Ollie and staff have done the impossible

[gwhuskyfan]

Last week Michigan State was in 8th place in the B1G. Would you say they are the 8th best team in that conference? They're a 2 or 3 seed in the tourney. Unless we lose out, we'll be ok.

 

[JMick]

You're expecting a final four run next year?! Expecting. Get out of here. Look, I was spoiled as hell coming here as a student and having the team win a national championship 2 years ago in my freshman year. Because of that I have high expectations year in and year out (why wouldn't I given our program's success over the last 20 years). However, expecting the final four is wild. We are losing our best player in Shonn Miller and also Gibbs, Omar, Phil and likely Purvis. In other words, we are losing our top 3 scorers and 61% (SIXTY-ONE) of our offense.

Yes, I am damn excited for the recruiting class coming in, but for the love of god do not expect a final four. That is ridiculous to just expect. Adams needs to make one hell of a leap and Alterique Gilbert has to be an ACTUAL true PG that is needed to run this offense more efficiently if we want to sniff a final four next year. Oh and Danny Hams needs to play like he is capable of playing.

You.... you didn't read my post right.

 

[Leebo]

I'm not going to expect a final four or even sweet sixteen team next year

You're expecting a final four run next year?! Expecting. Get out of here.

Haha, what?

 

[EricLA]

Yes, I have noticed opposing teams lighting up Gampel. Well now it is win at SMU or the season is over.

Season's not over by a long shot. We have a chance to do well in the NIT...

 

[Rocktheworld]

Yes, I have noticed opposing teams lighting up Gampel. Well now it is win at SMU or the season is over.

This was UConn's first loss at Gampel all year.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Did you just quote yourself to support your opinion...?

No, he quoted himself to agree with himself. Literally talking with himself

Borderline frightening.

 

[CTBasketball]

Our best lineup throughout this game was Adams, Brimah, Miller, Purvis, and Gibbs. We moved the ball around very well and played some good offense. I enjoyed that 3-4 minute stretch in the first half. Then we went away from it...

 

[lange10]

No, he quoted himself to agree with himself. Literally talking with himself

Borderline frightening.

Misread it, my bad. Ranted quite a bit there. Need some a win Thursday for my sanity haha

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

How is any of this on the coaching staff? The team had no heart today. Adams and Miller had off games but that happens. The defense was non existent. This is NOT on Ollie today.

Because the coaches let it happen. Daniel Hamilton hasn't hustled in two years and Ollie never corrects it. I pointed out his first half turnover where he literally walked back on d and then made zero effort to box out or rebound letting his guy dunk it on him. Does Ollie pull him out or say a word to him? Nope. So he will continue to play like that, just as he had done all season.

If Ollie sat him on the bench and chewed him out once in a while after he does that then maybe he would show a little heart and hustle. Enoch shows plenty of heart and hustle. He gets 3 min. Gibbs and Hamilton try the least and play the laziest/ worst d by far of anyone on the team and they play the most minutes. Tell me that makes sense.

None of our repeated mistakes ever get fixed. That is on the coaching staff.

 

[tzznandrew]

This has been apparent since last year. KO doesn't change his scheme to fit his players, which would be fine, if we had full recruiting classes. We haven't, so instead of changing the scheme for the time being, to fit what we do have, he just wants to force square pegs into round holes.

This is exactly what people would say about JC at various times. Particularly in our down years.

We had titles in our eyes. But KO has to coach for beyond this year, and sometimes schemes that fail and lead to embarrassments one year pay of huge dividends in the future. See the 07-08 UConn team, and then the 08-09 one.

 

[8893]

No, he quoted himself to agree with himself. Literally talking with himself

Borderline frightening.

Borderline?

 

[gtcam]

They have made the AAC look like the toughest basketball league we have ever played in. Than you see some of these powerhouses beating us like Temple take on a team like Villanova and than the reality of the situation gets exposed.

Could Kevin Ollie handle coaching in a Power 5 league right now? We are currently 2-6 against the good teams in our league with another possible loss to come. And the good teams are not that particularly good compared to your typical Power 5 league. I would say they are much worse.

Does this program place ANY premium on regular season performance anymore? Can anyone say we do at this point? We are consistently finishing as low as we possibly can in the conference standings. Did 2011 and 2014 give us the false sense of comfort that the season only matters in March?

You win this game you don't have to sweat out an NCAA berth. A team with any sense of awareness and leadership doesn't lose this game at home with a road trip to SMU coming up. A well coached team doesn't allow it to happen either.

And for the "Every game should be at Gampel" brigade, I also believe this team plays better at XL Center than Gampel and it has been that way for a couple of years. We usually win our big games at XL. And teams shoot far better at Gampel against us.

Yep Ollie and his staff allowed Houston to shoot their brains out in the 2nd half
Ollie and his staff coached SG and RP to miss all their 3s
Ollie and his staff told SM to take most of the game off (yeah guys just kill me now for saying that)
Ollie and his staff threw 3 errant passes in the first half leading to an eight point turnaround
Ollie and his staff wanted to lose this game because they like to sweat it out

Listen up - UConn this year is not a team - they are just parts new, borrowed and used. They have performed at this level because they have NO on court leader. They are collectively a basketball challenged IQ team. Every game, physically, it looks like a man vs boys affair - 30 year olds vs middle school. This team is not going to out muscle our out hustle most any team. This team will not get blown out by most any team but neither do they seem capable of putting together any run. They lack point guard depth, defensively, opposing point guards with speed eat our guys up. This team cannot afford 2 and 3 players who play a majority of minutes to take games off - it has cost them both Temple games, the home Cinci game and the Gonzaga disaster.
Do you think KO is at all satisfied???????
Remember, the NCAA sanction hurt this team in many ways and the recruiting took a hit.

