Sick of OLLIE Bashing | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Sick of OLLIE Bashing

If you think about the 'good' coaches (as measured by win %) who have never won a title -Ryan, Dixon, Brey, Beilein, Huggins, Matta, Barnes, just to name a few- you appreciate what we've got with Ollie.

It sounds crazy to say he's not getting enough credit from the fans for the 2014 title, but it sort of feels like that with some fans.
 
ivrytontusker said:
It sounds crazy to say he's not getting enough credit from the fans for the 2014 title, but it sort of feels like that with some fans.
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Sorta?? It totally is. "won with Calhoun's recruits is such a myopic thought, you wonder about those posters analytical abilities. Hopefully they didn't go to UCONN?" Ollie recruited those guys under JC, and he was responsible for the majority of their development. Bazz, Boat, Daniels all made their best leaps forward under Ollie.
 
16-17 and no postseason does not equal $3 million dollars IMO.

He will be a good coach, but he has his deficiencies. Everyone does. So did JC. I just think his deficiencies are larger than other notable coaches - a lot of that is due to inexperience.
 
CTBasketball said:
16-17 and no postseason does not equal $3 million dollars IMO.

He will be a good coach, but he has his deficiencies. Everyone does. So did JC. I just think his deficiencies are larger than other notable coaches - a lot of that is due to inexperience.
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Zero coaches in the history of the game make the tournament with that depleted of roster (and personnel). No coach in history can force players to make open shots, as our guys did time and time and time again. You have to face and accept that.
 
djct1999 said:
Call me crazy, but I feel that the highest paid employee of any state, corporation, hf, small business, etc should always be evaluated by actual performance.
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You are crazy...like a fox...a male fox...sporting a pair.
 
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Paesano said:
It is called being held accountable. Grow a pair.
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Posting on a message board isn't holding someone accountable. It's just being a fan.

Incidentally, have you ever posted anything that didn't contain some reference to male genitalia?
 
ivrytontusker said:
If you think about the 'good' coaches (as measured by win %) who have never won a title -Ryan, Dixon, Brey, Beilein, Huggins, Matta, Barnes, just to name a few- you appreciate what we've got with Ollie.

It sounds crazy to say he's not getting enough credit from the fans for the 2014 title, but it sort of feels like that with some fans.
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He does get credit. If the team performs like this, or even close to it, next year, the bashing will get loud and more frequent. This has been tame.

As time goes by, that championship becomes less and less relevant and the doubts about it being due to having Calhoun's players become bigger and bigger. Some people try to claim that those kids were somehow Ollie's because "he recruited them" and "he developed them". That's convenient but NO ONE knows how much of role Ollie actually played in either. I am sure he player some part and maybe even a big part. But did he make the final call on which recruits to prioritize and go after hard or did Calhoun do that? Would Ollie have gone harder after other kids if it were totally up to him? How much of a role did Calhoun play in developing those kids? How about the other coaches on the staff? It isn't like this is a new phenomenon either. Steve Fisher? Tubby Smith? Both are good coaches but neither are considered great because of their one championship earned in their first season as coaches.
 
djct1999 said:
Call me crazy, but I feel that the highest paid employee of any state, corporation, hf, small business, etc should always be evaluated by actual performance.
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No arguments there. I also think the evaluators should be evaluated on their performance and given that the Boneyard is littered with casual fans, evaluations expressed in the Boneyard merit super secret double probation!;)
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Posting on a message board isn't holding someone accountable. It's just being a fan.

Incidentally, have you ever posted anything that didn't contain some reference to male genitalia?
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Do you ever not act like a ? Better?
 
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Bump

You were saying... actually, I'll just paraphrase here...

I'm tired of everyone being big ole meanies to the Ollie and this team. Those guys are trying their best. That's all that matters. Let's give them an A for effort! Yay! Ollie did great this year - it wasn't his fault. We should be so appreciative to have him. If we keep trying our best, maybe we'll make the tournament again some day! Yay Huskies! Hoorah! Let's get ready to cheer them on next year when then play Tulane on Tues night in Hartford at 9pm!! Ollie, you're the best! Keep the continuity, winning, and positive headlines coming! Yay!
 
UCHuskies08 said:
I don't like the Ollie bashing either.

I named my cat Ollie, and he's only 2 years old. KO must stay for the relevance of my cat's name.
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Be honest, you named him after the team manager in Hoosiers...
 
I have seen a lot of different opinions here. But here's mine. I think Calhoun's philosophy was hell take anybody in the top 50 - 100.
And then he would just rely on coaching. I think that year Drummond came in he was #1 overall or something like that.
We got trounced that year by Iowa State, I think in the NCAA. So I don't think it the #rated recruit. Its Chemistry. I think KO
is just trying to shake things up to find the Chemistry. I remember year of the ban, KO was asked with the question
"What are you playing for?" and he said ..."it playing for what's it says on the jersey, UCONN. I want all my players to
to understand that, if you don't I don't want you on my team." I think as fans we should think the same. If these
players leave and don't want to be here or come here, we as fans shouldn't want them on our team either.
 
