The AD breaks his silence on KO
- Thread starter the Blades
- Start date
Thanks Blades. Again, i think those wishing for a new HC will have to wait until next year. Doesn't put us in a good recruiting situation for the next class.
The statements made by Benedict are meaningless rah rah platitudes. What he should have said is we will conduct exit interviews of all basketball coaching staff and players and then make decisions after we collect that and other information on the program. That’s what he would have said if he intended to make a change. As we all know he is financially handicapped from doing so by the contract. He also mentions personnel injuries but doesn’t mention poor performance or a lack of talent up to the program’s standards.
I think the last 2 years of substandard on court play and the AAC have significantly damaged UConn’s recruiting and I not sure the damage can be fixed with KO in charge of the program. Hopefully someone also is looking at revenue numbers based on attendance and TV contracts etc. None of this is good moving forward.
I think the last 2 years of substandard on court play and the AAC have significantly damaged UConn’s recruiting and I not sure the damage can be fixed with KO in charge of the program. Hopefully someone also is looking at revenue numbers based on attendance and TV contracts etc. None of this is good moving forward.
We are most likely looking at 31-35 the last two years. That's putrid.
He's basically had one good month as a uconn coach. I realize he makes a ton of $ but the longer you wait, the longer the rebuild is going to take and that means a lot of lost revenue.
He's basically had one good month as a uconn coach. I realize he makes a ton of $ but the longer you wait, the longer the rebuild is going to take and that means a lot of lost revenue.
I don't have any problem with letting the axe fall as soon as this season is over, but it's not my $10 million to piss away. But for that buyout provision, the whole staff should be fired.
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True.. the big problem is money KSTW... especially with this weak AAC TV contract.... plus this AD gave KO his extension, so he's backed himself into a corner.
( he can't blame Warde on this one, like with Diaco)
Bottom line is Kevin is lost & he doesn't coach with any urgency to stop bad IQ BB and weak habits until it becomes the norm. And most important, this urgency has to start in the very beginning. Versus the D-2's and cupcakes or you'll never fix it. I saw it right away in the fall of 2016, with terrible D in the Exh. games and the losses to the 2 mid majors. ( some of us have been calling him out on these things even before Maui) ...because the difference between winning and losing can be a few bad plays a game......and I've sat 10 rows away from the Uconn bench at Gampel since the place opened so I have a great view of this guy, in game... .. When you have new players and first time starters you need to beat them over the head until they get it or yank them out of the game ( ie., see Geno and the #1 recruit in WBB who he sits the entire game because she doesn't )Then maybe guys will improve over their Uconn careers instead of flat lining which has been KO's norm. JC was neurotic sometimes with TO's 30 secs into a game... but he laid the groundwork of his expectations from day 1.
Not Kevin.. he sits and sits and sits until things get out of hand. Rushed shots, out of control drives by the guys who can't, dumb plays, guys not sharing the ball on the fast break or driving into 1 against 3's, weak D, no box outs, no in bounds plays ( his fault)...etc,etc.... until suddenly he engages himself when he's down double digits. His HC'ing has no consistency like his teams. It looks like he thinks he's sitting at the end of an NBA bench like he did for 13 years. Then he comes out with his lame BS in pressers talking up teams in narrow OT wins like vs. Monmouth( 11-20) and Columbia ( 8-19) ...He needs to go ballistic over that type of effort. So I've seen this movie to many times.....and I don't claim to know any of the off court stuff that insiders do. Seems like a nice guy... but he doesn't have the type A personality you need with young players to sit in a top seat in CBB.... sure the NBA talk is nice, the mentoring of young pro's when he was a player, but those guys were finished BB products or they wouldn't be drafted. In the tough times with new kids in CBB it takes alot more than that .... Plus listening to him talk he's not that engaging. If I had to play for him he'd put me to sleep...
The NC was a great accomplishment but it was a total group effort.. with a mature team, a senior PG/ "coach on the floor" who played better than anyone in the NCAA's & a hand picked coaching staff (2 with 21 years of D1 HC'ing experience ) that Calhoun left him. Even JC wasn't threatened by a right hand man (he knew Blaney was an asset ) with over 450 wins as a HC... I questioned both of the new flunkies on each side of KO when they were hired. What exactly have they proven so far ? It's like the blind leading the blind (and now one of Chills recruits, Fultz, is in the FBI report)....So with most of the "Uconn family" gone ( except the 2 at the end of the bench)... how's that workin out for ya KO trying to do it your own way... with these small ball line-ups that look like they'll get even smaller next year ?
I've always prayed that he could turn this around...but HOW exactly is KO's version of soft mined, physically overmatched BB ever gonna CHANGE... if he does stay ?
