Wow. Kevin Ollie.

[Pmurph678]

This team just isn't that good, I think we overrated the talent to start the year. Our awful recruiting for a few years is showing and we have no depth.

It's going to be a struggle when your team needs a First team AA to be successful, and that is where our depth has been for about 5 years.

Say what you want about Ollie's coaching, but he won a championship with sweet sixteen level talent.

 

[CallMeBruce]

This team just isn't that good, I think we overrated the talent to start the year. Our awful recruiting for a few years is showing and we have no depth.

It's going to be a struggle when your team needs a First team AA to be successful, and that is where our depth has been for about 5 years.

Say what you want about Ollie's coaching, but he won a championship with sweet sixteen level talent.

I stridently disagree that the issue is talent. There are gobs of talent on this team. But they still need to be in a coherent offense in order to win games.

 

[upstater]

This team just isn't that good, I think we overrated the talent to start the year. Our awful recruiting for a few years is showing and we have no depth.

It's going to be a struggle when your team needs a First team AA to be successful, and that is where our depth has been for about 5 years.

Say what you want about Ollie's coaching, but he won a championship with sweet sixteen level talent.

Continuity. We have no continuity. We have three nice talented kids in Purvis, Miller and Gibbs that haven't played together before.

You bring kids in as freshman and watch them grow together into the program.

This is why Ollie gets criticized for his rotations.

The fact that SMU only has 7 players is actually a strength for them, especially since they know each other inside and out. We used to have players who were out on the floor for 36 minutes a game.

There is little to be optimistic about with this team, but if you're looking for something, Gibbs is finally playing within himself and not trying to do too much. Now we need the other guys to find themselves.

Reading the quotes from the players, they are now angry with themselves. It will be interesting to see what they make of it.

 

[Point6]

I started watching the game near the beginning but right after Miller hit his (2nd?) three. The announcers had just said there were a lot of NBA scouts in the audience. I wondered why Miller was shooting 3s, albeit making them.

I wonder if there is a chemistry problem and/or if anyone is thinking about their own individual future vs. team. This is pure conjecture and probably unfounded but who knows if there are chemistry problems/internal competition also hurting us.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm not sure I've ever seen a guy coach a worse game while getting a paycheck from UConn and I've seen Paul Pasqualoni in action. The final ten minutes of this game were pure malpractice - and the first thirty minutes were no prize either.

He's making $3,000,000 a year and he's not doing the work.

Someone will try to put to the upside or pitch a you're-all-bad-fans tantrum, but the team is on the wrong track these days - Ollie's team doesn't play hard and they don't play smart. That's become the hallmark over the past two years.

Sadly I saw it the same way. He made no adjustment. None. Nothing. Might as well not even be there...hell, if he wasn't maybe Hobbs or Miller would have done something. Any team that plays zone can beat UConn right now.

 

[uconn13]

Quite frankly that ain't true.

sure it is....I didn't say that anyone with 2 arms can shoot AND make the shot, though.

 

[HuskyCLT]

I'm wondering about Ollie's staff too. Are they a bunch of sycophants? Just telling Ollie that he's doing a great job and the right things out there? There's no way the assistant coaches aren't noticing how Ollie is struggling as a coach, so maybe one of them can man up an tell Ollie when something is wrong. They are ALL UConn guys, and this program is just as much theirs as anyone's. Just complete crap like not using the foul at the end of Temple game, not taking ownership for inexplicably flinging papers onto the court for a tech in the Maryland game, and all of his consistently head-scratching substitution patterns. Someone needs to get in Ollie's head and help him fix this.

I still think he has the ability to be a great coach, but he's absolutely lost his way. He's smart enough to do it, we've seen him out-coach plenty of great coaches in 2014... But he needs to fix his head, whether it's lingering effects of the divorce or anything else. Talk to someone, and get your team back on track. This is absolute garbage the way he has this team playing now.

 

[Sea Goat]

Sadly I saw it the same way. He made no adjustment. None. Nothing. Might as well not even be there...hell, if he wasn't maybe Hobbs or Miller would have done something. Any team that plays zone can beat UConn right now.

