This season was a failure.

[CaptainRon]

No doubt we should've won this game. Season was NOT a failure but this game certainly was.

Our program's trajectory is just about plateauing now. We were marginally better this year compared to last. There is no denying that Hurley has made substantial progress and improvements from when he took over though. Need I remind everyone of KO's last days and how dysfunctional we were.

Hurley certainly needs to improve and evolve as a coach. As some have said, you can win in those lower level leagues against lower level comp with good recruiting and hoo rah rah coaching and motivating but not at this level. You need to be able to design plays to get guys open, put your best players with the ball in a position to succeed and make sure your role players know exactly how to play their role on offense. When and how they should cut. I'm sick of watching the "Chase us" offense that we play where we purposely run through several screens with several ball screen handoffs only to drain the clock where we go pick and roll under 5 seconds and get low percentage looks 40% of the time. We should've made it a point to play faster. We were pretty slow paced this year and with the way we played half court offense we should've pushed the ball WAY more. Hell we made our comeback tonight with three pointers in transition to Martin and Polley.

When it comes to half court offense it's a whole lot of movement in the first 25 seconds to just end up trying to dump it to Sanogo in the mid post or going pick and roll with less than 5 seconds left. We rarely hit any of our rollers so bigs stop worrying about them, we play to east and west with our screening early on, there is no flex style screening (we got beat twice on simple flex screens out of nowhere today. Would be a killer way to get Adama the ball lower on the block), very few back door looks (and even when we go back door in our motion our guys don't make the pass, why? Are they that poor of passes or are they not being encouraged to).

As for Defense I thought we were above average for most of the year. We had a solid rim protection vibe all year long. I think our decision making and foul trouble hurt us in some games. On ball defense including not reaching (Ajax tonight!) and teaching them to have active nuisance type hands/and attack style defense is something that needs to be encouraged much more. We get complacent/tired and we are willing to just meet them at the rim (other than Cole, his on-ball defense and hands are pretty good). Mixing in zone and being more aggressive in trapping in full court pressure are also areas of improvement.

Overall. Hurley is NOT on the hot seat due to how he far he has brought the program. But there are certainly steps which he needs to make in the next year or two that I'm worried he may not be able to make in his current form. He needs to evolve. His staff needs to challenge him and help him understand his deficiencies. His style is going to grow old quick with these results. Because they won't be compared to the KO years for much longer.

Replied just to take up more space.

 

[3rdbass]

Lol don’t be ridiculous. Double* team or not, he killed us these 2 elimination games. If he showed up even slightly in either, we win.

How am I being ridiculous? Without any other consistent scoring threat there was no room for Sanogo to operate. Now if you want to fault not passing the ball back out I agree. I'm surprised Hurley didn't work with Sanogo on this at all throughout the season.

 

[Tenspro2002]

He shot 4-7 from 3 and 13-13 from the line. Let’s be real here, the rest of NM ST didn’t beat us.

The rest shot 7-10 from 3, for a team who shoots 32%.

 

[uconnbill]

It sucks. The season shouldn't have ended like this, but it did.

UConn had a better year than last year. That is about all I can say.
Need better ball handlers as Cole was doing it all as Jackson and Martin cannot be the secondary ball handlers.

Whaley and Polley are gone. Who replaces Whaley's toughness? Who picks up the shooting off the bench for Polley?

They need better offensive sets next year, along with another shooter or two.

 

[UConn990411]

I feel like a broken record, but two things can be true at once:
1. Hurley has done a really good job building the program up.
2. He continues to do a bad job with his in-game coaching and doesn’t seem to have his teams ready for March.

#2 doesn’t matter much if #1 isn’t true. But it would be nice to see Hurley be less stubborn and show progress on #2 as well.

 

[MTBingNinja]

Definitely a failure. Look at the poll. Couldn’t even get out of the first round.

Going into the tournament, how far will UConn go?

Your comparing yourself to Stallone hahaha… nope! Uconn will be lucky to make it to second round and Arkansas will smoke em if they do! National Champions, you’re delusional!! Amirite… You don’t get credit on this board for picking us to lose tourney games. No matter what. And yes I’m like...

the-boneyard.com

 

[kcc1442]

He needs a better roster. The truly elite teams have players. Our best guy was an undersized pg. Who on this team can truly create their own shot? Truth is, our roster was filled with a bunch of great role players. We had no real alpha. To win this tournament , when we won this tournament, we always had a true alpha.

I mean I agree mostly with this. The roster construction was always going to be a bit of a problem. To many of the same talents or one dimensional players. But don't undervalue Cole. We aren't talking about NBA here. He can absolutely be the head of a snake that makes a final four run. Especially when you have a big that is as good as Sanogo. But you have to do more for the other guys. You have to run in transition more to get pollen and Martin their looks from three. You have to get Sanogo the ball lower on the block. We could've posted Martin more. The one time we did tonight, they doubled and we had a weakside screen for Polley and he nailed it. Never went back to it. These guys might have been one dimensional and role players but some are elite in their one dimension. Our offense hurt us more than our defense.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

The rest shot 7-10 from 3, for a team who shoots 32%.

