Ollie: When we play w/effort and energy, you see what happens...that's on me, and I'm going to have

[husky99]

Ollie: When we play w/effort and energy, you see what happens...that's on me, and I'm going to have to make changes

https://mobile.twitter.com/KevinRDuffy/status/299354141866737665

 

[freescooter]

It is on him. Part of the coach's responsibility is to have his team ready to play from the opening tap. This is the 3rd time in the last 5 games and the 4th in the past 9 that we were totally unprepared to compete for 40 minutes. Marquette, Pitt, USF and now St Johns. We beat USF because they are awful. St Johns is merely bad. We don't have the talent where we can beat even mediocre teams by playing 20 minutes. This loss is on the coach as are the losses to Marquette and Pittsburgh. Coach, games are 40 minutes long. Pass it on to your team.

 

[Husky68]

It is on him. Part of the coach's responsibility is to have his team ready to play from the opening tap. This is the 3rd time in the last 5 games and the 4th in the past 9 that we were totally unprepared to compete for 40 minutes. Marquette, Pitt, USF and now St Johns. We beat USF because they are awful. St Johns is merely bad. We don't have the talent where we can beat even mediocre teams by playing 20 minutes. This loss is on the coach as are the losses to Marquette and Pittsburgh. Coach, games are 40 minutes long. Pass it on to your team.

Gee, surprised you finally found a topic to post on. Who are the wins on?

 

[Gurleyman]

It is on him. Part of the coach's responsibility is to have his team ready to play from the opening tap. This is the 3rd time in the last 5 games and the 4th in the past 9 that we were totally unprepared to compete for 40 minutes. Marquette, Pitt, USF and now St Johns. We beat USF because they are awful. St Johns is merely bad. We don't have the talent where we can beat even mediocre teams by playing 20 minutes. This loss is on the coach as are the losses to Marquette and Pittsburgh. Coach, games are 40 minutes long. Pass it on to your team.

Sometimes the other team plays better for stretches and you have to adjust. I've yet to see a team, college or pro, that always comes out "ready to play" every time. Our 1998-99 team - a veteran team that only lost twice all year (once at full strength)? Notorious for slow starts and letting teams hang around. Seton Hall in the 1-8 game being exhibit A (UMass and Pitt are B and C).

Our 2011 title? During the postseason we actually were usually ready to play, but we kept having bad starts to the second half to let everyone back in the game. Four games in a row we'd be up 10 at the half, and tied with 12-15 minutes to play.

The 2004 team drove us bonkers for a while, before they put it together in March.

Point is, as much as we'd like to jump out to a 10-point lead in the first five minutes and then slowly pull away over the next 30, sports doesn't work like that.

 

[ctchamps]

Sometimes the other team plays better for stretches and you have to adjust. I've yet to see a team, college or pro, that always comes out "ready to play" every time. Our 1998-99 team - a veteran team that only lost twice all year (once at full strength)? Notorious for slow starts and letting teams hang around. Seton Hall in the 1-8 game being exhibit A (UMass and Pitt are B and C).

Our 2011 title? During the postseason we actually were usually ready to play, but we kept having bad starts to the second half to let everyone back in the game. Four games in a row we'd be up 10 at the half, and tied with 12-15 minutes to play.

The 2004 team drove us bonkers for a while, before they put it together in March.

Point is, as much as we'd like to jump out to a 10-point lead in the first five minutes and then slowly pull away over the next 30, sports doesn't work like that.

You are a patient poster! I thought I was patient but there are some causes that you stick with and I choose to ignore. Of course there was a period were you went mia after several rotten things happened to the program that I chose to ride things out so I guess we all have different saturation levels for different things.

Anyways, you have been one of my favorite posters and I'm glad you're back. My take on free is he is Captain Ahab to the white whale JC. You and aceboon do a great job refuting his writing but I'm not sure the effort is any more likely to have an effect than changing a players bad habits. In fact I give the player the nod!

 

[HuskyBballFan]

It is on him. Part of the coach's responsibility is to have his team ready to play from the opening tap. This is the 3rd time in the last 5 games and the 4th in the past 9 that we were totally unprepared to compete for 40 minutes. Marquette, Pitt, USF and now St Johns. We beat USF because they are awful. St Johns is merely bad. We don't have the talent where we can beat even mediocre teams by playing 20 minutes. This loss is on the coach as are the losses to Marquette and Pittsburgh. Coach, games are 40 minutes long. Pass it on to your team.

Totally. Bill Self is a terrible coach as well - did you see they lost to TCU last night? TCU was 0-8 going into that game.

Coach K? Terrible. Lost by 27 points to Miami. Only beat Wake Forest by 5. We all know Kevin Ollie can't coach, but even he was able to beat Wake Forest by 6!

And how about Brad Stevens losing to that powerhouse St. Louis by 17? Give me a break coach!

