Some of long timers here are overreacting.

[dandar]

Wagner returns 5 of their top 6 players and 2 JR college transfers to a team that finished in the NIT last season. They are not your typical cupcake. Our best players are freshmen and sophomores. Brimah, Facey and Purvis should get their minutes reduced as the season moves along and the pups grow up. This is college. These guys are learning and will get better. Ollie's teams always peak in March.

I am not writing off this season though I have to be honest, I am already looking forward to next year when the 3 seniors are gone. If Larrier comes back, this team will go places. Regarding this year, I think Maui will tell us a lot. They do need a big men coach desperately. We haven't had a good one since that Pitt guy got caught with hookers. That was a damn shame on so many levels.

Either way, a WTF loss if you could call it that is out of the way. The top 5 got their mouthful of crow. They know what they need to work on, namely pretty much everything. Having said that, rebounding and offense, inside out play need a lot of work. Wagner showed them what a team can do when they play like one instead of bunch of individuals. Should be an entertaining season.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

one game in and your already looking forward to next year? , lets at least get to conference play before we decide we suck. The young players on this team are very encouraging. While last night was disappointing, I'll enjoy watching this batch of freshman and larrier grow, even if it means we lose a couple. What i dont like is that brimah, purvis, facey, and adams basically didnt look like they had any improvement, but 3 games in, i'm not giving up on anyone yet.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Some of these posters don't appreciate how dominant UConn was starting with the dream season.

If you are 25 or younger you don't have any memories of Smitty, Cliff, Ray or Donyell.

"The Shot" is history to them as much as Wilt or Lew Alcinder.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I agree with the over-reacting part as Wagner played extremely well and are obviously a highly disciplined team. Our team has to learn to play together against real teams and this was a wake-up call.

 

[David 76]

What i dont like is that brimah, purvis, facey, and adams basically didnt look like they had any improvement, but 3 games in, i'm not giving up on anyone yet.

I thought Purvis and Brimah looked far worse than last year.

 

[Sky ball]

Us long timers really know how to panic and bitch. A skill that took years to hone.

 

[Chief00]

It's called championship caliber standards - we know what it takes to win the wars later in the season.

 

[James]

i think there is some disconnect from reality within the program, brimah was touting before the game " we could be one of the best defensive teams in the country" and KO calling larrier the 'fastest forward in america', these are all just untrue and far from it. I have no idea why the hell KO would be gassing his team like that and lay such an egg. This wasn't just a typical rs lost, it was the season opener vs a team we were favored to win by a bunch by.

 

[scotty0330]

Ollie has always done this. It is diaco esque in that we build these kids up before they do a damn thing. Ferrari with purview talking about jalen being a combo of boat and bazz. Now this....it is infuriating. Accomplish something for Christ sake before you make these broad sweeping comparisons or proclamations

 

[TitleTown]

I don't care how you want to justify a loss to Wagner(without their best player for last 10 mins) on your home court. UConn has nobody that can rebound, no shot makers, they play a stale unimaginative offense, they have no bigs, and they struggle defending the 3pt arch.

 

[Matrim55]

We lost our 3 best players from last year's borderline top-25 team. Why would anyone be surprised with some early-season struggles?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Anyone else getting the hairline ink ad? Just go smooth dome if you're gonna tattoo hair on yourself.

 

[UConn990411]

It's not overreacting when the same bad patterns keep repeating themselves.

I know the circumstances have been very different, but the past two teams have underachieved. Starting this year with a loss to Wagner isn't a good start obviously.

 

[Matrim55]

It's not overreacting when the same bad patterns keep repeating themselves.

I know the circumstances have been very different, but the past two teams have underachieved. Starting this year with a loss to Wagner isn't a good start obviously.

This is fair.

But also fair: From 2012 through 2015, in the wake of the CR crotch-kick, recruiting sanctions, postseason ban & scholarship reduction, we had four straight classes that were either undermanned or patchwork. That's resulted in each of the last three teams (including this year's) being vastly different than the one before it -- we've had a new primary ball-handler every year, a new leading scorer, a new alpha dog, etc, each season. Heading into this year, more than half our roster is brand new.

This start is a result of that. Teams that don't know or understand how to play together are teams that are tentative, while teams that return a ton of key players -- like the 2013/14 team that won the title -- are not.

Irrespective of that, there are a couple of things to remember here:

1. The 2017 recruiting class will be our second straight really good/borderline great recruiting class
2. Ollie's teams have all generally played much better ball later in the season

We're still in the transition era for UConn hoops. By this time next year we'll be able to avoid losses like yesterday's based upon both continuity and raw talent. It burns that we're not there yet, but this is exactly what those sanctions were designed to do.

 

[CTBasketball]

It took KO 8 minutes and 19 seconds to call his first time out in the 1H. I guess we haven't learned.

