I'll take you at your word because I respect you as a poster. What I'll ask you is what you think changed between now and last year in terms of KO's ability to sell himself and UConn better? Because last year, he seemed to be fine with landing the #8 ranked class in all of the nation. In terms of individual players, he landed the #32, #46, #79, #142, and #230 based on 247 composite scores.
I'll tell you what I think the difference was this year vs. last year: that we weren't in on as many kids as early as others because we weren't expecting the defections at the end of the year, including MAL (#38 of 2017). It had nothing to do with his ability to sell himself or this university, in my opinion. Nor does it have anything to do with him being on some hot seat. And I think that the 2018 class will eventually prove me right...
I hope you are right. I agree things looked promising a year ago, Jalen/Alterique/Terry were great gets. But many of our misses were not a result of the unexpected transfers and decommit. If there had been no transfers or decommits, we would have been two scholarships shy of the limit (11 scholarship players in 2016-17, less the 3 seniors, plus MAL/Polley/Carlton), so we had already failed to meet ordinary recruiting needs before any losses. Meanwhile, we were on Hami, Tremont, and Sidney Wilson for years and years. Hami was trained by Taliek for years.
I'll tell you what I think changed between now and a year ago: KO lost his self-confidence. He's an honest man and can't sell unless he 100% believes his story.
For a time he had a compelling pitch: I spent 13 years in the NBA on little talent because I know how to win, and know how to do all the little things NBA teams look for. I can teach you those things. We won an NCAA championship my second year because I can coach and bring the best out in my players. I'm a Christian, I believe in a duty to love, and I love my players. I will wake up at 3 am thinking about what I can do to make you a better player and help you fulfill your dreams. We'll be a family, we'll love and help one another, and together we'll achieve great things. We'll be ten toes in every day. It will be a lot of hard work, but you'll learn how to be a champion and an NBA player. Oh, and plus, you'll have the UConn family of former NBA stars to help, a great practice facility, TV exposure, and a following from the whole state of Connecticut.
The problem is that last year severely damaged that pitch. Apparently, according to the hints dropped on this board by various people, he started coasting after the championship and the divorce and focused on his personal life more than the team. He wasn't ten toes in and the players noticed. A number of players felt unloved, felt he was demanding but not giving. I'm going to guess that there is some validity to these claims because KO has not been making his motivational, ten-toes-in speeches. It's as if he's embarrassed to ask of others the things he himself has failed to give. And embarrassed to make a pitch to recruits that his own (former) players won't endorse. He has lost the self-confidence, the swagger, that he needs to be an effective coach.
I also think some transient factors played in. The recruiting limits after the APR ban may have limited evaluation and led to a number of recruiting mistakes, players who didn't work hard and didn't really want to follow KO's recipe for success, players who wanted to focus on offense more than defense and wanted minutes handed to them.
I expect that KO's mistakes have been rookie head coach mistakes and he will figure out how to be a great coach. He will rebuild his recruiting story. But, other coaches have heard from UConn's ex-players whatever complaints they had toward UConn and have learned how to make a credible anti-UConn pitch to recruits. KO has to change things on the ground and re-construct his marketing and sales pitch. Hiring Chillious I think was a major step forward. But I've noticed that recently they've been selling Chillious more than KO. That's not going to work. You have to sell the head coach.
The first step is to be a great coach to next year's team -- to develop players, to build a successful and winning team -- and for him to get his own confidence back, to be able to say, you know, I made mistakes and I learned from them. I didn't work as hard as I should have for a few years, due to divorce or whatever, but I realized as a result that being a coach and helping players succeed is the most important thing to me, and I'm now eleven toes in. I'll do everything I can to help you. And talk to my 2017-18 players, they'll tell you it's true.
Based on what recent recruits have said of UConn's pitch, it's not there yet.
