Team UConn

[MadDogRevival]

You seem to forget that he held the team together for a year role being banned from the tournament.

It's a point. He did appear to rally the troops and he kept everybody on board.

 

[Rocktheworld]

After we knocked off MSU in Germany, with the players all mobbing KO on camera, I thought we had struck gold.

As fans, it’s hard to see the line between a coach and a buddy gets crossed.

But in hindsight, it seems that’s what was going on all along. Bazz and co. carried KO, super friendly multi-year assistant thrust in the role of leader of a top-flight program, and were happy to make him successful. Sure the team was mostly kept together through the ban year, but that could be each individual’s pride in themselves, their team mates, and/or UConn as much as or more than KO.

Now I wonder a bit what the talk between retiring JC and heir apparent KO was like. I wonder if KO genuinely felt ready for his legendary role model to put him in the position he held for the last 6 years. I wonder if a feeling of being thrust in to said position had anything to do with the decline in their relationship.

Probably just inventing stuff in my head though

 

[UconnFanDC]

Everyone should chill and see what happens. Hopefully the best will happen for us fans that have had a miserable last few years. But i was not a fan of hiring Ollie. I wanted Brad or Shaka. But jump jumped on the Ollie bandwagon after his first two years "only" of great work.

Praying Dan is the answer. Not sold on Randy coming back yet.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Yesterday’s introductory press conference was an incredibly important moment. Listening to Hurley was the final proof that when it comes to UConn’s future we now have an incredibly able athletic department team in place. It’s taken some time and we’ve suffered through some abysmal lows but this outstanding leadership group led by Susan Herbst now gives us a fighting chance to lift the Huskies up to the level we must achieve if we ever hope to enjoy the fruits of a P-5 invite.
Given who made up this trio over the past few years, how incredible is that these are the folks in charge of our destiny.
David Benedict
Randy Edsall
Dan Hurley
.....instead of these guys:
Warde Manuel
Bob Diaco
Kevin Ollie
I challenge you not to smile. And with Geno Auriemma, Jim Penders, Nancy Stevens, Mike Cavanaugh, Ray Reid, etal already in place, optimism should reign once again in Storrs!

Well, you challenged people not to smile, and this parade of bloviators, know-it-alls, contrarians, tough guys, malcontents, naysayers have taken one for Team UConn.
Party on...

 

[whaler11]

Well, you challenged people not to smile, and this parade of bloviators, know-it-alls, contrarians, tough guys, malcontents, naysayers have taken one for Team UConn.
Party on...

Please. Nostical has written volumes of similar nonsense that has been proven wrong 100 times over.

He has hundreds of posts leg humping Bob Diaco - a coach so bad he has put the entire program’s existance at risk.

You could generate almost unlimited funds just fading whatever he claims will happen. He is 0 for a billion. If he tells you to be excited history would tell us disaster lies ahead.

If you just want to read mindless drivel celebrating how great everything is in spite of the evidence then go ahead and bang on that ignore button. Otherwise maybe try to make an actual on topic argument rather than making the same post over and over.

 

[Danzz]

I understand that objective. Now think about the climate at most colleges, where nothing can be debated? Everyting offends someone. Trigger words and gender neutral pronouns. Speakers shouted down. Universities have become anti-intellectual.

You add that to the high cost and it becomes harder and harder to justify. I honestly think the main thing kids learn now is some minor degree of self sufficiency. Unless they have a more vocational field of study. I’ve got three more years until my daughter graduates HS and the whole college choice and major selection issue concerns me.

What worries me is how easy it is today for kids to become isolated: video games, on-line social media, etc. They don't even need real friends anymore.
These are the same people Whaler wants to hire because the lack of exposure to others can provide a situation where the young person becomes focused and excels at one thing; say computer programming. No reason to bring him/her into the office because they probably don't shower and don't have the necessary skills to work with others. No need for any of that because they can just send an email and attach their work along with a time sheet.
Now there is a movement toward going to college on-line: another reason not to leave their rooms. It may be cheaper but it is not better IMO. In fact it is dangerous.
There is a lot to be said for spending the years between your mother and your wife in the academic atmosphere college provides. It teaches students how to get along with people and as you said live on their own. Students don't get that in their room.
I get what you are saying about the academic climate on campuses today and while that is disappointing it doesn't trump the college experience. I'm wondering how many would trade their college days for an on-line experience. I wouldn't and I don't think you would either.
If I sound like an old fart it is because I am. College in the 60's, played a sport and drank way too much beer. When I was a kid I'd eat my Cherrios and go to ball field or playground and spend all day except for lunch. I did it on my own but if I wanted to hang around my room I'm sure my mother would have booted me out of the house. It is just so different today and I don't think for the better.
The cost of college needs to be addressed and I really feel for you with the costs you will have to deal with in 3 years. I just don't think the best solution is on-line college.

 

[UConn990411]

By no means do I think Herbst has been perfect, but the Herbst haters on this board are a weird bunch.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Well, you challenged people not to smile, and this parade of bloviators, know-it-alls, contrarians, tough guys, malcontents, naysayers have taken one for Team UConn.
Party on...

