So what does Coach do now?

[UConnWingman]

Although I think he did a terrific job, I don't think that you need to worry about the NBA calling any time soon. If he didn't go after last year, it will be a while before he is on the NBA radar again.

I'd guess that a third of the teams in the NBA would shove their current coach out the door if Ollie agreed to coach for them.

 

[HungryHuskies]

I'd love to see Emeka on the coaching staff, although it will probably never happen. It would be huge for recruiting as well.

 

[UCweCONN]

What does coach do now? He focuses on resolving his family issues so he can focus on getting the program back on track. This needs to be resolved before next season. No question this hurt the team. As someone who's gone through a divorce with kids involved, the moment I heard about his pending divorce, my first though was, "Ok, there goes the season." I wish I was wrong, but knew I was right.

 

[Alum86]

No need for that here.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

What does coach do now? He focuses on resolving his family issues so he can focus on getting the program back on track. This needs to be resolved before next season. No question this hurt the team. As someone who's gone through a divorce with kids involved, the moment I heard about his pending divorce, my first though was, "Ok, there goes the season." I wish I was wrong, but knew I was right.

This is dumb. You don't "know" you were right about anything. Ollie is not the only coach in America with a personal life.

 

[jdb50]

We need another guard recruit that can shoot the 3. We can't go into next year with a freshman guard and another who is no threat outside of drives at the point. DHam has to improve his shooting skills so that when he catches a pass and is wide open he shoots the ball rather than upfake, spin move, dribble, and pass or not. This team has too many players that are roll players. If they are going to a 30 second clock scorers are going to be a priority. Find out why only DHam was able to rebound all year. How can OC who is maybe 1 inch shorter than KFree not be able to rebound at all? All the bigs need work on hand speed so maybe they can help rebounding next year. If they only got better at rebounding it would be a huge plus. Have Lubin drop 5 pounds and get stronger. He could be a big plus as he moves well and seems to have decent hands.

 

[UCweCONN]

This is dumb. You don't "know" you were right about anything. Ollie is not the only coach in America with a personal life.

I take it you've never gotten divorced or you wouldn't have responded to my post. A divorce occupies your thoughts every waking moment of your life and is a huge distraction. My post is a wish for him to focus on his life to resolve that so he can then focus on basketball. You haven't noticed how different he seemed this year? This isn't trying to knock him. This must have been a very difficult year. As a public figure, this is fair to discuss. No one's getting into personal details.

 

[3rdbass]

I'm really hoping he doesn't get an NBA offer. This year it'd be much harder for him to turn it down than it was last year.

I doubt anyone is knocking down the door after KO based on this season. The NBA definitely tries to jump on the next hot coach too much and KO has cooled off which is probably good for us.

 

[3rdbass]

I take it you've never gotten divorced or you wouldn't have responded to my post. A divorce occupies your thoughts every waking moment of your life and is a huge distraction. My post is a wish for him to focus on his life to resolve that so he can then focus on basketball. You haven't noticed how different he seemed this year? This isn't trying to knock him. This must have been a very difficult year. As a public figure, this is fair to discuss. No one's getting into personal details.

I agree thought we can't put it all on his personal life for KO being inept at times. I think a lot of it happen to be not having as much senior leadership to lean on like last year. He felt lost and disconnected from the team when they looked helpless on the court since he didn't have enough guys to respond to his direction and didn't know how to urge them to play smarter and more efficient with the ball.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I take it you've never gotten divorced or you wouldn't have responded to my post. A divorce occupies your thoughts every waking moment of your life and is a huge distraction. My post is a wish for him to focus on his life to resolve that so he can then focus on basketball. You haven't noticed how different he seemed this year? This isn't trying to knock him. This must have been a very difficult year. As a public figure, this is fair to discuss. No one's getting into personal details.

Life happens while you do your job. Do you think Ollie is the first coach to go through a divorce? For ___'s sake his mother had cancer while UConn was winning a national championship. I hate this ______ amateur psychology on here. "He seemed .... uh .... different."

