That was basically awful

[ScottVib]

It was a terrible, frustrating performance. It's also worth noting that New Mexico State will also never shoot three-pointers that well again. They more than doubled their usual performance, which even after last night is 33%; but for one night they were a 65% team from behind the line, accounting for ~50% of their makes. It's your standard upset playbook, lower seed gets red hot from long range, higher seed plays a B or C level game.

For large swaths of the game UConn was out-rebounded and content to allow New Mexico State to dictate the tempo. They made the run when they upped the speed of the game and forced a turnover prone team to make mistakes. UConn played poorly, was complacent and it still took a performance beyond anything that NMSU had been able to perform this year to win; that UConn let them be in that position and never felt like they were ready to take full control of the game was perhaps the most frustrating piece (probably the most frustrated I've felt since the San Diego upset in the tournament about a decade ago).

 

[djct1999]

I think the problem is most of our fanbase is stuck in the past. Is it fair to criticize last night? Absolutely. But the takes on here about the season are head scratching. It took Calhoun quite awhile to get over the hump. Hurley inherited an absolute mess. By year 4, he has is nationally relevant, playing in the top half of big East, and stellar recruiting classes. Let’s assume he benefits a bit from the legacy Calhoun created and rebuilding UConn is easier than building it the first time. It’s partially why he is started succeeding in year 3. This process takes time. Hurley has this program on track and on time.

 

[SubbaBub]

Meh. It's disappointing as hell but, it another loss due to poor execution. Other than RJ in the 2nd half everything went wrong for us and everything went right for Allen and their little guy that shoots threes.

We all predicted would take a poor offensive effort from us or a lights out performance by our opponent.

It even ended with AJ turning the ball over in traffic. That game was exactly who we've been all season. It only happended to a worse team than we thought it would.

This was still a Top 25 team that couldn't play at a high level every night for 40 minutes. The missed layups, the horrible last second fouls. Getting nothing from RJ, Sanogo, and Martin for 20 minutes. It's every loss we've had this season.

This isn't on Hurley unless you want to blame him for not pushing the ball to Cole earlier. Otherwise, it's on the lack of execution. The two 3 pt fouls were ridiculous enough but Allen only had one or two easy shots all night. I don't know if he was getting to his spots easily or if he was just that hot. We'll see what he does from here.

 

[djct1999]

Ollie never had the Big East to recruit with and Ollie never lost a tournament game like this, so we can't pin this on Ollie.

UConn has two first team All Big East players, and a pretty good complement around them. This team has some talent but Hurley is a mediocre high school coach on gameday. That is enough to win a lot of games in the regular season with the talent he has, but in a win-or-go-home against solid D1 coach that has a week to prepare for UConn, Hurley is in trouble.

This is not going to get better. This season is the apex of Hurley, not the next step in his progression.

Knew this post was coming.

 

[Khal Drogo]

I do not understand why coach did not even try a box and one zone with one guy in Allen's shorts, following him everywhere and denying him the ball, cutting him off in drive, etc...
At least it would have been something different because nothing else was working... 37 points? Really? So much for the great Husky defense.

Hard to believe Allen had four years of college. Worst post game interview ever. Poor sportsmanship. Go Arkansas.

 

[8893]

Hard to believe Allen had four years of college. Worst post game interview ever. Poor sportsmanship. Go Arkansas.

Five different schools.

 

[Seamus84]

How’d this year go?

Ping me when


I said the same things in November, so nah. And we did not get a high seed, we did not go on a run and we threw up on our shoes whenever hardware was on the line.

Minor league games are games. Sitting on a bench for a year looking at the back of Danny Hurley’s head is not going to help Diggins or Johnson or Springs…it’s just pissing away a year of their college career.

The season would’ve been significantly worse if Hurley had taken your advice and played our freshman more

 

[Khal Drogo]

Five different schools.

Probably got kicked out of everyone of them

 

[Skiblets]

Our football team better kick their azzes

 

[Kathy]

I think the problem is most of our fanbase is stuck in the past. Is it fair to criticize last night? Absolutely. But the takes on here about the season are head scratching. It took Calhoun quite awhile to get over the hump. Hurley inherited an absolute mess. By year 4, he has is nationally relevant, playing in the top half of big East, and stellar recruiting classes. Let’s assume he benefits a bit from the legacy Calhoun created and rebuilding UConn is easier than building it the first time. It’s partially why he is started succeeding in year 3. This process takes time. Hurley has this program on track and on time.

Calhoun won the NIT in year 2 and was a basket away from the Final Four in year 4. No comparison.

 

[Viet Vet]

Undisciplined coaches have undisciplined players.

His sideline antics become less and less palatable.

 

[Lefty2one]

As a Knicks fan, it's like watching Thibs all over again. So many of the same stupid, stubborn mistakes: short rotations, over-reliance on vets who aren't that good, unimaginative offense, very few in-game adjustments.