Ummmm Nosticadomas is never right about anything. Weird you’d hitch your wagon to him. If it makes you feel better to post happy positive things that are completely wrong knock your socks off. But if you can’t stand to listen to other points of view and you have to use the ignore feature maybe you shouldn’t post on a message board.

 

[bazzketball13]

Geez. She’s only been in charge of the greatest rise in UConn’s academic reputation in the schools history. Some of you think the university world revolves around sports and especially football and men’s basketball.

I mean the school was built off basketball success

 

[UConnNick]

Honestly, Warde was simply an ok hire. But the instincts were correct. She went and got a well reguarded guy with a football background. We can say he wasn’t great here, but Michigan hired him. So he obviously wasn’t a catastrophe. Ollie was forced on him by Calhoun, and Diaco was an unlucky hire. He looked the part until we saw him up close. I refuse to believe that Warde could have altered the ACC Louisville decision.

You can refuse to believe it, but the truth is nobody will ever know for sure since Suzy and Warde sat on a beach while attending a largely meaningless early season BB tourney "monitoring the situation" (Warde's words).

It may be true that the two of them could have jumped through flaming hoops and it still would have gone down the way it did, but they didn't even put up any fight.

With what was riding on the outcome of that fateful decision, I would have assembled a room full of marketing gurus and bombarded every damn ACC president with brochures, metrics, marketing surveys, anything at our disposal to promote the school in a professional way. I would have button holed every damn ACC prez I had any prior relationship with and try to develop some allies. It was generally known the NC schools and perhaps UVA were on our side vs. Loserville. If we could have turned a few of the football schools I think we could have developed a consensus that might have overcome the objections of BS College.

The Beagles were considered a marginal outlier by the other schools. Besides that, how much respect should they have been afforded if their pitch was that their whole AD would crater because they couldn't compete against UCONN head-to-head in NE? It ended up happening to them anyway with us in a totally different conference.

It was a monumental turning point in our history. If we lost out to the Loserville slime machine, fine, then at least you went down fighting. We didn't even put up any fight. The end result now may very well be irreversible.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Ummmm Nosticadomas is never right about anything. Weird you’d hitch your wagon to him. If it makes you feel better to post happy positive things that are completely wrong knock your socks off. But if you can’t stand to listen to other points of view and you have to use the ignore feature maybe you shouldn’t post on a message board.

Do you recommend that I criticize the ingredients in my 11 year old granddaughter's birthday cake before or after she blows out the candles?
Please answer by Tuesday.
Thanks in advance.

 

[intlzncster]

Ummmm Nosticadomas is never right about anything. Weird you’d hitch your wagon to him. If it makes you feel better to post happy positive things that are completely wrong knock your socks off.

Please. Nostical has written volumes of similar nonsense that has been proven wrong 100 times over.....You could generate almost unlimited funds just fading whatever he claims will happen. He is 0 for a billion. If he tells you to be excited history would tell us disaster lies ahead.
over.

This is just great. So, we are well and truly @#$%ed. Who's on our short list for next coach?

 

[junglehusky]

By no means do I think Herbst has been perfect, but the Herbst haters on this board are a weird bunch.

Also weird: how Hogan's name never comes up in these threads. The guy who was Hathaway's boss all those years.

 

[Waquoit]

I think Nostical is on the money here. We've turned a corner.

 

[whaler11]

This is just great. So, we are well and truly @#$%ed. Who's on our short list for next coach?

Hurley will be fine.

It’s the next football coach you might need to find.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Do you recommend that I criticize the ingredients in my 11 year old granddaughter's birthday cake before or after she blows out the candles?
Please answer by Tuesday.
Thanks in advance.

Happy birthday to your granddaughter.

 

[intlzncster]

Also weird: how Hogan's name never comes up in these threads. The guy who was Hathaway's boss all those years.

Wasn't Hogan the guy who spent more time drunk than actually working?

 

[intlzncster]

Hurley will be fine.

It’s the next football coach you might need to find.

So he's more of a football mush. I would say that's good, but it's really not. NEED football to be good.

 

[8893]

Wasn't Hogan the guy who spent more time drunk than actually working?

Hogan was an out of touch goober, but I think Austin is the one to whom you’re referring.

 

[intlzncster]

Hogan was an out of touch goober, but I think Austin is the one to whom you’re referring.

OK thanks, I knew it was somebody. What a cast of characters we had.

 

[Hi-Low]

I'm sure some posters in this thread have interesting thoughts to convey but I see massive run-on posts I keep going....the key to good communication is brevity.

 

[RedsoxCowboys]

Yesterday’s introductory press conference was an incredibly important moment. Listening to Hurley was the final proof that when it comes to UConn’s future we now have an incredibly able athletic department team in place. It’s taken some time and we’ve suffered through some abysmal lows but this outstanding leadership group led by Susan Herbst now gives us a fighting chance to lift the Huskies up to the level we must achieve if we ever hope to enjoy the fruits of a P-5 invite.
Given who made up this trio over the past few years, how incredible is that these are the folks in charge of our destiny.
David Benedict
Randy Edsall
Dan Hurley
.....instead of these guys:
Warde Manuel
Bob Diaco
Kevin Ollie
I challenge you not to smile. And with Geno Auriemma, Jim Penders, Nancy Stevens, Mike Cavanaugh, Ray Reid, etal already in place, optimism should reign once again in Storrs!

