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Staff Changes Needed

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Just to clarify, Freeman is the DBO and does absolutely zero on-court work with players.
 
Deepster said:
Listen, the 1999 team is always going to be my favorite team....but that being said, I haven't seen or heard much about how Ricky or Free are making the current players improve. Say what you will about Clyde Vaughan, but his work with our front court was spoken of highly and often. Leitao and Howie D as well. Maybe they're young and still finding their way, but I think you have to assume this coaching staff has a big hand in the lack of development in this team so far.
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I never understood this. Vaughn was only here for 2 years. Two. What the hell did our bigs do the other 25+ years?

Both Leito and Moore were far more influential in player development.
 
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intlzncster said:
I never understood this. Vaughn was only here for 2 years. Two. What the hell did our bigs do the other 25+ years?
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All he did was of note was go out drinking with Chief. That's literally the entire source of his legend.
 
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Jerry1714 said:
This thread is only 1 of the ridiculous threads (this is actually not the most ridiculous of the lot and maybe I should have saved this observation for one of them) that would only be posted if we lost. If we won the Temple game this thread and 5 other fire Ollie threads, we are irrelevant threads, ect, would not appear. It demonstrates the fickle nature and lunacy of this board, and if you do not see how ridiculous it is then I do not know what to say, but maybe I am crazy and our entire staff, head coach included, and program relevancy was dependent on a early February game against Temple.

Half of the posters tearing down the team and staff were raving about their excellence in getting the team to come together recently, the other half only show up after a loss to troll. There is zero middle ground, it is either we are the best or the worst. It is insane.
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Disagree entirely. People have been up in arms over the assistants the past two seasons. Honestly Napier and Kemba were all time legends. Since 2009,we haven't had a consistent top 10 regular season (2011 being the closest). Those two runs were legendary and I wouldn't trade them for anything but as a Giant fan I can't help but draw parallels between our unexpected titles sandwiched between mediocrity.
 
ConnHuskBask said:
Disagree entirely. People have been up in arms over the assistants the past two seasons. Honestly Napier and Kemba were all time legends. Since 2009,we haven't had a consistent top 10 regular season (2011 being the closest). Those two runs were legendary and I wouldn't trade them for anything but as a Giant fan I can't help but draw parallels between our unexpected titles sandwiched between mediocrity.
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How does anybody have any way of knowing that the assistants are the root of the problem? Or is it just that they're the most convenient scapegoat?
 
Deepster said:
Listen, the 1999 team is always going to be my favorite team....but that being said, I haven't seen or heard much about how Ricky or Free are making the current players improve. Say what you will about Clyde Vaughan, but his work with our front court was spoken of highly and often. Leitao and Howie D as well. Maybe they're young and still finding their way, but I think you have to assume this coaching staff has a big hand in the lack of development in this team so far.
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I agree. I am not convinced that Ricky and KFree are making that much of a difference yet. I don't know about Hobbsie. I believe in Miller primarily what has been said about him by JC. I think he is very helpful identifying talent, etc...

If I were on the staff - I would have looked at Rodney Purvis (last year) and would have told him... "Dude, we need you to shoot 75-80% from the FT line... so at the end of a game (when we begin to act foolish on the offensive end.. you can take the ball from 35 feet and drive to the hoop to get us a desperately needed bucket or 3 point play - just like Ben Gordon did on the 2004 team. You see... we are UCONN and we have the ability to act foolish on the offensive end - near the end of games. Dude, did you see Sterling get manhandled when he tried it? Temple is decent defensive team - no pushover. So this 46% or whatever the fudge you shoot is completely unacceptable. You are a small linebacker - playing football."

Over the years... my only complaint about JC was that his offensive mindset was not the what I thought it could be. I see a little more in KO. But you can't always hope that everyone will just figure it out. We are blessed to have Shonn Miller because the kid can get a decent most of the time. Kemba, Shabazz and Ryan could mask the deficiency most of the time.

So can KFree and Ricky help on the offensive end?
 
ConnHuskBask said:
Disagree entirely. People have been up in arms over the assistants the past two seasons. Honestly Napier and Kemba were all time legends. Since 2009,we haven't had a consistent top 10 regular season (2011 being the closest). Those two runs were legendary and I wouldn't trade them for anything but as a Giant fan I can't help but draw parallels between our unexpected titles sandwiched between mediocrity.
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Actually a really good comparative.
 
