Open Practice Tuesday | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Open Practice Tuesday

TRest said:
I heard he sits on a throne and makes the players carry him on the throne into the gym. Cobb objected to this, which lead to the falling out.
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It's a palanquin (credit to @Fishy for teaching me that word).
 
notthestuff said:
Ok I'm taking the bait and risking violating my status as a casual fan by overstepping. There are a few open practices throughout the year every year. This isn't a PR stunt because of a losing season. They are invite only based on donor level/season ticket holder status. These are real practices with a handful of spectators and can happen in Werth or Gampel. There are also occasionally open practices like they had for the students which are basically an open gym and a glorified version of first night.

For those looking for a profound reason this program has collapsed, there will be virtually nothing to report from practice. A UCONN practice is comparable to every other basketball practice I have ever seen from high school to college. They do the same drills and work on the same things and stop practice and drills at teachable moments like all coaches. To paraphrase Chief, this game is not that complicated. There are only a finite number of things you can do at practice. If anything is unique, I would say KO stops practice to teach far more than the average coach and it's enlightening how far back on the fundamental spectrum he actually has to go with this team vs. past teams. The only thing relative to practice I will say I differ with philosophically from KO (and 90% of the coaches that I know disagree with me) is that he doesn't spend as much in season practice time as I would on individual skills vs. team concepts. Like I said though, 90% of of the coaches I know from college to high school disagree with me on this and believe this work is done on players' time and in the off season.

The problems with this program have nothing to do with X's and O's or teaching ability. This program is a mess because of a complete lack of ability to identify, recruit and retain mentally tough talent that fits together to make a competent team. I'll leave the speculation as to whether that's a result of apathy, ability, or bad luck to those more in touch than me.
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Yeah, despite the bad article, I've head some serious smoke that the coaches are outworking the players.

That is a recruiting issue. And probably some bad luck.
 
Great open practice. Kevin is a fantastic coach and brings the energy. A lot of players have a lack of focus, and aren’t as coachable as they can be. He holds every player accountable and gives them criticism but applauds when they do things correct. A lot of getting on the bigs like Dave, kwintin. Gave Dave a lot of pointers. At times he got mad at the entire team for defense, referring to things that happned im the game. After seeing this practice it is clear a lot of the issues seem to come from the players, not trusting the coaches and buying into the program. Wilson looks legit, Eric and momadou practice hard. Would have liked to see isiah and Tyler work harder. Dave was getting boxed out and out rebounded by mike. A lot of mistakes from Dave and he didn’t hear the end of it. Very eye opening expirence.
 
Couple quick points. This team needs lots of teaching and the coaching staff does that. Cobb needs to play more. Ollie constantly imploring players to talk to each other on defense. Polley is as clueless defensively during practice as he is on the court, that's probably why he doesn't get many minutes. Carlton still learning but seems to listen to what he is bring taught. DO very vocal during practice. Some leadership qualities, probably due to his maturity, again probably why Ollie uses him at certain times during the game.
 
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Kathy said:
Couple quick points. This team needs lots of teaching and the coaching staff does that. Cobb needs to play more. Ollie constantly imploring players to talk to each other on defense. Polley is as clueless defensively during practice as he is on the court, that's probably why he doesn't get many minutes. Carlton still learning but seems to listen to what he is bring taught. DO very vocal during practice. Some leadership qualities, probably due to his maturity, again probably why Ollie uses him at certain times during the game.
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Be quiet Kathy no one wants to hear anything that vindicates he who’s name shall not be spoken. (Ko). Then they will follow up with his recruits his problem. So he hires chill. Chill who have you brought on? No one I’ve been here for 1/2 a season but we’re getting started addressing the talent issues the boneyard mentions everyday.
 
MervthePurvis said:
Be quiet Kathy no one wants to hear anything that vindicates he who’s name shall not be spoken. (Ko). Then they will follow up with his recruits his problem. So he hires chill. Chill who have you brought on? No one I’ve been here for 1/2 a season but we’re getting started addressing the talent issues the boneyard mentions everyday.
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1 open practice wipes away the results on the court during games. Interesting logic.
 