If he's back I can't continue as a season tix holder after 25+ years in an empty Gampel/ XL with a fan base (what's left of it), that he's made feel more like a morgue.
.....end of rant...
( he can't blame Warde on this one, like with Diaco)
Bottom line is Kevin is lost & he doesn't coach with any urgency to stop bad IQ BB and weak habits until it becomes the norm. And most important, this urgency has to start in the very beginning. Versus the D-2's and cupcakes or you'll never fix it. I saw it right away in the fall of 2016, with terrible D in the Exh. games and the losses to the 2 mid majors. ( some of us have been calling him out on these things even before Maui) ...because the difference between winning and losing can be a few bad plays a game......and I've sat 10 rows away from the Uconn bench at Gampel since the place opened so I have a great view of this guy, in game... .. When you have new players and first time starters you need to beat them over the head until they get it or yank them out of the game ( ie., see Geno and the #1 recruit in WBB who he sits the entire game because she doesn't )Then maybe guys will improve over their Uconn careers instead of flat lining which has been KO's norm. JC was neurotic sometimes with TO's 30 secs into a game... but he laid the groundwork of his expectations from day 1.
Not Kevin.. he sits and sits and sits until things get out of hand. Rushed shots, out of control drives by the guys who can't, dumb plays, guys not sharing the ball on the fast break or driving into 1 against 3's, weak D, no box outs, no in bounds plays ( his fault)...etc,etc.... until suddenly he engages himself when he's down double digits. His HC'ing has no consistency like his teams. It looks like he thinks he's sitting at the end of an NBA bench like he did for 13 years. Then he comes out with his lame BS in pressers talking up teams in narrow OT wins like vs. Monmouth( 11-20) and Columbia ( 8-19) ...He needs to go ballistic over that type of effort. So I've seen this movie to many times.....and I don't claim to know any of the off court stuff that insiders do. Seems like a nice guy... but he doesn't have the type A personality you need with young players to sit in a top seat in CBB.... sure the NBA talk is nice, the mentoring of young pro's when he was a player, but those guys were finished BB products or they wouldn't be drafted. In the tough times with new kids in CBB it takes alot more than that .... Plus listening to him talk he's not that engaging. If I had to play for him he'd put me to sleep...
The NC was a great accomplishment but it was a total group effort.. with a mature team, a senior PG/ "coach on the floor" who played better than anyone in the NCAA's & a hand picked coaching staff (2 with 21 years of D1 HC'ing experience ) that Calhoun left him. Even JC wasn't threatened by a right hand man (he knew Blaney was an asset ) with over 450 wins as a HC... I questioned both of the new flunkies on each side of KO when they were hired. What exactly have they proven so far ? It's like the blind leading the blind (and now one of Chills recruits, Fultz, is in the FBI report)....So with most of the "Uconn family" gone ( except the 2 at the end of the bench)... how's that workin out for ya KO trying to do it your own way... with these small ball line-ups that look like they'll get even smaller next year ?
I've always prayed that he could turn this around...but HOW exactly is KO's version of soft mined, physically overmatched BB ever gonna CHANGE... if he does stay ?
If he's back I can't continue as a season tix holder after 25+ years in an empty Gampel/ XL with a fan base (what's left of it), that he's made feel more like a morgue.
.....end of rant...
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Since I live in California, I usually record the games and watch them later while on the treadmill. It helps to be able to fast forward to the end once the route starts. Lately, I’ve taken to turning off the volume so I don’t have to listen to the announcers making excuses for KO. The usual formula involves them bringing up the NC and the injuries. They then close by mentioning how impatient and entitled the fan base has become. It drives me crazy. The fact UConn won the NC four years ago only makes the current state of the program more pathetic. Can anyone think of a program that fell so quickly to irrelevance after winning a NC? We better pray Jalen Adams stays for his senior year, or things are going to get worse before they get better.
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UNLV had around a 15 year period of dominance from the late 1970s to early 1990s. They won NC in 1990 and their 1991 team was every better. I still don’t understand how Duke beat them in 1991 after losing by 30 the prior year to a team that came back in full. The 1990-1991 UNLV teams were among the best in college basketball history. They did go down the drain after Tark left, in part because they play in a weak conference and don’t have the kind of schedule.
Look at this story
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ng-firing-tubby-smith-bringing-penny-hardaway
So let me see if I understand this.
Memphis, a team playing in the same conference as UCONN, is willing to fire a coach that has a better record than KO and the same guaranteed owed buyout money?????
Reasons cited are the exact same as UCONN:
Poor recruting
Declining Attendance
Not qualifying for the NCAA Tourney in successive years
UCONN just no longer has an interest in competing with the big boys.
It's just a sad but true fact.