TRest said:
Those five minutes were a snapshot of all the problems this team has demonstrated in games the past 2 years. And we weren't up 12 because we were playing great, Temple just couldn't get a good look. If we were playing great the game would have been out of reach. How long was Temple stuck in the 30's, the first ten minutes of the second half? Then suddenly the dam broke.
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What a crock. Temple couldn't get a good look because we have one of the best defenses in the country. Then a 21% 3-point shooter hit three in a row, and they closed the gap, the guys panicked, and we blew it. You're being a reactionary. Please don't try to pretend otherwise.
 
CallMeBruce said:
What a crock. Temple couldn't get a good look because we have one of the best defenses in the country. Then a 21% 3-point shooter hit three in a row, and they closed the gap, the guys panicked, and we blew it. You're being a reactionary. Please don't try to pretend otherwise.
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Every one of those 3s was WIDE open.....give any decent college shooter a wide open look with time to set his feet and he's gonna bury way more than his overall average when he's actually being guarded. Making those shots was no fluke.
 
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Stairmaster said:
How does anybody have any way of knowing that the assistants are the root of the problem? Or is it just that they're the most convenient scapegoat?
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Something isn't right in Storrs.

You're not firing KO, the kids are here, so where else do you look? I don't think they add much as our in game subs and offense still seems horrible.

It's been this way the past two seasons. Given the options we have, I think we need to look at this.
 
uconngb said:
Every one of those 3s was WIDE open.....give any decent college shooter a wide open look with time to set his feet and he's gonna bury way more than his overall average when he's actually being guarded. Making those shots was no fluke.
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You're talking about a guy was like 7-33 on the season coming into the game and went 4-5. It was absolutely a fluke.
 
ConnHuskBask said:
Something isn't right in Storrs.

You're not firing KO, the kids are here, so where else do you look? I don't think they add much as our in game subs and offense still seems horrible.

It's been this way the past two seasons. Given the options we have, I think we need to look at this.
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So in other words, something must be done, this is something, ergo this must be done?
 
CallMeBruce said:
You're talking about a guy was like 7-33 on the season coming into the game and went 4-5. It was absolutely a fluke.
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Let's not pretend we weren't defending him because he's not their top shooter. It was a meltdown in all phases. And results matter in sports.
 
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The truth is obviously somewhere in the middle - in between they are bumbling fools and they are a basketball Mensa society on their way to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a collective group. These were the guys game planning and making adjustments in March and April of 2014, which not many staffs can brag about, and they are the ones who have game planned and adjusted us to 7 winnable losses this year, which they deserve some criticism for. But a couple things in this thread jump out at me.

Ricky is the best defensive guard I've ever seen in college. All of our perimeter guys in the last few years have gotten exponentially better on defense. Could be coincidence, I suppose. I'm not privy to what goes on in practice and maybe he just supervises the managers while others coach defensive principles for all I know. But if you fail to imagine what coaching acumen he could possibly be bringing to the table, I'm not sure how to lay out any dots that are easier to connect than our guards improve defensively. A lot.

Bazz was awesome in 14, but to act like the coaches just went along for the ride is nonsense. Bazz stunk against St. Joe's, got in foul trouble against Nova and was effectively game planned out of the game by Florida. Every time, we adjusted. And those last three games saw our opponents struggle to score 50 points. That wasn't any one player doing that. That was an organized, well-coached team. We show some of that now with our defensive effort too, but we still haven't quite put it all together yet. Five minutes left against Tenple, I felt great about how we were progressing over a month-long arc - now we got ourselves a nut punch that pretty much flattens that arc out straight again in a matter of minutes. Sports does that to you sometimes. It's now about how we respond to it.

Also, the original poster has a blind spot for micro/macro issues. He'll opine that if we miss a free throw in a tie game in the first half, it's an epic disaster that will start the ball rolling for the entire state university system to collapse. So grain of salt.
 
CallMeBruce said:
So in other words, something must be done, this is something, ergo this must be done?
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I mean you can be a wise ass all you want.

The team has been BAD two straight seasons. If you think Hobbs, Miller or Moore are coaching geniuses more power to you.
 
