Rodney Purvis on campus

[CL82]

One has been hinted at. Not sure about the other.

 

[Waquoit]

Your instructors passed you through out of pity. To use Vance Jackson's Dad of all people as evidence of anything!!! This board never ceases to amaze. The very idea that Vance was NBA bound after freshman year reminds me of the delusional parents of mediocre soccer players that I encounter each and every weekend.

The guy was right at the time and you were are still wrong.

 

[polycom]

Some of you need more exciting regular lives. Rodney great guy though, so laid back.

 

[huskiemaniac]

I don’t know Rodney but I will speculate that if he was the only one thinking those thoughts he wouldn’t have the gall to say it publicly

Anyways, I do think KOs hands off coaching style and Bazz’s natural integrity and leadership meshed well together but it’s a Chicken/Egg debate.

Did KO’s style give bazz confidence to take those shots or is that who bazz always was and he would have drilled them either way. I tend to lean to the latter but it’s ultimately an unanswerable question

Never saw a more confident kid than Bazz! I think he was born confident!

 

[Inyatkin]

This will teach me not to think I can avoid coming here on a weekend in the offseason.

And I can't think of anything I want to hear less than whatever these two Kevin Ollie stories are

 

[ucp990411]

My daughter who graduated in 2016 told me this story. Went to a game at Gampel and immediately after the went to an off campus party. Goes into the party and Phil Nolan is already there. Nice post game chat KO.

 

[ctchamps]

That’s not my quote, but I do think he stopped doing his job after the National Championship.

You actually used to say the same, and that the thing that made him a good NBA player was the same thing that made him initially successful as a coach, i.e., he worked harder than anyone else. And that he stopped doing that after the Championship.

I’ve never hung it on the divorce; that seemed more symptom than cause.

But I have no first hand knowledge of anything. Just observations.

Sometime shortly after the National Championship Kevin underwent an extreme personality change. It was this change of personality that's the salient factor behind events being discussed in this thread.

If the not so subtle hints of Kevin's infidelity are true than Stephanie had justification for her action to file for divorce. But if you read this article you get some understanding of what could precipitate the downward spiral in Kevin.

Kevin Ollie is the man for UConn, thanks to two amazing women

It is tragic that Kevin could not control his lust. It is tragic that he could not handle the consequences it resulted in. It is tragic that people associated with him directly and indirectly were impacted by his irrational rage after Stephanie told him she was divorcing him. It is tragic that we are still seeing the impacts from this set of events.

But unlike Kevin who could not take responsibility for his infidelity nor control his irrational rage after the break up, I hope people in this forum can get control of their own anger, not revel in the salacious acts of a fallen individual, heal from their own personal wounds created by this drama and move forward.

And I wish that most of all for Rodney and any of the other players who felt let down by Kevin.

 

[ctchamps]

I’m confused. Is this Sid supporting Rodney? Sounds like a dig to me.

And Rodney’s response to Sid is his first non genuine statement. He definitely is ripping KO. Why mute it?

Just curious @polycom what are you negatively responding to?

 

[polycom]

Just curious @polycom what are you negatively responding to?

"sounds like a dig to me" When is the idea of someone preaching seen as negative?

 

[ctchamps]

"sounds like a dig to me" When is the idea of someone preaching seen as negative?

Thanks for responding. I've heard people express to someone offering advice as "preaching" and used in a negative context.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Serious question: Do you think he would have stepped out of bounds any less?

He was just channeling Dan Orlovsky, as a true UConn fan.

 

[UConnRock]

Purvis is getting all the attention because of his tweets, but the player that missed out on the most potential/expected success was Jalen Adams. W/ a different coach/mentor I believe he would be in the NBA today.

 

[HooperScooper]

Purvis is getting all the attention because of his tweets, but the player that missed out on the most potential/expected success was Jalen Adams. W/ a different coach/mentor I believe he would be in the NBA today.

I'll second that. Part of that was Adams's fault. I can't 100% put lack of development on a coach. The player needs to have the work ethic and drive also. But if Adams had a good coach who was better at making him focus and disciplined, with a specific plan for improvement and development, Adams had the talent and the size to play in the NBA.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I'll second that. Part of that was Adams's fault. I can't 100% put lack of development on a coach. The player needs to have the work ethic and drive also. But if Adams had a good coach who was better at making him focus and disciplined, with a specific plan for improvement and development, Adams had the talent and the size to play in the NBA.

Imagine what Calhoun would have done with a couple years with Jalen Adams.

 

[Storrs South]

 

[Tenspro2002]

That’s a little bit unfair. The last year of JC, we were playing a two big lineup (Drummond, Oriakhi) with Roscoe at the 3 and we really struggled. Then there was a mass exodus - Roscoe, Oriakhi, and Bradley transferred (Bradley didn’t play but took away a big body), and Drummond and Lamb went pro. Giffey and Daniels were buried in 2011-12, but they had to play, and we had no choice but to go small with Daniels as a stretch 4, and Olander at the 5. It was very much not a JC-style lineup, who liked two traditional bigs and a big 3 man (Rudy-Sticks-Roscoe). Ollie’s team had to play a lot differently at both ends due to going small - and maybe his assistants played more of a role in shaping the teams those two years than KO did. But he wasn’t able to pick up where the program left off because it was an entirely different type of team.