I have to agree - love the coach but he has to learn how to get more out of his players. Calhoun excelled at that. 2014 was a situation where Calhoun's recruits, Napier, Boatright , Daniels and Giffey refused to concede anything. Their defense against Kentucky in the finals was textbook Calhoun. Right now Ollie isn't close to getting that kind of commitment from this crew.
But, January and the talent is there - he just needs to coach his ass off.

 

[Marat]

Others have suggested it - Ollie needs to have a conversation with Coach Calhoun as things are obviously not working well now.
Ollie needs his mentor to provide some guidance ASAP.

 

[Chief00]

Others have suggested it - Ollie needs to have a conversation with Coach Calhoun as things are obviously not working well now.
Ollie needs his mentor to provide some guidance ASAP.

People forget for KO's first two years Calhoun was at most practices and games. He misses that insight. Calhoun could also still needle the players he recruited.

 

[CL82]

This is an Ollie problem. A fixable Ollie problem. He's a smart guy and has the ability to be great, but he's showing NO passion and energy. This absolutely is starting from him and being passed on to the players. KO needs to man up and figure out what his problem is here. The player's aren't ready for adverse situations and aren't prepared properly for games.

I've been thinking this for a while, but since the divorce Ollie hasn't been the same guy. He shows no passion, no energy and his team reflects that.

I'm not ready to throw him under the bus, but last night's game was just painful to watch. I do think that travel has something to do with it, but Calhoun would have gotten ejected if that was what it took to energize the team.

 

[QDOG5]

First time posting so this may be lengthy. First, anybody miss Amida Brimah? For all his faults he makes teams play Uconn differently at both ends. We can't underestimate what him lurking baseline on O vs. a team playing zone does. Right now teams have no respect for us in the post offensively(why should they when our guards are allergic to passing in there) so they play zone against us and can stay out at the 3 pt. line on D. Why wasn't DHam on the foul line on O vs. Tulsa's zone? KO doesn't want him shooting 3's but he's playing 4 out, 1 low on offense. We need DHam in the middle of the zone on O. He's our best passer and could possibly get a shooting rhythm going from 16 feet. Two more thoughts, this team does not have the talent to be great. With Brimah we are somewhere between 15-25 in the country and without 25-40. We don't rebound well enough(or at all offensively), we can't score well out of the low post and we don't have a penetrating guard. I think Ollie should pressure more in full court and get some easy baskets. JC used to have some not so athletic teams but they would wear people out. And it was so FUN to watch. Not that watching 4 guards pass the ball around the perimeter for 28 seconds isn't fun ... Last thing, Len Elmore described Omar as a ball handler and facilitator last night. Was he talking about Omar from the Wire?

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

The worst part is that I don't even know what the solution is. If Ollie doesn't know when to take a time out, or when not to put in Cassell (ever?) by now, then... I mean, is he going to learn? It's theoretically correctable, but in practice, I'm not sure. And this problem isn't just going to go away on its own. I can't imagine the NBA is still chomping at the bit for him (but maybe?), which means we have Ollie and his enormous contract for however long cause I can't imagine we'd get rid of him.

This reminds me of the conference problem in that it feels like it's going to get worse before it gets better.

 

[bluestreak]

Whatever the cause. Whatever the solution. KO needs to be ten toes in!

 

[SouthBayHusky]

I stridently disagree that the issue is talent. There are gobs of talent on this team. But they still need to be in a coherent offense in order to win games.

Bingo

 

[Dooch]

I don't want to hear another word about his divorce as an excuse for him not doing his job. It was over a year ago. If his divorce has rendered him unable to coach, he needs to find a new job that he can actually do.

Not to make excuses for the guy, but I'm currently going thru one myself (I also have kids). I have nowhere near the responsibility that KO does but let me tell you, it was/is a HUGE drain on my emotions. It has to have had an effect on him. As someone else said, its like a death in the family. But at some point, you need to move forward and he does need to do a better job...

 

[Rico444]

Been a very busy last few weeks for me, so I haven't gotten to sit down and watch any of the last three games. I really wish I had, hard as they've been, and I plan on watching at least a few of them this weekend if I can find the time. That being said, it seems clear that the biggest problem is the coach. I love KO, but he needs to get his s#%t together because we DO have the talent to be a better team than we've been. I'm hoping he's getting closer to moving on from the divorce, because it's pretty clearly affecting him. I don't think it's fair to talk about moving on from him no matter how badly things go the rest of the way (barring something ugly off the court), but three poor seasons in a row wouldn't be good at all.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

Does KO read the BY? ...

