Not good. | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Not good.

ConnHuskBask said:
And for every coach that has a few bad seasons and ends up becoming the premiere coach in the game there are maybe 5,000 that had a few bad seasons and we're just not elite coaches?


No more excuses.
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Lol. That is funny. I am sure his agent fields so many "interest" calls because KO can't coach. Excuses.
 
3rdbass said:
Not sure if .500 would do that. I definitely think they will keep around another year if he is above .500 and doesn't make the tourney. I feel he should go if he doesn't make the tourney but we will see.
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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.
 
Fishy said:
I think Gilbert was our biggest loss.

We really do not have a true point guard without him.

Adams is a volume turnover machine - getting him off the ball at times would have allowed UConn to rely less on Rodney's feast or famine game.
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I agree with that, plus he is a competitor.
 
Are we talking about .500 in conference play or overall record here? I feel like going under .500 is a super unlikely event but I also feel like .500 in overall record isn't really an appropriate target for the University of Connecticut.
 
I'm glad AD Dave said what he said today regarding expectations. He needs to put the fear of God into the coaching staff. Enough excuses. We need to be in the tournament every year.
 
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Fishy said:
Me, neither.

This is not a sentimental game. We're in an awful spot relative to our conference and revenue and we cannot afford to have a coach who doesn't produce relative to expectations.

I like Kevin Ollie and thought he did a terrific job in his first two seasons, but the past couple of years have been rough and he doesn't have much runway left to get this thing moving back in the right direction.

I don't think he's getting fired next year if we go .500, but he'd be on double-secret probation.
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This may be unfair to KO - so often people mentioned he had Calhoun's players in year 1 and 2. Sometimes people forget he also had Calhoun as a defacto super assistant coach who attended most practices and games. I don't believe for a minute if that was still the routine - we would be playing all these terrible gimmick zones that leave guys open for 3's and offensive rebounds. More importantly they remove the swagger from UConn basketball.
 
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Olliewood216 said:
If we need a new coach after 3 sub-par years then I would argue we need a new fan base as well. We still have an opportunity to punch our ticket to the NCAA's on our home court, but guaranteed the place will be 3/4 empty unless we make it to the semis or finals. We have too many fair weather, entitled fans. The program needs us now more than ever. I sat in Gampel today watching half the fans leave with 8 minutes left in the game. We had 3 seniors out there playing (2 of which helped us win a National Championship) and you can't stay 8 minutes to give them a hand and see them play the last time at Gampel? I don't give a crap if we're down 50, stay in your seat and show the team you appreciate their contributions to the program. Shame on all those who left early...those are the same fans who will only show up at the XL if we make it far enough. The team needs our fans to show up EVERY game.
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Chief stayed for the end of the game and some more
 
BUConn10 said:
Are we talking about .500 in conference play or overall record here? I feel like going under .500 is a super unlikely event but I also feel like .500 in overall record isn't really an appropriate target for the University of Connecticut.
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Well, yeah. That target needs to be moved - it was kind of a throw-away number.

This conference gives a half decent team 11 or 12 wins, so .500 is indeed too low a bar.
 
The Viking said:
KO has had two talented players leave before they were NBA ready and that dearly impacted us - Daniels and Hamilton.
Think about how different KO's last three years would have been if they hadn't left when they weren't quite ready.
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It's almost as if other programs don't have kids declare early for the draft.
 
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DaveHuskiesFan said:
Gregg Marshall isn't leaving WSU to coach at UConn.
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Here we go... the nobody will come to UConn mantra...unreal. It's the top basketball program in the country over the last 20 years. I'm sure we can find some poor sap to come here and suffer through unlimited administrative and fan support and big pay check.
 
gtcam said:
I'm here but am turning all of them off
It's not worth my energy anymore
They have their opinion and I have mine and to hell with them
This year has sure exposed the band wagon folks and those who, in my opinion, just don't get it
Being a season ticket holder since 1965 I've seen a lot and maybe from a different perspective from all these kids who only have witnessed the last 15 years or less
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See, I totally get what you are saying, but I feel as though you are bringing emotion into it way too much.