Anyone refuting this can explain to me how Memphis can afford to eat 10 million but UCONN can't.
The truth is no one can afford to eat 10 million dollars.
Its just a question of realizing it must be done to get the program back to where you want it to be.
The UCONN administration just doesnt care enough, so why should I care as a fan or alum?
PATHETIC
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ng-firing-tubby-smith-bringing-penny-hardaway
So let me see if I understand this.
Memphis, a team playing in the same conference as UCONN, is willing to fire a coach that has a better record than KO and the same guaranteed owed buyout money?????
Reasons cited are the exact same as UCONN:
Poor recruting
Declining Attendance
Not qualifying for the NCAA Tourney in successive years
UCONN just no longer has an interest in competing with the big boys.
It's just a sad but true fact.
Anyone refuting this can explain to me how Memphis can afford to eat 10 million but UCONN can't.
The truth is no one can afford to eat 10 million dollars.
Its just a question of realizing it must be done to get the program back to where you want it to be.
The UCONN administration just doesnt care enough, so why should I care as a fan or alum?
PATHETIC
Even worse, we would be thrilled if UConn performed as well as Memphis did this year. True, they took some bad losses (USF, ECU), and some wins were closer than they should have been, but they didn’t take a bunch of 20 point blowout losses either.. This is only his second year and already they want him gone despite the winning record - yet people think UConn fans are impatient and entitled.
Tubby Smith is actually a good coach and proven winner who won a title at Kentucky, although largely with talent recruited by Pitino. Still, that 1998 Tubby coached Kentucky team had the best comeback I ever saw in a Elite 8 or deeper game when Tubby ordered his team to press with Duke up by 20. Steve Wojohowski was the Duke point guard and it was turnover city from that point on. I think the 20 point lead was at the 8 minute mark and vanished. Kentucky then beat a very good Utah team in the finals which had 3 NBA players, Andre Miller and Michael Doleac.
Tubby hasn’t been fired yet, it’s a report. His team was pretty young and he did a pretty good job with them, considering all the talent they lost.
If he is fired it’s not due to a bad job, it’s due to Hardaway’s recruiting connections. Tubby was never a strong recruiter and doesn’t know the Memphis AAU Network. His strength is game coaching.
Tubby hasn’t been fired yet, it’s a report. His team was pretty young and he did a pretty good job with them, considering all the talent they lost.
If he is fired it’s not due to a bad job, it’s due to Hardaway’s recruiting connections. Tubby was never a strong recruiter and doesn’t know the Memphis AAU Network. His strength is game coaching.
The point here is UCONN is allowing KO to continue coaching and running the program into the ground, presumably because of his 10 million still owed in guaranteed money.
A weaker program like Memphis, playing in the same conference as UCONN, is willing to part ways with a coach with less tenure, more success, and the same money owed.
This is a sad day for UCONN
I would agree that UConn has greater reason to fire KO than Memphis does to fire Tubby. But sometimes coaches are undeservedly fired and coaches who should be fired remain employed.
Another program that won't allow garbage results to continue because of the failing coaches contract
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ittsburgh-panthers-fire-coach-kevin-stallings
Do something Benedict you hapless fool
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ittsburgh-panthers-fire-coach-kevin-stallings
Do something Benedict you hapless fool
Going 0-19 in ACC conference games and having attendance drop to 4,000 a game are
unacceptable developments. I was surprised they hired him in the first place with better candidates available.
unacceptable developments. I was surprised they hired him in the first place with better candidates available.
Speaking of attendance... Stallings has nothing on KO:
year...........Games/ Average
2011-12.... 17/ 12640 (Calhoun"s final year)
2012-13.... 16/ 10728 (KO's first)
2013-14.... 18/ 10134
2014-15.... 16/ 10957
2015-16..... 17/ 10413
2016-17..... 17- 8505
2017-18..... 16- 7829
year...........Games/ Average
2011-12.... 17/ 12640 (Calhoun"s final year)
2012-13.... 16/ 10728 (KO's first)
2013-14.... 18/ 10134
2014-15.... 16/ 10957
2015-16..... 17/ 10413
2016-17..... 17- 8505
2017-18..... 16- 7829
He has Stallings beat by over twice the attendance, but clearly attendance is in a downward spiral and UConn is headed down to Stallings numbers.
Good call by TCF .....I posted this video probably over a year ago.... as to what KO lacks as a HC.....Remember when we had a coach who micro managed the kids and made sure that they didn't make the same fricken' mistakes over and over and over ??????
Even Lamb had "WTF???" body language on that play. More significantly it reminds me of when UConn had good bigs like Oriakhi, Okwandu and Drummond, all of whom were so much better especially defensively/rebounding than the bigs we threw out there this year.