Shaka Smart? Back-to-back losses to Richmond and LaSalle?? Yikes. Talk about not being ready for big-time.

And don't even get me started on Bob Huggins.

 

[Gurleyman]

You are a patient poster! I thought I was patient but there are some causes that you stick with and I choose to ignore. Of course there was a period were you went mia after several rotten things happened to the program that I chose to ride things out so I guess we all have different saturation levels for different things.

Anyways, you have been one of my favorite posters and I'm glad you're back. My take on free is he is Captain Ahab to the white whale JC. You and aceboon do a great job refuting his writing but I'm not sure the effort is any more likely to have an effect than changing a players bad habits. In fact I give the player the nod!

I was actually AWOL during the 2011 title run, although I lurked. So I only got to enjoy the Maker's Muppet thread as a reader. I had Scout subscription problems where I couldn't log on, and didn't bother getting it squared away. Once the board changed, I could reinvent myself, although the new me still thinks Marcus Williams is a turd.

I was here defending Dyson for a lot of the 2010 season, but I ran out of ammo. We did come apart, and he was a senior, so he deserved some of the blame. And he saved his biggest trainweck games for the end.

 

[ctchamps]

I was actually AWOL during the 2011 title run, although I lurked. So I only got to enjoy the Maker's Muppet thread as a reader. I had Scout subscription problems where I couldn't log on, and didn't bother getting it squared away. Once the board changed, I could reinvent myself, although the new me still thinks Marcus Williams is a turd.

I was here defending Dyson for a lot of the 2010 season, but I ran out of ammo. We did come apart, and he was a senior, so he deserved some of the blame. And he saved his biggest trainweck games for the end.

I remember your Dyson posts. Missed you in 2011! Felt 2010 was JC's worst coaching year followed by 2000 when he move Kfree to the wing! But that year I gave him a pass for trying to help a kid get an NBA career! 2010 was 99% on JC, imo. He put JD in the drivers seat when the kid was having a career year at the 2. He could have experimented with JD at the 1 but, seeing as that was a worse solution he needed to live and die with KW at that 1 that year.

 

[Gurleyman]

I remember your Dyson posts. Missed you in 2011! Felt 2010 was JC's worst coaching year followed by 2000 when he move Kfree to the wing! But that year I gave him a pass for trying to help a kid get an NBA career! 2010 was 99% on JC, imo. He put JD in the drivers seat when the kid was having a career year at the 2. He could have experimented with JD at the 1 but, seeing as that was a worse solution he needed to live and die with KW at that 1 that year.

Once that run got going (starting with Pitt), I was itching to fix my logon issues and join in the fun. But I thought it might affect the mojo, which meant of course, it would affect the mojo. Rule number one.

 

[freescooter]

Totally. Bill Self is a terrible coach as well - did you see they lost to TCU last night? TCU was 0-8 going into that game.

Coach K? Terrible. Lost by 27 points to Miami. Only beat Wake Forest by 5. We all know Kevin Ollie can't coach, but even he was able to beat Wake Forest by 6!

And how about Brad Stevens losing to that powerhouse St. Louis by 17? Give me a break coach!

Shaka Smart? Back-to-back losses to Richmond and LaSalle?? Yikes. Talk about not being ready for big-time.

And don't even get me started on Bob Huggins.

No this is one of the more least rational posts of all time. Teams lose games. Even good teams get upset. My post was about a team regularly coming out unprepared to play...a problem the coach himself identified and took responsibility for. This reminds me of the time Calhoun said of the 2006 team that they were more concerned with the NBA than the NCAA and people that wasn't the problem. Just strange. And this wasn't a case of a team needing to make adjustments. Nor was the USF game. This was a case of a team not being ready to go. As was USF and Pitt.

Here are a few relevant quotes:
Kevin Ollie on the Pitt game: We have to do it as a collective group, play hard, and do all the small things, such as sacrificing your body. We didn't do that in the first half and it was an embarrassment.

Olander on Kevin Ollie at half time of the USF game:
[Head Coach Kevin Ollie] basically said that it was kind of embarrassing.

Clearly the head coach doesn't think they played hard for 40 minutes. Why do you pretend he didn't say so?

 

[Gurleyman]

No this is one of the more least rational posts of all time. Teams lose games. Even good teams get upset. My post was about a team regularly coming out unprepared to play...a problem the coach himself identified and took responsibility for. This reminds me of the time Calhoun said of the 2006 team that they were more concerned with the NBA than the NCAA and people that wasn't the problem. Just strange. And this wasn't a case of a team needing to make adjustments. Nor was the USF game. This was a case of a team not being ready to go. As was USF and Pitt.

Here are a few relevant quotes:
Kevin Ollie on the Pitt game: We have to do it as a collective group, play hard, and do all the small things, such as sacrificing your body. We didn't do that in the first half and it was an embarrassment.

