Kevin Ollie Fired?

[Mike A. S.]

Some of my friends are saying that they think maybe Ollie should be fired? What do y'all think? I think he's not done a great job but a national title within a 5 year career should merit him at least one more season, right

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Seems like an awful lot of troughs for a program like UCONN but the title does buy some credibility. Seems silly.

 

[rmilia1]

Personally I think the title is more of a fluke than the last couple years have been. Sadly I'm not sure all of it is on Ollie. When UCONN went from the BIG East to the American it was seen as " oh man they're going to dominate that league" yet the truth is that the league has drug ttlhem down and made them a pretty undesirable locale

 

[jontaejones]

Some of my friends are saying that they think maybe Ollie should be fired? What do y'all think? I think he's not done a great job but a national title within a 5 year career should merit him at least one more season, right

The thing people have to remember is that he won with the guys that Calhoun recruited. Napier, Boatright, and Daniels.

Calhoun is a tough act to follow. He pretty much built that program from the ground up, like Coach K and Duke. You could argue (and I would) that the job that he did was more impressive than Coach K given what he started with.

It's going to be tough to get the program back to those levels. But they are still as of now getting good recruits. I would give him another year or two to do something.

 

[tducey]

No, but I think if UCONN has another poor year next year he'll be let go.

 

[Hitman Hart]

The thing people have to remember is that he won with the guys that Calhoun recruited. Napier, Boatright, and Daniels.

Calhoun is a tough act to follow. He pretty much built that program from the ground up, like Coach K and Duke. You could argue (and I would) that the job that he did was more impressive than Coach K given what he started with.

It's going to be tough to get the program back to those levels. But they are still as of now getting good recruits. I would give him another year or two to do something.

I would definitely argue that. Duke had 4 FF's before K. UConn had 1 E8 before Calhoun.

 

[Lions=TeHsUcKs]

You do have to still wonder why Uconn elected to go to the AAC and not stay in the Big East or go to the ACC.

 

[jontaejones]

You do have to still wonder why Uconn elected to go to the AAC and not stay in the Big East or go to the ACC.

It wasn't a choice.

In reality, the AAC is actually the old Big East. The teams in the Catholic 7 (Villanova, Marquette, Seton Hall, etc) left and took the name, and then added Creighton, Butler, and Xavier.

The teams that were left (UConn, Cincy, South Florida, forgetting others?) added other teams to remain viable. In reality, UConn got hosed like no other school by re-alignment.

 

[redseat]

Would think Uconn was forced to move and keep some money, no?

 

[redseat]

Besides Calhoun.... What other quality coach has Uconn had though? Ollie could be there... Not Calhoun caliber but quality

 

[CatsTopPac]

The thing people have to remember is that he won with the guys that Calhoun recruited. Napier, Boatright, and Daniels.

Calhoun is a tough act to follow. He pretty much built that program from the ground up, like Coach K and Duke. You could argue (and I would) that the job that he did was more impressive than Coach K given what he started with.

It's going to be tough to get the program back to those levels. But they are still as of now getting good recruits. I would give him another year or two to do something.

I agree. I think that also like @rmilia1 wrote, switching conferences hurt them from where Calhoun had them. I don't think that Ollie is an NC coach. He did it with Calhoun's guys and hasn't had the recruits to make up for it. I don't think he will compete enough recruiting and won't get them back to the mainstay they were. If UCONN wants that, they are going to have to go and get someone. I'd give him a year while they plan for a replacement if they think they can get someone. Problem is, I don't think they can replace him with someone better. Maybe Mack, or Holtman? Maybe Martin or Jankovich? I still don't see Bennett from Saint Mary's leaving. And I don't know if they can do better, either. I don't know, but I wouldn't get rid of Ollie unless I think I have his replacement about to sign.

 

[rmilia1]

There's a couple things UCONN needs to face up to. One is they've never won the AAC.. Granted in its first year Louisville was damn good and so was Cincinnati but since then there hasn't really been a great team in that league yet UCONN still hasn't win it. They've gotten progressively further away as well. The second thing is that you simply cannot recruit as well when you're in that league. Kids want to play big time games vs big time teams in big time situations. Scheduling a quality OOC is great but you can get that at a lot if programs and then get to compete for a major conference title on top of it. If you can't recruit elite talent then you need an elite coach who can take 3 or 4 year guys and meld them together ( kind of like Nova did last year ). Problem is UCONN isn't even getting the talent Nova had and Ollie has not shown that ability with less than elite talent anyway

 

[jontaejones]

It's not realistic, but in a pure basketball sense, if you combined the AAC and A-10, kept the best teams, and cut the fat, you'd be in SERIOUS business...

 

[The Q]

The thing people have to remember is that he won with the guys that Calhoun recruited. Napier, Boatright, and Daniels.

Calhoun is a tough act to follow. He pretty much built that program from the ground up, like Coach K and Duke. You could argue (and I would) that the job that he did was more impressive than Coach K given what he started with.

It's going to be tough to get the program back to those levels. But they are still as of now getting good recruits. I would give him another year or two to do something.

When Coach K started at Duke he had players on his roster from a team that made the final four.

Duke had been to finals fours before Coach K.

They were the national runner up in 78. They went to 3 final 4s in 5 years in the mid 60s.

They were already an established program. In fact it's more like what Maryland was before Turgeon got there.

 

[The Q]

You do have to still wonder why Uconn elected to go to the AAC and not stay in the Big East or go to the ACC.

Football is the easy answer.

 

[The Q]

There's a couple things UCONN needs to face up to. One is they've never won the AAC.. Granted in its first year Louisville was damn good and so was Cincinnati but since then there hasn't really been a great team in that league yet UCONN still hasn't win it. They've gotten progressively further away as well. The second thing is that you simply cannot recruit as well when you're in that league. Kids want to play big time games vs big time teams in big time situations. Scheduling a quality OOC is great but you can get that at a lot if programs and then get to compete for a major conference title on top of it. If you can't recruit elite talent then you need an elite coach who can take 3 or 4 year guys and meld them together ( kind of like Nova did last year ). Problem is UCONN isn't even getting the talent Nova had and Ollie has not shown that ability with less than elite talent anyway

This recruiting class they just got was probably the highest rated UConn has ever had.

UConn hasn't had that many Micky D's AAs or anything like that.

Guys like Gordon and Okafor were like 3 star guys at best by multiple recruiting sources.

 

[The Q]

I agree. I think that also like @rmilia1 wrote, switching conferences hurt them from where Calhoun had them. I don't think that Ollie is an NC coach. He did it with Calhoun's guys and hasn't had the recruits to make up for it. I don't think he will compete enough recruiting and won't get them back to the mainstay they were. If UCONN wants that, they are going to have to go and get someone. I'd give him a year while they plan for a replacement if they think they can get someone. Problem is, I don't think they can replace him with someone better. Maybe Mack, or Holtman? Maybe Martin or Jankovich? I still don't see Bennett from Saint Mary's leaving. And I don't know if they can do better, either. I don't know, but I wouldn't get rid of Ollie unless I think I have his replacement about to sign.

Agreed.

That's why Ollie was the obvious successor...who the f wants to come to Storrs?

it's 40 minutes from the closest city...and that city is Hartford...not exactly an A list place.