Ray Reid needs to do a better job with our soccer program, and getting us back to NCAA tournament, and actually doing something in the tournament.

 

[gtcam]

8893 said: ↑
Your issues with Ollie say a lot more about you than they do about him.


MadDogRevival,
Issues with Ollie? I have no issues with Ollie. My opinion of Ollie is that he was unqualified for the job, he was in over his head, he won with Calhoun's guys, he tanked the program through incompetence and inattention, and I don't view him as positive part of our history. You read that and you think that I need counseling? Lol again.


You, I and others speak so highly of JC, yet some don't take into consideration that JC forced a lot of people into taking KO rather than open up the search for a replacement. JC's actions somehow get lost in the argument - it's the university pres or AD - actually it was JC who tied everyone's hands. I love JC and consider him the greatest college coach ever and consider him the one person who took UConn on his shoulders and carried it (sorry Geno - womens bball just can't do it) to heights any of us who have been here the last 50 years would only dream. However, UConn should have not been in the position to have only one choice for JC's successor. KO's recent performance has been bad but there is a lot more behind it beyond incompetence and inattention, things that many close their eyes, forget or don't understand - but, yes he had to go

The winning with JC's guys is BS (KO was a part of those years, had a very important part in getting those kids to UConn and working with them) and if you don't consider KO as a positive part of UConn's history (minus the past 2 years), you just don't get it. Do you really change your user ID so many times?

 

[cohenzone]

#HotTake I graduated over a decade ago and dont really care about academic rankings. The only connection I have to the school is athletics.

Kind of sad. Unfortunately, that’s the only connection some of the athletes have even when they’re still in school.

 

[cohenzone]

If people care about the academic ranking so much maybe they can post on the UConn academic fan message boards where I’m sure there’s plenty of interest.

That is hardly the point. If a school’s academics and grant attracting ability goes in the tank but they are Alabama in football you think that’s the role of a university president. Very wise.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

That is hardly the point. If a school’s academics and grant attracting ability goes in the tank but they are Alabama in football you think that’s the role of a university president. Very wise.

Unsurprisingly you couldn’t have missed my point more old man. Try harder.

 

[cohenzone]

If you really care if the school is ranked 35th or 20th in some dopey system that is easily gamed you’ve got way too much of your self-esteem tied up in what the faculty to student ratio is long after you’ve graduated.

Missing the point. The name of the game for a college president is to keep the funding lines open and that means grants as well as donor funding. I don’t care if the school is 20 or 60 so long as my university confers a degree worth a darn if being ranked 35 is better than 60 on that score, it does more for state kids than having a national championship. And it seems like the folks who whine the most are the same people who put down women’s hoops,field hockey and other sports not meeting their definition of meaningful sports.

Do high level sports attract attention? Yup. Are they the first priority for a state university president? If they are, something is out of whack. I didn’t favor Ollie hiring because I thought the university earned a national search. If people want to blame Herbst for anything on that score, it’s for caving to Calhoun. Giving KO a hefty buyout was also not something I favored, but he was a hot commodity and had a title under his belt. Not that crazy.

In Diaco’s case, hardly anyone wanted to retain Pasqualoni and few people whined about Diaco until after his second year. If Herbst is to be “blamed” for anything maybe supporting a buyout figure for Diaco is close to fair . But hindsight is 20-20. And if anyone here knows for a fact that she (and/or Manuel) failed to do something that would have gotten us in to a better conference, I want your sources.

 

[cohenzone]

Unsurprisingly you couldn’t have missed my point more old man. Try harder.

You have no point worth making, squirt.

 

[whaler11]

Missing the point. The name of the game for a college president is to keep the funding lines open and that means grants as well as donor funding. I don’t care if tgeschook is 20 or 60 so long as my university confers a degree worth a Dan if being ranked 35 is better than 60 on that score, it does more for state kids than having a national championship. And it seems like tge folks who whine the most are the same people who out down women’s hoops,field hockey and other sports not meeting their definition of meaningful sports.

Do high level sports attract attention? Yup. Are they the first priority for a state university president? If they are, something is out of whack. I didn’t favor Ollie hiring because I thought the university earned a national search. If people want to blame Herbst for anything on that score, it’s for caving to Calhoun. Giving KO a hefty buyout was also not something I favored, but he was a hot commodity and had a title under his belt. Not that crazy.

In Diaco’s case, hardly anyone wanted to retain Pasqualoni and few people whined about Diaco until after his second year. If Herbst is to be “blamed” for anything maybe supporting a buyout figure for Diaco is close to fair . But hindsight is 20-20. And if anyone here knows for a fact that she (and/or Manuel) failed to do something that would have gotten us in to a better conference, I want your sources.

Whatever you are arguing against is completely made up in your head.

I’m sure you are destroying whatever strawman you are attacking... not so much anything in this thread.

 

[cohenzone]

Whatever you are arguing against is completely made up in your head.

What are you arguing? Anything?