What do you think about the one year audition for KO?

[upstater]

You guys are drawing an awful lot of conclusions that have no support whatsoever.

The people who are criticizing the AD here seem to be the same people who thought that JC should be able to just pick his successor, end of story. They are wrong on both points.

This is wrong.

There are anti-Ollie posters here who made the same points.

 

[upstater]

And you're certain JC wasn't coming back to coach before he broke his hip?

 

[cohenzone]

The people who think JC hurt the program by not letting Warde Manuel pick his own guy are out of their freaking mind. Why would you have more faith in a football guy over our hall of fame basketball coach? Why do you automatically assume Warde would have picked a superstar? What happens when JC and the extended UCONN family he brings gets pushed aside and Warde hires a dud?

What happened to Indiana when they pushed Knight out? Did they hire a superstar? They are Indiana, they must have hired the right guy. Kentucky has had coaching failures, UCLA has gone through a number of failed coaches.

How do we know Warde is any better then the BC AD?

The smart move is to do it JC's way first, if it doesn't work out at least they tried. We are one year removed from being national champions, we should be thankful that JC wants to stay involved.

This was not a careful choice the way it needed to be. JC guys have gone on to become head coaches elsewhere and have not exactly set the world on fire. I hope KO turns out to another HOF guy.

 

[metsfan2323]

This was not a careful choice the way it needed to be. JC guys have gone on to become head coaches elsewhere and have not exactly set the world on fire. I hope KO turns out to another HOF guy.

So being careful will increase our chances of finding another superstar. Tell that to Indiana fans. Tell that to Michigan fans.

How do we know JC wasn't careful in selecting Ollie? There are a number of branches on his tree he could have hired but he picked Ollie. All I know is Ollie joined the staff in 2010 and we went on to have probably our most magical season ever. Maybe JC knows Ollie's personality played a big role in that.

 

[upstater]

This was not a careful choice the way it needed to be. JC guys have gone on to become head coaches elsewhere and have not exactly set the world on fire. I hope KO turns out to another HOF guy.

I wonder why people over at Syracuse aren't totally upset with Gross for signing off on Mike Hopkins. He must not have the balls to stand up to Jim Boeheim.

 

[upstater]

Did you do a study to see how many people go on to become highly successful at top schools. Most get fired. Kentucky went from Pitino to Calipari, wasted a decade in between and sold their souls in the process. Indiana, UCLA, ditto. on and on. Transitions aren't easy even when you hire top guns. Chances for failure are high.

Yet there are examples of good successions out there if you care to luck, like Tom Izzo.

I'm not one who thinks Hobbs did a bad job at GW at all. And Leitao had the best DePaul team of the last two decades. Some jobs suck.

 

[bertieboy]

I really like Kevin Ollie and I enjoyed his speech a great deal. I hope, and believe, that he will be a huge success.

If he was Calhoun's choice then we have to respect that. Calhoun really knows what he is doing.

There are some things I don't like about this. I don't like Calhoun backing the university into a corner so that his choice would prevail. JC retiring in September rather than April is part of this. I don't like the one season contract for Ollie. He should have gotten 4 or 5 years with a minimal buy out. Warde did not use good judgement here.

 

[cohenzone]

So being careful will increase our chances of finding another superstar. Tell that to Indiana fans. Tell that to Michigan fans.

How do we know JC wasn't careful in selecting Ollie? There are a number of branches on his tree he could have hired but he picked Ollie. All I know is Ollie joined the staff in 2010 and we went on to have probably our most magical season ever. Maybe JC knows Ollie's personality played a big role in that.

Missed my point totally. Maybe we wind up hiring Ollie anyway. This was not a search at all. You're choosing a CEO for a major corporation. Moreover, as much as I respect JC, what gave him the power or right to name a successor in a public university? That kind of is the AD's function.

 

[Excalibur]

Did you do a study to see how many people go on to become highly successful at top schools. Most get fired. Kentucky went from Pitino to Calipari, wasted a decade in between The whole world thought Smith was a good hire, he had been a Pitino assistant, and they didn't exactly tank) and sold their souls in the process. Indiana (Who hired an inexperienced assistant), UCLA (UCLA was all over the map, but was doing pretty well until they hired "UCLA guys" Farmar and Hazard), ditto. on and on. Transitions aren't easy even when you hire top guns. Chances for failure are high.

Yet there are examples of good successions out there if you care to luck, like Tom Izzo. Izzo had a ton of support throughout the university.

This is an unprecedented situation, but your analogies kind of suck. Izzo is the only one remotely close, and he was a long-time assistant who was essentially running the program even before he was named as successor. UNC, SJU, OK State and DePaul are just as valid as comparisons.

 

[upstater]

The comparison is entirely accurate. Hopkins is like Ollie and he's the HC's guy. Why isn't that accurate?

