Perspective

[Matrim55]

A national search. At least give the impression that we're not desperate.

We should announce we're embarking upon a national search to replace our national championship-winning coach who's averaged 25-ish wins a year, has never missed the postseason and brought in a Top 10 recruiting class this season?

Is that what you're suggesting as a way to convey that we're a serious basketball school?

 

[superjohn]

We should announce we're embarking upon a national search to replace our national championship-winning coach who's averaged 25-ish wins a year, has never missed the postseason and brought in a Top 10 recruiting class this season?

Is that what you're suggesting as a way to convey that we're a serious basketball school?

Middle of the pack AAC team since Ollie has coached us and going to have the worst record at UConn in 30 years. Don't agree with anyone saying it's time to move on from Ollie or a national search, also don't really agree with how you are framing things. Our national perception has been taking a hit lately and rightfully so.

 

[Matrim55]

Our national perception has been taking a hit lately and rightfully so.

Between our 2016 & 2017 recruiting classes (two classes) we'll add at least eight, and possibly 10 4-star players. From 2012 through 2015 (four classes), we landed six.

Seems to me our national perception among the people that matter is going in the right direct despite this year's record. And generally, good recruits beget good seasons.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

A national search. At least give the impression that we're not desperate.

Lmao. A national search huh?

Why not international search. Think big!

 

[jibsey]

Between our 2016 & 2017 recruiting classes (two classes) we'll add at least eight, and possibly 10 4-star players. From 2012 through 2015 (four classes), we landed six.

Seems to me our national perception among the people that matter is going in the right direct despite this year's record. And generally, good recruits beget good seasons.

I hope these players really are 4 star but these ratings seem suspect especially on BBIQ. We'll see next year but we need 4-5 star heads out there, guys that can think, smart players.

 

[CTBasketball]

 

[PAHusky]

I think it's possible that KO can both have had an otherworldly first two years and a completely subpar last few. The sanctions year and the national championship year were the product of great coaching on his part and incredible college talent. These last few years, it just seems like he's missed on some recruits whose high school accolades haven't come anywhere near to panning out. It also seems like he seems, for reasons both in and out of his control, miss on recruiting and/or developing front court players. His attitude and in game coaching were huge factors that led to his success the first few years, but this year especially (and again, taken into account the hand he's been dealt) both of those have been lacking in a big way. Hopefully his recruits/player development start panning out again and he gets us back on the right track, as the program's margin for error in the AAC is razor thin

 

[Matrim55]

I hope these players really are 4 star but these ratings seem suspect especially on BBIQ. We'll see next year but we need 4-5 star heads out there, guys that can think, smart players.

Who from the 2016 recruits have demonstrated a low BBIQ? Vital & Jackson are savvy as hell, Durham looks good in limited minutes, and both Gilbert & Larrier were sharp before the injuries.

We haven't seen the other guys (Diarra, MAL, Polley or Carlton) yet.

View attachment 19552

This is a ridiculous graph given that you're comparing Ollie's half-season win total with full-season win totals.

 

[CTBasketball]

Who from the 2016 recruits have demonstrated a low BBIQ? Vital & Jackson are savvy as hell, Durham looks good in limited minutes, and both Gilbert & Larrier were sharp before the injuries.

We haven't seen the other guys (Diarra, MAL, Polley or Carlton) yet.


This is a ridiculous graph given that you're comparing Ollie's half-season win total with full-season win totals.

We're not winning more than 15 games this year. So you can bump it up to where Calhoun's min was.

 

[superjohn]

Who from the 2016 recruits have demonstrated a low BBIQ? Vital & Jackson are savvy as hell, Durham looks good in limited minutes, and both Gilbert & Larrier were sharp before the injuries.

We haven't seen the other guys (Diarra, MAL, Polley or Carlton) yet.


This is a ridiculous graph given that you're comparing Ollie's half-season win total with full-season win totals.

The incoming class is a disappointment. We went from thinking we were getting Diallo and maybe a Bamba, Obiagu and or Hammonds to a class of MAL and the 135th and 177th ranked players in the country. This past class is legit but with injuries it has only been a 2 person class for this season not counting Durham's 1.5 ppg and 1.5 rebs.

 

[ctchamps]

Lmao. A national search huh?

Why not international search. Think big!

I guess he never reads the football forum and the opinion of those posters about a national search

 

[Tenspro2002]

We should announce we're embarking upon a national search to replace our national championship-winning coach who's averaged 25-ish wins a year, has never missed the postseason and brought in a Top 10 recruiting class this season?

Is that what you're suggesting as a way to convey that we're a serious basketball school?

No. We should have done a national search in the first place. Not now.

 

[Matrim55]

The incoming class is a disappointment. We went from thinking we were getting Diallo and maybe a Bamba, Obiagu and or Hammonds to a class of MAL and the 135th and 177th ranked players in the country.