KO: "In the first half, we have an 11-point lead and then we have four turnovers in a row. In a row. So we need to do a better job and I have to do a better job coaching. That’s the bottom line.”

 

[Palatine]

We need to run better half court offense that gets us into the paint. WE are paying the price for being a bunch of jump shooters. Kevin needs to design some plays to get us to the rim.

He made some nice defensive adjustment to stop the lay up line we saw in the Caribbean. Now it's time to fix the offense.

 

[bmayuc]

Toughness, IQ, and Talent

Toughness - This team is soft as melted butter. They go on wild swings: Hitting 8 shots in a row(swinging good), Missing 10 shots in a row(swinging bad) and that is the hallmark of a team with no toughness or internal confidence. It murder us in games because when the pressure is ratcheted up we have absolutely no answer. Purvis is the absolute worst at this. He'll run off 10 points in 5 minutes, then miss a couple shots and be TOTALLY SILENT for the next 15 minutes on both sides of the ball. Sterling is a 5th year player that just mopes around the court all the time. DHam has horrendous body language. This is the most pervasive problem on this team.

IQ - Defense(especially with the new rules) is about making the offense take contested shots w/o fouling. I can't remember a defensive UConn squad that fouls as much as this team. Make the other team make a tough shot! don't bail out every single drive! Its infuriating, because the opposing team is constantly shooting a worse percentage but, due to their incessant trips to the line, hangs around in the game. I remember during the Calhoun era, a hallmark of our team was that we would always "make more free throws than the other teams attempted". This is a skill, and a sign of physical and mental domination. It is a structural, strategic advantage that we have lost during the Ollie days. We are always on the flip side of that coin, and it means that unless we have a marked WIN in the FG% battle, we're going to lose. especially close games, because we have empty trips all the time on our offense(see Toughness), but the other team is either making buckets or at the line grinding out 1 or 2 points.

Talent - You need complementary team skill sets to win. We just don't have that, especially on offense, with HUGE holes in offensive skillsets. Purv/Gibbs can't finish at all near the rim. They also are below average to poor passers/creators. So basically they are spot-up shooters, which when combined with zero toughness, is of course very streaky. We have a handful of Post players who can't finish, period, but each have one excellent skill. They are all entirely one-dimensional. You give the ball to Facey, Phil, Brimah, or Enoch down low and more likely than not the ball will either be stripped, or go careening off the backboard incredulously weird angle. Amida blocks shots. Phil plays position D, Facey Rebounds. Enoch flashes, but is terrible on D. If we could melt them all into one player, they would be an all-american. But the laws of physics don't allow that, yet. Jalen could be a fix at G, but is wildly inconsistent. Calhoun Shoots, and that's it.

So you mix together that stew and you get a team that doesn't know how to play consistently, can't withstand runs or play in hostile environments, and since it is almost wholly reliant on 3 pt shooting, wins when they shoot and loses when they don't.

Very disheartening, but the truth

 

[August_West]

Toughness, IQ, and Talent

Toughness - This team is soft as melted butter. They go on wild swings: Hitting 8 shots in a row(swinging good), Missing 10 shots in a row(swinging bad) and that is the hallmark of a team with no toughness or internal confidence. It murder us in games because when the pressure is ratcheted up we have absolutely no answer. Purvis is the absolute worst at this. He'll run off 10 points in 5 minutes, then miss a couple shots and be TOTALLY SILENT for the next 15 minutes on both sides of the ball. Sterling is a 5th year player that just mopes around the court all the time. DHam has horrendous body language. This is the most pervasive problem on this team.

