Some of long timers here are overreacting.

[chiller99.5]

As upsetting as the loss was its in most minds was compounded by the recent pummellings received by the football squad, and the lambasting UCONN receives weekly on every AAC board board by turds from Eastern Carolina and other such clown colleges.

 

[CTBasketball]

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.

Yeah this is just so spot on.

In addition, KO is trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole with Brimah as our starting center. Its really comical now watching him run around like a clueless 12 year old not knowing how to play the game. If we gave Enoch even 3/4 the amount of run we give Brimah, Enoch will be miles better.

I don't want to start discussing guard play.

 

[David 76]

Coaching, our bigs and their lack of development, sure.
But Adams And Purvis had horrible games
That is really likely to change.
Don't crawl under a rock just yet.

 

[champs99and04]

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.

I don't really buy this. We returned three of our top six from last years team. That's actually pretty standard in college basketball. Added to the fact that we brought in a top ten recruiting class, and yesterdays loss is inexcusable no matter how you slice it. The coaches have to take some heat.

 

[champs99and04]

Yeah this is just so spot on.

In addition, KO is trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole with Brimah as our starting center. Its really comical now watching him run around like a clueless 12 year old not knowing how to play the game. If we gave Enoch even 3/4 the amount of run we give Brimah, Enoch will be miles better.

I don't want to start discussing guard play.

I wish he was more at this point, but Brimah was the least of our problems yesterday. Enoch showed nothing in his time out there.

 

[intlzncster]

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

I've beat this drum over and over and over. Every year we lose good players it's the same thing. People expected us to be good the year after we lost Shabazz, after we lost Kemba, etc.

Unfortunately, the unbalanced schedule we are forced to play compounds this immensely.

I still don't understand how Ollie can't get these guys up to play against Wagner.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I've beat this drum over and over and over. Every year we lose good players it's the same thing. People expected us to be good the year after we lost Shabazz, after we lost Kemba, etc.

Nobody really reached that level last year (a high level when you use Shabazz and Kemba as examples), so we (as highly spoiled and entitled sports fans) will be unreasonably impatient and expect magic to re-occur reliably. ..........And maybe it will, before too long.

 

[intlzncster]

Nobody really reached that level last year (a high level when you use Shabazz and Kemba as examples), so we (as highly spoiled and entitled sports fans) will be unreasonably impatient and expect magic to re-occur reliably. .....And maybe it will, before too long.

That's fair enough. We did lose 3/5 of the starting lineup though. Including last year's best player.

 

[Deepster]

Show me one post where an old timer is overreacting.

Simply put, this game, with this roster, would not have ever lost this game under Calhoun. They may have played sloppy....but they'd have won and JC would rip their performance in the quotes, hit them harder in practice and they would have gotten better.

Now? They play sloppy, lose the game and continue to make the same mistakes all season long.

 

[CTBasketball]

One thing I hate is hearing nonsense from the post-game pressers.

"We just gotta figure it out. This is a dark time, but we're going to get better."

"I can't put my finger around it, Rodney really struggled. Jalen struggled."

"We had no answers until we started picking up on defense."

"We gotta get tougher."

"Games are not won or lost on a play. By a player."

"The challenges of the season proved to be a strain that were too great."

"The culture is strong, they love each other. They work. Its just that feeling of 'here we go' again can create some deceleration in games."

"The players felt great support and love. Everyone is upset, losing. The people at home are frustrated, no more than we are."

"Its execution and more dynamic play calling. Poor. Ridiculous."

Someone just take accountability for the ****ing horrible level of play we're seeing at this school right now. Both of these guys are unbelievable sometimes. We're never ready to play the game!

And this is me not even commenting on in-game coaching situations...

 

[don356]

A guy like Purvis is the wild card. What is this his 5th year in college? A guy that has been around as long as he has either 1. wishes he would have left to make some money or 2. will embrace his role as they leader/upper classman and play his butt off. I think in large part if they are going to have a really good season it will fall on how he plays/reacts. If he's not invested fully, it will impact their chemistry.

