Can we attempt to keep the Hurley debate in one thread? It may be an impossibility on this board, but I figured it's worth a shot.
My thoughts are all over the place, and feel free to critique...
1.) Hurley probably deserves to be in the hot seat next year. He does a lot of things well, but we are a team that expects to win in the tournament. 0 wins in 4 years is unacceptable. Period. Rebuild or not.
2.) He also is probably NOT on the hot seat, because we don't have the money for it.
3.) Either he doesn't know how, or his emotions get in the way, of Hurley making adjustments and coaching well in close games. Yes, the players missed shots. Yes, we didn't defend all that well. But when the team consistent lays eggs in close games and tournament games, it's on the COACH.
4.) The refusal to play a zone early this season when we could practice it with lower stakes cost us big time. The inflexibility on defense kills us. Our strategy is not much more nuanced than "play harder than the other team"... that works A LOT of the time. That doesn't work against teams like Creighton, Nova, and certainly not in big tournament games. Everyone is prepared. Everyone knows your playbook
5.) We recruited well, but made some mistakes. We expected Gaffney to contribute more than he did. I'm not sure we can blame the staff for that. Same with the Whaley/Sanogo thing... they don't play well together, but ultimately they're two of our best players and they do need to see the floor. Even if they don't mesh well.
Hurley does not deserve to be on the hot seat. He's a good coach with CRYSTAL clear strengths and weaknesses, but we've gone to the tournament two years in a row and ultimately that is the measurement like it or not. In time with more recruiting, roster tweaks, improving in-game coaching and demeanor we will be good for a long time. And he recruits like a monster and gets who he wants. I think the bigger problem is IDing who he wants better, and understanding his coaching weaknesses and having a plan to improve now that they are clear.
Strenghts -
1. the Dude can recruit. He wants a guy, he usually gets him. In some ways I think this is his problem at UConn. He gets to UConn and now he can recruit a bunch of athletic monsters that he couldn't touch at URI, so he gets a stable of them and doesn't worry so much about fit/style/traits. Cuz at URI you get a stud you can give him 35 minutes a game from day 1, and he'll develop fast and with the confidence that he is the MAN at URI. That alone will bring you success at URI, Wagner, etc, cuz if you are a killer recruiter at mid major you can really just out-talent people like the UConn Women do. If there's enough of a talent gap through recruiting nothing else matters at a mid-major school. You win 1 or 2 ok out of conference games, go 18-3 in your conference and you are a god. At UConn, you are at the top level of talent, the gaps are not there when you get to the top 25 teams, so roster management, in-game coaching ability, system, all plays a much more impactful role on success. That's new for him, we'll see if he can figure it out but now its a real struggle.
2. Effort/tenacity - no one will say this guy doesn't get his players to give max effort, sorry. They always fight, always play hard. There is massive value in that.
Weaknesses
1. Roster management (and this IS coaching. Hurley is the GM) - Its probably not good to have like 2-3 extra talented 6'10 guys who are just not useful at all because they are redundant. You give Akok, Springs, Samson Johnson to any other D1 team and they are each getting 10-30 minutes a night and putting up numbers. For us, they dont even sniff the floor(rightly or wrongly). Meanwhile, we have 1 guard who can dribble the ball and make shots off the dribble on the entire team. Our second ball handler is a 6'6 guy who is best off as a 3&D guy, and isn't a threat to score at all for himself. And our backup "PG" is a well below average combo guard with zero confidence. The one guy who could have helped us in the backcourt and dominated an intramural scrimmage(Floyd) getting to the paint and finishing at will was redshirted(looking back and even bigger WTF?) Finally, though it was clear from the very first set of real games exactly what problems existed with the roster and yet he didn't pull Floyds Redshirt, he didn't build up the freshman to get them experience and develop them. No, he put all the other pieces in the freezer and rode with the known quantities. And the results were exactly as they should be expected to be. The same.
2. In-Game Coaching Jesus H Khrist - We win the games we should win on talent, effort, and athleticm. And don't get me wrong I love that. I love knowing we are going to crush the bottom half of the Big East and cruise to 10 conference wins before we start sweating. But we do it with a brutal style of game where we just physically break down the other team, bully them, etc. But put us in a game of even talent where coaching MATTERS, and we are often outmatched. Basically this is analogous to every big game we play. We see it all the time - the other coach gets their players unlimited Isos in good positions to score. The guy just has all day and space to make a a play. He does it again. And Again, no adjustments. Seton Hall the dude put up like 20 strait points before anything was even done. This game all we needed to do was bottle up one single guy and we just keep throwing a single defender on him and letting him make a play toward the rim. Creighton just spreads us out and gets easy cuts to the rim. Villanova spaces us out and lets their guards bully us down low for 5-10 minutes at a clip. Its getting insane. We just get carved up by good teams and when bad teams get a guy hot we just sit there like we've never practiced variations or different coverages and they beat us with it.