Kathy said:
Couple quick points. This team needs lots of teaching and the coaching staff does that. Cobb needs to play more. Ollie constantly imploring players to talk to each other on defense. Polley is as clueless defensively during practice as he is on the court, that's probably why he doesn't get many minutes. Carlton still learning but seems to listen to what he is bring taught. DO very vocal during practice. Some leadership qualities, probably due to his maturity, again probably why Ollie uses him at certain times during the game.
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No real surprises. Good stuff though, thanks
 
Vital is on concussion protocol (did not practice).

Jalen was the last to show up for practice (just after practice started/3 minutes into warm ups). He also missed every jump shot (maybe every shot) during the competitive part of practice.

Polley was the first player on the court. Maybe 10 minutes before everyone else. His Tim Wakefield knuckle ball shot was hitting at an 80% clip from three before practice started.

Cobb brought 100% more intensity than anyone else at practice (agree with Kathy he deserves PT based on practice). He still was last in sprints though :(.

Josh Carlton looked like he was sleepwalking/zombish the whole practice (unfocused). zzzzzzzzzzzz

We have a "scout team" (including some team managers) who wear red shirts and play offense while some of our second team are on the sidelines. The ball movement from that crew was atrocious. Meaning lazy lob like passes around the perimeter not putting much pressure on the defense to move.

KO tried to emphasize communication on the "switch" concept when playing half court D (I will leave it at that....:()

Larrier missed almost every shot and looked very flat. Needs a good S & C coach more than any player in UConn history.

Sid has the potential to be very very good. Just needs to be coached up. My gut says this kid is legit. Knew that anyways.

Still rooting for KO though. I hope we can end the season respectfully.
 
Last edited:
Kathy said:
Couple quick points. This team needs lots of teaching and the coaching staff does that. Cobb needs to play more. Ollie constantly imploring players to talk to each other on defense. Polley is as clueless defensively during practice as he is on the court, that's probably why he doesn't get many minutes. Carlton still learning but seems to listen to what he is bring taught. DO very vocal during practice. Some leadership qualities, probably due to his maturity, again probably why Ollie uses him at certain times during the game.
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Thank you Kathy good stuff.
 
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BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
Vital is on concussion protocol (did not practice).

Jalen was the last to show up for practice (just after practice started/3 minutes into warm ups). He also missed every jump shot (maybe every shot) during the competitive part of practice.

Polley was the first player on the court. Maybe 10 minutes before everyone else. His Tim Wakefield knuckle ball shot was hitting at an 80% clip from three before practice started.

Cobb brought 100% more intensity than anyone else at practice (agree with Kathy he deserves PT based on practice). He still was last in sprints though :(.

Josh Carlton looked like he was sleepwalking/zombish the whole practice (unfocused). zzzzzzzzzzzz

We have a "scout team" (including some team managers) who wear red shirts and play offense while most of our second team are on the sidelines. The ball movement from that crew was atrocious. Meaning lazy lob like passes around the perimeter not putting much pressure on the defense to move.

KO tried to emphasize communication on the "switch" concept when playing half court D (I will leave it at that....:()

Larrier missed almost every shot and looked very flat. Needs a good S & C coach more than any player in UConn history.

Sid has the potential to be very very good. Just needs to be coached up. My gut says this kid is legit. Knew that anyways.
Expand ...

Thanks BDH good stuff.
 
MervthePurvis said:
Be quiet Kathy no one wants to hear anything that vindicates he who’s name shall not be spoken. (Ko). Then they will follow up with his recruits his problem. So he hires chill. Chill who have you brought on? No one I’ve been here for 1/2 a season but we’re getting started addressing the talent issues the boneyard mentions everyday.
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College coach runs practice like he should, fan base who supports him uses that to attack imaginary strawman on a message board
 
BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
Vital is on concussion protocol (did not practice).

Jalen was the last to show up for practice (just after practice started/3 minutes into warm ups). He also missed every jump shot (maybe every shot) during the competitive part of practice.