Why should those in charge of the program allow valuable brand power whither away over time purely for the sake of nostalgia? This is a super successful franchise in a huge, highly competitive field. Since 1990, the "15 years" I think you were coyly referring to, our brand has skyrocketed in value, think of us as a stock. Each of us with a UConn degree has quite literally increased the value of their degrees with the success of UConn. I'm sure your UConn diploma from 1965 wouldn't be nearly as valuable without the blood, sweat and tears from the Calhoun era which I believe played a big role in UConn's rapid expansion as a university both in size and academic rank and reputation. The "CEO" in charge needs to protect the value of the product. I'm sure shareholders wouldn't be happy if Microsoft's CEO justified year after year poor performance on the fact that he is old enough to remember when Microsoft products were developed in Bill Gates' mother's garage. That is flawed logic and unnecessarily sentimental. At some point the program needs to evaluate the direction it's heading and I think that time is approaching in the next coming years.
 
BlueDogs said:
Here we go... the nobody will come to UConn mantra...unreal. It's the top basketball program in the country over the last 20 years. I'm sure we can find some poor sap to come here and suffer through unlimited administrative and fan support and big pay check.
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If this was as true as you make it out to be, then why is UConn currently sitting in the position that it is, on-court results totally aside. Clearly those outside of CT see our value differently as we do for us to be in the American years later. Yes I know it's a multifactorial issue but value is value.
 
Late to the party on this but we are a young team that decimated by injury. The biggest take away from this season is that KO managed to keep the kids playing hard all year.

Yeah, if we have the same success with a team that isn't down to a skeleton crew, sure you have look hard at what happened by this season was just 'a series of unfortunate events" and I doubt even Wooden would have taken these guys to the NCAA's.
 
Somehow we're in an even bigger nightmare of a situation than I thought possible when we got booted to the AAC. I figured at worst we'd consistently be a Top 3 program in the conference, similar to what Memphis was under Calipari in CUSA. A lot of 16-2, 15-3 conference records. I don't think anyone expected us to be a middle of the road program in this god awful conference...

We're 42-30 in conference play in four years in the AAC. We've never finished in the Top 3 of the regular season standings. We needed a miracle 65-footer to help win our only conference title. We've missed the tourney 3 of the last 5 seasons. We're losing to teams named East Carolina and Wagner. We didn't sell out a single home game this year. The scarier part is that the numbers don't do our situation justice, the eye test paints an even bleaker picture. We aren't a smart team, we don't execute well, we don't make good decisions. We're routinely killed on the glass. We rarely have knockdown shooters. Probably the biggest concern with the program is player development - we have to get better at getting better. SMU and Cincinnati are composed mostly of 3-star recruits with a 4-star here and there and they're ahead of us as a program right now.

Since Oriakhi committed in the summer of 2006 we've signed one above average big man (Drummond, who was an in-our-backyard layup and wasn't in Storrs long enough to have a big impact). Think about that, over the course of the last 11 years we've inked one difference-making big man and he was on campus for eight months. Polley and Carlton aren't going to change that trend. If we aren't going to be able to sign better bigs than we have to get better at developing them.

Other programs that had to go through the painful transition of replacing a legend at least had a stable situation in a power conference. Indiana, UNC, Georgetown, etc. They struggled with their immediate successor but eventually rebounded since it remained a desirable job. We don't have that luxury. I think Ollie might have a longer leash than some think because I'm not sure who the hell is going to want to come run this program if we show Ollie the door. We're in danger of becoming the next Houston of the 80s or UNLV of the 90s.
 
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What should the bar for success be next year? What kind of season would be constitute a failure for KO? Going 500 next year would be a catastrophic failure that would dwarf this turd of a season.

I am not predicting any level of success for next season but the team is loaded on paper in the 1-3 spots. We have enough big wings that the 1-4 spots are technically "loaded," provided we play an adequate amount of small ball. It shouldn't be that hard to find a single big who can do a decent job rebounding and defending. IMO, a very good coach should have a roster like this in the top 20 all season, easily. If the team isn't top 30ish for the majority of the season, the season will be a failure in my eyes.
 
Lefty2one said:
Somehow we're in an even bigger nightmare of a situation than I thought possible when we got booted to the AAC. I figured at worst we'd consistently be a Top 3 program in the conference, similar to what Memphis was under Calipari in CUSA. A lot of 16-2, 15-3 conference records. I don't think anyone expected us to be a middle of the road program in this god awful conference...

We're 42-30 in conference play in four years in the AAC. We've never finished in the Top 3 of the regular season standings. We needed a miracle 65-footer to help win our only conference title. We've missed the tourney 3 of the last 5 seasons. We're losing to teams named East Carolina and Wagner. We didn't sell out a single home game this year. The scarier part is that the numbers don't do our situation justice, the eye test paints an even bleaker picture. We aren't a smart team, we don't execute well, we don't make good decisions. We're routinely killed on the glass. We rarely have knockdown shooters. Probably the biggest concern with the program is player development - we have to get better at getting better. SMU and Cincinnati are composed mostly of 3-star recruits with a 4-star here and there and they're ahead of us as a program right now.

