Juwan Durham transferring

[dbaum_]

Very troubling sign for our program. I cannot remember at any point in college basketball where three scholarship players decide to leave on top of a very solid PG in Makai Ashton-Langford deciding not to attend in such a short period of time. Something is defiantly going on behind the scenes and as fans and alumni, deserve answers ASAP. I know the recruiting process is still not over, but why hasn't Ollie or the AD came out and addressed any of these departures? As fans, current students and alumni who have supported the team for decades, we need an explanation of why this is all happening; the program needs to be transparent and give us insight to all these key players leaving. I will try to stay optimistic and have high hopes for next year, but with all that has happened in the past few weeks, nobody anticipated all of this. Ollie and his staff need to start bringing in players or else this could be very well be his last season as a head coach.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

dbaum, I agree that fans, student and media deserve an explanation, and Dave Benedict probably should be the guy to give one presuming that he conducted interviews with all who were involved. That being said, and as has been mentioned elsewhere, it does not appear to be very easy to spin these departures at this point. I also get the feeling insiders and KO himself did not see them coming, based on Ozzie's "no one else" thread, after which 3 departures occurred. Vital was also a rumored 5th departure. Something is going on behind the scenes, but will we ever get the full story? Probably not. Although the Jackson departure is somewhat explainable the others really are not. I would also point out UConn lost Diallo after he supposedly came to First Night so it's an awful trend.

UConn is also nowhere near the very early top 25 for next season, and at this point the future of the program looks very uncertain.

 

[KembaStepBack]

I don't know. On the court, VJ's departure hurts the most IMO. As far as words go, JD's hurt the most. We stood by him through 2 ACL injuries and a year where he didn't play much at all and should have red-shirted. Then he decides to leave? That's pretty crappy.

This generation has ZERO loyalty to anything. Their word means nothing. They lack any sort of conviction.

I can't stand all of this Ollie hate. Isn't it possible all these guys are leaving for different reasons? Enoch couldn't hang in this league/wanted to be more of a focus on O. VJ and his dad think he's better than he is and he's homesick. Durham is homesick and apparently doesn't want to put the work in. MAL had a connection with GM, and probably figured he wouldn't play over CV. Notice not once did I mention Ollie. VJ hurts and MAL hurts some, but MAL hasn't played and the 2 bigs were pretty bad this past yr. Theyd be fine for depth, but lets be serious neither showed anything, especially on defense.

The other thing I HATE hearing about is how things have shook Ollie or caught him by surprise. People saying this have NO idea if this is true or not. Plus the off season isn't done yet...lets wait and see how things shake out. Let's not count any chickens before they've hatched.

 

[andersonfro]

Yes I know it's true believe me or not KO is as caught by this as you are and speaking of what ya know/don't know how are you gonna quote loyalty when KO fired one then had his dog on here throwing him under the bus for clicks??? Think about that, guy wins a couple rings here an KO's homeboy drops that he got fired b4 the school presses it out and it's done prior to the FF when he'd have his best chance to land a job then KO's mouth gets on here saying he was lazy?

Then KO's dog trash talks every kid who leaves the program...loyalty? This guy isn't inspiring loyalty.

Who tf needs to be loyal to that??

 

[rta32]

You can crown yourself smartest guy in the room, but no you have no clue how surprised KO was by any of this.

We retained the teams best players and lost about 13 pts and 6 boards per game spread among 3 players, and people act like the year is over before KO even gets the chance to add back onto the roster.

 

[USNA90]

Unfortunately those 13 points and six boards are from two freshmen and a sophomore (not to mention whatever UConn would have gotten from MAL). The problem isn't what was lost from last year's team, it's what UConn will lose moving forward when those players mature. Theoretically, they would improve each year. It's tough to build a consistently competitive team when the future foundation of the team keeps getting broken down. Who are going to be the impact seniors and juniors in two years? It's hard to see at this point how the loss of these four players is going to make UConn better.

 

[andersonfro]

You can crown yourself smartest guy in the room, but no you have no clue how surprised KO was by any of this.

We retained the teams best players and lost about 13 pts and 6 boards per game spread among 3 players, and people act like the year is over before KO even gets the chance to add back onto the roster.

It's a little presumption to tell people what they know.

Its also presumptuous to say that tl & ag are better than vj. You're just guessing

 

[rta32]

It's a little presumption to tell people what they know.

Pure irony since you keep telling us all about how you have a crystal clear view of KO's brain.

 

[andersonfro]

Do you not know what "irony" means? I said I know he was not expecting Steve, JD or MAL to leave, I don't know what he knew about VJ.

 

[dbaum_]

KSTW, definitely agree with you. Knowing UConn's history and the tradition we have here, it's hard to just sit back and let all this happen. We will never know exactly what goes on behind scenes but I am just curious to know if this was an ongoing problem throughout the season or something that the staff did recently that made all these players depart. Enoch and Durham still had to develop as post players and on defense, but Vance leaving and Makai Ashton-Langford deciding to go is what really hurt the most. I am just praying that nobody else leaves because we are really running thin right now. Last year was bad enough with all the injuries to key players, but now even with a healthy roster, if someone goes down then we are even in more trouble. Let's just hope Ollie and his staff are on the recruiting trail right now and making things happen.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Bottom line is after hearing talk of national title contention next year before this season started, UConn isn't preseason top 25 for next year or even honorable mention. This is not exactly progress. You all have different spins but perception and reality converge at some point, and when you aren't perceived to be any good it's not going to help recruiting. At this point it seems all Ollie has to sell is playing time, and it's a poor crop of prospective buyers and a buyer's market.

 

[the Blades]

 

[12rtackerman12]

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I think Louisville would be a good fit for him.

 

[the Blades]

Also from:

 

[the Blades]

Just a FWIW...when we have a HC that's not talented enough to keep talent on his team:

 

[Afghusky15]

It does bother me that he got away... he is very talented. Wish he stayed.

 

[the Blades]

 

[Calhoun_for_President]

He's not shaking things up, things are shaking him up.

He was blindsided by Steve, MAL & JD. He should have known about JD at least a damn week ago When Joe D knew & the cv rumor only turned out false because MAL gifted him pt.

Zero bigs returning if my math is correct.

I LOVE the narrative that KO wants to see more heart/effort so he decided on a complete rebuild so now he's going to take kids who are uncommitted to attend a school in 6 months. He maybe wanted/forced out V but every other loss wasn't by choice or design so let's not do this thing where he gets some credit for losing only 10-15 games next year despite a mythical rebuild

Glad to see the fanbase is finally coming around
He is incapable of running this program. Incapable