Oillie vs Hurley recruits | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Oillie vs Hurley recruits

Thanks for all the great points on this thread. My intention wasn‘t to divide but rather to see if there was any noticeable difference between each coach‘s recruits. I‘m realizing that KO actually did a decent job with recruiting talent that fit the UConn mold, but just fell short on development. I did get the feeling that we suffered in the Free Throw talent department with KO recruits. JC always had very high standards for FT shooting, although that is also probably as much training as it is natural talent. All in all I‘m happy to see progress in all the recruits.
 
At least half the board refuses to give Ollie credit for anything, including winning the national championship. The fact is that he did an OK job recruiting despite the conference realignment disaster. Three things hit our recruiting:

  1. UConn transitioning from the top conference in basketball to a mid-major was going to dramatically hurt recruiting.
  2. Transitioning from a legendary coach to the next generation is incredibly difficult, and no program pulls it off successfully without a few bumps in the road. Ollie's issue was compounded by the Interim Coach title, which effective froze recruiting for a year and a half, since it is impossible to recruit if the coach doesn't know if he will be coach nor not. We lost at least one class from this.
  3. Transfers - I think this is a combination of factors. Ollie definitely created an environment where players wanted out, but I also think the conference situation combined with the dirtiest program in college basketball coming after Enoch also impacted the exodus.

That said, Vital, Polley, Whaley, Carlton, Gilbert and even Wilson are not a terrible junior and senior class given the circumstances.

Before any of the usual idiots jump in with "Ollie sucked as a coach", no one is arguing he didn't deserve to get fired. Everyone can play amateur psychologist, but something happened after 2016 and Ollie stopped working hard, and the school had to let him go. But it doesn't mean that everything he did was wrong or bad.
 
Its been discussed ad nauseam, but I really think the Larrier and Gilbert injuries killed it for Ollie. Things fell apart from there of what should've been another great season. He could not handle the adversity as he was accustom to things falling in place for him up until then. His personal life issues affected the culture and decent recruits jumped ship. It was a Greek tragedy.

In terms of player development, Whaley is crushing it now that he's seeing the light of day. He didn't even get a chance last year and perhaps that's due to Danny turning him around. JC, TP, Serah Williams, AG and early season CV did not develop like we all expected them to. But they are fighters, so Ollie at least instilled that in them, if nothing more.

One thing is for certain, Dan Hurley can handle adversity much better than KO. To keep these kids fighting and integrate the youth movement after TP, AA & Serah Williams's injuries along with JC's & AG's regressions is impressive.
 
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Calhoun was an SOB with enormously high expectations for his players. But he also started in the college coaching game way back in 72 and was at Northeastern when it was a DII program. So he had 14 years to iron out the kinks before he took the UCONN job. Kevin was handed the keys to a highly functioning organization, but had zero years to make mistakes at a lower level program, and really had not even been a long time assistant before he took the job. So we got to see what he could do with a roster full of high functioning players who had their eyes on something big. Not hard to motivate that bunch, and in some ways similar to a pro squad, which might actually be more of Ollie's forte. And then we saw what happened when he faced adversity. Calhoun could take a sow's ear of a roster and turn it into a silk purse. But he had done that more than once and also had talented teams that under performed. Ollie ultimately failed in the bright lights of a high pressure job. But perhaps he should have had the opportunity to make his mistakes in a lower stakes job. But to quote HST, buy the ticket, take the ride....
 
nelsonmuntz said:
I also think the conference situation *combined with the dirtiest program in college basketball coming after Enoch* also impacted the exodus.
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Please translate

Jay-Bone said:
One thing is for certain, Dan Hurley can handle adversity much better than KO. To keep these kids fighting and integrate the youth movement after TP, AA & Serah Williams's injuries along with JC's & AG's regressions is impressive.
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All of the above on top of Mamadou permanently sidelined, his reclassifying late replacement Springs declared academically ineligible, Bouk's suspension to start the season, and Gaffney's ankle.

sharonT said:
So, how would Ollie's team of Akinjo, Vital, Carlton, Whaley, Polley backed up by Gilbert, Mathews, Kisunas, and Wilson be doing in league play?
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With which of his Strength & Conditioning coaches?
 