IQ - Defense(especially with the new rules) is about making the offense take contested shots w/o fouling. I can't remember a defensive UConn squad that fouls as much as this team. Make the other team make a tough shot! don't bail out every single drive! Its infuriating, because the opposing team is constantly shooting a worse percentage but, due to their incessant trips to the line, hangs around in the game. I remember during the Calhoun era, a hallmark of our team was that we would always "make more free throws than the other teams attempted". This is a skill, and a sign of physical and mental domination. It is a structural, strategic advantage that we have lost during the Ollie days. We are always on the flip side of that coin, and it means that unless we have a marked WIN in the FG% battle, we're going to lose. especially close games, because we have empty trips all the time on our offense(see Toughness), but the other team is either making buckets or at the line grinding out 1 or 2 points.

Talent - You need complementary team skill sets to win. We just don't have that, especially on offense, with HUGE holes in offensive skillsets. Purv/Gibbs can't finish at all near the rim. They also are below average to poor passers/creators. So basically they are spot-up shooters, which when combined with zero toughness, is of course very streaky. We have a handful of Post players who can't finish, period, but each have one excellent skill. They are all entirely one-dimensional. You give the ball to Facey, Phil, Brimah, or Enoch down low and more likely than not the ball will either be stripped, or go careening off the backboard incredulously weird angle. Amida blocks shots. Phil plays position D, Facey Rebounds. Enoch flashes, but is terrible on D. If we could melt them all into one player, they would be an all-american. But the laws of physics don't allow that, yet. Jalen could be a fix at G, but is wildly inconsistent. Calhoun Shoots, and that's it.

So you mix together that stew and you get a team that doesn't know how to play consistently, can't withstand runs or play in hostile environments, and since it is almost wholly reliant on 3 pt shooting, wins when they shoot and loses when they don't.

Very disheartening, but the truth

Ah the old T.I.T measurement standard. I happen to believe in tit myself. This team definitely is not the tit's.

 

[Hi-Low]

Yeah KO needs to take a leave of absence, maybe take some on-line courses in coaching. He needs to do some soul-searching, maybe he's not cut out for this....there is always the Macy's management training program.

Calhoun can come back to coach for the rest of the season....then name his replacement again....hope he does a better job next time, KO clearly in over his head.

 

[superjohn]

This team just isn't that good, I think we overrated the talent to start the year. Our awful recruiting for a few years is showing and we have no depth.

It's going to be a struggle when your team needs a First team AA to be successful, and that is where our depth has been for about 5 years.

Say what you want about Ollie's coaching, but he won a championship with sweet sixteen level talent.

This is nonsense, the team is loaded with 4 and 5 star talent. We weren't loaded with NBA talent when we won it all but we had the best player in the country and he was a point guard, Ollie deserves a ton of credit for that run and a ton of blame for what's going on right now.

 

[Mazhude]

So, Ollie hasn't coached with the same intensity, craftiness, thoughtfulness for the last two years. I know some folks point the finger at his divorce for the change in his coaching, but has anyone mentioned the other big thing that happened to UConn basketball two/three years ago. George Blaney retired. He was a font of coaching wisdom and a rock of leadership on the bench... maybe, just maybe we are missing his influence more than we've realized.

 

[Tenspro2002]

This team just isn't that good, I think we overrated the talent to start the year. Our awful recruiting for a few years is showing and we have no depth.

It's going to be a struggle when your team needs a First team AA to be successful, and that is where our depth has been for about 5 years.

Say what you want about Ollie's coaching, but he won a championship with sweet sixteen level talent.

Talent was an excuse last year, but that doesn't fly this year. Yes, recruiting at the high school level was atrocious for 3-4 years, largely because of the mess Calhoun left, but the 5th year guys have covered up a lot of those holes. Last year, even optimistic caricature Dickie V. couldn't deny the dearth of talent we possessed at the end of last year. Going into this year there were no such complaints.

It's true that we won a championship under KO with Sweet Sixteen level talent. We're also about to miss the Tournament entirely with Sweet Sixteen level talent.

Over the last 2 years, players and teams have not improved throughout the source of a career or a season. In-game performances have been lethargic and mindless. Adjustments are non-existent. That's on the coach, regardless of the surrounding talent level.

 

[tykurez]

Talent was an excuse last year, but that doesn't fly this year. Yes, recruiting at the high school level was atrocious for 3-4 years, largely because of the mess Calhoun left, but the 5th year guys have covered up a lot of those holes. Last year, even optimistic caricature Dickie V. couldn't deny the dearth of talent we possessed at the end of last year. Going into this year there were no such complaints.