As for his coaching in 2014, I still think back to the Florida game - the Gators defensive scheme took Bazz out of the game by aggressively doubling the high screens, and we looked like we were going to struggle to score 20 points after the first 10 minutes. But we made adjustments, attacked more from the wings with Boat and DD, dug in defensively and flipped the script. In the second half when Florida was desperate and threw a zone at us, we were immediately prepared and beat it with three lobs. Whether it was all Bazz and his IQ (there was a beautiful No look lob from Boat as well), the assistants, or whoever - we looked well coached during that whole run. We might have blown the doors off Kentucky if Boat and DD didn’t both get two fouls up 15 in the first half, and we dominated Nova with Bazz on the bench in the foul trouble. When adversity came (Bazz foul trouble, Michigan State surging up 9 in the second half, Florida dominating early, Kentucky comeback, etc.), we answered.

But subsequent evidence makes it harder to give KO as much credit as we gave him at the time (hard to believe now, but we were totally panicked that he was going to take an NBA job). By the end, we never responded to any adversity at all - we’d just lose by 30 once things started going off the rails. The entire era was just weird. Did the divorce really change him that much - did he just rest on his laurels after winning the title and not want to work hard any more - was Bazz masking his deficiencies? Whatever the answer, or combination of answers, the program cratered and is still trying to recover.

Brimah’s putback against Saint Joe’s changed a lot of trajectories. Without that bucket, Bazz is mostly forgotten, we never see Boat’s defensive wizardry, those memorable Garden games never happen, and KO is probably out sooner and regarded as a big mistake, instead of a mixed bag.

I'm not going to read every reply, but Occam's Razor suggests that both Ollie's divorce and his complete apathy about the coaching job here over his last 4 years have the same root cause, rather than one causing the other.

 

[Scoe]

If UConn ever had a 30 for 30 the rise and fall of Ollie would be the most interesting episode.

 

[UCDaveD]

I'll second that. Part of that was Adams's fault. I can't 100% put lack of development on a coach. The player needs to have the work ethic and drive also. But if Adams had a good coach who was better at making him focus and disciplined, with a specific plan for improvement and development, Adams had the talent and the size to play in the NBA.

He should’ve been keeping it 4hunnid when he was keeping it about tree fiddy

 

[HuskyHawk]

Imagine what Calhoun would have done with a couple years with Jalen Adams.

Put 10 pounds of muscle on him and teach him to take contact in the paint. He was so gifted at avoiding it and making acrobatic shots he left a lot of FTs and potential foul trouble on the court. Sadly, he didn’t have many people to pass to.

 

[Dogman69]

 

[CL82]

If UConn ever had a 30 for 30 the rise and fall of Ollie would be the most interesting episode.

I feel like he gets two episodes. Kevin ascending and Kevin descending.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Sometime shortly after the National Championship Kevin underwent an extreme personality change. It was this change of personality that's the salient factor behind events being discussed in this thread.

If the not so subtle hints of Kevin's infidelity are true than Stephanie had justification for her action to file for divorce. But if you read this article you get some understanding of what could precipitate the downward spiral in Kevin.

Kevin Ollie is the man for UConn, thanks to two amazing women

It is tragic that Kevin could not control his lust. It is tragic that he could not handle the consequences it resulted in. It is tragic that people associated with him directly and indirectly were impacted by his irrational rage after Stephanie told him she was divorcing him. It is tragic that we are still seeing the impacts from this set of events.

But unlike Kevin who could not take responsibility for his infidelity nor control his irrational rage after the break up, I hope people in this forum can get control of their own anger, not revel in the salacious acts of a fallen individual, heal from their own personal wounds created by this drama and move forward.

And I wish that most of all for Rodney and any of the other players who felt let down by Kevin.

'But if you read this article you get some understanding of what could precipitate the downward spiral in Kevin.'

some spiral. the article following this one is how
'OTE has two potential top five picks and a number of other highly talented prospects in its pipeline'
'It has a professional feel about the league -- it is run by former UConn coach Kevin Ollie.'
College basketball recruiting: Overtime Elite takes step forward for second season with signing class
whatever your value judgements on whatever KO did or didn't do, all i got so far is that he got divorced. big whoop, none of my business or interest unless a police report with serious stuff is involved (i don't see no police reports in this aspersions thread).
people aren't perfect, and i don't expect them to be. heck, lots of them don't share my values. if it gets to be too much, i avoid them. if not, then i usually laugh and get on with them. i could not care less aboot their marriage or sexuality or drug issues. it's their life, not mine.
he was hired to be coach, not saint. at first, he was great, then he stunk, and got fired as he should be. period. the end.

 

[KembaStepback]

Put 10 pounds of muscle on him and teach him to take contact in the paint. He was so gifted at avoiding it and making acrobatic shots he left a lot of FTs and potential foul trouble on the court. Sadly, he didn’t have many people to pass to.

The reason Jalen isn't in the NBA today is because he isn't a good enough shooter from 3 nor is he a good enough defender. I always thought he was a bright spot on some really bad teams.

 

[gtcam]

And people will still defend KO when player after player points to his gross negligence as coach which led to some of the darkest years in UConn history for both its fans and its players. Kids with an insane amount of talent who should’ve gotten drafted had their careers derailed because of this guy.

First folks say KO had no eye for talent and now he had the best talent. Make up your damned minds. K O is gone and he deserved to be fired but one frustrated guy who this board said had no chance to make it anywhere on the hardcourt is now the gospel.
I hope that UConn produces large number of NBA talent. I think Tyrese will make the UConn faithful proud and Hawkins will do the same.
Better days are ahead with the talent coming in
Let’s lay the KO crap to bed. It does nobody any good.
I know KO and I appreciate many things he does. Beyond what Psolo says I know many players who have positive things to say about KO
I like Purvis but Purvis is doing nobody any favors
BTW. You think DH would have come to UConn had he not known that the NBE was around the corner? DH would not coach in the AAC and when he did his record was no better than before he came.

 

[HooperScooper]

Let’s lay the KO crap to bed.

Oh yeah, as if that'll ever happen!