Jay-Bone said:
One thing is for certain, Dan Hurley can handle adversity... To keep these kids fighting and integrate the youth movement after TP, AA & Serah Williams's injuries along with JC's & AG's regressions is impressive.
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Hans Sprungfeld said:
All of the above on top of Mamadou permanently sidelined, his reclassifying late replacement Springs declared academically ineligible, Bouk's suspension to start the season, and Gaffney's ankle.
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Not to mention Dan’s own surgery to start the year and Kenya missing some time. These guys have been through it this season.
 
Matias said:
Thanks for all the great points on this thread. My intention wasn‘t to divide but rather to see if there was any noticeable difference between each coach‘s recruits. I‘m realizing that KO actually did a decent job with recruiting talent that fit the UConn mold, but just fell short on development. I did get the feeling that we suffered in the Free Throw talent department with KO recruits. JC always had very high standards for FT shooting, although that is also probably as much training as it is natural talent. All in all I‘m happy to see progress in all the recruits.
Expand ...

I maintain what I've said all along. Ollie brought in some nice players. Vital has panned out well. Enoch, Jackson. Carlton was better (prior to this season) than his ranking suggested. Whaley has become a terrific contributor. I can't evaluate Al due to injuries. Jalen Adams was a special player who was unlucky.

What I think Ollie was bad at was roster construction. He tended to get guys without thinking too much about how they fit together. So he used Vance Jackson in a role Jackson didn't think was good for his future, and he walked. He played toothpick Larrier at the 4 while Whaley never got any minutes there. He brought in a ball dominant McD PG in Gilbert to play alongside Jalen Adams, a ball dominant PG. Carlton is an old school, slow game half court center, and yet Kevin didn't want to play that way any more than Hurley does.

I think Hurley is focused on fit above all else. We are beginning to see what happens when we play roughly 6 guys that are playing the game the same way. Josh is still on the outside looking in, and Sid is halfway in halfway out. He should fit this style but hasn't really shown that yet.
 
Matias said:
Thanks for all the great points on this thread. My intention wasn‘t to divide but rather to see if there was any noticeable difference between each coach‘s recruits. I‘m realizing that KO actually did a decent job with recruiting talent that fit the UConn mold, but just fell short on development. I did get the feeling that we suffered in the Free Throw talent department with KO recruits. JC always had very high standards for FT shooting, although that is also probably as much training as it is natural talent. All in all I‘m happy to see progress in all the recruits.
Expand ...

KO ran the Steve Nash FT drill & was a stickler for FTs.
UConn lead the league in free throws year after year.
UConn was so good at free throws that John Calipari lost his mind in the national championship game and let the shot clock wind down when Kentucky was down just 2 possessions.
They were incredible at FTs under Ollie.
 
inWV said:
Calhoun was an SOB with enormously high expectations for his players. But he also started in the college coaching game way back in 72 and was at Northeastern when it was a DII program. So he had 14 years to iron out the kinks before he took the UCONN job. Kevin was handed the keys to a highly functioning organization, but had zero years to make mistakes at a lower level program, and really had not even been a long time assistant before he took the job. So we got to see what he could do with a roster full of high functioning players who had their eyes on something big. Not hard to motivate that bunch, and in some ways similar to a pro squad, which might actually be more of Ollie's forte. And then we saw what happened when he faced adversity. Calhoun could take a sow's ear of a roster and turn it into a silk purse. But he had done that more than once and also had talented teams that under performed. Ollie ultimately failed in the bright lights of a high pressure job. But perhaps he should have had the opportunity to make his mistakes in a lower stakes job. But to quote HST, buy the ticket, take the ride....
Expand ...

Ollie fell into a Volcano after the NC in 2014.

But--that was not a roster of high functioning players akin to a pro team.

I am seriously not dismissing them--they were grinders, team first guys--but you'd be very hard pressed to find a national champion that had only one future NBA player on it. In terms of having high functioning pros, that team had fewer than any other winner.

So it was the gritty players, the great coaching, or both.
 
HuskyHawk said:
He played toothpick Larrier at the 4
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It worked with Deandre. Who knows what could've become if not the injury.

In terms of Vance, he was 8 and 4 as a freshmen with a chance for a lot of playing time to come. Never understood what more the kid thought he could get.