And after all of that, we ended up tied like 54-54 or something. And what happened after that. We let Allen eat our lunch continuously. We switched Adama onto him repeatedly for absolutely no good reason, and AJ continued to pick him up 40 feet from the basket when there was no point, that is coaching and strategy.

 

[EricCantona]

We finished 3rd in the Big East, lost in the BET semis, and lost in the first round in an upset. The program arguably took a step back this year.

I disagree. I think we played up to our level of talent and possibly overachieved after losing our best player in the draft. Do I think we had a good enough team to make the Sweet 16? Yes, and I’m very disappointed and heartbroken by this loss. But I don’t think this was a team poised for a deep run. Need more playmakers, we only have 1. I’m very concerned about next year if Cole leaves though. Going to need to utilize the transfer portal successfully in order to improve on this season either way.

 

[Uconngal]

And after all of that, we ended up tied like 54-54 or something. And what happened after that. We let Allen eat our lunch continuously. We switched Adama onto him repeatedly for absolutely no good reason, and AJ continued to pick him up 40 feet from the basket when there was no point, that is coaching and strategy.

You seem to be an expert on all things UConn tonight @CardiacAndre7. May I ask from where you get all this coaching experience? Did you play D1 basketball? Are you even a season ticket holder or simply a key board warrior?
Yes we had challenges tonight. Did we underperform? Yes. Was it coaching? Talent? An outstanding performance by the other team? Or perhaps a little bit of all of those things.

Be sure to have your resume ready as it appears you are better qualified to get the job done. Can’t wait to see the results under your guidance.

 

[AdamaNation]

No it wasn’t we won 24 games. We had a good year. We were a good team.

We were very bad tonight. It happens. Feel bad about it, but the season was a good, competitive season.

Unlike 2011 we are not a tournament play type team. We can’t play in that format well at all. Not recently anyway. We need some magic.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

You seem to be an expert on all things UConn tonight @CardiacAndre7. May I ask from where you get all this coaching experience? Did you play D1 basketball? Are you even a season ticket holder or simply a key board warrior?
Yes we had challenges tonight. Did we underperform? Yes. Was it coaching? Talent? An outstanding performance by the other team? Or perhaps a little bit of all of those things.

Be sure to have your resume ready as it appears you are better qualified to get the job done. Can’t wait to see the results under your guidance.

You’re reaching hard here. Don’t feel like I have to respond but I will;

Never claimed to be a coach or a mastermind, but DH and the staff sure are paid to be such. They allowed a good player, a good journeyman, an inefficient scorer, to drop 37. I asked in another thread, when was the last time someone scored 37 on us?

They didn’t adjust, they continued to hedge hard when it hasn’t worked all season with Adama, he has no business switching on the perimeter.

We didn’t feed Martin in the post when that’s arguably been our best offense in the last few games.

It was poor execution by the players, no doubt about it, but we pay and expect Hurley to be a good in game coach, a coach who can beat teams he should beat, and he hasn’t lived up to it.

 

[HuskyPooh]

In addition, the two St. John's wins were luck and the Nova win at home as well.

Ok. Our wins are luck but when the 250th beat 3 point shooting team goes 11-17 against us, it shows we suck?

 

[USNavyDog]

Basically like last year... So no improvement, but not a failure.

Last year we were 15-8 during the shortened season, but at that rate last year we could've been closer to a fringe bubble team with an NIT season if had played all 30 of those games. At 15-8, they might have eventually finished 20-10 or 19-11...even having James Bouknight.

This year, we played a full 30 games and finished 22-8 before the Big East tourney.....and made the NCAA a 2nd year in a row. I'd say, we improved moderately but next we might be a lot better especially with the recruiting class we have coming in (Clinton, Karaban, Floyd) and the sophomores (Diggins and Johnson) eager to finally prove themselves. Whether Cole returns or not, time will tell if they are a final 4 team next year. Hopefully we will be....

 

[UCan3]

To me, you can tell a lot of about a team’s mentality from the coach. At the end of the Villanova game in Big East Tournament, we were downy by 3 and Villanova had 1 free throw. - 3 seconds left.

Villanova had all it’a players back with no one there to rebound the miss - and Hurley has almost all Uconn Players standing at Free Throw Line!!! Free throw missed, no one to pass it to and we lose game. Hurley’s comment? He felt “good“ about the loss????

And tonight when things weren’t working all he has to say is that the other team played well?

My issue with Hurley is the standards are so much lower than with Calhoun. The lack of hustle plays that Sanogo and. Martin made tonight - would heve landed them on bench for a long stretch.