 

[pnow15]

Ollie's program is so bad the the NCAA organized its tournament last season to make sure UConn played Kansas on the first Saturday night of tourney for the ratings and the possible upset.

 

[CL82]

Us long timers really know how to panic and bitch. A skill that took years to hone.

I know, right? The newbs got no skills.

 

[FartMan69]

We're a program who used to be ranked top 10 consistently, playing in the best conference in the country with multiple future NBAers at the helm. Now we are aren't really any of those things so excuse us for bitching but uhhhhh oh yeah WAGNER. Let us complain okay

 

[jibsey]

We're a program who used to be ranked top 10 consistently, playing in the best conference in the country with multiple future NBAers at the helm. Now we are aren't really any of those things so excuse us for bitching but uhhhhh oh yeah WAGNER. Let us complain okay

We used to get players like Donyell, KEA, Rudy Gay, Andre, these guys are top 10 players or near it. Have we had any of those lately? No, and if you watch elite teams, they usually have one at least and teams like Duke and Kentucky have several. Personnel makes a difference so you are right about the future NBA'ers. If we could get a strong bull down low with good hands like that kid last night it would help enormously. Do we have one next year?

 

[Jaker]

Bunch of Nancies

 

[Towney007]

This wasn't a normal loss. Not even close.

This is one of those 'i'm going to look back in five years and that's going to be the point where I knew we were in trouble' kind of losses.

It's Wagner. At home. With *their* best player sitting on his duff for 25% of the game. In an arena where we have the lights turned down so no one notices it's falling apart. IN front of an audience that can barely find the game on TV. With a team doing the same, precise, exact things they did poorly with different personnel the last two seasons. And the returning personnel doing the same things poorly they've always done because they haven't developed.

That's not the bench mark of a program headed in the right direction. At a point where the actual margin for error is much more significant in the long run. I'd much rather the school be overly aggressive in protecting the assets it has (hoops) and stop assuming that's fine and waste valuable resources pursuing success in something their fan base isn't even willing to pay for. This is a cataclysmic loss and if it sets off a spiral where this team is mediocre this year, it's time to make a change. A significant one. And get more focused on protecting the floor than trying to elevate a ceiling.

 

[Fishy]

It wasn't a WTF loss.

A WTF loss is when things go awry and you end up losing the game.

This was a loss where known issues from the past several years appear to have gone unresolved and we lost to a team with a lesser roster.

Unfortunately, that's just a normal loss for us.

 

[Kitaman]

I don't think a lot of posters are overreacting regarding the 'team', but very disappointed in our vets, especially our Seniors. Wagner was good enough to beat our new bunch (frosh/sophs) any day of the season, but we had Seniors Purvis, Brimah and Facey who were involved in our Championship Trophy. They know what it takes and against Wagner should have delivered a victory. To be out rebounded and out-willed is unacceptable, like Ollie said afterwards when wearing the UConn jersey. I want our Seniors to be hungry and hate the taste of losing, transferring that to our underclassmen. Lose with energy, desire and fighting not by going through the motions, getting punked (on the boards) and looking disoriented.

That's not overreacting (at least to me) but realistically calling out our Seniors, at HOME for goodness sakes. Our vets should have been booed with the product they brought forward last night.

 

[uconngb]

I don't think a lot of posters are overreacting regarding the 'team', but very disappointed in our vets, especially our Seniors. Wagner was good enough to beat our new bunch (frosh/sophs) any day of the season, but we had Seniors Purvis, Brimah and Facey who were involved in our Championship Trophy. They know what it takes and against Wagner should have delivered a victory. To be out rebounded and out-willed is unacceptable, like Ollie said afterwards when wearing the UConn jersey. I want our Seniors to be hungry and hate the taste of losing, transferring that to our underclassmen. Lose with energy, desire and fighting not by going through the motions, getting punked (on the boards) and looking disoriented.

That's not overreacting (at least to me) but realistically calling out our Seniors, at HOME for goodness sakes. Our vets should have been booed with the product they brought forward last night.

How anyone can try and spin that game as anything but a complete disaster is in total denial.

 

[jdb50]

First football game of the year against Maine, who is from a lower level of football, we could not gain a yard for a first down on our first drive. After much positive propaganda from the head coach during the preseason this play for told a year long struggle and the clear lack of improvement that the coach said had happened. I overlooked this and bought the hype. So last nights game against Wagner has me very concerned. The same pattern of preseason hype in regards to an ongoing problem- an inept front court, giving up wide open 3's- being addressed yet the problem is still there is staring us in the face. I will hope this shows some improvement but I won't expect it to happen. On another negative note, how long are we going to keep paying Ray Reid top dollar? Hope we haven't extended his contract lately. Benedict has a full plate.