 

[Sky ball]

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

All Ollie needs to do is have Bob Diaco to come in and get the basketball locker room painted and meet with the team to discuss good nutrition. That will fix everything.

 

[Brochacho]

I think the elephant in the room is that despite our two recent national championships, our program has been in a period of decline for the past decade. I'm sure this will be countered with the fact that we have won two titles since 2011, but I don't think above average teams catching fire in in March is the best we can do. Over the past ten NCAA tournaments, we've been a 1 or 2 seed once, and missed the NCAA tournament four times. In the 20 year stretch from 1990 to 2009, we were a 1 or 2 seed a total of eleven times, and missed the NCAA tournament four times.

Since winning our latest NCAA championship, we've gone 45-27 for a winning percentage of .625, which isn't that far off from Kevin Ollie's career .683 mark (97-45). In the aforementioned 20 year run, we had a record of 510-159, good for a .752 winning percentage. While there is not a large enough sample, a noticeable trend exists: we are down .069 (nice) when comparing the 90-09 stretch to the 5 years under Ollie, and since the 2014 title built around Calhoun's players we have regressed another .058.

Its not as if we are facing a serious talent deficiency either; this year's squad has 8 ESPN top 100 players: Rodney Purvis, Kentan Facey, Terry Larrier, Jalen Adams, Alterique Gilbert, Vance Jackson, Juwan Durham, and Mamadou Diarra. We have better talent than the majority of college basketball. We have a head coach who looked brilliant his first two seasons, and is paid like a brilliant coach, and is surrounded by an experienced staff. Our facilities are among the best in the nation. We have some of the best fan support in the nation.

Whats going on?

 

[Rocktheworld]

I do think there is cause for concern if/when KO's post-loss quotes begin to become indistinguishable from Bob Diaco's

 

[August_West]

Nobody really reached that level last year (a high level when you use Shabazz and Kemba as examples), so we (as highly spoiled and entitled sports fans) will be unreasonably impatient and expect magic to re-occur reliably. .....And maybe it will, before too long.

I'm not asking for magic. I'm just asking to beat an NEC team. If we need magic to accomplish that we are truly in trouble.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I'm not asking for magic. I'm just asking to beat an NEC team. If we need magic to accomplish that we are truly in trouble.

I misread the post by intelizcpngos=erz;lnvaer. Never mind.

 

[pnow15]

I think the elephant in the room is that despite our two recent national championships, our program has been in a period of decline for the past decade. I'm sure this will be countered with the fact that we have won two titles since 2011, but I don't think above average teams catching fire in in March is the best we can do. Over the past ten NCAA tournaments, we've been a 1 or 2 seed once, and missed the NCAA tournament four times. In the 20 year stretch from 1990 to 2009, we were a 1 or 2 seed a total of eleven times, and missed the NCAA tournament four times.

Since winning our latest NCAA championship, we've gone 45-27 for a winning percentage of .625, which isn't that far off from Kevin Ollie's career .683 mark (97-45). In the aforementioned 20 year run, we had a record of 510-159, good for a .752 winning percentage. While there is not a large enough sample, a noticeable trend exists: we are down .069 (nice) when comparing the 90-09 stretch to the 5 years under Ollie, and since the 2014 title built around Calhoun's players we have regressed another .058.

Its not as if we are facing a serious talent deficiency either; this year's squad has 8 ESPN top 100 players: Rodney Purvis, Kentan Facey, Terry Larrier, Jalen Adams, Alterique Gilbert, Vance Jackson, Juwan Durham, and Mamadou Diarra. We have better talent than the majority of college basketball. We have a head coach who looked brilliant his first two seasons, and is paid like a brilliant coach, and is surrounded by an experienced staff. Our facilities are among the best in the nation. We have some of the best fan support in the nation.

Whats going on?