 

[champs99and04]

Bruce Brown/grad transfers, the number of guards/wings that show up on the grad transfer list is plentiful, they got 2 ships and plenty of minutes to offer there.

I feel like wing is the one area of strength with Purvis and Hamilton returning. I'd really like to add a pure point guard if possible because Samuel - although I'm higher on him than most - isn't one, and it's doubtful that Adams will have the position mastered in year one. Somebody in the mold of Anthony Collins would seem like an ideal fit, though he's not eligible to transfer here.

 

[aceboon]

I feel like wing is the one area of strength with Purvis and Hamilton returning. I'd really like to add a pure point guard if possible because Samuel - although I'm higher on him than most - isn't one, and it's doubtful that Adams will have the position mastered in year one. Somebody in the mold of Anthony Collins would seem like an ideal fit, though he's not eligible to transfer here.

I still think another wing is needed for depth because at this point I have no expectations for Omar to contribute anything, but PG/combo is definitely an area of need at this point I'm ready for the CBB season to wrap up so we can get a clear idea of who will be out there on that transfer list. I look at Purdue and Matt Painter, who was looking like he would be on the hot seat after he hadn't done much after his initial recruiting class finally moved on, and he had a guy like Jon Octeus pretty much fall in his lap after UCLA's admissions wouldn't accept him after he graduated and moved on from Colorado St. Not saying he's the reason they're in the tourney but they pretty much got him as an open box special and he ended up starting every game for them. There's going to be guys like this out there, the staff's gotta zero in on them and hopefully admissions will ease up after the season they just had.

 

[champs99and04]

I still think another wing is needed for depth because at this point I have no expectations for Omar to contribute anything, but PG/combo is definitely an area of need at this point I'm ready for the CBB season to wrap up so we can get a clear idea of who will be out there on that transfer list. I look at Purdue and Matt Painter, who was looking like he would be on the hot seat after he hadn't done much after his initial recruiting class finally moved on, and he had a guy like Jon Octeus pretty much fall in his lap after UCLA's admissions wouldn't accept him after he graduated and moved on from Colorado St. Not saying he's the reason they're in the tourney but they pretty much got him as an open box special and he ended up starting every game for them. There's going to be guys like this out there, the staff's gotta zero in on them and hopefully admissions will ease up after the season they just had.

Yeah, I still tend to think people on this board underestimate the transformative effect that right grad transfer (or two) can have on a roster, and I feel like we might be one of those teams straddling the line next season where a key transfer can push us in the right direction. We really only have one true center on the roster, so I wouldn't mind the staff bringing on another as an AB insurance policy against fouls. As you say, hopefully the staff is making this a priority - there are programs out there who have basically made a living this way.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Recruit and get out of this conference.

 

[caw]

Am I the only one not thinking anything drastic needs to be done. No one needs to get a pink slip for gods sake. I don't get the sky is falling group on here, perhaps the only thing that needs to be adjusted is setting realistic expectations considering what the team lost after the NC.

Good teams need to be built at most schools over a few years. Regardless of NCs, UConn doesn't recruit like Cal and UK. It likely never will never have a class of 3 MCDAAs let alone 8. People need to realize this and realize this means up and down years.

 

[storrsroars]

I'm rooting for a UNC postseason ban to be handed down. Then we just grab a couple of their guys.

 

[Stinger92860]

I'm rooting for a UNC postseason ban to be handed down. Then we just grab a couple of their guys.

Bigs coach and someone who can help install a better offensive system, 25+ seconds of weak perimeter passing will not work unless you have guys like shabazz, Giffey and Daniels.

 

[tzznandrew]

Bigs coach and someone who can help install a better offensive system, 25+ seconds of weak perimeter passing will not work unless you have guys like shabazz, Giffey and Daniels.

Again, that's not their offensive system. Shabazz, Giffey, and Daniels looked just as clueless out there at one point in their respective careers.