It's true that we won a championship under KO with Sweet Sixteen level talent. We're also about to miss the Tournament entirely with Sweet Sixteen level talent.

Over the last 2 years, players and teams have not improved throughout the source of a career or a season. In-game performances have been lethargic and mindless. Adjustments are non-existent. That's on the coach, regardless of the surrounding talent level.

There's no questioning the talent level on this roster, but it's not always "on the coach" if that doesn't translate into success. You don't have to go that far back in the catalogue for other examples of this in UConn's history.

It's not as easy as plugging two 5th year grad transfers into a [starting] roster and expect the team to rock on all cylinders. Add that with the fact that one of our two carry-over star players is in just his second year and going through a hell of a sophomore slump right now. Then to lose your junior all-defensive center nearly half-way through the year and expect them to not have performances like we've been seeing is somewhat unrealistic.

I think we all need to pump the brakes a bit.

 

[huskiesnyc]

The weird thing is we've seen KO out coach Izzo, Hoieberg, Calipari, Wright, Boeheim to name a few, so he can do it!! Right now he honestly looks like the worst coach in the country. I've never seen so many glaring mistakes. He needs to get back to the basics and reevaluate what made him successful in the past. I said after Temple needed to take a long look in the mirror, swallow his pride, and call Jim Calhoun for mentoring.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

After taking some time to evaluate the loss, I came to the realization that Ollie just isn't a good in-game coach. He maybe a good recruiter and master motivator, but day in and day out he is getting outcoached in all of these games. Our offense runs zero set plays and frankly can't create anything in the half court. Whenever an opponent makes any sort of adjustment (offensive or defensively), we never have any sort of counter for it. It doesn't matter how many four or five star players we may have, if we can't execute our gameplan and make the necessary adjustments, we will continue to lose these type of games. I hate to admit it, but if Ollie misses the tournament for a second year in a row, his seat is going to get pretty hot.

Am I in favor of firing a guy who literally lead us to a national title 21 months ago? Absolutely not. The reality is that while the wheels of conference realignment are spinning, now more than ever do we need to win in all sports. Frankly, how attractive will we be to the Big XII, ACC or B1G if we can't even finish better than fourth in the AAC?

Changes need to occur, whether it comes in the form of shaking up to rotations, changes to the coaching staff etc. but this team needs to play better. Not to come off as some sort of "elitist", but we are UConn. We hold the record for the most conference championships in what used to be the best basketball conference in the history of college basketball and have won four national championships in the past sixteen years. We are among the elite programs in college basketball, and the results over the past year and a half do not live up to the high standards that we have set for ourselves. If Ollie can make the necessary adjustments and get us going on the right track, awesome. If he can't, then maybe someone else is better equipped to lead this program.

 

[David 76]

There's no questioning the talent level on this roster, but it's not always "on the coach" if that doesn't translate into success. You don't have to go that far back in the catalogue for other examples of this in UConn's history.

It's not as easy as plugging two 5th year grad transfers into a [starting] roster and expect the team to rock on all cylinders.
I think we all need to pump the brakes a bit.

You are right. But it is hard to defend Ollie not calling a time out when the other team is on a run. Or not pulling a player who is making the same mistake again and again

 

[tcf15]

There's no questioning the talent level on this roster, but it's not always "on the coach" if that doesn't translate into success. You don't have to go that far back in the catalogue for other examples of this in UConn's history.

It's not as easy as plugging two 5th year grad transfers into a [starting] roster and expect the team to rock on all cylinders. Add that with the fact that one of our two carry-over star players is in just his second year and going through a hell of a sophomore slump right now. Then to lose your junior all-defensive center nearly half-way through the year and expect them to not have performances like we've been seeing is somewhat unrealistic.

I think we all need to pump the brakes a bit.

Yup. Regardless of the coaching miscues, when the guy with the highest usage rate on your team is in the midst of an awful shooting slump (10/48 in 4 games, or .208) it's gonna be tough to win some games (e.g. Temple). And when the guy with the second highest usage rate has a mid-game shooting slump and the two go a combined 3/21, it's gonna be tough to overcome that and win (e.g. Tulsa).