We lost one game.

 

[Sky ball]

We lost one game.

Just 1? So we still have a chance?

 

[gtcam]

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.

WOW there's a mouthful after 1 game
Not surprised who liked this comment

The loss was bad but at this point its not the end of the world as in CATACLYSMIC

Maybe those who think like this have unrealistic hopes to start

IF this continues there is a need to question but UConn is dealing with young kids, a senior "center" and a 5th yr guard who can carry as well as drop

 

[7774]

Whats going on?

What's going on is the same thing that has happened at every elite program when they have transitioned from their mainstay Hall of Fame coach to the next coach. We compounded it by having recruiting restrictions and moving to a worse conference at the same time.

We have no junior class, and our senior class is made up of guys who are decent but inconsistent players, whom you can't count on to be productive each game.

So basically we have worse talent and worse coaching.

The bad versions of our seniors showed up Friday, and the sophomore we hoped would be our best player also played badly. Wagner is a veteran team that brought almost everyone back from a decent team last year. It's the exact type of team that can beat you when you're relying on big contributions from 5 guys playing their first college game and a sophomore transfer who hasn't played a game in 2 years in order to win.

The good news is that this is the first year in a while where the talent is really back on the upswing, and despite Ollie being frustrating in some aspects, he has proven multiple times that he can coach games at a high level.

 

[InKembaITrust]

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.

Was at this game, looked exactly like what it was, seniors against freshman. Felt like every time we were going to get over the hump Rodney, the fifth year senior, was the one ironically making bonehead mistakes. As the season lineup evolves Gilbert will become the starting PG, and Jalen will shift over to starting SG. I said it once I'll say it again, BRING RODNEY OFF THE BENCH. Vital should be getting some serious minutes as well....kid can play from what I saw. Our achilles heel THE ENTIRE SEASON will be not having a post presence down low on the offensive end. If Enoch can miraculously figure it out on the offensive end is the only way we will compete on an elite level.

 

[4in16]

We lost one game.

Exactly, we've lost to worse teams in conference the last couple seasons and no worse than the Yale loss imo. Yes this is more noticeable and painful because it was the first game, but maybe this is the wake up call the team/coaches need. Let's reserve judgement until at least tomorrow nights performance.

 

[Matrim55]

What's going on is the same thing that has happened at every elite program when they have transitioned from their mainstay Hall of Fame coach to the next coach. We compounded it by having recruiting restrictions and moving to a worse conference at the same time.

We have no junior class, and our senior class is made up of guys who are decent but inconsistent players, whom you can't count on to be productive each game.

So basically we have worse talent and worse coaching.

The bad versions of our seniors showed up Friday, and the sophomore we hoped would be our best player also played badly. Wagner is a veteran team that brought almost everyone back from a decent team last year. It's the exact type of team that can beat you when you're relying on big contributions from 5 guys playing their first college game and a sophomore transfer who hasn't played a game in 2 years in order to win.

The good news is that this is the first year in a while where the talent is really back on the upswing, and despite Ollie being frustrating in some aspects, he has proven multiple times that he can coach games at a high level.

Great post.

 

[sledog]

The obvious solution is massive raspberry colonics for everyone.

 

[CTBasketball]

Was at this game, looked exactly like what it was, seniors against freshman. Felt like every time we were going to get over the hump Rodney, the fifth year senior, was the one ironically making bonehead mistakes. As the season lineup evolves Gilbert will become the starting PG, and Jalen will shift over to starting SG. I said it once I'll say it again, BRING RODNEY OFF THE BENCH. Vital should be getting some serious minutes as well....kid can play from what I saw. Our achilles heel THE ENTIRE SEASON will be not having a post presence down low on the offensive end. If Enoch can miraculously figure it out on the offensive end is the only way we will compete on an elite level.

The post presence we have is currently being stashed behind Brimah. He won't get better if we continue to stash him. He's not getting better in practice by battling with Brimah every day.