Fair enough, but sometimes poop happens. The way I'm looking at it, Ollie had 3 main targets: Diallo, Brown & MAL, and he landed two of them. Obviously it's a shame that Brown went nuts, but at least we were in a position to land another 4-star big man instead (Carlton). Two years ago when we missed on big targets, we were boned.

Bear in mind that the class isn't complete yet. And bear in mind that even with this "disappointing" class, we're still bringing in more 4-star players over two seasons than we did over the previous four.

No. We should have done a national search in the first place. Not now.

 

[temery]

And just how many national championships did Calhoun and Coach K inherit at Northeastern and Army? Ollie inherited a top 5 program.

With sanctions.

 

[gtcam]

Boeheim overcame sanctions and moving to weaker conference.

He went from the best the previous year to the best at that time
He also wasn't relegated to a so/so conference in a move beyond his control
Geno A???? If Wooden had been forced out of the PAC 10 he still would have won - EVERYONE wanted to play at UCLA and every top woman BBer wants to play at UConn
As has been said 1,000 times you cant compare the womens program to men
JSMH

 

[huskyrob1]

C'mon. Let's compare apples to apples here. JC at Northeastern and K at Army did not have established programs to coach. KO inherited an established program and one of the best in the country. Plus he had experience under JC as an assistant for a few years. Recruiting at UConn today is a lot easier than at NE or Army. I'm not knocking Ollie, but at least base your post on similar situations.

I'm surprised that no one has pointed out that KO's team has wallowed in the bowels of the AAC while Calhoun's early teams played against many, many great players, teams, and coaches in the old Big East.

 

[Huskyfan990411]

Ollie took over a program that was in the middle of dealing with recruiting limitations from the APR crap and was lucky to get a group of guys that stuck together for 4 years. When given a team of experienced guys who could run his system he beat the likes of John Calipari, Billy Donovan, Tom Izzo, Fred Hoiberg, Jay Wright and Phil Martelli. Once that season was over and all our experience left we got to see what those recruiting sanctions did to the program. Without Bazz, Giffey, Daniels and even guys like Olander and Kromah we were forced to rely on guys who were/are not capable to leading a team (brimah, purvis, facey, nolan). Most of the guys left over after our national championship in 2014 should have been role players on a good team but were expected to be lead guys and look what has happened.

Ollie started to fix the talent issue over the last couple years and I think this year has just been honestly bad luck. Imagine if DHam stayed and Larrier/Gilbert/Diarra all are available. Now you are looking at a roster of:

Guards - JA/AG/CV/RP
Forwards - DH/TL/KF/JD/VJ
Centers - AB/SE/MD

This allows the freshman guys to come along slowly and our seniors can be the role players they need to be. Instead we are asking guys to do more than they are capable of. This has nothing to do with Ollie's coaching ability and with injuries and unexpected departures that have left us with an imperfect roster. Coaches are only as good as their players. Ever notice that all these amazing coaches won when they had arguably the best players in the game but struggle when those players are gone?

 

[IMind]

This allows the freshman guys to come along slowly and our seniors can be the role players they need to be. Instead we are asking guys to do more than they are capable of. This has nothing to do with Ollie's coaching ability and with injuries and unexpected departures that have left us with an imperfect roster. Coaches are only as good as their players. Ever notice that all these amazing coaches won when they had arguably the best players in the game but struggle when those players are gone?

I hate to keep using comparing Calhoun to Ollie.... because Calhoun started in a VERY different era... but he's a great example and there's a ton of data... but if you go back and look at Calhoun... there's a dip every few years. Even back into his days at Northeastern...

1983 - 13 wins
1986 - 9 wins (first year at UConn)
1992 - 15 wins
1996 - "only" 18 wins
2000 - "only" 20 wins
2006 - 17 wins
2009 - 18 wins

What's more actually astounding isn't that he had a few off years here and there. It's the run he went on from 1998 to 2006. It was pretty unreal. Outside of that he was usually over 25 wins, but even the great Jim Calhoun had a couple of off years where the team just didn't work out.

 

[Waquoit]

Instead we are asking guys to do more than they are capable of.

Beat Wagner?

 

[PAHusky]

Beat Wagner?

That's what I think some are missing. The injuries have provided a valid excuse for why we're so bad, but we did also lose the first two games to teams we had no business losing to. Do I think our team would have improved over the course of the season if fully healthy? Of course. But they came out unprepared early on, which is all on KO. We have no margin for non conference error in the AAC and those loses would have hurt us badly regardless of the rest of the season. I think we would have turned things around we'd definitely be a tournament team with Gilbert/Larrier, but those who think we would have been world beaters without the injuries occurring are delusional

 

[Huskyfan990411]

Beat Wagner?

