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Message: [QUOTE="Doginaus, post: 2128732, member: 5203"] I have to agree with RUSS56, in his initial post, he presented an accurate assessment of the program as a whole since Kevin Ollie took over. I'm not bashing KO or anyone else for that matter, but, from what I've seen since Jim Calhoun took over the program to what it is now, we aren't even on the same page. It is true, Jim Calhoun took over this program and built it from a regional power into a national power and winning 3 national championships along the way. Everyone knew who was in charge of this program, no doubt. Speaking of recruiting, did Jim Calhoun get every high school recruit in the state of Connecticut, no, did Jim Calhoun get every high school recruit he had targeted, no, but, he did get the recruits that were best for what he wanted to do with his system and his program. In fact, there were many kids he didn't recruit because they weren't the type of kids he wanted for his program. Bottom line is this; we all know that Jim Calhoun knew what he wanted and he could recruit because the proof is he won 3 National Championships and had several of his players went on to have great careers in the NBA with a slam dunk future Hall of Famer. Not to minimize Kevin Ollie and what he's done because last year, he had a great recruiting class; several 4 star bordering 5 star recruits and other possibly underrated players made up that great class. Previous recruiting classes haven't been as good as last years class, and we don't know what the future holds for upcoming classes. It is possible that Jim Calhoun and Kevin Ollie have different philosophies when it comes to what they want in their programs and the types of players they recruit. UCONN is nationally known, because of what Jim Calhoun has done, period. When Kevin Ollie took over the program, he took over a nationally known commodity that not only has name recognition but also has pedigree, 4 National Championship banners hang from the rafters at Gampel Pavilion as proof. We know what Jim Calhoun has done with the program, what has Kevin Ollie done with what he inherited? Yes, he won a National Championship in his second year of coaching, but not with his players. I'm not minimizing what he has done, I'm just asking what has he done with what he has recruited? We've won a few tournament games, agreed, but, we missed a couple of tournaments as well. Something is missing, not sure what it is either, but its just not there. Does the AAC have something to do with it? I guarantee that has a pretty big part on why we don't get those top recruits to come to UCONN. We saw the respect this conference gets from the tournament committee, we had our two top teams seeded as #6's! Even though they lost early, they should have been seeded higher. Heck, we won the whole thing as #7 seed in 2014! My point here is that the blame is not all on Kevin Ollie, the conference we're in is part of the problem. What we have not accomplished under Kevin Ollie is player development. The program needs to coach up these kids and not allow mediocrity to be the rule of the day. I understand "10 toes in" and "take the stairs and not the escalator", but, have we seen it? We had a Ferrari parked in the garage that sputtered when let out in the open road, who's fault is that? This past year, we played with 6 or 7 guys plus the walk-ons because the other players were out for the rest of the season with injuries, who's fault is that? In all honesty, we know the answer. We've seen some recent changes made by Kevin Ollie and hopefully those changes will fix some of the things that has been a hindrance to the growth of this program. Whether we want to agree or not, leadership is not overrated. This program needs strong leadership, from the top on down. Personally, I believe when you have strong leadership, you have a strong vision of what you want to accomplish and a strong willingness to go after it and, achieve it. That, I believe is one of the things that this program is missing. Kevin Ollie shouldn't be the players best friend, he needs to be their coach and lead them. Hey, sometimes strong leadership hurts feelings, but that's life. RUSS56, you did a good job, and you're right, somehow a couple of sentences you wrote about recruiting kids in Connecticut were hijacked. That does not diminish all the other things you mentioned in your post. Thanks for your post, it was needed. [/QUOTE]

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