TheDude said:
I have seen a lot of different opinions here. But here's mine. I think Calhoun's philosophy was hell take anybody in the top 50 - 100.
And then he would just rely on coaching. I think that year Drummond came in he was #1 overall or something like that.
We got trounced that year by Iowa State, I think in the NCAA. So I don't think it the #rated recruit. Its Chemistry. I think KO
is just trying to shake things up to find the Chemistry. I remember year of the ban, KO was asked with the question
"What are you playing for?" and he said ..."it playing for what's it says on the jersey, UCONN. I want all my players to
to understand that, if you don't I don't want you on my team." I think as fans we should think the same. If these
players leave and don't want to be here or come here, we as fans shouldn't want them on our team either.
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I like what you're saying here. I also think that a lot of what has happened has actually been a product of KO's casting a wide net with recruiting. It seems we have offered more players than ever, granted with the recruiting ban we needed to throw a high volume of offers out there and see if anything would stick, but we saw this last year that Ollie brought in a high volume of players off his high volume of offers. I think his offers are based more on purely talent than knowing if a player has the UConn mentality, and I think we saw that with what has gone down the last couple weeks. Players seem to have been brought in on talent alone rather than their grit, determination and will to play UConn basketball. This is where I believe Calhoun thrived. He didn't have to bring in the top talent, but he knew the players he could work with and also the players who had the mentality of team first and what we all know it means to play UConn basketball. I think Ollie may have realized that with this latest batch of transfers and decommits, and rather than coddling the players and trying everything to get them to stay, it is my hope that he told them like it was and realized they weren't UConn material. Here's to hoping KO goes into the coming years with that mentality when recruiting, and starts to be the fiery, hard nosed and pissed off coach we saw in 2014. I think he has it in him, and hope he has learned from what has happened these past couple weeks.
 
I'm sick of the Ollie bashing and if it happens again there will be a strongly worded letter to the Times.
 
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KO as a former Husky has been treated with kid gloves here for the most part. At his current salary should there not be an uptick in performance this season, that treatment will end.
 
intlzncster said:
Zero coaches in the history of the game make the tournament with that depleted of roster (and personnel). No coach in history can force players to make open shots, as our guys did time and time and time again. You have to face and accept that.
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Oh bulls**t, I don't have to face winning in the first half by 10 points or more, and just sit through a precipitous slide to a loss in the 2nd half. Happened too many times this season. That's on the coach, pure and simple.
 
Anyone "sick" of Ollie bashing can't be very sick. Bashing to me is cheap shots and unfair criticism. I've seen some bashing but mostly fair criticism.
 
huskyrob1 said:
Oh bulls**t, I don't have to face winning in the first half by 10 points or more, and just sit through a precipitous slide to a loss in the 2nd half. Happened too many times this season. That's on the coach, pure and simple.
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I'll check if I still have the statistics on my home PC. But if you take Ollie's splits at halftime, whenever we're losing going into the break our record is atrociously poor.

An overwhelming majority of our wins come from first half leads. Of course this is expected, but I haven't done the work to compare with other coaches.
 
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CJS87 said:
You call this blog for passionate fans? It's a blog for nut bags who are irrational and have not a clue what they're talking about. Really it is.
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I resemble that remark.
 
UCHuskies08 said:
I don't like the Ollie bashing either.

I named my cat Ollie, and he's only 2 years old. KO must stay for the relevance of my cat's name.
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You can always take the Laurel and Hardy angle.
 
It isn't bashing when one questions what happened to a once proud program that is never ranked, never challenges for the regular season title in an average conference and has won one postseason game in 3 seasons. There just hasn't been any real success since 2014. I think it is fair to question the leadership of the program given the three year trend we have seen.

To those of you who still fully support KO, what have you seen over the past 3 seasons that causes you to be optimistic?
 
CTBasketball said:
I'll check if I still have the statistics on my home PC. But if you take Ollie's splits at halftime, whenever we're losing going into the break our record is atrociously poor.

An overwhelming majority of our wins come from first half leads. Of course this is expected, but I haven't done the work to compare with other coaches.
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I didn't say leading by 10 at halftime, I said leading in the first half by 10. In most of those losses, our lead had dwindled to 2 or 3 by halftime or we actually were down by a point or two. Then once the 2nd half started that trend continued. Happened too many times this past season. Like I said when this happens, it's on the coach.
 
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huskyrob1 said:
Oh bulls**t, I don't have to face winning in the first half by 10 points or more, and just sit through a precipitous slide to a loss in the 2nd half. Happened too many times this season. That's on the coach, pure and simple.
Expand ...

Huh? They're problem was starting out slow. They were behind at the half the whole season. They usually finished stronger than they started. And that is on the coaching, no doubt.

But frankly, you just don't lose 2 or your top 3 players and make the tournament. Unless you have a bench of AA like UK or Duke. I'm sure it's happened, but I could do that to almost any team in the country and it likely wouldn't occur.
 
Bump. You were saying....

- 3 transfers
- top recruit decommit
- asst head coach fired
- strength coach fired

Ho hum, nothing to see here.

nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to 'bash' Ollie about. he's got this program riiiight where he wants it.

can't wait until we go 16-12 and they call it a success as a rebuilding year.

"Guys didn't quit. Playing for the name on the front of the jersey. Fighting because all 8 of us love each other and the brotherhood. We fighting to get back to the top and this is step towards our path. It's the journey, not the result"
 
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