Citrusdog said:
If I were on the staff - I would have looked at Rodney Purvis (last year) and would have told him... "Dude, we need you to shoot 75-80% from the FT line... so at the end of a game (when we begin to act foolish on the offensive end.. you can take the ball from 35 feet and drive to the hoop to get us a desperately needed bucket or 3 point play - just like Ben Gordon did on the 2004 team. You see... we are UCONN and we have the ability to act foolish on the offensive end - near the end of games. Dude, did you see Sterling get manhandled when he tried it? Temple is decent defensive team - no pushover. So this 46% or whatever the fudge you shoot is completely unacceptable. You are a small linebacker - playing football."
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If it were that ridiculously simple, I would be the greatest coach in the history of the known universe.
 
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Everybody needs to pull together and get their chemistry straightened out.

I hope they don't form a circular firing squad like the posters.

Funny. There is one, clear, team issue and no one mentions it in their diagnosis. I guess speculation is better than the , elephant in the middle of the room.
 
intlzncster said:
In general, fixing the team overall is pretty simple.

Give them a consensus 1st team AA point guard, and they are a Final Four lock. And Ollie has his coach on the floor.
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^^ This is it in a nutshell.

We have a team full of 2-guards. Honestly, I think we might have more 2-guards than scholarships! Gibbs, Purvis, Calhoun, Cassell Jr....all 2-guards. Our only true "point" is a freshman. And he makes freshman mistakes.

So who runs the point, then? Our forward, of course! Picture a UConn fast break this year in your head. Who's dribbling the ball up the court in your mental picture? If it isn't Hamilton, then I think you've been watching a different team this year than I have.

If Adams can put it together down the stretch, we are going to be in for another classic April run by our Huskies. If he can't, then next year is the year that we take it all, especially if Gilbert turns out to be as good as they are saying he is...
 
Tenspro2002 said:
The coaching has been a big problem for 2 years now.

KO deserves to coach his own recruits, and has at least 2 years beyond this one to prove he's the right guy long-term. But he will be on notice if this season continues the way it has, with two big disappointments in a row.

The rest of the staff needs a shake-up. This "all in the family" coaching staff is a cute look and maybe it fits the "family" storyline we pitch to recruits. But I'm not convinced the guys we have now add a G-D thing when it comes to
1) recruiting
2) player development
3) in-game tactics

Recruiting was a concern for some time, but KO -- essentially on his own -- seems to have righted the ship.

The bigs, plainly, have not significantly improved during KO's tenure. Because of the horrific recruiting, none of the bigs we have (Nolan, Facey, Brimah) were going to morph into Olajuwon. But after 3 or 4 years, we should have seen much more than we have.

It's become cliche to say it, but we need to bring in an assistant who can challenge, instill toughness in, and improve the skills of our bigs. We're not going to be recruiting the Jahlil Okafors and Karl-Anthony Townses of the world. If we can't develop bigs, our frontcourt will always be a weakness.

Whatever Glen Miller is supposed to be providing here, in terms of big-man coaching, game-planning, and strategy, it's not cutting it.

Karl Hobbs may be past his expiration date as well.
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It says something about me, that I can lurk on this board for 5 years without responding to any of the intelligent, enlightening posts, but this hot garbage drags me in.

I can defend the development of the bigs but in the end I'd be forced to admit my argument (and yours) is subjective and therefore inconclusive, which by the way is one strike against you. I can tell you that Phil & Amida are playing well and I have no idea what team you're watching if you think they aren't doing thier job.

I agree that Kentan isn't where I'd hoped but I wonder if you had the same criticism of Edmond prior to his senior year. Due to his lack of pt I have to assume he's not embracing (and putting in the work) his role.

Whatever the case the Huskies didn't lose that game because of the bigs, they lost a game they should have won by 30 because they didn't have a pg on the floor. The reason for that is a hangover from the post season ban, you remember that? The one that caused a laps in good recruiting & resulting in the usual boneyard suspects calling for a recruiting "closer"?

Next year Jalen plays off ball with a legit pg on the floor.

What irritates me most about the reactionaries like the op is that thier opinion literally comes from a place of ignorance. Get rid of Glen Miller?

Who scouted for the Butler game? You don't know.

Who scouted for the Kentucky game? Oh you don't know that either?

Who is responsible for helping the team insert more motion? Let me guess.
 
CallMeBruce said:
You're talking about a guy was like 7-33 on the season coming into the game and went 4-5. It was absolutely a fluke.
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how many of those 33 attempts do you think were completely uncontested? hell, any decent high school player could hit 50% from 3 if he's just standing there wide open
 
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