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Purvis back in Storrs and calls out KO

the Blades

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Jan 20, 2003
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WOW, alot of us have thought it or said it at some point, despite what the KO apologists have been spinning for years. Karl Hobbs knew it first and was the the smartest guy in the room, so left on his own for a worse job (Rutgers, what has that program ever won?) so he didn't have to work under that buffoon KO, who was building a sinking ship. Followed by the transfers who left to Louisville (Enoch), Notre Dame (Durham), Vance Jackson etc. So Purvis finally says it and there's not much to like about Kevin "the fraud" Ollie, who was nothing more than a parrot, spinning catchphrases while stealing money, SMH!







Also-
 
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I am glad Purvis has enough affinity towards UConn to work out with these kids. Not sure how good he would have been if better coached because his game reflected the confusion of which he speaks. He probably would have been better with Calhoun or Hurley, but he had a propensity for playing out of control and not looking very instinctive with his decisions. Physically he was a stud, great body and decent shooter, but some guys have a clear feel for the game and Rodney didn't......
 
Regarding Karl Hobbs, a lot of people probably don't remember this but he engineered a huge upset of Georgetown at Georgetown during Patrick Ewing's freshman year, when they went to the NCAA finals and lost to UNC and Michael Jordan by 1 point. If I recall correctly UConn won that game by 12 at Georgetown and Hobbs's steadying play at PG was key to the win. He was an undersized but smart and heady PG.

That same year I was a freshman at UConn. Jordan and Ewing are the same age as me and were also freshmen that year. Back in those days UConn played at the Field House and it was very hard to get tickets but I saw many games there. I specifically remember seeing Billy Donovan as a freshman at Providence. As a freshman he was a chubby and ineffective player. I remember thinking at the time what is this guy doing on a Big East team???? Donovan later lost lots of weight and whipped himself into shape and by his senior year he led PC to a Final 4 with Rickie P.
 
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Here's another one dissin' KO. But this isn't hard, you have a HOF coach who hands you the job on a silver platter. Then he sets you up to succeed by giving you a staff with 2 guys with over 20 years of head coaching experience in CBB, but the moron KO decides to run them off his staff. And for good measure about 3 years before he got fired, he decides to cold shoulder the HOF'er who was still an advisor on the Uconn payroll.

 
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Blades either your posts or Rodney's tweets have caught the eyes of bloggers in UConn land:
 
Rodney's tweets have caught the eyes of bloggers in UConn land:
Obviously.... and it was also obvious to anyone who understands a thing about basketball, other than the KO jock sniffers, that the fraud KO mailed it in..... and he was over his head when he had to develop players on his own. But KO was to delusional to realize it. Unfortunately like the article said " it’s undeniable that guys like Purvis, Adams and Hamilton all got hung out to dry "
 
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no one bashed Ollie more than me, Even in the NC year, it took him 20 or so games to start Giffey, who was shooting 50+% from 3.

But Purvis and co have to also look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own careers.
 
no one bashed Ollie more than me, Even in the NC year, it took him 20 or so games to start Giffey, who was shooting 50+% from 3.

But Purvis and co have to also look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own careers.
This, just one of the non stop clown show moves we had to watch with that guy. Omar Calhoun who couldn't shoot, rebound or guard a frickin chair, but their was KO trying force mediocre into the line-up...SMFH!
 
But Purvis and co have to also look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own careers.
I agree with this. I think scouts liked Purvis's body and potential. But he didn't have a very instinctive feel for the game. He took bad shots and made bad decisions. I have no doubt he was treated badly as he said, and he definitely could have had better coaching. But some guys don't have very high ceilings because they have low basketball IQs. Purvis was a low basketball IQ player.

All of that being said, his coming back to UConn and working with our current players after Hurley's staff reached out to him shows he is a quality person as all have attested. He is entitled to have bad feelings about his time at UConn and much of what he says is likely true. But I question whether Purvis would have ever been an NBA player out of any program with any coach. That he has had success in Europe is a good thing for him. But maybe that was where he was destined to be. Khalid El Amin was a much better player for UConn, a star player, and he also ended up in Euroball.

I remember UConn back in the 1980s recruited a 6'6" point guard named Terence Warren. He couldn't shoot at all, which was his most obvious weakness. But one of his teammates (who shall remain nameless) who lived with me in the same dorm, told me "he doesn't see the floor well." I kind of have the sense that Purvis struggled similarly with Court vision, spacing, and understanding where he needed to be and what he needed to do to help the team. A lot of people forget that there were guys like this who played for Calhoun and no amount of coaching helped them. Do the names Doug Wrenn, Justin Brown, Ajou Ajou Deng, Ater Majok, Covington Cormier, Darius Smith, Marcus Johnson, and Uri Cohen Mintz ring a bell? How about Jonathan Mandeldove? None of these guys even ended up being serviceable players. There were many guys Calhoun recruited who never came close to being solid players. And Calhoun himself said Justin Brown would be a great player. He was a complete zero as a UConn player.
 
I think scouts liked Purvis's body and potential. But he didn't have a very instinctive feel for the game. He took bad shots and made bad decisions. I have no doubt he was treated badly as he said, and he definitely could have had better coaching. But some guys don't have very high ceilings because they have low basketball IQs. Purvis was a low basketball IQ player.
I had no love for Purvis's game either. He made alot of bad decision, bull in the china shop drives, etc. BUT if you want to see what a huge difference good coaching can make look what Hurley did to CV who was a lost, gunner ( under KO), until DH finally broke his game down by his senior year and made him a plus-plus player once CV realized DH knew what he was talking about.

Purvis could have learned to be a solid 3 and D player who stayed in control, but not with KO, who never even coached these guys his last 3 years. You have to micro manage 18-22 year old kids. Not chase skirts in West Hartford center which seemed like a bigger priority to KO at the time... And I heard from my nephew, (who graduated around Jalen's time & I've mentioned B4) who scrimmaged with these guys in the off season and was freinds to most of them, to a man "that's how they felt". Which is a symptom to the losing we watched.
 
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