As bad as our offense was, if Adams is what we think he is we'll be okay.

It would be great if the bigs could score, though, that is a legitimate area of concern.

 

[CTFIRERETIRED]

Unless there is an influx of better talent, i.e a LEADER, what you saw this year, is what you may see next year. TSam looked like a school yard player last night. They got out rebounded, and face it there was a serious lack of leadership without Boatright. Unless a freshman, like a Khalid El Amin comes in, what you see is what you will get. Yeah, maybe Hamilton will improve from year 1 to year 2, never nervous Pervis will be a scoring threat. Brimah, if he stays, should be your big, and the rest of the cast of characters, hopefully can contribute. Lets face it this team was not NCAA worthy, and after last night, it's painfully evident that there are going to be a lot of holes to fill for next years team.

 

[ThetaZoo]

Hypnotize TSam into thinking he is at the foul line when he is shooting a J. Have Purvis practice on a court 3 feet narrower to stop him from stepping out of bounds. Omar? Dear God, don't know where to start

Omar may have done well in a system where you have real plays, i.e. not make-it-up-as-you-go stuff with every possession. If he knew where he was supposed to go, e.g. run off this or that screen and be ready to catch and shoot, maybe he would relax and find his stroke. But, I understand, real plays are old school and not seen much anymore at any level.

 

[tzznandrew]

Omar may have done well in a system where you have real plays, i.e. not make-it-up-as-you-go stuff with every possession. If he knew where he was supposed to go, e.g. run off this or that screen and be ready to catch and shoot, maybe he would relax and find his stroke. But, I understand, real plays are old school and not seen much anymore at any level.

If you think KO just rolls the ball out there, you don't know much, man. The fact that our team didn't run plays well doesn't mean they were playing streetball.

Jesus. This is exactly the sort of thing people said about young Calhoun teams. And then, after they got some experience, their offense looked quite good. This is the same sort of thing. Offenses take time.

Be more concerned about defense. That usually can come together pretty well. Hell, our terrible 2007 team had the 8th best defense in the country.

 

[willie99]

Hell no rest..99% of the teams we recruit against are playing ball. Recruit recruit recruit

Is it legal?

 

[willie99]

So...just before we learn our best player can't play we struggle... It's all Kevin's fault...Damn that Ollie! Why can't he plan for this???

Who blamed KO for last night?

 

[ThetaZoo]

If you think KO just rolls the ball out there, you don't know much, man. The fact that our team didn't run plays well doesn't mean they were playing streetball.

Jesus. This is exactly the sort of thing people said about young Calhoun teams. And then, after they got some experience, their offense looked quite good. This is the same sort of thing. Offenses take time.

Be more concerned about defense. That usually can come together pretty well. Hell, our terrible 2007 team had the 8th best defense in the country.

Can you describe 1 or 2 plays that UConn does run?

 

[tzznandrew]

Can you describe 1 or 2 plays that UConn does run?

Last night Purvis got a wide open three from a set play out of a time out. Samuel caught the ball on the perimeter to the left of the hoop, went left, stopped, and passed the ball to Purvis (who made the initial pass, ran right, and doubled back around a pick for an open look). That's one right off the top of my head just from yesterday.

They run a pro-style offense. There's a system, both on the ball (lots of ball screens) and off (watch Hamilton-Boatright-Purvis, off the ball they are often cycling around using picks). Not every play is rigid. Sadly they often haven't done anything with them, and the plays too frequently break down into late in clock 1-on-1s.

But it hurts when you have 1 real 3 pt threat (Boat) and another who came on late (Purvis). Hamilton can shoot (35%) but not at a percentage you'd really want. Those three can shoot pretty darn well, but you need more. Opens up the lane and the offense would be smoother. No amount of set plays are going to do much if the lane is packed because defenses (1) don't respect the 3 line or (2) don't respect our bigs 18 feet out.

But there is an offensive system in place that won us a title, and will win more games. It's more complex than set plays--although they are there.