KO has a good class coming in - I will judge him more closely at the end of next year because of who is coming in and who is coming back.

As far as the Gampel issue - this team definitely doesn't play well there and I don't think anyone knows the real answer - such a travesty because your on campus site should be feared by the opponent but in Storrs it doesn't seem to be that way presently.

I'm very dissatisfied with today's result BUT it's not like I can be surprised - the final 3 minutes of the 1st half and the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half sum up this season.

 

[SaeHusky]

Yep Ollie and his staff allowed Houston to shoot their brains out in the 2nd half
Ollie and his staff coached SG and RP to miss all their 3s
Ollie and his staff told SM to take most of the game off (yeah guys just kill me now for saying that)
Ollie and his staff threw 3 errant passes in the first half leading to an eight point turnaround
Ollie and his staff wanted to lose this game because they like to sweat it out

Listen up - UConn this year is not a team - they are just parts new, borrowed and used. They have performed at this level because they have NO on court leader. They are collectively a basketball challenged IQ team. Every game, physically, it looks like a man vs boys affair - 30 year olds vs middle school. This team is not going to out muscle our out hustle most any team. This team will not get blown out by most any team but neither do they seem capable of putting together any run. They lack point guard depth, defensively, opposing point guards with speed eat our guys up. This team cannot afford 2 and 3 players who play a majority of minutes to take games off - it has cost them both Temple games, the home Cinci game and the Gonzaga disaster.
Do you think KO is at all satisfied???????
Remember, the NCAA sanction hurt this team in many ways and the recruiting took a hit.

KO has a good class coming in - I will judge him more closely at the end of next year because of who is coming in and who is coming back.

As far as the Gampel issue - this team definitely doesn't play well there and I don't think anyone knows the real answer - such a travesty because your on campus site should be feared by the opponent but in Storrs it doesn't seem to be that way presently.

I'm very dissatisfied with today's result BUT it's not like I can be surprised - the final 3 minutes of the 1st half and the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half sum up this season.

I agree with your post for the most part. My only criticism of Ollie today would be that he should have tried to play some zone. Their guards we beating our guys off the dribble all day

 

[tzznandrew]

I agree with your post for the most part. My only criticism of Ollie today would be that he should have tried to play some zone. Their guards we beating our guys off the dribble all day

He did, and they immediately got a shot from the corner that would have been a 3 if the Houston player had any court awareness.

I'm not opposed to the zone if they run it well. They played it a few possessions out of a TO and it stunk.

 

[Jaker]

Lucky for us, most of the teams in college this year are not good. As long as we don't totally collapse in our next couple of games we should still make the tourney.

 

[Jaker]

He did, and they immediately got a shot from the corner that would have been a 3 if the Houston player had any court awareness.

I'm not opposed to the zone if they run it well. They played it a few possessions out of a TO and it stunk.

yeah, we are not a very good zone team.

 

[tzznandrew]

yeah, we are not a very good zone team.

The play Houston ran to get an open shot was high school at best. I teach it to my JV girls team. It was embarrassing how easy it was to break.

 

[raf46]

I really thing 17/18 is the year to test it. Next year should be good, but I want to see what it's like with the first recruiting class not affected from the violations playing as sophomores at least.

Agreed. if we are having this conversation two years from now, we need to look at a new head coach.

 

[uconnfan68]

The play Houston ran to get an open shot was high school at best. I teach it to my JV girls team. It was embarrassing how easy it was to break.

Some of those little girls have more years playing basketball than half of our guys. It really shows sometimes.

 

[UConnWingman]

Agreed. if we are having this conversation two years from now, we need to look at a new head coach.

Ollie's taken a legit "blue blood" program and turned it into an also-ran in the span of 3 years. Please, OH PLEASE let the Knicks come calling and make him an offer he can't refuse.

 

[UCweCONN]

KO is Rick Barnes. He can bring in the players but not win or get them to play as a team. That national title will continually be thrown up whenever someone says KO isn't a good coach. There have got to be guys that won national titles that wouldn't be considered great coaches. I was a Shaka Smart supporter when JC was leaving but we were a victim of timing. Does anyone here honestly believe that a team with as much individual talent as we have would be 20-9 with Shaka Smart coaching? If he doesn't have a dominant season next year, KO needs to go.

 

[80shusky]

Ollie's taken a legit "blue blood" program and turned it into an also-ran in the span of 3 years. Please, OH PLEASE let the Knicks come calling and make him an offer he can't refuse.

Idiot, he has three 20 win seasons and a National Championship in that span. Don't run off the dock.

 

[JMick]

Idiot, he has three 20 win seasons and a National Championship in that span. Don't run off the dock.

I don't think KO should be gone but don't think 20 wins in the AAC means anything special

 

[Rocktheworld]

Mods, please, abort this thread.

 

[JMick]

Mods, please, abort this thread.

I just don't understand this. People are going to vent their frustrations, and even if most is gibberish (maybe some of my own thoughts are, idk) they should still have a place to vent those frustrations. I may be in the minority but I doubt think this board should be relegated to rainbows and pots of gold