Samuel

[uchusky32]

Tsam might be a nice person, I don't know him, but he's a terrible basketball player.

 

[FartMan69]

I said it in the chat and I'll elaborate here: Samuel is emblematic of what is wrong with this program right now.

In terms of on-court play, nothing more needs to be said. He's a guy that on a vintage UConn team from the mid 90's through the late 00's would be used for 5 mpg when we have a 10 point lead late in the first half, to spell our star PGs (back when they only had to play 33-35 mpg, not 38-40). Instead, he's getting 21 mpg and is the first guard off the bench. The talent is just horrible right now, a 20-25-year low.

He was a Plan D recruit, outside the Top 100, after we were unable to land anyone better. The recruiting failures (whether we had excuses or not*) have led to a horrific dearth of talent.

*The previous excuses (ban, scholarship reductions, coaching uncertainty) are gone, but the shortcomings in recruiting have continued. This is alarming.

Fair warning you're going to get slammed for questioning recruiting. That's a huge no no for some no matter how true.

 

[FartMan69]

Have we considered how inexperienced Ollie is as a recruiter? You don't go from a 30-year HC who was one of the masters of the art to a replacement with only two years as an assistant without expecting some kind of drop-off.

His inexperience doesn't make his argument invalid. Talent level is AAC quality right now, what a coincidence.

 

[Wise2]

Not the only. RP hasn't seen a sideline he didn't want to step on.

Well on a good team he is a glue guy. See last year and in the NCAAs, but when you ask a glue guy to do to much, the get unglued

 

[dtrumpet]

I think Samuel might be emblematic as well, but for a different reason.
Samuel, Nolan and Calhoun, are no better now than they were as freshmen. You can actually make the case that Samuel is worse. Individual improvement is important to success, and they haven't shown it.

 

[mauconnfan]

T. Sam is the only player that makes me nervous every time he has the ball. He has had some good moments but they are always scary as well!

Omar doesn't make you nervous or you just don't watch when he gets the ball? lol

 

[uchusky32]

Well on a good team he is a glue guy. See last year and in the NCAAs, but when you ask a glue guy to do to much, the get unglued

No Gif was the glue guy. You can't be glue when you played 5 minutes a game. Last year.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Fair warning you're going to get slammed for questioning recruiting. That's a huge no no for some no matter how true.

You're on another planet if you don't think plenty of people on here are questioning recruiting. It's a huge problem. I would actually say the crowd that keeps saying that recruiting is fine are in the minority. The question is what's to be done about it. They're not getting out of this sh_t sandwich conference any time soon, so I think that means they need to lock up an ace recruiter with the quickness. I'm more than happy with Ollie being the closer, but he shouldn't have to be the set-up man, the relationship man, the point of contact, etc. too.

 

[FartMan69]

You're on another planet if you don't think plenty of people on here are questioning recruiting. It's a huge problem. I would actually say the crowd that keeps saying that recruiting is fine are in the minority. The question is what's to be done about it. They're not getting out of this sh_t sandwich conference any time soon, so I think that means they need to lock up an ace recruiter with the quickness. I'm more than happy with Ollie being the closer, but he shouldn't have to be the set-up man, the relationship man, the point of contact, etc. too.

That's why i said "for some" you just preached to the ultimate choir boy.

 

[uchusky32]

I think Samuel might be emblematic as well, but for a different reason.
Samuel, Nolan and Calhoun, are no better now than they were as freshmen. You can actually make the case that Samuel is worse. Individual improvement is important to success, and they haven't shown it.

He looks worse. But last year he got layups because teams guarded the perimeter. He played very limited time. He is exposed now because he can't create for himself or others. He can't shot and is not a good ball handler. He just received so much room last year.

 

[imno1]

I'm depressed!

 

[huskiesnyc]

Samuel played poorly but I'm not particularly worried about him. He is a role player and a better one than D. Beverly. He brings great energy when he's in there off the bench. Just not talented enough to shoulder the load of being a lead PG at an elite program like UConn.