Polley was the first player on the court. Maybe 10 minutes before everyone else. His Tim Wakefield knuckle ball shot was hitting at an 80% clip from three before practice started.

Cobb brought 100% more intensity than anyone else at practice (agree with Kathy he deserves PT based on practice). He still was last in sprints though :(.

Josh Carlton looked like he was sleepwalking/zombish the whole practice (unfocused). zzzzzzzzzzzz

We have a "scout team" (including some team managers) who wear red shirts and play offense while some of our second team are on the sidelines. The ball movement from that crew was atrocious. Meaning lazy lob like passes around the perimeter not putting much pressure on the defense to move.

KO tried to emphasize communication on the "switch" concept when playing half court D (I will leave it at that....:()

Larrier missed almost every shot and looked very flat. Needs a good S & C coach more than any player in UConn history.

Sid has the potential to be very very good. Just needs to be coached up. My gut says this kid is legit. Knew that anyways.

Still rooting for KO though. I hope we can end the season respectfully.
Expand ...

Good Lord-other than Cobb it sounds like a freakin rec practice for high school kids. Your supposed leader is late (I hope he had a good excuse) Carlton sounds like he was doing bong hits before he rolled into Gampel. Another supposed leader looks flat. You're supposed to practice like you play and it sounds like it's holding to form.....
not good
 
BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
Vital is on concussion protocol (did not practice).

Jalen was the last to show up for practice (just after practice started/3 minutes into warm ups). He also missed every jump shot (maybe every shot) during the competitive part of practice.

Polley was the first player on the court. Maybe 10 minutes before everyone else. His Tim Wakefield knuckle ball shot was hitting at an 80% clip from three before practice started.

Cobb brought 100% more intensity than anyone else at practice (agree with Kathy he deserves PT based on practice). He still was last in sprints though :(.

Josh Carlton looked like he was sleepwalking/zombish the whole practice (unfocused). zzzzzzzzzzzz

We have a "scout team" (including some team managers) who wear red shirts and play offense while some of our second team are on the sidelines. The ball movement from that crew was atrocious. Meaning lazy lob like passes around the perimeter not putting much pressure on the defense to move.

KO tried to emphasize communication on the "switch" concept when playing half court D (I will leave it at that....:()

Larrier missed almost every shot and looked very flat. Needs a good S & C coach more than any player in UConn history.

Sid has the potential to be very very good. Just needs to be coached up. My gut says this kid is legit. Knew that anyways.

Still rooting for KO though. I hope we can end the season respectfully.
Expand ...

Not very inspiring.

And if Cobb isn't last in sprints, somebody else is doing something very wrong.
 
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notthestuff said:
Ok I'm taking the bait and risking violating my status as a casual fan by overstepping. There are a few open practices throughout the year every year. This isn't a PR stunt because of a losing season. They are invite only based on donor level/season ticket holder status. These are real practices with a handful of spectators and can happen in Werth or Gampel. There are also occasionally open practices like they had for the students which are basically an open gym and a glorified version of first night.

For those looking for a profound reason this program has collapsed, there will be virtually nothing to report from practice. A UCONN practice is comparable to every other basketball practice I have ever seen from high school to college. They do the same drills and work on the same things and stop practice and drills at teachable moments like all coaches. To paraphrase Chief, this game is not that complicated. There are only a finite number of things you can do at practice. If anything is unique, I would say KO stops practice to teach far more than the average coach and it's enlightening how far back on the fundamental spectrum he actually has to go with this team vs. past teams. The only thing relative to practice I will say I differ with philosophically from KO (and 90% of the coaches that I know disagree with me) is that he doesn't spend as much in season practice time as I would on individual skills vs. team concepts. Like I said though, 90% of of the coaches I know from college to high school disagree with me on this and believe this work is done on players' time and in the off season.

The problems with this program have nothing to do with X's and O's or teaching ability. This program is a mess because of a complete lack of ability to identify, recruit and retain mentally tough talent that fits together to make a competent team. I'll leave the speculation as to whether that's a result of apathy, ability, or bad luck to those more in touch than me.
Expand ...

Good post. Anytime you paraphrase Chief that’s a good start. Just kidding!

