Oriakhi Transfering?

[Elitehuskies]

Listen guy,

If you watch any of the games you see a poor attitude and a lack of effort. Multiple times I saw him standing around in the paint instead of fighting for a board. If he had the heart of someone like Jeff Adrien he would be a great player. I don't care that he had a couple of good games while we won a national championship. Just because you are part of or do something great doesn't mean you turn off your motor and play when you wanna play. Also, when you say hes "discovering" himself you sound like some hippy who was named "Darfur" after your mom went on some acid binge where she slept with some guy at a Phish concert raising money for some African nation. Grow up this is the real world. If you don't produce at your job you get fired. If you are a lazy ungrateful (insert any name for AO you want) then take a walk and at best hope playing next to Hasheem Thabeet in the future.

By your definition, everybody on the team should transfer. EVERY PLAYER had moments of "poor attitude and a lack of effort" this year. Sorry, not every body can bring it like YOU can in EVERY day of your life. Bball is an emotional game, there's plenty of ups and downs, deal with it.

 

[uconnfan68]

It's his life. It's his college career. It's his future.

I will always wish the best for him, whatever he chooses.

But I confess that I simply do not understand his thinking.

1. He has only one year of eligibility left.
2. Should he transfer, he has to sit out one year.
3. He is likely not sized right or tough enough to target for the NBA, anyway.
4. So, Europe, here he comes!.
5. Wherever he might land, I would argue it will not be as favorable a "showcase" for his talent as UConn.

All that being said....it is awful tough to thrive when you are personally at war with your coach (If that is, indeed, the problem)

He either has to make peace with Calhoun, or he has to find the necessary peace within himself, if he is to stay.

Other than that, he definitely needs to shop around to find what peace he can, elsewhere.....

I agree wholeheartedly with almost all of this. However, if UConn does get the postseason ban, I think he can go without giving up the transfer year. According to what his mother was quoted as saying, there is nothing but love between AO and JC. Sometimes it's tough love.

 

[UofCT]

By your definition, everybody on the team should transfer. EVERY PLAYER had moments of "poor attitude and a lack of effort" this year. Sorry, not every body can bring it like YOU can in EVERY day of your life. Bball is an emotional game, there's plenty of ups and downs, deal with it.

No, that's your definition. Mine was directed towards our Captain.

 

[boog204]

I tend to think his lack of playing time had a lot to do with the fact that we brought in one of the top recruits in the country to play his position. That recruit was determined to have a lot more upside because of his unique physical gifts, and therefore was given much more leeway and time to develop on the court. Not saying it was the wrong (or right) decision, but to say that his loss of minutes was all his own doing overlooks the biggest factor imo, which was not of his doing at all.

Obviously, bringing in Drummond ate into his minutes. But the beginning of this year, AO was the starting 5 and his poor play led to him being benched in favor of both AD and Tyler at various points. Had AO been final four Alex, he would've played more and certainly had not been benched.

 

[HuskyHawk]

As long as it doesn't effect the apr, that we don't need.

Bingo. I'd rather he stay, if he can get his head in the game. If not, better he goes.

 

[huskymagic]

NBA??? What are you smoking? There is no way any team drafts AO after the season he just had. NONE.

Bass teams dont just look at the type of season you had when making decisions to draft people. He will get drafted in the early to middle second round for sure and its best for him to declare next year when the talent pool is much weaker than this years. He will get drafted based on his physical attributes. I like Alex and wish him all the best but no way he can handle another season as second fiddle if Drummond decides to stay. If Drummond leaves to the NBA then i say 60-40 he probably stays at UCONN because he will be the primary big man along with Roscoe and Olander.

 

[TortillaMonster]

Listen guy,

If you watch any of the games you see a poor attitude and a lack of effort. Multiple times I saw him standing around in the paint instead of fighting for a board. If he had the heart of someone like Jeff Adrien he would be a great player. I don't care that he had a couple of good games while we won a national championship. Just because you are part of or do something great doesn't mean you turn off your motor and play when you wanna play. Also, when you say hes "discovering" himself you sound like some hippy who was named "Darfur" after your mom went on some acid binge where she slept with some guy at a Phish concert raising money for some African nation. Grow up this is the real world. If you don't produce at your job you get fired. If you are a lazy ungrateful (insert any name for AO you want) then take a walk and at best hope playing next to Hasheem Thabeet in the future.

You really need to step back and get some perspective. This is an emotional 20 year old kid playing college basketball. He did not take his demotion well. I probably wouldn't either if I had been a key cog in a national championship team. He is a good student and seems like a good teammate. I guess you popped out of the womb with your current level of maturity (not saying much), but the rest of us have to learn as we go.