We also forget Ollie recruited Purvis, Gibbs and Miller as well. What could've become if Hamilton stuck around? A lot of pieces that didn't live up to expectations, didn't fit together or were discouraged by the culture.
 
Jay-Bone said:
Its been discussed ad nauseam, but I really think the Larrier and Gilbert injuries killed it for Ollie. Things fell apart from there of what should've been another great season. He could not handle the adversity as he was accustom to things falling in place for him up until then. His personal life issues affected the culture and decent recruits jumped ship. It was a Greek tragedy.

In terms of player development, Whaley is crushing it now that he's seeing the light of day. He didn't even get a chance last year and perhaps that's due to Danny turning him around. JC, TP, Serah Williams, AG and early season CV did not develop like we all expected them to. But they are fighters, so Ollie at least instilled that in them, if nothing more.

One thing is for certain, Dan Hurley can handle adversity much better than KO. To keep these kids fighting and integrate the youth movement after TP, AA & Serah Williams's injuries along with JC's & AG's regressions is impressive.
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Whaley didn’t develop the raw athleticism,especially quickness and shot blocking
He came here with those tools so crediting the guy who identified those attributes is fair. Who was are recruiter that year. Where he has shown an exponential jump is the offensive end and nobody including people on this staff didn’t see that coming . He was not really scoring until recently. He doesn’t try to do too much offensively and seems to understand what he can do and has gained confidence playing his game . He is quite a story.
Actually for fairly low ranking recruits even Polly , Carlton ,and Vital ( the year before) have exceeded expectations. Wilson was the prize of that class.
That was a throw away class expected to backup Adams and Enoch then Jackson , Durham , and Gilbert. The group except for Adams that almost killed us.
 
Jay-Bone said:
Its been discussed ad nauseam, but I really think the Larrier and Gilbert injuries killed it for Ollie. Things fell apart from there of what should've been another great season. He could not handle the adversity as he was accustom to things falling in place for him up until then. His personal life issues affected the culture and decent recruits jumped ship. It was a Greek tragedy.

In terms of player development, Whaley is crushing it now that he's seeing the light of day. He didn't even get a chance last year and perhaps that's due to Danny turning him around. JC, TP, Serah Williams, AG and early season CV did not develop like we all expected them to. But they are fighters, so Ollie at least instilled that in them, if nothing more.

One thing is for certain, Dan Hurley can handle adversity much better than KO. To keep these kids f
Expand ...
Jay-Bone said:
Its been discussed ad nauseam, but I really think the Larrier and Gilbert injuries killed it for Ollie. Things fell apart from there of what should've been another great season. He could not handle the adversity as he was accustom to things falling in place for him up until then. His personal life issues affected the culture and decent recruits jumped ship. It was a Greek tragedy.

In terms of player development, Whaley is crushing it now that he's seeing the light of day. He didn't even get a chance last year and perhaps that's due to Danny turning him around. JC, TP, Serah Williams, AG and early season CV did not develop like we all expected them to. But they are fighters, so Ollie at least instilled that in them, if nothing more.

One thing is for certain, Dan Hurley can handle adversity much better than KO. To keep these kids fighting and integrate the youth movement after TP, AA & Serah Williams's injuries along with JC's & AG's regressions is impressive.
Expand ...
We lost to Wagner and northeastern with both Gilbert and Larrier.
 
Weird how nelson keeps debating this person on Ollie's championship that doesn't exist. Everyone has a problem with how he handled the post championship era, you'd think it'd be easy to understand.
 
hurley is building a new program
ollie rode calhoun’s name, these are facts

and there should be a * for ollie 2014
bazz coached that team
 
Huskyforlife said:
Weird how nelson keeps debating this person on Ollie's championship that doesn't exist. Everyone has a problem with how he handled the post championship era, you'd think it'd be easy to understand.
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Ratso said:
hurley is building a new program
ollie rode calhoun’s name, these are facts

and there should be a * for ollie 2014
bazz coached that team
Expand ...

See the post below yours.
 
Ratso said:
hurley is building a new program
ollie rode calhoun’s name, these are facts

and there should be a * for ollie 2014
bazz coached that team
Expand ...
JSMH
* you are factless
 

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