Some quotes from KO

[Chief00]

Gavin Keefe‏ @GavinKeefe 9m9 minutes ago
Just finished a conference call with UConn coach Kevin Ollie. "Everybody knows in this locker room and in this circle of trust that we're getting better. ... But at the end of the game we've got to win games."

Gavin Keefe‏ @GavinKeefe 7m7 minutes ago
Ollie on Antwoine Anderson's shooting slump: "I think he needs to get steals and rebound, do other things than shoot." Anderson has missed his last 16 shots.

Gavin Keefe‏ @GavinKeefe 6m6 minutes ago
Ollie would like to get more playing time for freshman Tyler Polley and also added that Kwintin Williams is working his way into the rotation

Gavin Keefe‏ @GavinKeefe 2m2 minutes ago
Ollie pleased with play of freshman Isaiah Whaley: "Isaiah has been playing his butt off. ... I'm really loving his effort and attitude right now."

I agree with KO on these topics.

 

[UCweCONN]

They're getting better. That mean's by the end of the year, they'll be able to beat Tulsa. Hurray!

 

[temery]

You call that chaos. What do you call the past season and a half?

I call the last two years irrelevant to a discussion of Ollie’s first two years. The last two years have been a mess, but some of you want to rewrite history.

 

[Rico444]

QUOTE="tcf15, post: 2506836,
Ollie on Antwoine Anderson's shooting slump: "I think he needs to get steals and rebound, do other things than shoot." Anderson has missed his last 16 shots"

Sounds about right. Here’s 30 minutes of PT, don’t shoot.[/QUOTE]

lol, seriously. Adams and Larrier are the only ones I trust to shoot, and even then I'm face-palming a third of their shots.

 

[Rewster]

They're getting better. That mean's by the end of the year, they'll be able to beat Tulsa. Hurray!

That's if Tulsa doesn't get any better?

 

[mauconnfan]

You call that chaos. What do you call the past season and a half?

Why don’t you remind us what you think of the last year and a half, the other 12,000 posts haven’t sunk in yet bass man.

 

[Hoophound]

KO is just saying Anderson needs to focus on other things and let his offense come back in the flow of the game. He could use a layup or two about now.

 

[scotty0330]

As bad as anderson has shot it he can find other ways to impact game. He has to get back to being best permimiter on team and driving into the lane on offense to get zones to collapse. Also driving to get contact and get to the line would be good too. We aren’t shooting enough free throws he can help there too.

I am not as down on him as some even though his shooting reminds me of Jackie moon he can still do things for this team the other guards struggle with.

 

[Sonova]

You seem to be forgetting about the dark cloud hanging over the program as he left. The sanctions may very well have been bogus, but he wasn’t going anywhere with that group. He left the program in chaos, and Ollie held it together.

No one is forgetting anything. And no one is arguing that between the bogus APR situation and conference realignment, that everything was smooth sailing or that KO didn’t do a terrific job. The OP wrote that JC dragged the program down. That’s the part that some of us disagree (vehemently) with. The savior title that gets assigned to Ollie is both overstated and has been (unfortunately) proven false

 

[champs99and04]

There is literally nothing he could have said that would have satisfied this board. When you're the leader of a program that has under-achieved for as long as this one has, you're going to be mocked invariably. That's just the way it goes. I don't blame fishy for making his comment, but man, it's a tough world sometimes.

Anyway, for as coddled as the players will sound to an outsider reading these comments, I think he's right to take this approach. With all that has gone on, it's human nature to undermine Ollie's authority at this point. Coach K can get away with berating a struggling team, Ollie can't. Ollie's only hope is to methodically sell them on the idea that he's right and everybody else is wrong. At this stage in the game that will take some luck, but sometimes all it takes is winning a couple of games by accident and suddenly the king has his throne back.

 

[CTBasketball]

No one is forgetting anything. And no one is arguing that between the bogus APR situation and conference realignment, that everything was smooth sailing or that KO didn’t do a terrific job. The OP wrote that JC dragged the program down. That’s the part that some of us disagree (vehemently) with. The savior title that gets assigned to Ollie is both overstated and has been (unfortunately) proven false

A drunk high school coach could have won the 2014 title if he had Shabazz.