Olander on Kevin Ollie at half time of the USF game:
[Head Coach Kevin Ollie] basically said that it was kind of embarrassing.

Clearly the head coach doesn't think they played hard for 40 minutes. Why do you pretend he didn't say so?

And when we came out ready to play against NC State or New Mexico, played well for a while, and ended up losing, people complained about other things - halftime adjustments, timeout usage, substitution patterns/lineups, etc. Even Michigan State, his detractors felt we came out of the chute strong on adrenaline, but faded once the chess match started and were lucky to win. Rarely does everything go as planned or hoped, over the course of a competitive game. There's always something to complain about. And we can count on you to find it.

 

[freescooter]

And when we came out ready to play against NC State or New Mexico, played well for a while, and ended up losing, people complained about other things - halftime adjustments, timeout usage, substitution patterns/lineups, etc. Even Michigan State, his detractors felt we came out of the chute strong on adrenaline, but faded once the chess match started and were lucky to win. Rarely does everything go as planned or hoped, over the course of a competitive game. There's always something to complain about. And we can count on you to find it.

Talk to Ollie. He's the one who said they didn't come to play. If you don't know the difference between things not going as planned and playing at a level the coach calls "embarassing" I guess I don't know what to say. How about this? The played hard against Louisville and just flat out got beat by a more talented team. They scored 15 points in the first half against South Florida. One of those is an example of something which is embarassing. One is an example of things just not working out due to the other team's level of play. Why don't you sit down and see if you can figure out which is which. Get back to us when you think you have it figured out. We'll see you in July.

 

[Chief00]

I was actually AWOL during the 2011 title run, although I lurked. So I only got to enjoy the Maker's Muppet thread as a reader. I had Scout subscription problems where I couldn't log on, and didn't bother getting it squared away. Once the board changed, I could reinvent myself, although the new me still thinks Marcus Williams is a turd.

I was here defending Dyson for a lot of the 2010 season, but I ran out of ammo. We did come apart, and he was a senior, so he deserved some of the blame. And he saved his biggest trainweck games for the end.

I had an opportunity to chat with Jerome last summer and he regrets some of the decisions he made while at UConn. He realizes that just playing hard without direction or focus is not a substitute for solid game prep. He also now better appreciates team dynamics and the responsibility a Captain has; something Bazz forgot last night. So hopefully lessons learned.

 

[Gurleyman]

Talk to Ollie. He's the one who said they didn't come to play. If you don't know the difference between things not going as planned and playing at a level the coach calls "embarassing" I guess I don't know what to say. How about this? The played hard against Louisville and just flat out got beat by a more talented team. They scored 15 points in the first half against South Florida. One of those is an example of something which is embarassing. One is an example of things just not working out due to the other team's level of play. Why don't you sit down and see if you can figure out which is which. Get back to us when you think you have it figured out. We'll see you in July.

Coaches use the media to send messages to their team publicly. Being publicly called out often gets to modern kids more than all the screaming in a private practice or locker room ever could. This is a season where, as much as we'd like to pretend it doesn't matter, we are playing for nothing. The kids know it ("every time I see that daggum commercial, I get upset..."). So they've been looking for phony motivation like "our only chance to play in the Garden" or "avenge a lost from last year", but that isn't going to work every time. And sometimes, the ball doesn't go in and the energy level sags.

What do you call our best team ever, with a lot to play for, and a Hall of Fame coach who had still never been to the Final Four, beating a pedestrian Seton Hall team by only two in the first round of the BET because only one guy on the roster showed up to play? Or that same team, still unbeaten, facing a little adversity with a couple guys out and scoring 42 against Cuse for an entire game? That team was infinitely better than this one and still had games they weren't ready to play.

Dammit - see what you made me do? i actually admitted that game happened in 1998-99. Now I can't tease cto any more.

 

[mauconnfan]

I had an opportunity to chat with Jerome last summer and he regrets some of the decisions he made while at UConn. He realizes that just playing hard without direction or focus is not a substitute for solid game prep. He also now better appreciates team dynamics and the responsibility a Captain has; something Bazz forgot last night. So hopefully lessons learned.

"...something Bazz forgot last night..."?? At what point was that? Hopefully when he didn't start the game because after that there were no signs of not being a good teammate at any point!

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

"...something Bazz forgot last night..."?? At what point was that? Hopefully when he didn't start the game because after that there were no signs of not being a good teammate at any point!

Don't get him started. I'm waiting for him to offer that maybe Jamal Coombs-McDaniel is the missing piece on this year's team.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Talk to Ollie. He's the one who said they didn't come to play. If you don't know the difference between things not going as planned and playing at a level the coach calls "embarassing" I guess I don't know what to say. How about this? The played hard against Louisville and just flat out got beat by a more talented team. They scored 15 points in the first half against South Florida. One of those is an example of something which is embarassing. One is an example of things just not working out due to the other team's level of play. Why don't you sit down and see if you can figure out which is which. Get back to us when you think you have it figured out. We'll see you in July.

