Not big on religion, but if the Ollie's faith thing (and I know it's real) works to get talented and quality players, yoo hoo.
I'm sorry, but I get as kick out of the
I'm not religious line, so I'll chime in with the so called
religious minority point of view since it's not that prevalent here in New England. I love that KO is a high character man who loves Jesus and people. I actually hate the term religious. Ollie is not some grandmama who drives her Buick to church every Sunday and defines himself as a clean living, no drinking, no whatever churchian. He lives every day to honor the God that has given him so much by being a devoted husband, dad, coach, friend and representative of the kingdom of God in whatever way he can.
I'm sure I'm coming across preachy here, but I just feel people cheapen Ollie's faith and have little to no understanding of what he believes and how he lives his life by dropping the religious line.
I'm psyched that he is attracting quality kids who love Jesus. I'll be just as excited when he recruits Jewish, Muslim and non-religious kids who are quality kids. For what it's worth, JC recruited his share of similar kids. Jake and Jeremy were two who came from Christian homes and we're open with their faith.
KO's ability to attract talented players because of his character, faith and the fact that he's a good coach offsets the conference issues and the post-JC impact. As much as I like talented players, I love rooting for talented kids who are quality young men. I don't mind having some kids that have an edge and some attitude to them. It's good to have different personalities. Though I don't like punk kids. That I can do without. I think UConn under Ollie is going to cast a new image that will not only carry the out-will you, out-tough you and out-work you tradition we've all witnessed under Calhoun, but will also be a very likable team on a national level. I'm not saying the program wasn't liked by many, but JC and the program had its share of haters.
KO seems to be well respected and liked and it seems the team will begin to, and seem to already, take on his personality.
Okay, I'm done.