another MVC title with a ranked team in a much worse conference than this one, and with lower rated recruits than UConn has. Coaching matters. Ours hasn't been good. Anybody watching that game yesterday can see clearly that one team is prepared and well coached and the other isn't. It's been like that all year, from game 1, where we looked completely unprepared against a team with dramatically worse talent.

I'm still hoping that it clicks for Ollie soon, because I do think having him rise to the occasion is UConn's best bet. But it wasn't just injuries this year. He did an awful job coaching this team.

I think it was Fishy who just pointed out they made one tourney in the 20 years prior to Marshall.

As I wrote in my original post, BEST CASE SCENARIO: you hire an excellent coach (which Marshall is) and you exit the tourney the first weekend every year.

Sorry, this program will not survive a Wichita St. existence.

And people here accuse me of accepting mediocrity?

 

[HuskyHawk]

It's the opposite of accepting failure. It is facing reality that the AAC is not the B1G. You seem to think it is. Anyone who comes in here is not going to be able to sell, 1, UConn history because they are not part of UConn history, and 2, anyone who comes in here will not have a national championship under their belt, and 3, anyone who comes in here will not have a long history in the NBA with many NBA contacts and knowledge of the NBA game, and 4, anyone who comes in here is going to struggle heavily in bringing recruits to Storrs. Those New England kids will have every reason in the world to go to a better conference like the Big East and to play for a better coach, like Ed Cooley, and live in a better town, like Providence. UConn will be selling its facilities, and that's it.

If it's all about P5 then explain Wichita State? Gonzaga? Hell, Cinci and SMU have been strong for those last three years in this league. Great coaches win anywhere. Stevens did it at Butler. UConn may not be in the same position as Indiana, Duke, UNC, UK or KU, but it's got more pull with recruits than WSU, Gonzaga and any other school in the AAC, along with most of the P5 programs. So that cannot be an excuse.

I don't want to fire him. I want him to learn how to coach college basketball. It isn't the NBA and he needs to stop acting like it is. He needs better advice from his assistants.

 

[TRest]

I think it was Fishy who just pointed out they made one tourney in the 20 years prior to Marshall.

As I wrote in my original post, BEST CASE SCENARIO: you hire an excellent coach (which Marshall is) and you exit the tourney the first weekend every year.

Sorry, this program will not survive a Wichita St. existence.

And people here accuse me of accepting mediocrity?

So your solution is to keep a coaching mediocrity? If we get more of the same next year, how long can we survive that?

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think it was Fishy who just pointed out they made one tourney in the 20 years prior to Marshall.

As I wrote in my original post, BEST CASE SCENARIO: you hire an excellent coach (which Marshall is) and you exit the tourney the first weekend every year.

Sorry, this program will not survive a Wichita St. existence.

And people here accuse me of accepting mediocrity?

So we can't survive winning the league regular season and tournament every year, and being ranked in the top 25? But we can survive never winning a league regular season...ever, and not qualifying for the NIT? I don't understand your logic.