Us? Scoot that implies that someone here agrees with you.

 

[huskyharry]

I had an opportunity to chat with Jerome last summer and he regrets some of the decisions he made while at UConn. He realizes that just playing hard without direction or focus is not a substitute for solid game prep. He also now better appreciates team dynamics and the responsibility a Captain has; something Bazz forgot last night. So hopefully lessons learned.

Jerome looked great for the Hornets last year. I was disappointed that he didn't get more of a chance. It is a long NBA season, hopefully, he will get another ten day shot.

 

[uconnfan68]

Talk to Ollie. He's the one who said they didn't come to play. If you don't know the difference between things not going as planned and playing at a level the coach calls "embarassing" I guess I don't know what to say. How about this? The played hard against Louisville and just flat out got beat by a more talented team. They scored 15 points in the first half against South Florida. One of those is an example of something which is embarassing. One is an example of things just not working out due to the other team's level of play. Why don't you sit down and see if you can figure out which is which. Get back to us when you think you have it figured out. We'll see you in July.

You really need to find another team to support. Ours is sick of your constant whining.

 

[jbdphi]

"...something Bazz forgot last night..."?? At what point was that? Hopefully when he didn't start the game because after that there were no signs of not being a good teammate at any point!

I'm a football poster so forgive me for intruding. I did happen to watch the bball game vs St. Johns though and the commentators noted several times at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half how Napier was exhibiting a bad attitude / bad body language on the court and that translated to several plays on defense where he was flat out beaten and let guys get past him for open shots.

I know a lot of commentators are not worth the paper their resume is printed on, but I saw a lot of the defensive lapses myself. Things seemed to change once he started scoring.

 

[mauconnfan]

I'm a football poster so forgive me for intruding. I did happen to watch the bball game vs St. Johns though and the commentators noted several times at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half how Napier was exhibiting a bad attitude / bad body language on the court and that translated to several plays on defense where he was flat out beaten and let guys get past him for open shots.

I know a lot of commentators are not worth the paper their resume is printed on, but I saw a lot of the defensive lapses myself. Things seemed to change once he started scoring.

First off the announcers were a 4'9" geek and Tom Welsh who was fired by PC!!! And 2nd he didn't show any "body language" issues in the first half at all and while sitting on the bench for the first 5 minutes was a cheerleader...........he missed a few shots and yes, his guy beat him a couple of times, guards tend to get beat all the time we just have no 2nd line of defense like most teams so that it is not as obvious. I promise you Boat has been beaten 4X as much on that end and has created more problems for the overall landscape of the defense with his inability to keep anyone in front of him (or will to).......anyone who saw bad body language was seeing only what they wanted to see!!!

 

[OkaForPrez]

First off the announcers were a 4'9" geek and Tom Welsh who was fired by PC!!! And 2nd he didn't show any "body language" issues in the first half at all and while sitting on the bench for the first 5 minutes was a cheerleader...........he missed a few shots and yes, his guy beat him a couple of times, guards tend to get beat all the time we just have no 2nd line of defense like most teams so that it is not as obvious. I promise you Boat has been beaten 4X as much on that end and has created more problems for the overall landscape of the defense with his inability to keep anyone in front of him (or will to).......anyone who saw bad body language was seeing only what they wanted to see!!!

If only Bazz was Vincent Council.

 

[Greathusky]

Don't get him started. I'm waiting for him to offer that maybe Jamal Coombs-McDaniel is the missing piece on this year's team.

I am still waiting for Scott Hazelton to come back!

 

[NYballfan]

Ollie: When we play w/effort and energy, you see what happens...that's on me, and I'm going to have to make changes

https://mobile.twitter.com/KevinRDuffy/status/299354141866737665

Ollie is going to be a great coach. He'll get these guys going.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Sometimes Welsh might be (is) right in his criticisms, but he is so out of balance in the way he comments....still a PC cheerleader and hammers UConn players, while being tolerant of the other teams' mistakes. He only seems to support Ollie. I did think that Shabazz did not look good from a energy, enthusiasm perspective in the first half, but so what? He has been amazingly mentally strong for a college junior and if he felt a letdown, so what? He got himself together and brought us back once again...he just cannot be expected to do it alone. Our other players need to make some shots in the first half. Maybe Ollie will start sitting them down a little sooner if they come out flat like that. Giffey should be out there most of the time in terms of his being the one guy of the front court players who really puts it all out there and battles. I guess Wolf could also be put in that category as he does really try to make plays and contribute. Deandre and others seem to be naturally laid back or something that they don't seem to really fight for the ball consistently.