When will we hold Kevin Ollie responsible

[pnow15]

Gee, usually this moronic conversation doesn't take place until mid-season.
First of all: Wagner is an NCAA team returning about 6 veterans from a 23 win season and we are a team where are best players are playing there first college game.
Second of all: Purvis, Facey, Brimah and to a lesser extant Enoch didn't have either heart transplants or brain transplants over the summer. Ollie has to find out where these guys are this season. Facey never seems to develop, Purvis stinks one game and is great the next. Brimah is the same player he was as a freshman. and Enoch, well I've said this before: he may be the wrong guy.
The good news. Ollie has replaced DHam with Larrier, a better player.
The two young points can really play.
He has the tall kid from Tampa to develop.
He needs just one of his bigs to step up or get off the injury list.
These guys will blowout some teams. Nothing to worry about.
Wagner was good.

 

[joober jones]

I'm headed to my HS practice now, and i can assure you, if our best floor leader and scorer, a soph PG, isn't understanding how to get our O going, then we'll be throwing sets at him.

Do you play for Coach Reeves?

 

[joober jones]

Yup -- with NIT appearances in '07 and '10, and first round exits in '08 and '12. I'm as frustrated as anybody, but let's ease off the revisionism.

** Actually, didn't we not even make the NIT in '07? I may have blocked that out.

That was 2010 I think.

 

[Chief00]

i sent a text to my buddy before the game, "dont surprised if we come out looking like ass, this wagner team is also pretty good". Whats alarming to me is some of the quotes from KO in the offseason, " we aren't trying to be the best team in november or december, we want to peak in march and april" that quote from him makes me want to jump off a cliff. Our offense stinks, he can't coach offense, instead he brings in a recruiter in killings and not a x&os guys. my mantra for uconn hoops is "what the hell is going on in a kevin ollie practice?" these guys look like they are playing pick up for the first time together with the lack of cohesion, 3 years in a row now.

Quite frankly, Calhoun worked to peak in Late February/March too - that's what most successful coaches do. Of course, you play to win early but you start shortening the rotation as you get more of a sample how guys perform.

 

[James]

Quite frankly, Calhoun worked to peak in Late February/March too - that's what most successful coaches do. Of course, you play to win early but you start shortening the rotation as you get more of a sample how guys perform.

peaking later in the year is a natural process, you don't plan on that. calhoun coaching was a different scenario, he had plenty of opportunities to gain ground later in year. for uconn and kevin ollie in 2016, winning in november and december IS CRUCIAL, its pretty much march madness. its what makes losing to wagner at home all that more daunting, you only have 30-35 games or so.

 

[7774]

Losing to Wagner should never be acceptable, not for UConn, regardless of how many newcomers we have. Or atleast that's the way it use to be... I guess I refused to admit that things have changed, but I'm starting to see the light now

What period of time is "the way it used to be"? I guess it must end before that year we got our asses kicked by St. Bonaventure.

And lol @ "no player has shown growth" under Ollie. I know you're pissed, but try to be a little rational.

 

[60'sfan]

Gee, usually this moronic conversation doesn't take place until mid-season.
First of all: Wagner is an NCAA team returning about 6 veterans from a 23 win season and we are a team where are best players are playing there first college game.
Second of all: Purvis, Facey, Brimah and to a lesser extant Enoch didn't have either heart transplants or brain transplants over the summer. Ollie has to find out where these guys are this season. Facey never seems to develop, Purvis stinks one game and is great the next. Brimah is the same player he was as a freshman. and Enoch, well I've said this before: he may be the wrong guy.
The good news. Ollie has replaced DHam with Larrier, a better player.
The two young points can really play.
He has the tall kid from Tampa to develop.
He needs just one of his bigs to step up or get off the injury list.
These guys will blowout some teams. Nothing to worry about.
Wagner was good.

I agree with you. This was our first game. It is not mid-March. Wagner is a pretty good team. If you want to blame someone, blame whoever scheduled them.
I can remember a couple years ago all the comments were about our inability to rebound. Many on this board were saying that we would never be a good rebounding team as long as Ollie was the coach. From that point on, we out-rebounded virtually every opponent on our schedule.
This is a pretty talented team and we have a great coach in Kevin Ollie. We will get better, the team will be successful and each morning the sun will rise.

 

[Jaker]

We will never get another coach as good as Ollie again. No torches and pitchforks for me.

Agreed and he doing very well recruiting, if he leaves we will be pretty screwed recruiting wise.

 

[freescooter]

We will never get another coach as good as Ollie again. No torches and pitchforks for me.