While I have problems with out of bounds plays, the lack of meaningful ball movement on offense and putting guys in position to rebounds and break - I agree our biggest problem has been identifying and successfully recruiting talented and mentally tough guys who can shoot and rebound.
 
bazzdog said:
Good Lord-other than Cobb it sounds like a freakin rec practice for high school kids. Your supposed leader is late (I hope he had a good excuse) Carlton sounds like he was doing bong hits before he rolled into Gampel. Another supposed leader looks flat. You're supposed to practice like you play and it sounds like it's holding to form.....
not good
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Having been to many practices over the past 8 years (including ones not open to public) I would guess Jalen was getting worked on by James (the trainer) and that's why he was last into the gym
 
notthestuff said:
Ok I'm taking the bait and risking violating my status as a casual fan by overstepping. There are a few open practices throughout the year every year. This isn't a PR stunt because of a losing season. They are invite only based on donor level/season ticket holder status. These are real practices with a handful of spectators and can happen in Werth or Gampel. There are also occasionally open practices like they had for the students which are basically an open gym and a glorified version of first night.

For those looking for a profound reason this program has collapsed, there will be virtually nothing to report from practice. A UCONN practice is comparable to every other basketball practice I have ever seen from high school to college. They do the same drills and work on the same things and stop practice and drills at teachable moments like all coaches. To paraphrase Chief, this game is not that complicated. There are only a finite number of things you can do at practice. If anything is unique, I would say KO stops practice to teach far more than the average coach and it's enlightening how far back on the fundamental spectrum he actually has to go with this team vs. past teams. The only thing relative to practice I will say I differ with philosophically from KO (and 90% of the coaches that I know disagree with me) is that he doesn't spend as much in season practice time as I would on individual skills vs. team concepts. Like I said though, 90% of of the coaches I know from college to high school disagree with me on this and believe this work is done on players' time and in the off season.

The problems with this program have nothing to do with X's and O's or teaching ability. This program is a mess because of a complete lack of ability to identify, recruit and retain mentally tough talent that fits together to make a competent team. I'll leave the speculation as to whether that's a result of apathy, ability, or bad luck to those more in touch than me.
Expand ...

For the most part I agree with all the points you made. There are some obvious areas however where the coaching staff falls short from an X’s and O’s standpoint. I think KO’s offense works with more talent, but the lack of inbounds plays and inability to break a press against the trap is coaching and just a couple of the things that drive me nuts when watching games. You don’t need great ball handlers to get out of a trap and break a press. Solid passing and having guys in the right spots on the floor can break even the best press defenses.

Anyway, to your point these are only things that make the team look bad but it’s not why we’re getting blown out. The talent level and constant mental mistakes are the reasons we’re so bad.
 
It was only one practice and an open one at that but I was surprised to hear that our coaches were trying to coach but our guys are just that that good or coachable :rolleyes:
 
BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
Vital is on concussion protocol (did not practice).

Jalen was the last to show up for practice (just after practice started/3 minutes into warm ups). He also missed every jump shot (maybe every shot) during the competitive part of practice.

Polley was the first player on the court. Maybe 10 minutes before everyone else. His Tim Wakefield knuckle ball shot was hitting at an 80% clip from three before practice started.

Cobb brought 100% more intensity than anyone else at practice (agree with Kathy he deserves PT based on practice). He still was last in sprints though :(.

Josh Carlton looked like he was sleepwalking/zombish the whole practice (unfocused). zzzzzzzzzzzz

We have a "scout team" (including some team managers) who wear red shirts and play offense while some of our second team are on the sidelines. The ball movement from that crew was atrocious. Meaning lazy lob like passes around the perimeter not putting much pressure on the defense to move.

KO tried to emphasize communication on the "switch" concept when playing half court D (I will leave it at that....:()

Larrier missed almost every shot and looked very flat. Needs a good S & C coach more than any player in UConn history.

Sid has the potential to be very very good. Just needs to be coached up. My gut says this kid is legit. Knew that anyways.

Still rooting for KO though. I hope we can end the season respectfully.
Expand ...

