When will we hold Kevin Ollie responsible

[freescooter]

The recruiting stuff is just nonsense. Gonzaga recruits just fine thanks. In a worse league than ours. People like Ollie for a variety of reasons. He played at UConn. Calhoun's guy. Won it all in 2014. He is a genuinely nice guy. Problem is he has proven himself to be missing something as a coach. Without Calhouns guys his inadequacies are magnified. Shabazz covered a multitude of deficiencies.

 

[7774]

The recruiting stuff is just nonsense. Gonzaga recruits just fine thanks. In a worse league than ours. People like Ollie for a variety of reasons. He played at UConn. Calhoun's guy. Won it all in 2014. He is a genuinely nice guy. Problem is he has proven himself to be missing something as a coach. Without Calhouns guys his inadequacies are magnified. Shabazz covered a multitude of deficiencies.

What recruiting stuff is nonsense? It's not nonsense to point out we've had many things that negatively impacted recruiting the last 5 years.

And I love the "Calhoun's guys" thing, as if he was left with incredible talent that required no coaching. It's one of only 2 teams in the last 30 years to win the championship with 0 McDonald's All Americans.

 

[Kembacity]

So do any of the die-hard fans who have hung up their jerseys already want to gift me their season tickets?

 

[Paesano]

What recruiting stuff is nonsense? It's not nonsense to point out we've had many things that negatively impacted recruiting the last 5 years.

And I love the "Calhoun's guys" thing, as if he was left with incredible talent that required no coaching. It's one of only 2 teams in the last 30 years to win the championship with 0 McDonald's All Americans.

The "great recruiter" stuff is nonsense. He hasn't proven that yet. And you can blame the conference all you want but we are on national TV A LOT and we have won four championships in these kid's lifetimes. We are a blue blood regardless of conference. On top of that, he should be able to sell his NBA connections with multiple coaches, GMs, LeBron and KD. If he didn't have ALL THAT to work with, maybe the conference would be an issue. But given all that, it is an excuse. If you want to blame the sanctions, please put a stake in the ground and tell me which recruiting class should be the first class which was not affected by the sanctions. Was it the 2013 class? The 2014 class we all celebrated? How about the 2015 class everyone was excited about? And that is an honest question for everyone. I am curious what people think in terms of when we were finally free of the impact from those sanctions.

 

[7774]

The "great recruiter" stuff is nonsense. He hasn't proven that yet. And you can blame the conference all you want but we are on national TV A LOT and we have won four championships in these kid's lifetimes. We are a blue blood regardless of conference. On top of that, he should be able to sell his NBA connections with multiple coaches, GMs, LeBron and KD. If he didn't have ALL THAT to work with, maybe the conference would be an issue. But given all that, it is an excuse. If you want to blame the sanctions, please put a stake in the ground and tell me which recruiting class should be the first class which was not affected by the sanctions. Was it the 2013 class? The 2014 class we all celebrated? How about the 2015 class everyone was excited about? And that is an honest question for everyone. I am curious what people think in terms of when we were finally free of the impact from those sanctions.

I would say the 2016 class is the first one not impacted by the sanctions. You must have a comical definition of what a great recruiter is if you don't think Ollie is recruiting at a very high level. We're talking about you though, so it's pretty standard.

 

[Stainmaster]

I would say the 2016 class is the first one not impacted by the sanctions. You must have a comical definition of what a great recruiter is if you don't think Ollie is recruiting at a very high level. We're talking about you though, so it's pretty standard.

Paesano's standards are all 5 star burger boys.

 

[Chief00]

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.

I agree the schedule is front end loaded now - use to be back end loaded.

 

[Paesano]

I would say the 2016 class is the first one not impacted by the sanctions. You must have a comical definition of what a great recruiter is if you don't think Ollie is recruiting at a very high level. We're talking about you though, so it's pretty standard.

Why was the 2015 class impacted by sanctions?

 

[7774]

Why was the 2015 class impacted by sanctions?

Because recruiting the 2015 class involves building relationships with those players during their sophomore and junior years of highschool, which is the 2012-2013 time period. During the 2012-2013 time period, we still had restrictions on the amount of off campus recruiting we could do, restrictions on the amount of coaches who could make phone calls, and restrictions on the number of official visits we could have.

I still think our 2015 class is good, and not the problem.

 

[UConnfan8]

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.

What are the excuses this time?

 

[Paesano]

Because recruiting the 2015 class involves building relationships with those players during their sophomore and junior years of highschool, which is the 2012-2013 time period. During the 2012-2013 time period, we still had restrictions on the amount of off campus recruiting we could do, restrictions on the amount of coaches who could make phone calls, and restrictions on the number of official visits we could have.