 

[GlastonTim]

They've had 2 years with Samuel and he still can't shoot. Not even from mid range. That's bad coaching.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Samuel played poorly but I'm not particularly worried about him. He is a role player and a better one than D. Beverly. He brings great energy when he's in there off the bench. Just not talented enough to shoulder the load of being a lead PG at an elite program like UConn.

And yet we're counting on him for major minutes, much more than went to guys like Beverly.

If that pattern continues, how much longer will we be able to call ourselves elite?

 

[Cheeky]

He's not even much of a glue guy, glue guy's don't throw the ball around like it's covered in lava.

Truly made me laugh out loud. Thank you!

 

[LStudfellow]

I said it in the chat and I'll elaborate here: Samuel is emblematic of what is wrong with this program right now.

In terms of on-court play, nothing more needs to be said. He's a guy that on a vintage UConn team from the mid 90's through the late 00's would be used for 5 mpg when we have a 10 point lead late in the first half, to spell our star PGs (back when they only had to play 33-35 mpg, not 38-40). Instead, he's getting 21 mpg and is the first guard off the bench. The talent is just horrible right now, a 20-25-year low.

He was a Plan D recruit, outside the Top 100, after we were unable to land anyone better. The recruiting failures (whether we had excuses or not*) have led to a horrific dearth of talent.

*The previous excuses (ban, scholarship reductions, coaching uncertainty) are gone, but the shortcomings in recruiting have continued. This is alarming.

Your point is well taken... and why did we end up with such a low-end recruit that year? Oh, yeah, because THAT was the year that we were hamstrung by recruiting and visitation restrictions.

But of course, once again, as guys like you make these arguments, you conveniently forget to address that two years of bad recruiting were DIRECTLY RELATED TO THINGS THAT HAPPENED DURING CALHOUN'S TENURE.

If this is what we look like in 3 to 4 years, THEN we can pick on this coaching staff for recruiting failures... but to pick on them now is ridiculously short-sighted and unfair, given the restrictions that they were forced to operate under at the time.

P.S. One last thing - stop with how Calhoun was "always" a master at recruiting, and we always got "our guy". You see that excellent point guard up at Providence? That guy (Kris Dunn) came from New London - our "back yard"... and Cooley flat out took him away from Calhoun, not Ollie.

We would easily be a 22+ win team with THAT guy in our back court alongside Boatright. But he is not there because Calhoun lost out on him, not Ollie. But please, don't let a simple truth like that one take away from your point, no matter how flimsy it is when seen in the light of the truth of history.

 

[mauconnfan]

They've had 2 years with Samuel and he still can't shoot. Not even from mid range. That's bad coaching.

Sarcasm button on Tim, I hope?

 

[Tenspro2002]

Your point is well taken... and why did we end up with such a low-end recruit that year? Oh, yeah, because THAT was the year that we were hamstrung by recruiting and visitation restrictions.

But of course, once again, as guys like you make these arguments, you conveniently forget to address that two years of bad recruiting were DIRECTLY RELATED TO THINGS THAT HAPPENED DURING CALHOUN'S TENURE.

If this is what we look like in 3 to 4 years, THEN we can pick on this coaching staff for recruiting failures... but to pick on them now is ridiculously short-sighted and unfair, given the restrictions that they were forced to operate under at the time.

P.S. One last thing - stop with how Calhoun was "always" a master at recruiting, and we always got "our guy". You see that excellent point guard up at Providence? That guy (Kris Dunn) came from New London - our "back yard"... and Cooley flat out took him away from Calhoun, not Ollie.

I'm not saying that we were not hamstrung in recruiting. That also doesn't mean it wasn't or doesn't continue to be a problem.

And I never said, and certainly don't think, Calhoun was a great recruiter. We had more misses than hits on recruiting over his last 3-4 years (the freshman class of 2009-10 was especially atrocious). But the talent on the roster was never as bad as it is right now. Of course some of that is Calhoun's fault. But we can't pretend it's not a problem.

 

[johnhuskies95]

I think Samuel might be emblematic as well, but for a different reason.
Samuel, Nolan and Calhoun, are no better now than they were as freshmen. You can actually make the case that Samuel is worse. Individual improvement is important to success, and they haven't shown it.