 

[upstater]

I trust an expert in the game of basketball more than I trust someone who does not have the same expertise.

 

[upstater]

This is an unprecedented situation, but your analogies kind of suck. Izzo is the only one remotely close, and he was a long-time assistant who was essentially running the program even before he was named as successor. UNC, SJU, OK State and DePaul are just as valid as comparisons.

You're the one that came up with the analogies first. I think I pointed out in my post that all the analogies suck. Was I not obvious about that?

 

[upstater]

You're another one that dismisses his NBA experience. 17 years to 2, right? That's the comparison?

Gross did the smart thing and took the expert's recommendation.

 

[upstater]

Unfortunately for me?

Who the hell gives a about me?

We're talking about an AD who signals to the world he's not behind the hiring of the coach.

Yeah, only good things can come of that.

 

[freescooter]

This is so on the money, I can't disagree with any of it. The Syracuse comparison is foolish in my estimation, but if you want to insist on using it, don't forget that Hopkins has been on the Syracuse staff for 15 year, not 2 years. And by the way, Gross has on at least one occasion denied that Hopkins will automatically get the job.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3067256&campaign=rss&source=NCBHeadlines

as far as the Ollie situation goes, i think this has been a complete and total disaster from virtually every angle. Calhoun screwed the University by pulling this crap this late so he could get his way on Ollie. Ollie himself is totally unprepared to be a head coach at a major D-1 power. And what the heck kind of head coach doesn't get to name his assistants? Not one. While I like Karl Hobbs, it is embarrassing that they announced that he was now going to become an assistant...Ollie didn't make that decision...Maybe they'll let him have input into the new director of operations...The athletic director has been cut off at the knees...now he knows i guess who actually runs the athletic department. Probably should have just let the interim guy keep the job. He made no pretense of not being in Calhoun's pocket.

This is the silliest hire since Notre Dame attempted to replace Dan Devine with Gerry Faust. And i can't remember a top program since that replaced its coach with someone as unprepared as Kevin Ollie is. there have been questionable hires in the past, but none quite so ridiculous as this one looks from anywhere but Calhoun's living room. i hope I'm wrong about this but I don't think I will be. I see this being a disaster in the making that could take a better part of a decade to undo. It could well take 3-4 years before anyone is willing to admit Ollie was a mistake (that is the typical run for these things), and another 4-5 before things get back on track...And if I'm Manuel, I'm putting my resume out on the street too...might as well go somewhere where they want a real AD, not a gopher for the best known head coach.

 

[upstater]

This is so on the money, I can't disagree with any of it. The Syracuse comparison is foolish in my estimation, but if you want to insist on using it, don't forget that Hopkins has been on the Syracuse staff for 15 year, not 2 years. And by the way, Gross has on at least one occasion denied that Hopkins will automatically get the job.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3067256&campaign=rss&source=NCBHeadlines

as far as the Ollie situation goes, i think this has been a complete and total disaster from virtually every angle. Calhoun screwed the University by pulling this crap this late so he could get his way on Ollie. Ollie himself is totally unprepared to be a head coach at a major D-1 power. And what the heck kind of head coach doesn't get to name his assistants? Not one. While I like Karl Hobbs, it is embarrassing that they announced that he was now going to become an assistant...Ollie didn't make that decision...Maybe they'll let him have input into the new director of operations...The athletic director has been cut off at the knees...now he knows i guess who actually runs the athletic department. Probably should have just let the interim guy keep the job. He made no pretense of not being in Calhoun's pocket.

This is the silliest hire since Notre Dame attempted to replace Dan Devine with Gerry Faust. And i can't remember a top program since that replaced its coach with someone as unprepared as Kevin Ollie is. there have been questionable hires in the past, but none quite so ridiculous as this one looks from anywhere but Calhoun's living room. i hope I'm wrong about this but I don't think I will be. I see this being a disaster in the making that could take a better part of a decade to undo. It could well take 3-4 years before anyone is willing to admit Ollie was a mistake (that is the typical run for these things), and another 4-5 before things get back on track...And if I'm Manuel, I'm putting my resume out on the street too...might as well go somewhere where they want a real AD, not a gopher for the best known head coach.

Talk about foolishness and inanity.

Just make stuff up and then pass it off as factual.

 

[upstater]

Another totally silly analogy.

There have been lame-brained people playing sports. They are not suited to coaching.

The rap on Ollie is that he didn't play 13 years because of his athletic prowess or his skills. He was a heady player, good PG. in that respect, he was similar to Billy Donovan who had a couple year of assistant coaching, a couple years of mediocrity at Marshall. But then he stuck around as a mentor as well. In other words, comparing Jordan to Ollie is totally lame, especially when there are many other players out there that do go into coaching and experience a varyind degree of success.

You're actually asking me if I'm trying to be disagreeable and you wrote that?