It was another desperate move from a desperate coach who saw three of his starters and his top recruit leave. Wanted to take the heat off himself and hopefully pull a rabbit out of a hat.
If only that were true. It’s well known in the inner circles that KO doesn’t work at recruiting. The staff for the last few years has had to beg him to recruit. And as far as Xs and Os. The assistants past and present have a lot more to offer than it appears during games. But their input isn’t welcomed by KO. He has all the answers...not many of them correct answers unfortunately.
It's also well known that he has killed several drifters while pretending to be on recruiting trips. Really amazing that it has taken this long for people to start saying something about it. It's a real problem.
Believe what you want. I really couldn’t care less. Not trying to be obnoxious when I say that. But I know what’s been going on enough to stand by my earlier comment. The assistants do most if not all of the heavy lifting at UConn under KO. And it shows in terms of him having little to no relationship with the players. Any notion that KO works hard at recruiting is not based in reality or fact.
We should be able to out recruit Witchita State from now until eternity. Frankly, we should be able to out recruit a lot of schools. Getting anyone to come to UConn isn’t hard. Getting the right players is. As for Gonzaga, I’d venture to say no we haven’t. I have no idea what the rankings say, but the eye test (at least my eye test) says that Gonzaga has had more talent than us over the last four years. Both schools also coach up their talent and both schools recruit talent to fit their system and team. Part of KOs issue is that he doesn’t recruit kids that fit the UConn system and style of old, or his system (whatever the hell that system is). He’s been recruiting kids that have been easy for UConn to recruit (relatively speaking). Notice we’re not winning a lot of recruiting battles against decent schools...
The fact that you speak of is what, high school recruiting rankings? I won’t argue that UConn has mostly outrecruited (rankings-wise) the AAC. It should. Quite easily given its history and brand. But I wouldn’t confuse that with good recruiting. Recruiting the right players and recruiting the pieces and parts that make up a successful team and system is actually the goal. And he’s failed miserably at that. Never mind player his lack of player development. But my response originally was to the statement that he’s a good recruiter. I disagree entirely with that premise.