AO is the ungrateful one? He brought you a national championship. What have you done for him?

 

[mauconnfan]

Bass teams dont just look at the type of season you had when making decisions to draft people. He will get drafted in the early to middle second round for sure and its best for him to declare next year when the talent pool is much weaker than this years. He will get drafted based on his physical attributes. I like Alex and wish him all the best but no way he can handle another season as second fiddle if Drummond decides to stay. If Drummond leaves to the NBA then i say 60-40 he probably stays at UCONN because he will be the primary big man along with Roscoe and Olander.

You're shittin me right? Noone will draft him there are 100 better athletes who will be available - he will get invites as a free agent and that's it. He needs to come back and play basketball the way his game can be defined. As someone said like a Jeff Adrien, tough, rebound, stay at the gym all night and make your shots and moves better and maybe become someone that could land in the 2nd round after 4 years. A warrior, not a guy who never moves anyone when rebounding and also can make a spot open jumper enough to make the defense play him. He has a summer, he has another year under the best coach he can have period. Now it's up to him....leave now and he will be real lucky to make a decent buck in Turkey.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Listen guy,

If you watch any of the games you see a poor attitude and a lack of effort. Multiple times I saw him standing around in the paint instead of fighting for a board. If he had the heart of someone like Jeff Adrien he would be a great player. I don't care that he had a couple of good games while we won a national championship. Just because you are part of or do something great doesn't mean you turn off your motor and play when you wanna play. Also, when you say hes "discovering" himself you sound like some hippy who was named "Darfur" after your mom went on some acid binge where she slept with some guy at a Phish concert raising money for some African nation. Grow up this is the real world. If you don't produce at your job you get fired. If you are a lazy ungrateful (insert any name for AO you want) then take a walk and at best hope playing next to Hasheem Thabeet in the future.

Wow, what a nasty, vindictive post.

 

[RS9999X]

Bass teams dont just look at the type of season you had when making decisions to draft people. He will get drafted in the early to middle second round for sure and its best for him to declare next year when the talent pool is much weaker than this years..

LSU could use Oriakhi's Bass talents. Finished 8th last year and ready to make their move.

 

[UofCT]

You really need to step back and get some perspective. This is an emotional 20 year old kid playing college basketball. He did not take his demotion well. I probably wouldn't either if I had been a key cog in a national championship team. He is a good student and seems like a good teammate. I guess you popped out of the womb with your current level of maturity (not saying much), but the rest of us have to learn as we go.

AO is the ungrateful one? He brought you a national championship. What have you done for him?

So you are going down the road that he didn't earn the teacher just gave it to him.

 

[UCHuskies08]

Listen guy,

If you watch any of the games you see a poor attitude and a lack of effort. Multiple times I saw him standing around in the paint instead of fighting for a board. If he had the heart of someone like Jeff Adrien he would be a great player. I don't care that he had a couple of good games while we won a national championship. Just because you are part of or do something great doesn't mean you turn off your motor and play when you wanna play. Also, when you say hes "discovering" himself you sound like some hippy who was named "Darfur" after your mom went on some acid binge where she slept with some guy at a Phish concert raising money for some African nation. Grow up this is the real world. If you don't produce at your job you get fired. If you are a lazy ungrateful (insert any name for AO you want) then take a walk and at best hope playing next to Hasheem Thabeet in the future.

U mad bro?

Christ, the vitriol that some of you have for these kids is seriously sick. Get a grip man. Get a grip.

 

[UofCT]

U mad bro?

Christ, the vitriol that some of you have for these kids is seriously sick. Get a grip man. Get a grip.

Get a grip? Grow up, read a book. Somebody watched too much Salute Your Shorts.

 

[dsturdy5]

Listen guy,

If you watch any of the games you see a poor attitude and a lack of effort. Multiple times I saw him standing around in the paint instead of fighting for a board. If he had the heart of someone like Jeff Adrien he would be a great player. I don't care that he had a couple of good games while we won a national championship. Just because you are part of or do something great doesn't mean you turn off your motor and play when you wanna play. Also, when you say hes "discovering" himself you sound like some hippy who was named "Darfur" after your mom went on some acid binge where she slept with some guy at a Phish concert raising money for some African nation. Grow up this is the real world. If you don't produce at your job you get fired. If you are a lazy ungrateful (insert any name for AO you want) then take a walk and at best hope playing next to Hasheem Thabeet in the future.

Calm down. I suppose you never lacked effort in anything you ever did at age 20? What did this kid do to you, exactly?