Similar to some of the practices I have seen this year. Quite frankly, I agree on Sid.

As I have remarked, I have never seen a college team shoot so poorly just shooting around or in practice - and I have seen a lot over the years. They have not fallen in love with the joy of playing with fellows that move the ball around and everyone plays so much better offensively as a result.

It’s on KO because the KO/Miller duet recruited these terrible shooters - Chill/KO is now fixing the problem via the Blaze principles - hopefully not too little too late. Sid was the only Blaze recruit you saw today. See the difference?
 
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8893 said:
@Kathy ? Any reports?

Is it true that Ollie doesn't even enter the facility and merely yells "Get in the gym!" from his office?
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This is one thing Ollie is totally blameless for. He's just following Calhoun's lead:

"Go get some facts and come back to me!!!"
 
bazzdog said:
Good Lord-other than Cobb it sounds like a freakin rec practice for high school kids. Your supposed leader is late (I hope he had a good excuse) Carlton sounds like he was doing bong hits before he rolled into Gampel. Another supposed leader looks flat. You're supposed to practice like you play and it sounds like it's holding to form.....
not good
Expand ...
This is an object lesson in how second hand info mutates.
 
BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
Vital is on concussion protocol (did not practice).

Jalen was the last to show up for practice (just after practice started/3 minutes into warm ups). He also missed every jump shot (maybe every shot) during the competitive part of practice.

Polley was the first player on the court. Maybe 10 minutes before everyone else. His Tim Wakefield knuckle ball shot was hitting at an 80% clip from three before practice started.

Cobb brought 100% more intensity than anyone else at practice (agree with Kathy he deserves PT based on practice). He still was last in sprints though :(.

Josh Carlton looked like he was sleepwalking/zombish the whole practice (unfocused). zzzzzzzzzzzz

We have a "scout team" (including some team managers) who wear red shirts and play offense while some of our second team are on the sidelines. The ball movement from that crew was atrocious. Meaning lazy lob like passes around the perimeter not putting much pressure on the defense to move.

KO tried to emphasize communication on the "switch" concept when playing half court D (I will leave it at that....:()

Larrier missed almost every shot and looked very flat. Needs a good S & C coach more than any player in UConn history.

Sid has the potential to be very very good. Just needs to be coached up. My gut says this kid is legit. Knew that anyways.

Still rooting for KO though. I hope we can end the season respectfully.
Expand ...
Vital on concussion protocol isn't good. He had issues like this last year too. I hope he can play in the next game as we need him.
 
BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
Vital is on concussion protocol (did not practice).

Jalen was the last to show up for practice (just after practice started/3 minutes into warm ups). He also missed every jump shot (maybe every shot) during the competitive part of practice.

Polley was the first player on the court. Maybe 10 minutes before everyone else. His Tim Wakefield knuckle ball shot was hitting at an 80% clip from three before practice started.

Cobb brought 100% more intensity than anyone else at practice (agree with Kathy he deserves PT based on practice). He still was last in sprints though :(.

Josh Carlton looked like he was sleepwalking/zombish the whole practice (unfocused). zzzzzzzzzzzz

We have a "scout team" (including some team managers) who wear red shirts and play offense while some of our second team are on the sidelines. The ball movement from that crew was atrocious. Meaning lazy lob like passes around the perimeter not putting much pressure on the defense to move.

KO tried to emphasize communication on the "switch" concept when playing half court D (I will leave it at that....:()

Larrier missed almost every shot and looked very flat. Needs a good S & C coach more than any player in UConn history.

Sid has the potential to be very very good. Just needs to be coached up. My gut says this kid is legit. Knew that anyways.

Still rooting for KO though. I hope we can end the season respectfully.
Expand ...

False with Jalen, he hurt his ankle in whichta state game if you were watching. He was late 3 minutes because when he arrived with the other guys he didn’t warm up he went to go get his ankle taped with The trainer. The managers were just defensive dummy’s, there not going to make a scholarship player stand there and play defense or stand there and pass the ball, they wanted all players working on the close out,defense and switch stuff when working on defensive scheme.
 
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