Warde Manuel

[Danzz]

But what if Calhoun decides he wants to coach again? Would you want to be tied to Kevin Ollie for 5 years if Jim Calhoun called and said he'd like to return? I mean he didn't decide he didn't want to come back until just before the start of the season. What if by the end of it he decides he wants to come back and we're stuck with Kevin Ollie? How would you guys feel watching Calhoun prowl the sidelines at, say Tulane?

JC is done at Uconn. And at this point I'd rather have Ollie.

 

[Huskymaniac]

We'll never agree. I've said this countless times, it's pennywise and pound foolish to worry about a 3 year contract at the same rate.

In my estimation, Manuel is doing long-term damage to UConn basketball right now as we speak.

The streets are littered with Arkansases, Houstons, UNLVs, and such programs that were bball powerhouses in the last three decades. UConn has natural advantages over all three--but these schools haven't even been part of the conversation in recent years.

Agree on what? The decision to give Ollie a short term contract or the belief that Manuel wanted to give him such a contract versus being forced to do so by Herbst and the board?

As far as the decision itself goes, fine, we disagree. But neither position is crazy or stupid. Each has its rationale. To be blind to that is to give into one's ego.

As far as Manuel is concerned, neither of us knows what constraints he was under or still might be under. You may be right to pin it on him but you may be wrong too.

As for as the daily character destruction of the man, it is wrong. Because of what I said directly above, you can't just assume the guy is acting completely on his own. Secondly, no good can come of it.

 

[upstater]

Agree on what? The decision to give Ollie a short term contract or the belief that Manuel wanted to give him such a contract versus being forced to do so by Herbst and the board?

As far as the decision itself goes, fine, we disagree. But neither position is crazy or stupid. Each has its rationale. To be blind to that is to give into one's ego.

As far as Manuel is concerned, neither of us knows what constraints he was under or still might be under. You may be right to pin it on him but you may be wrong too.

As for as the daily character destruction of the man, it is wrong. Because of what I said directly above, you can't just assume the guy is acting completely on his own. Secondly, no good can come of it.

The decision not to risk UConn money on a 3 year contract (it could have even been done with a buyout).

As for denigrating Manuel, I never said anything about him personally. Only that he's bad at his job.

 

[UConnSwag11]

can we link the articles and videos of people saying that recruits didnt commit bc of ollies contract? xrm, austin etc

 

[ctchamps]

What has Ollie shown me? His teams have played good defense every night - our game plan defensively has usually been pretty solid. Last night, the worst defensive possession we had was with a minute to go, when Giffey was a step late with the help after the dump-down pass and it became an and one. Even that one showed our guys knew what to do - we just didn't do it quickly enough.

When we've had a challenge and time to prepare (Mich St, NC St, Wake), we've looked ready to play - no qualms with any of those games. When we started to feel the game slip against NM or NC State, we kept battling. We could have let Michigan State get away, but we battled there too.

Last night, we got pretty good looks all night offensively - made them early to build a lead, but missed a ton of makeable shots. NC State with better athletes made the shots five feet and in that we didn't. We needed someone from the Omar/DD/Giffey group to make some shots to support our two guards, but Omar/DD were turnover machines (other than those two, we took care of the ball very well), and Giffey was invisible. Evans tried to do it, but just doesn't have the skillset. That's more a lack of personnel than a coaching issue.

Another example - at one point early in the second half, Howell beat TO for a couple layups on offense (he hooked on one, but got away with it), but TO was able to respond by leaking out and getting behind him in transition. Napier found him with a hit-ahead and TO caught the ball in great position, but said "nah" and pulled it back out. It wasn't necessarily a bad decision - Howell was going to be able to contest it. But every other big man we've had would have gone for the transition dunk there. You can coach them how to run a good fast break, but you need the guys who can finish it.

Now, the cupcake games haven't been a thing of beauty, yes, and if the team plays up to the level of the good teams and down to the level of bad teams, then KO can certainly improve in motivational techniques for the less-interesting games. No crime in that - he's not alone. Even veteran coaches sometimes struggle with those things (Jay Wright losing by 17 to Columbia springs to mind). I'd be more concerned if we got our doors blown off by good teams and blew out the cupcakes - that would indicate to me that he couldn't hack it when the challenges came. And even the cupcakes know we have weaknesses to exploit - attack the glass, force OC and DD to put the ball on the floor, and can have the personnel to do it. Quinny probably has a better frontcourt than we do - that's just the hand he's been dealt.

I expected KO to have some ups and downs - especially with the personnel he has. I think he's entitled to that. And a win over Tom Izzo trumps not beating cupcakes by enough.


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Nice write and very accurate. One more point. RJE cannot make the outside shot so his player played off him in the second half and essentially UConn was playing 4 on 5 when he was in. In other games RJ ran the offensive sets at times. He didn't do any of that in the NCS game. I imagine it had something to do with his injury.