 

[UCDaveD]

If anyone says they don't think the Dafur/Phish concert line is one of the funniest things ever posted on the BY, they're lying to themselves.

 

[UCHuskies08]

Get a grip? Grow up, read a book. Somebody watched too much Salute Your Shorts.

What?

 

[Mattydog]

If anyone says they don't think the Dafur/Phish concert line is one of the funniest things ever posted on the BY, they're lying to themselves.

It was a great line.

 

[Gurleyman]

Fishy could write funnier stuff than that while passing kidney stones.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

If anyone says they don't think the Dafur/Phish concert line is one of the funniest things ever posted on the BY, they're lying to themselves.

It's all lame as lame can be. Tough guy immaturity at it's best. Apply those standards to yourselves and see how you measure up.

 

[UofCT]

It's all lame as lame can be. Tough guy immaturity at it's best. Apply those standards to yourselves and see how you measure up.

Where do you get off? What right do you have calling out posters like myself that criticize players? Alex played like garbage all season. His attitude stunk and his performance was even worse. He has already expressed interest in transferring! I said it once and I'll say it again, if he had 1/2 of what Jeff Adrien had, our team probably would have been higher than a 9 seed.

He played well in stretches (important stretches) in 2011 and that is why he is so frustrating. How can he not build off of that? He took huge steps backwards. He was supposed to be a leader and he wasn't, he was supposed to be a force inside and he wasn't, he was supposed to be Alex in 2011 and he was Alex in 2010. And let me add this again, he already expressed interest in transferring!!

To me that is disgraceful! He can take his 2 points and 3 rebounds and get off of this UConn team.

 

[patrick]

Right on, if he doesn't want to be a husky then he should transfer!

 

[ASweet3781]

I think a lot of the venom, much of it completely over the top, directed at certain players is because some fans don't want to even look towards the coaching staff in any regards for what went wrong this season. Many of the problems were also there in 2010 with different players. Even in the regular season last year. Is it all on the players?

 

[UCDaveD]

How is it the coach's fault that AO routinely misses bunnies & has stone hands? Calhoun can't make the shots or catch the passes for him.

 

[ASweet3781]

How is it the coach's fault that AO routinely misses bunnies & has stone hands? Calhoun can't make the shots or catch the passes for him.

Name me one player that improved this year. One.

 

[DogMania]

I still don't know what to make of the season. I have little doubt it was not just one player. UConn was a terrible finishing team. Hard to blame the coaching staff for that. Just seemed the players never grasped the team defense. Where I put some of this on the coaching staff is the offense didn't seem to fit the personnel this year. Too high a percentage of dribble drive penetration. I would like to have seen more motion offense like we saw with the 99 team.

 

[Gurleyman]

Where do you get off?

He can take his 2 points and 3 rebounds and get off of this UConn team.

Where does who get off saying what now?

 

[UCDaveD]

Name me one player that improved this year. One.

Boatright.

 

[tzznandrew]

Name me one player that improved this year. One.

Lamb (17.7 ppg, great shooting %) was better and more consistent than last year on offense.
Napier is better than last year and got better near the end.
Giffey seemed to get it near the end, although his numbers are lower due to fewer minutes.

 

[zls44]

Roscoe also improved greatly at the end of the year.

But, you know, other than those five players...

 

[Gurleyman]

Name me one player that improved this year. One.

It depends on what standard you're using. Lamb, Napier and Olander were all better players this year, but their roles were much tougher, and their minutes were more extended (particularly the first two obviously). Last year (regular season) if Lamb started 0-3 and missed a defensive assignment, he sat for a while and maybe scored 4 points, but nobody really noticed. If Shabazz took a bad shot or forced a pass, he came out. The pressure wasn't on them to carry the team or take a game over when the team was struggling. This year, we had no other options - we needed them to play their way out of it and try to make something happen.

Lamb had a great finish last year, but it was as a clear No. 2 option. When we were in striking distance against ISU, if we could have gotten him wide open on the baseline a couple times like he did against Arizona, he would have likely made those shots. But when you're the No. 1 option, you are more likely to see two defenders guarding you off a cut than none, especially when the other players on the floor aren't causing the defense to worry. Kemba had a rough stretch last year in January/February when teams were scheming to stop him, and his game became better when a second option emerged (Jamal Coombs-McDaniel for a Twilight Zone-type week, and then Lamb down the stretch).

AO and RS went in the other direction with minutes due to Drummond's presence and probably regressed (or stagnated). Giffey probably improved, but didn't get the consistent PT - he seemed to be a little more dangerous this year when he did get his minutes, and other than trying to guard Royce White, he showed promise defensively.