I still think our 2015 class is good, and not the problem.

OK, I see where you are coming from. They were sophomores in 2012-2013 and while we do spend a little time on kids that early, I don't think the heavy duty time is spent until they are juniors. And, as you say, the 2015 class looked good, at least on paper so I don't think it was impacted that much. Plus, they were committing the year after the championship so I would hope that would have mitigated any impact from a decreased amount of face time in their sophomore year. I can see where our senior class was affected and, to a lesser extent, the junior class. That is why I am in the camp of giving KO one more year if this season continues to be a dumpster fire. That 2015 class will be juniors and any strong recruit should be a major impact player by their junior year. And our highly touted 2016 class will be sophomores. Even if these guys aren't one and done players, we should see something from them in their second year. And, hopefully, we add Diallo next year. That REALLY should be enough to beat the likes of Wagner and Northeastern!!!

 

[nelsonmuntz]

There is no excuse for these last two losses. The offense is grim, with soft passes around the perimeter until the clock runs down enough that Larrier, Gilbert or Adams feels justified in an out of control drive into a double or triple team. The rebounding is partially a function of the stupid offense, since everyone is so far from the hoop that they are easy to box out, and the shooting is not great. I disagree that the defense has been good. I think we have played two low-majors that missed a lot of shots, but better teams would have torched us if we played like this.

 

[RayRay19]

Shhh....we are a dark horse final 4 team!

 

[Goat]

I am still 10 toes in with KO. Recruiting is on an upward trend. To the "these are his kids" people and meaning no offense to heart of the players in the class of 2017, but you could tell that the ban and the audition contract impacted recruiting. We were lucky he found Phil and Amida. I do not doubt his basketball IQ. The learning continues and the teaching ability will improve.

Meanwhile, I thought it was promising that KO did not start Rodney. Hopefully, Purvis wakes up. I think that KO's kid gloves are more about Rodney's mercurial nature than a lack of enthusiasm. Maybe some of the young guys are fragile, too.

Rodney has 12 pts., 5 rbs., 2 assists, 5 to, and 2 steals in 64 minutes this year.
Vance has 10 pts., 6 rbs., 1 assist, 0 to, and 0 steals in 25 minutes.
Also, I did not see Purvis playing defense that was far superior. Maybe he can, but he hasn't.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Calhoun wasnt recruiting studs at the end of his career. Ollie is doing extremely well in that department. You guys want josh pastier lol? What do the assistants bring? Moore recruits. Who is helping develop players like Ollie did with kemba and bazz when he was on the staff? Who is helping with the X's and O's? Ollie deserve blame with rotations and and timeouts among other things, but what is the rest of the staff bringing? Who are you guys going to bring in for Ollie? We're not in the acc or big 10 where the coaches would flock.

 

[UConnSwag11]

The recruiting stuff is just nonsense. Gonzaga recruits just fine thanks. In a worse league than ours. People like Ollie for a variety of reasons. He played at UConn. Calhoun's guy. Won it all in 2014. He is a genuinely nice guy. Problem is he has proven himself to be missing something as a coach. Without Calhouns guys his inadequacies are magnified. Shabazz covered a multitude of deficiencies.

Ollie was with Shabazz for four years. Two as a head coach. He was able to develop bazz and even kemba for his one year. He might need to surround himself with better assistants.

 

[UConnSwag11]

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.

Seriously, he deserves a lot of the crap but the fire him garbage is ridiculous. Shake up the assistants first

 

[Lefty2one]

There is no excuse for losing to Wagner and Northeastern, no matter how young we are. I defended Ollie last year and still do to a large extent and I think it's ridiculous to talk of firing him at this point. We've lost enough prestige already and combined with our conference situation we will not get a big name/up-and-comer to replace Ollie. We lost Hamilton, Gibbs and Miller and have a bunch of new faces.

Again though, we can't lose to NEC teams, something is awry with the program and to me that's a lack of accountability. Every player on this team seems too comfortable. As others have said, KO seems to have too much of a "friend/big brother" relationship with players while JC was more of an " father" relationship. Purvis had some atrocious "ole" closeouts, Ollie can't allow that type of effort from a 5th year senior. A new offensive system is needed, we can't run an NBA style offense with a roster that is ill-equipped talent-wise to do so. We make offensive basketball look like brain surgery, it ain't that difficult. KO has to find a way to make our guys more efficient especially against zone because every team on the schedule is going to watch film of the Northeastern game and follow suit.

 

[UConnSwag11]

It also doesn't help when the guys are missing 8 FTs a game