Sure Wagner and Northeastern to start the year were bad losses but this just makes my point. Considering our roster going into the year consisted of 8 of 11 scholarship players being a freshman/sophomore we needed the seniors to lead this team from the start. They are clearly not capable of that role and go figure these were the recruits we got while dealing with the recruiting restrictions from the APR crap.

This was going to be a young all along that was going to have some growing pains without any of the injuries. But then you take away arguably our 2 most talented players in AG and TL and you see what has happened. Now I know those 2 were there for those first 2 games but again they were in one case playing college ball for the first time ever and in the other case a guy that was coming off almost a 2 year layoff.

Our upper class needed to lead this team to let the young guys catch their breath. Instead we got the perfect storm of underperforming upper class and then multiple injuries to the most talented guys. Its just a bad luck year but this team has never quit and I commend them for their effort through this.

 

[Danzz]

Coaching isn't an easy job. How would anyone like to have their job performance evaluated on how a bunch of 18-21 year old former HS stars play on a basketball court? Easy to jump ship during a down season.

 

[huskymagic]

Dan this woe is Kevin Ollie and the situation he was put into is getting very old and pathetic. Kevin Ollie is not some average Joe public high school basketball coach playing with high school players whose job is on the line making 30 grand a year with no talent to work with. Let's keep some perspective.

Kevin Ollie inherited a 1 percent college basketball university job making 1 percent money, with 1 percent basketball history, with 1 percent name recognition, and a program with a history of producing NBA talent. With the "situation and players he was left with" by Calhoun and the university he was able to win a championship in his 2nd year. For the last 3 years when he wasn't in that "situation" he has consistently under-performed especially with last year's team.

He needs to improve in all areas especially personality and management wise as he is too soft and theoretical in his approach and not a disciplinarian and practical SOB that you need to be successful.

 

[Brochacho]

For the last 3 years when he wasn't in that "situation" he has consistently under-performed especially with last year's team.

Last year's team still completely blows my mind. That team had two 5 stars on it: Rodney Purvis and Daniel Hamilton. Ollie adds a freshman 5 star in Jalen Adams. To top this off he goes and gets two graduate transfers, who performed at the level of a 5 star one and done. Using 5 stars from the composite rankings, Ben Simmons, Skal Labissiere, Cheick Diallo, Diamond Stone, Henry Ellenson, and Stephen Zimmerman averaged 11.7/6.9/1.4/0.7/1.4 on .514/.283/.693 shooting in 23.8 MPG in a combined 190 games. Shonn Miller averaged 12.3/5.2/0.6/0.9/0.9 on .572/.375/.802 in 25.7 MPG over 36 games. Unfortunately Jamal Murray was the 5 star one and done so I can't make a similar composite comparison for Sterling Gibbs, but scoring 13 points a game is certainly nothing to scoff at. On top of having five extremely talented players, we had a very solid supporting cast: Omar Calhoun, Kentan Facey, Amida Brimah, Phil Nolan, Steve Enoch, and Sam Cassell Jr.

It boggles my mind that last year's team didn't enter the NCAAs with 30 wins. 3 point losses to Syracuse and Gonzaga. Lose by 2 to Temple at home. Lose by 1 to Cincy at home. Close road losses at Tulsa, Temple, and Cincy. Folding vs Houston at Gampel in February. 11-7 record in a conference in a conference that produced four NCAA teams seeded 9, 9, 10 and 11 (play in game). Last year, on the whole, was an embarrassment.

Now I fully support Ollie, and the absolute best thing for UConn is for our team to be successful with Ollie at the helm. But since signing his new contract Ollie failed to add to the 2014-15 roster resulting in a NIT appearance, took a team that was a shoe-in for a Sweet Sixteen appearance and turned it into a 9 seed, and then started off this season losing to two garbage mid-majors before half our team sustained an injury of some sort. Ollie absolutely deserves a mulligan for what has transpired this season. But if next season we once again do not have a NCAA-caliber team, it may be time to start thinking of a post-Ollie era at UConn.

On the whole, Kevin Ollie will have my support for the next 3 seasons (I'm sure he doesn't care whether I support him or not), because I fully understand that it is hard to become a successful coach at a high-major. Jay Wright, for example, needed 8 seasons at Villanova to make the Final Four and then 8 more to finally win a NCAA title. Postseason success is hard. Ollie has proven he can do it, which makes this season and the past two all the more frustrating.

 

[CTBasketball]

I look at this thread and I see data, charts, and graphs. It's so refreshing to see claims backed and argued with stats.

+1 BY.

If you go back to my chart. All coaches experienced a down season within their first 5 or so years. Just a point. The recovery rate changes per coach. That's what we should focus on.