LOL you're kidding, right? Ollie is a mediocre college coach who got lucky when Shabazz decided to stick around. He would be a terrific assistant working with the back court. He might even be a decent NBA coach where mediocrity is the name of the game. Guys have 20 year careers by getting teams to the second round of the playoffs. But he doesn't have fire nor the teaching/demandig skills that top college coaches have.

 

[Stainmaster]

LOL you're kidding, right? Ollie is a mediocre college coach who got lucky when Shabazz decided to stick around. He would be a terrific assistant working with the back court. He might even be a decent NBA coach where mediocrity is the name of the game. Guys have 20 year careers by getting teams to the second round of the playoffs. But he doesn't have fire nor the teaching/demandig skills that top college coaches have.

That has nothing to do with the post you quoted - what makes you think an upgrade is willing to come here?

 

[pnow15]

That has nothing to do with the post you quoted - what makes you think an upgrade is willing to come here?

And who are these upgrades?

 

[freescooter]

Gee, usually this moronic conversation doesn't take place until mid-season.
First of all: Wagner is an NCAA team returning about 6 veterans from a 23 win season and we are a team where are best players are playing there first college game.
Second of all: Purvis, Facey, Brimah and to a lesser extant Enoch didn't have either heart transplants or brain transplants over the summer. Ollie has to find out where these guys are this season. Facey never seems to develop, Purvis stinks one game and is great the next. Brimah is the same player he was as a freshman. and Enoch, well I've said this before: he may be the wrong guy.
The good news. Ollie has replaced DHam with Larrier, a better player.
The two young points can really play.
He has the tall kid from Tampa to develop.
He needs just one of his bigs to step up or get off the injury list.
These guys will blowout some teams. Nothing to worry about.
Wagner was good.

Oh man now I be heard it all.. Wagner won the regular season of the weakest conference in all college basketball. In no universe other than the lower reaches of NCAA basketball are they considered "good." And they are an NIT team. Some of you guys would make excuses for the unabomber. this was like losing to the tick tack toe chicken. He plays all the time but at the end of the day there is no excuse for not outhinking a chicken.

 

[freescooter]

That has nothing to do with the post you quoted - what makes you think an upgrade is willing to come here?

The point is he won't be that hard to replace with a comparable guy and you can find someone better. Another Calhoun? Not likely unless we are remarkably lucky. A better coach than Ollie? It's doable.

 

[Marty Jackson]

in all seriousness

What has KO done, when he hasn't had the benefit of a Calhoun coached up player?

Since the our NC run, we have been straight trash by UConn standards. I've seen no player growth from year to year, an offense that usually looks lost for 20+ seconds with a last second heave. Teams that are generally soft, constantly losing rebound margins, with a offensive bball iq that has annually been questionable at best.

Instead of consistently battling to be the premier program in the nation year in, year out.... we've unfortunately regressed to being nothing more than a program who's usually on the bubble. While our contemporaries have passed us up by leaps and bounds.

We can blame our players, realignment, aac, etc.... But Kevin Ollie must hold himself accountable. For the past 3 years our fellas have been ill prepared.

Long season for ya' buddy? Game 1 and it's fire Ollie?

 

[jibsey]

We're not getting a better coach and recruiter than KO, we have to get real.

 

[lange10]

I've said it for some time now but frankly he's a great recruiter and leader of men but in terms of coaching abilities I think he's limited. Offense will forever be stagnant, substitution patterns are perplexing, and in game adjustments need work.

Killings seems to be a great addition to the staff in terms of recruiting but I still think we need a major overhaul with our offensive system. Bring in a guy who knows how to put guys in a position to score.

But for the love of god... end the "fire Ollie" nonsense.

 

[sammydabiz]

Long season for ya' buddy? Game 1 and it's fire Ollie?

Who said fire?!?

 

[August_West]

Oh man now I be heard it all.. Wagner won the regular season of the weakest conference in all college basketball. In no universe other than the lower reaches of NCAA basketball are they considered "good." And they are an NIT team. Some of you guys would make excuses for the unabomber. this was like losing to the tick tack toe chicken. He plays all the time but at the end of the day there is no excuse for not outhinking a chicken.

lol tic tac toe chicken. a+ analogy.
I used to live a block away from him. Little Spartacus pissed me off.

 

[TheChamps990411]

in all seriousness

What has KO done, when he hasn't had the benefit of a Calhoun coached up player?

Since the our NC run, we have been straight trash by UConn standards. I've seen no player growth from year to year, an offense that usually looks lost for 20+ seconds with a last second heave. Teams that are generally soft, constantly losing rebound margins, with a offensive bball iq that has annually been questionable at best.

Instead of consistently battling to be the premier program in the nation year in, year out.... we've unfortunately regressed to being nothing more than a program who's usually on the bubble. While our contemporaries have passed us up by leaps and bounds.