 

[husky429]

I think the problem is most of our fanbase is stuck in the past. Is it fair to criticize last night? Absolutely. But the takes on here about the season are head scratching. It took Calhoun quite awhile to get over the hump. Hurley inherited an absolute mess. By year 4, he has is nationally relevant, playing in the top half of big East, and stellar recruiting classes. Let’s assume he benefits a bit from the legacy Calhoun created and rebuilding UConn is easier than building it the first time. It’s partially why he is started succeeding in year 3. This process takes time. Hurley has this program on track and on time.

Calhoun had to get over a hump with a program that had a starting 5 of cow farmers. He also had dominant teams by year 4. These situations are not comparable.

 

[Ewekon]

That was garbage.

This season really was just a black hole. For some reason, we went “win now” on a group of players who weren’t good enough to win now. Hawkins and especially Diggins and Samson were basically set back because we somehow thought the super seniors were good enough to do more than this. We did not advance the program much this season…for example, who’s the point guard next season? I dunno.

Guys like Polley and Whaley deserve our eternal thanks for being the bridge to get us from the abyss of Kevin Ollie to the present day..that said, we relied too much on older players who just had very hard ceilings.

Hurley has to start doing more than watching the games. How many times did NMSU score out of a time out? How many times did we? How many times did we look completely out of sync and call a time out to reorganize? Nothing was working and the answer was, “let’s do more of it.” When Whaley started thinking he was Stephon Curry, Hurley should have thrown himself on the floor to stop it. Love the heart, but you’re open for a reason, kiddo.

On that…more than halfway through the second half, we had one layup. Sanogo did not make one, Martin did not make one, Whaley did not make one….only the smallest guy on the floor had one. The bigs were busy showing off their jumpshot. NMSU is in the bonus after like eight minutes and our bigs are still firing from a distance…why?

All in all, this was pure crap. Bad effort, bad coaching, bad execution. Zero upside.

We advanced nothing this year outside of Sanogo. Next year, Hurley is going to have to a) get more out of players like Jackson, b) develop freshmen, and c) establish a bench and then use it. We’ll see.

Agree with all you say.

My concern is future recruiting. In fact, UConn is not "-UConn back". 2 seasons in a row in Tournament with not even a Sweet 16. Ask Indiana or even UCLA how hard it is to keep what was built.

No national attention after this season for Huskies. Keeping the Brand means getting a BET title and/or
Elite 8 next season. . 17 year old recruits were 8 the last time we won it all. 9 when the Boatshow ended. In short, Dan is a very good recruiter. Hasn't developed a 2 NBA first round pick team yet. Time is now for '23 team and '24 recruiting class......and for AJAX to get a jump shot going

 

[shizzle787]

That was garbage.

This season really was just a black hole. For some reason, we went “win now” on a group of players who weren’t good enough to win now. Hawkins and especially Diggins and Samson were basically set back because we somehow thought the super seniors were good enough to do more than this. We did not advance the program much this season…for example, who’s the point guard next season? I dunno.

Guys like Polley and Whaley deserve our eternal thanks for being the bridge to get us from the abyss of Kevin Ollie to the present day..that said, we relied too much on older players who just had very hard ceilings.

Hurley has to start doing more than watching the games. How many times did NMSU score out of a time out? How many times did we? How many times did we look completely out of sync and call a time out to reorganize? Nothing was working and the answer was, “let’s do more of it.” When Whaley started thinking he was Stephon Curry, Hurley should have thrown himself on the floor to stop it. Love the heart, but you’re open for a reason, kiddo.

On that…more than halfway through the second half, we had one layup. Sanogo did not make one, Martin did not make one, Whaley did not make one….only the smallest guy on the floor had one. The bigs were busy showing off their jumpshot. NMSU is in the bonus after like eight minutes and our bigs are still firing from a distance…why?

All in all, this was pure crap. Bad effort, bad coaching, bad execution. Zero upside.

We advanced nothing this year outside of Sanogo. Next year, Hurley is going to have to a) get more out of players like Jackson, b) develop freshmen, and c) establish a bench and then use it. We’ll see.

Hurley recruiting two top-tier transfers is going to be the difference between him keeping his job after next season or not.

 

[djct1999]

Calhoun won the NIT in year 2 and was a basket away from the Final Four in year 4. No comparison.

First, it wasn't a comparison. It was an evaluation of Hurley. And it seems that most on here have the championship or bust mentality in evaluating Hurley. In an odd way, I think you helped prove my point. Too many on here are stuck in the past and have unrealistic expectations. Calhoun is arguably a top 5 college basketball coach of all time. Hurley surely will never be that. He would be the first to admit it. But he is a good coach and great for this program. But if titles are the measuring stick, after that unlucky break in 1990, how long did it take the Hall of Fame coach to win it all? Is it fair then to destroy Hurley after this season in year 4 of a total rebuild? Realistic answers only.