Ollie was a cheerleader who preached on-ball defensive intensity.

 

[mauconnfan]

A drunk high school coach could have won the 2014 title if he had Shabazz.

Ollie was a cheerleader who preached on-ball defensive intensity.

Wow this is really lame.

 

[Austin316]

Are you kidding? He needs to go. This program is being dragged through the dirt just like the football program under Diaco. Uconn Administrators have dropped the ball again. Uconn is the only school that rewards the coaching staff after a few terrible years. And then is afraid to fire them because of the big contracts they rewarded them with. Ollie is not the answer and we need to go outside the program. Coach Calhoun brought this program to the top single-handedly and dragged it down before he left. I know allot of diehards don't want to hear this but that's the truth.

What did you predict our record would be going into the season?

 

[Stainmaster]

A drunk high school coach could have won the 2014 title if he had Shabazz.

Take a lap.

 

[Marty Jackson]

I think he’s evaluating his players much better now than earlier in the season against both terrible and pretty good opponents. It’s frustrating because we’re losing... I get that. How can you win with so many new faces in a conference that is much better than we believe. We look at UConn and put it on such a high pedestal. When we lose I get pissed off. When we win I get pissed off because it’s not complete domination. It’s a lose-lose for Ollie right now. If we get a new coach we aren’t magically going to win out and go to the tournament either. I’m being nice to him mostly because it’s a Friday... if we lose to ECU tomorrow however... I’m gunna open up a can of you know what.

Very fair. We've seen the top, and we aren't there. Ollie is in a tough spot for exactly what you said. Beating ECU by 5? It's a win, but barely....

 

[Marty Jackson]

A drunk high school coach could have won the 2014 title if he had Shabazz.

Ollie was a cheerleader who preached on-ball defensive intensity.

Ollie had Calhoun's talent and system. But I'll give credit to Ollie. He made some great decisions in that tourney that won games. By far his best coaching in that stretch.
I said it earlier, that stint is likely why we as fans had him so much further along as a coach.
I hope he'll get back to that level.
That team, up one with 10 seconds and the ball isn't losing the game because of no inbound play.

 

[CardiffGiant]

A drunk high school coach could have won the 2014 title if he had Shabazz.

Ollie was a cheerleader who preached on-ball defensive intensity.

Surely he must be referring to Shooter from the movie Hoosiers...

 

[tzznandrew]

What did you predict our record would be going into the season?

I think that's the thing, right? And what if I told you Gilbert would get injured at the PK?

This year sucks. We all knew the team wouldn't be great in April/May/June. I get we're all upset, but I don't see how Benedict can look at the court right now and think anything other than "Yup, I knew this is what was going to happen."

The best case realistic scenario was borderline bubble team. And that would be with a healthy AG. If he thought they would be better, he doesn't know basketball; if he fires KO for performing how he knew they would perform--rather than just moving on after last season--than he's just wasted everyone's time to moving on.

There were two logical decisions to the end-of-year fiasco: 1) Fire KO; 2) barring off the court issues, give him 2 years.

The in-between of the options shows lack of foresight or unrealistic expectations given the scenario. Neither's a good look. (Unless they bring in some star coach who we know will be better than KO.)

 

[superjohn]

I think that's the thing, right? And what if I told you Gilbert would get injured at the PK?

This year sucks. We all knew the team wouldn't be great in April/May/June. I get we're all upset, but I don't see how Benedict can look at the court right now and think anything other than "Yup, I knew this is what was going to happen."

The best case realistic scenario was borderline bubble team. And that would be with a healthy AG. If he thought they would be better, he doesn't know basketball; if he fires KO for performing how he knew they would perform--rather than just moving on after last season--than he's just wasted everyone's time to moving on.

There were two logical decisions to the end-of-year fiasco: 1) Fire KO; 2) barring off the court issues, give him 2 years.

The in-between of the options shows lack of foresight or unrealistic expectations given the scenario. Neither's a good look. (Unless they bring in some star coach who we know will be better than KO.)

No, firing him after last season would have brought us some bad press from the national media. After what will be an even worse season almost everyone knows it's the necessary move.