But Hurley chooses to anoint starters and take whatever comes his way. The worst version of the Uconn team showed up tonight and unfortunately this is how a team‘s performance is measured. This year was a bit of a step backward.

 

[Bricklayer]

And what is next year going to look like?? Can't even get excited about it.

well, at least your wallet will be lighter if you are a season ticket holder. amazing.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

The overreaction on this board is insane. Hurley has improved every year by every objective metric.

He inherited a team that had 2 losing seasons in a row with a national ranking of 186.

Hurley 2nd year he improved and had us ranked in the 55/60 range before the season ended early with covid.

Last year we were ranked top 25 a few times and received 7 seed to ncaa getting us back into the tournament and relevant again for the first time in 5 years.

This year we were ranked in the top 25 almost the entire year and got a 5 seed to ncaa tournament.

Other than getting bounced in the first round, to say we’ve plateaued or even crazier that we’re going backward is insanity by every objective metric. we have one of the best front courts in the country, but after losing a lottery pick that Hurley recruited and coached, we’re still rebuilding the back court

 

[Bricklayer]

Would love to have seen our young'uns on the bench being developed to at least play in the late season. Not sure if they will be glorified freshman again next season, since they have no experience. That part seemed like a failure.

yup, that was the point that i was going to make. what players improved from the end of last season through tonight ? sanogo did, to a degree, but that was it. did the freshmen get much of a chance to show anything ? hawkins did, a bit. so, the season did not improve and the players did not improve. where does that leave us as fans ???

 

[CardiacAndre7]

The overreaction on this board is insane. Hurley has improved every year by every objective metric.

He inherited a team that had 2 losing seasons in a row with a national ranking of 186.

Hurley 2nd year he improved and had us ranked in the 55/60 range before the season ended early with covid.

Last year we were ranked top 25 a few times and received 7 seed to ncaa getting us back into the tournament and relevant again for the first time in 5 years.

This year we were ranked in the top 25 almost the entire year and got a 5 seed to ncaa tournament.

Other than getting bounced in the first round, to say we’ve plateaued or even crazier that we’re going backward is insanity by every objective metric. we have one of the best front courts in the country, but after losing a lottery pick that Hurley recruited and coached, we’re still rebuilding the back court

Last year we lost to a 10 seed. This year we lost to a 12 seed.

 

[Rakkasan]

Hurley ain't the guy. Clearly Wright, McDermott and Cooley are head and shoulders over him in coaching. Dan can recruit but that shine will fade without results.

Yeah Cooley. All week long the nation (the freaking NATION!!) crapped all over the Friars and anointed SDSU the greatest offense since the 86 Celtics. It wasn't 1 dude...it was the whole team. And Cooley took it all week, said he liked his team and COACHED them to mitigate the other teams strengths.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Hurley ain't the guy. Clearly Wright, McDermott and Cooley are head and shoulders over him in coaching. Dan can recruit but that shine will fade without results.

Yeah Cooley. All week long the nation (the freaking NATION!!) crapped all over the Friars and anointed SDSU the greatest offense since the 86 Celtics. It wasn't 1 dude...it was the whole team. And Cooley took it all week, said he liked his team and COACHED them to mitigate the other teams strengths.

Easily the most cringeworthy post of the night.

Relax, guy, no one’s putting Cooley in the Hall of Fame for beating a 13 seed. I think we can probably do without the lectures. Enjoy your first round win, it’s a pretty historic night for your school.

 

[superjohn]

This is off the rails. After last season, the expectation was a down season

No it wasn't, this is revisionist history.

 

[tentoes4rings]

anything short of getting isiah and tyler a dub in the tournament before they left is a failure. I feel terrible for them. Esp to a team that has not won a tournament game since 1993. Something has to change.

Tyler Polley shooting 2-7 from three in 20 minutes, with zero rebounds, assists, steals or any measurable value other than two 3s was a big part of this loss. Kind of hard to feel bad for a kid who puts up a line like that. We needed a big game from him tonight to have a chance and he didn’t deliver.

 

[Fishy]

We finished 3rd in the Big East, lost in the BET semis, and lost in the first round in an upset. The program arguably took a step back this year.

I do not know how anyone can argue this point.

What exactly was accomplished?

 

[OkaForPrez]

Not spoiled, there is an expectation that comes with the programs success. If some wins and first or second round exits from the NCAA is the expectation, be a Cincinnati fan. This is UConn…expect more

The reality is we’re a bounce away from a first round exit in 2014.

There is an element of randomness here that can bite you.

This team underachieved its baseline. It was a 2nd round / sweet 16 team that took a first round exit to a team that shot 67% from 3 on 18 attempts. Okay.

The team didn’t improve over last year but it did absorb the loss of a nba first rounder through primarily the growth of two sophomores.

Sanogo Jackson and Hawkins are a solid young core. Need a transfer pg.