 

[navery12]

Probably got kicked out of everyone of them

He did, for domestic violence every time

 

[nychuskyfan]

I think the problem is most of our fanbase is stuck in the past. Is it fair to criticize last night? Absolutely. But the takes on here about the season are head scratching. It took Calhoun quite awhile to get over the hump. Hurley inherited an absolute mess. By year 4, he has is nationally relevant, playing in the top half of big East, and stellar recruiting classes. Let’s assume he benefits a bit from the legacy Calhoun created and rebuilding UConn is easier than building it the first time. It’s partially why he is started succeeding in year 3. This process takes time. Hurley has this program on track and on time.

The “inherited” excuse is weak. This is his roster. He had 3 guys on this year’s roster that started their college careers 5(!) years ago, another 4th year senior and the rest of the roster is basically all top 75 recruits. That’s more than enough to make it to the second weekend. The excuse next year is going to be “we’re too young”.

I know it’s only one game but this loss feels very damaging to the “UConn is back” narrative in light of the fact that next year isn’t looking good unless Cole and Martin return. Especially since Hurley went all-in on his seniors and didn’t develop the younger guys. Hope I’m wrong but eventually you need to be able to point to results to recruits and others. We missed an opportunity to do that this year that will probably not be there next year.

 

[Kathy]

First, it wasn't a comparison. It was an evaluation of Hurley. And it seems that most on here have the championship or bust mentality in evaluating Hurley. In an odd way, I think you helped prove my point. Too many on here are stuck in the past and have unrealistic expectations. Calhoun is arguably a top 5 college basketball coach of all time. Hurley surely will never be that. He would be the first to admit it. But he is a good coach and great for this program. But if titles are the measuring stick, after that unlucky break in 1990, how long did it take the Hall of Fame coach to win it all? Is it fair then to destroy Hurley after this season in year 4 of a total rebuild? Realistic answers only.

I don't care about titles, I know how hard they are to come by but to say Hurley's rebuild is harder than Calhoun's was just fantasy. But expecting more in year 4 than what just happened is not unreasonable.

 

[Purple Stein]

Yup, that was awful.

To give credit where credit is due, Chris Jans had his guys ready to go. He is a very good coach who would be in a much more high profile job if he hadn’t gotten handsy at that bar at Bowling Green.

We got outplayed. Hurley got outcoached. Look forward to seeing how Musselman handles Allen.

 

[UCDaveD]

Our football team better kick their azzes

Lol

 

[husky429]

First, it wasn't a comparison. It was an evaluation of Hurley. And it seems that most on here have the championship or bust mentality in evaluating Hurley. In an odd way, I think you helped prove my point. Too many on here are stuck in the past and have unrealistic expectations. Calhoun is arguably a top 5 college basketball coach of all time. Hurley surely will never be that. He would be the first to admit it. But he is a good coach and great for this program. But if titles are the measuring stick, after that unlucky break in 1990, how long did it take the Hall of Fame coach to win it all? Is it fair then to destroy Hurley after this season in year 4 of a total rebuild? Realistic answers only.

No one expects him to be Calhoun. Well, no one realistic. I think having the expectation of a single tournament win in 4 years is fair. As would not having a disastrous losing record in close games.

 

[VA Blue Dog]

We are not back.
We were a poor shooting team all year especially with in-close Yips.
Shakey end of game guard play.
Inconsistent play by Sanogo who goes with the force move and hasn't developed an ability to pass off.

 

[djct1999]

I don't care about titles, I know how hard they are to come by but to say Hurley's rebuild is harder than Calhoun's was just fantasy. But expecting more in year 4 than what just happened is not unreasonable.

Maybe go back and read what I wrote. I never said it was harder now, I said the exact opposite.

 

[freescooter]

I think the problem is most of our fanbase is stuck in the past. Is it fair to criticize last night? Absolutely. But the takes on here about the season are head scratching. It took Calhoun quite awhile to get over the hump. Hurley inherited an absolute mess. By year 4, he has is nationally relevant, playing in the top half of big East, and stellar recruiting classes. Let’s assume he benefits a bit from the legacy Calhoun created and rebuilding UConn is easier than building it the first time. It’s partially why he is started succeeding in year 3. This process takes time. Hurley has this program on track and on time.

Oh my goodness are you full of crap! Calhoun’s “hump” was getting to a final four. And he took a team that was far worse than Hurley inherited and won a Big East championship in Year 4 defeating multiple future Hall of Fame coaches to do it. Then went to the Elite 8 and lost in a nail biter to Duke. Oh, and the Big East has 3 top 10 teams in those days.

Hurley’s hump is wayyy smaller. Beat a lower seed in Round 1. I would argue that getting to a Final Four is a much bigger hump. Perhaps you see it differently.