Since Oriakhi committed in the summer of 2006 we've signed one above average big man (Drummond, who was an in-our-backyard layup and wasn't in Storrs long enough to have a big impact). Think about that, over the course of the last 11 years we've inked one difference-making big man and he was on campus for eight months. Polley and Carlton aren't going to change that trend. If we aren't going to be able to sign better bigs than we have to get better at developing them.

Other programs that had to go through the painful transition of replacing a legend at least had a stable situation in a power conference. Indiana, UNC, Georgetown, etc. They struggled with their immediate successor but eventually rebounded since it remained a desirable job. We don't have that luxury. I think Ollie might have a longer leash than some think because I'm not sure who the hell is going to want to come run this program if we show Ollie the door. We're in danger of becoming the next Houston of the 80s or UNLV of the 90s.
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I share every one of your concerns. The only difference is that I am not ready to write off Polley and Carlton. I kinda like that they are both highly productive, highly skilled bigs who are not great athletes or measurement type guys. Looking across the country, there really aren't that many highly talented 5 men. Competent bigs who can do a few things very well are all you need at this point in time. Sure, I'd love to land a one and done big that can beast immediately, but I doubt we attract someone like that and its not the only path towards success.

This is for sure a scary time for the program. It does have some Houston, UNLV feel to it, even though our history is much stronger. F conference realignment.
 
Fishy said:
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.
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We've gone from being the dominators to being
dominated.
 
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Recruits read this board. If I read this thread, I'd never commit to UConn. What is UConn anyway? Why would you ever go to Storrs? I'd rather go to a mid-sized city like Providence and play in the BE. Why would I ever go to Storrs?
 
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The Viking said:
KO has had two talented players leave before they were NBA ready and that dearly impacted us - Daniels and Hamilton.
Think about how different KO's last three years would have been if they hadn't left when they weren't quite ready.
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Every big time program has players leave. That's the nature of the game and you can't use that as a friggen excuse.
 
Palatine said:
How can anyone depend on Gilbert? He has been continually hurt for over two years. He can't fall without hurting his shoulder.

I wish him the best. He seems to be a good kid. But with his history the last two years, we all better keep our fingers crossed.
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My thoughts from the start. Once injured it never heals 100%. One of Geno's assistant, girl with long blonde hair. I recall she injured her leg. Out the whole season, came back and reinjured it . In fact maybe I am wrong, but she injured it a 3rd time and that was it. Isn't this Gilbert's second time?
 
yukonyc212 said:
If these results are the norm than Uconn basketball is already over with Ollie.
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Ollie won a national championship. You can pretend he didn't, but he did. If you want Jim Christian to take over, sayonara. Because that's who is coming here.
 
walker11 said:
I share every one of your concerns. The only difference is that I am not ready to write off Polley and Carlton. I kinda like that they are both highly productive, highly skilled bigs who are not great athletes or measurement type guys. Looking across the country, there really aren't that many highly talented 5 men. Competent bigs who can do a few things very well are all you need at this point in time. Sure, I'd love to land a one and done big that can beast immediately, but I doubt we attract someone like that and its not the only path towards success.

This is for sure a scary time for the program. It does have some Houston, UNLV feel to it, even though our history is much stronger. F conference realignment.
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To me it feels a lot more like UMass.

Bruiser Flint was one of Squid's crack assistants and they just let him fester too long and he couldn't maintain in spite of some pretty good recruiting classes. Conferences were already shifting at that time and the stronger the Big East got, the more the A-10 got shuffled off to the side. I live on this side of the border so I watched all of it and their fan base then is almost a carbon-copy of this year's UConn fan base. Complete with the whole 'if you fire him, you're firing your own' kind of stuff, 'well maybe he's not a good x and o guy, BUT HE CAN RECRUIT,' etc.

He was more or less forced out, then they managed to reel in Lappas - who was clearly using them as a stepping stone and was never really committed to the program. Then along game Ford and he WAS using it as a stepping stone. So they had enough of outside solutions so went back INSIDE~! and hired Derek Kellog and he's getting what - $1.7 million and he's got one tournament appearance in 8 years.

Eventually you start floundering, they'll go through the mud sticking to the wall thing and then probably recoil or something like that...

But it feels a lot more like UMass than those other guys.
 
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