To me this is a bigger problem than recruiting. They could do better in recruiting, but under Calhoun talent development was always the strongest part of the program. Ollie has done really well with a couple guys but there have been several players during his tenure that have not really improved at all, particularly the sophomores and juniors(except Brimah).

Now part of it may be because under Calhoun guys were more likely to just transfer out before we would see if they developed or not.

 

[mauconnfan]

To me this is a bigger problem than recruiting. They could do better in recruiting, but under Calhoun talent development was always the strongest part of the program. Ollie has done really well with a couple guys but there have been several players during his tenure that have not really improved at all, particularly the sophomores and juniors(except Brimah).

Now part of it may be because under Calhoun guys were more likely to just transfer out before we would see if they developed or not.

Calhoun couldn't get anything out of these guys either for crying out loud. I have not wanted to say this but here goes, they are easily the dumbest team overall in a VERY long time - basketball wise. And it's not close. Can't teach dumb!

 

[tzznandrew]

Sarcasm button on Tim, I hope?

Seriously. We had Taliek for 4 years and he couldn't shoot. I don't think we blamed the coaches.

As for recruiting. The class graduating 2016 is my bar. KO will have had few to no restrictions the entire time they were recruitable, and he's been developing relationships with them for a long time. And he has a title. If that class is a problem, something is rotten in the state of Storrs...not sure what would be, but there would need to be some sort of action taken to rectify it.

 

[tzznandrew]

Calhoun couldn't get anything out of these guys either for crying out loud. I have not wanted to say this but here goes, they are easily the dumbest team overall in a VERY long time - basketball wise. And it's not close. Can't teach dumb!

Calhoun would have had a brain aneurism with some of the really really bad passes. Lazy passes, or passes into traffic...or people who have layups passing out to shooters who aren't particularly adept at shooting.

It was rough.

 

[UConn77]

I said it in the chat and I'll elaborate here: Samuel is emblematic of what is wrong with this program right now.

In terms of on-court play, nothing more needs to be said. He's a guy that on a vintage UConn team from the mid 90's through the late 00's would be used for 5 mpg when we have a 10 point lead late in the first half, to spell our star PGs (back when they only had to play 33-35 mpg, not 38-40). Instead, he's getting 21 mpg and is the first guard off the bench. The talent is just horrible right now, a 20-25-year low.

He was a Plan D recruit, outside the Top 100, after we were unable to land anyone better. The recruiting failures (whether we had excuses or not*) have led to a horrific dearth of talent.

*The previous excuses (ban, scholarship reductions, coaching uncertainty) are gone, but the shortcomings in recruiting have continued. This is alarming.

I agree 100% with Tenspro's analysis. I am very concerned about the future of this program. Having been at UConn in the mid-70s during the Tony Hanson-Yankee Conference days, I know what a low level program looks like. Back then, beating Rutgers or BC were reasons to celebrate. Obviously, I don't believe that the program will ever backslide to that level, but if we don't start closing on some of the 4 and 5 star recruits, this program will become an afterthought or even worse, irrelevant. This is what concerns me, and the dearth of talent on this squad and next year as well gives me pause of concern. I hope that KO lands a couple of his big time targets and puts this queasy feeling to rest, but only time will tell.

 

[WlfdHusky]

I think Samuel might be emblematic as well, but for a different reason.
Samuel, Nolan and Calhoun, are no better now than they were as freshmen. You can actually make the case that Samuel is worse. Individual improvement is important to success, and they haven't shown it.

I was thinking this too, only I would add Facey too. Only Boat, Brimah and Boat made significant improvements with Purvis treading water.

 

[LStudfellow]

We have definitely had a down year... from top to bottom. But again, let us see how this plays out over the next several years.

You guys all act like this transition should have been totally seemless. I just do not see it that way. There were too many issues and too many holes, that unfortunately got masked by the amazing first two year start.

I agree - the talent level is down, and just as importantly, this team does play dumb. But let us give Kevin and these guys some time to recover now that we can all see that the talent level must be improved to get back to an elite level on a consistent basis.

Patience, gentlemen... and honesty about our recent past. That is all I am saying we need to include in these discussions.