We can blame our players, realignment, aac, etc.... But Kevin Ollie must hold himself accountable. For the past 3 years our fellas have been ill prepared.

Its one game. We have 6 new guys in the mix and our starting 5 is going to need time to gel. The talent is there we just need to be patient and see what happens. I think eventually the starting 5 is going to change. Gilbert/Adams will be the starting backcourt because "The Ferrari" has turned out to be nothing but a conversion kit. Larrier looks solid so these three spots i believe will be held down by these guys. The problem is the bigs and bench rotation. AB will never be the rebounder we need him to be,FAcey is too inconsistant and Enoch looks like a bench guy at best. We need Diarra to step up and make an impact and hope AB or Facey step up their game. Not sure if thats going to happen. Durham has talent but i dont expect much from him this year and he doesnt look like hes built to bang around in the paint. Purv and Vital can provide some good minutes off the bench.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Who said fire?!?

You're right. But it's the same old, same old. Lose a game and it's free reign to question everything. Ratchet up the pressure, what have you done lately, blah blah blah.

That same sentiment is a cancer killing any discussion related to football. It seems every thread eventually leads to Fire Diaco. Threads on best gas stations somehow evolve to fire Diaco.

I might be jumping the gun, but one game in, this rhetoric is premature. Let the season evolve somewhat before we throw out generalizations of coaching ineffectiveness.

 

[jibsey]

We are all OK with Larrier replacing Hamilton points production wise, ditto for Gilbert and Gibbs as far as scoring points, but what have you got for me on replacing Shonn Miller? At the end of last season it was my biggest concern and still is. KO maybe recruited 5 good players for our future but in the short run we may have a scoring problem.

 

[freescooter]

I sort of think Ollie is Mike Davis revisited. Successful early with Calhoun's guys then not so much with his guys. Davis career was almost identical except that he lost in the Champioship game in his second year. Ollie obviously won

 

[Greathusky]

He's a good defensive coach, but a mediocre offensive coach at best. And no, I don't care that he runs a cool hammer play 3 or 4 times a season.

Must be a common criteria for hiring coaches in sports at UCONN!

 

[ucp990411]

I've said it for some time now but frankly he's a great recruiter and leader of men but in terms of coaching abilities I think he's limited. Offense will forever be stagnant, substitution patterns are perplexing, and in game adjustments need work.

Killings seems to be a great addition to the staff in terms of recruiting but I still think we need a major overhaul with our offensive system. Bring in a guy who knows how to put guys in a position to score.

But for the love of god... end the "fire Ollie" nonsense.

 

[ucp990411]

A great recruiter? Because he gets Josh Carlton? Tyler Polley? How about going against Duke or Kentucky and getting one . Until then let's hold off on being a great recruiter.

 

[Kenny11]

A great recruiter? Because he gets Josh Carlton? Tyler Polley? How about going against Duke or Kentucky and getting one . Until then let's hold off on being a great recruiter.

He is a very good recruiter. His recruiting is actually saving us from irrelevance. It is extremely difficult to recruit 5 star players when you aren't in a Power 5 conference or even a "basketball" conference like the Big East. Plus, Ollie can't really use the UConn = NBA success thing anymore. These kids are 16 years old. They don't remember Richard Hamilton and they think Ray Allen was just an old shooter that couldn't take it to the hoop or handle the ball.

 

[7774]

A great recruiter? Because he gets Josh Carlton? Tyler Polley? How about going against Duke or Kentucky and getting one . Until then let's hold off on being a great recruiter.

What an unbiased depiction of KO's recruiting ability.

 

[jibsey]

A great recruiter? Because he gets Josh Carlton? Tyler Polley? How about going against Duke or Kentucky and getting one . Until then let's hold off on being a great recruiter.

Wow, we have to to be fair about this. Jim Calhoun would get the occasional top ten kid but we were in a power conference, the BE. So he's getting top 50 and 100 but yes we desperately could use that special type of player it would make a difference. If Duke or Kentucky were in our conference for 4 years do they get those players?

 

[ucp990411]

Wow, we have to to be fair about this. Jim Calhoun would get the occasional top ten kid but we were in a power conference, the BE. So he's getting top 50 and 100 but yes we desperately could use that special type of player it would make a difference. If Duke or Kentucky were in our conference for 4 years do they get those players?

 

[ucp990411]

Ok. You guys may be right about the recruiting. He is severely handicapped because of the JV conference we are in.
I am super pissed about what I saw Friday. Wagner? You have got to be kidding. Don't give me that cap about its early, they are really good. We are UCONN and no way should we ever lose to f....n Wagner. They had a 6'6" kid play better and harder than our big guys. EMBARRASSING. And it absolutely comes down to coaching.