 

[Paesano]

Everyone is hung up on where we are versus expectations. The problem is, expectations vary wildly and rarely are they accurate except for those who threw out a lucky guess. And opinions of where we are today vary wildly too.

What we can do is chart the team's progress. Ok, they are young. People use that as an excuse for low expectations and say they are as good as they thought they would be. Fine. It is also true that young players improve the most rapidly and especially if they are getting PT. So far, we aren't seeing any significant improvement. That, plus the past three seasons, is enough to move in another direction.

 

[tzznandrew]

No, firing him after last season would have brought us some bad press from the national media. After what will be an even worse season almost everyone knows it's the necessary move.

If it's the necessary move--and I'm not saying it's not--then you pull the trigger and worry about the press later. The future of the basketball team is either in the care of someone you trust, or in the care of someone you don't. If it's the latter, you move on.

 

[tzznandrew]

It is also true that young players improve the most rapidly and especially if they are getting PT.

I mean, 2000-2001 and 2006-2007 called to remind you that the improvement usually happens more rapidly in the offseason.

At UConn, Jeremy Lamb is probably the only freshman who made a mid-year leap I can recall. All our other youngins took their lumps and then looked much better Year 2.

 

[auror]

I think that's the thing, right? And what if I told you Gilbert would get injured at the PK?

This year sucks. We all knew the team wouldn't be great in April/May/June. I get we're all upset, but I don't see how Benedict can look at the court right now and think anything other than "Yup, I knew this is what was going to happen."

The best case realistic scenario was borderline bubble team. And that would be with a healthy AG. If he thought they would be better, he doesn't know basketball; if he fires KO for performing how he knew they would perform--rather than just moving on after last season--than he's just wasted everyone's time to moving on.

There were two logical decisions to the end-of-year fiasco: 1) Fire KO; 2) barring off the court issues, give him 2 years.

The in-between of the options shows lack of foresight or unrealistic expectations given the scenario. Neither's a good look. (Unless they bring in some star coach who we know will be better than KO.)

I think the 3rd and 4th paragraphs are good points, but there is a lack of day to day nuance in the outlook. You can give someone a 2nd chance and still re-assess before waiting for full results if you feel his approach even in the short-term isn't working (adjusting your thinking inclusive of the poor roster and situation and just looking at adjustments made this year) without necessarily having poor foresight. Especially if you knew of extenuating personal circumstances or were given assurances of change, etc., at time of initial decision. If those things aren't being met, you don't need to wait the full 2 years.

WE as fans have almost no knowledge of any such personal things, so WE should give the 2 years. But that's also not how fandom works.

 

[tzznandrew]

I think the 3rd and 4th paragraphs are good points, but there is a lack of day to day nuance in the outlook. You can give someone a 2nd chance and still re-assess before waiting for full results if you feel his approach even in the short-term isn't working (adjusting your thinking inclusive of the poor roster and situation and just looking at adjustments made this year) without necessarily having poor foresight. Especially if you knew of extenuating personal circumstances or were given assurances of change, etc., at time of initial decision. If those things aren't being met, you don't need to wait the full 2 years.

WE as fans have almost no knowledge of any such personal things, so WE should give the 2 years. But that's also not how fandom works.

Yes. I think that's right. Benedict, since he knows of things we don't, has a different perspective that cuts against my point, perhaps.

But you also pick up that my point is in some since, more to the posters here.

 

[Paesano]

I don't believe Ollie will be fired mid-season. Too many reasons not to and not of reason to do it.

But, if this team doesn't show major improvement by the end of the season, the only quote I want to read is, "I resign as the head basketball coach at UConn to pursue other interests."

You know, we keep hearing about Ollie's "reset" and how it made us too young to do any good this year. Correct me if I am wrong but, other than booting an assistant coach, didn't the players create the "reset"? Ollie didn't get rid of the "guys that didn't want to be here". They left...for a reason. It is being spun as an Ollie action that we need to wait on. It is being spun as Ollie replacing bad apples with good apples. No. It was kids quitting on him. Why assume it won't keep happening? Why give him a pass. Injuries? Fine. But players quitting on him is far more alarming.