2nd year in a row they laid an egg

[TouchdownHusky]

One player that can create / multiple non shooters on floor at all times. Can’t believe we didn’t take a guard like Fatts or someone similar. Would have taken so much pressure off everyone.

Hurley pissed away a good 3 in TMart/Cole/Sanogo - they needed a quick creator/shooter to that mix. He didn’t want to hurt Gaffney’s feelings it seemed like. Huge miscalculation.

Felt like we were a football team trying to win 13-10 all year. Hard to win like that.

Just like UConn football has been for years: nowhere near enough offense. They stuggle to score.

 

[Hungryhusky99]

Umm, Creighton won.

Barely beat a team from a conference that went 0-4 this tournament. I know everyone on here loves the BE and while it was pretty competitive this year the quality of play was not very high.

 

[CheshireCat]

1 dude beat them...that is awful over half their points. This NMST team is not good, conference not good. I'm a Hurley fan and an old time field house crowd fan. This was ugly and unprepared and I've took up for Hurley, but no excuses on this one. Hope we keep trending up and the BE is overrated by the looks of it.

Big East is not overrated. Marquette game was between 2 teams headed in opposite directions. NC is hot. They peaked at the wrong time, as did Xavier. What Creighton did with their young team was phenomenal, and surviving yesterday and coming back from down double digits in a 50/50 8-9 seed game was fantastic, all while losing Kalkbrenner late. Providence was a great story this year. Next year, like many BE teams, they have a lot to figure out - but Cooley had been consistent getting them to the dance and putting the pieces together. How many teams make it to the tournament is a far better indicator than how well they perform when they get there. Anything can happen. The Big East has, and will always have, between 4-7 teams every year based on all the factors that get you in (Quad 1, KenPom, yada yada) not based on how they performed in the tournament itself in years past. Kentucky lost in a major upset - it doesn’t meant the SEC is suddenly overrated.

 

[That Guy]

I think it is time to move on from this group. We’ve seen their upside. Thanks for the memories and best of luck in your future endeavors to Polley, Cole, Martin and Whaley. All good complementary players but none are good enough to put a team on his back at crunch time. They simply aren’t.

My view of Hurley is about what it has always been. A cut below the top coaches. He can recruit solid players in a heavily fished pond, but either can’t, or won’t or isn’t allowed to recruit outside our narrow footprint. The result is we end up with Top 100ish players. We don’t get Khalid elAmins, or Emeka Okafor’s, or even Donny Marshalls because we don’t even try. They dont hail from the NY metro area. A poor man’s Jamie Dixon. And my URI buddy told me he is too uptight and as a result spits the bit in big spots. After watching 4 years of almosts I think it might not be an inaccurate assessment.

Hurley has actually been able to bring in some very good recruiting classes rank wise in the time he's been here. I have to give him credit for that because when he took the program over we were in the dumps playing in the AAC and we were completely irrelevant nationally. He was able to bring in an NBA lottery level talent and a bunch of guys ranked 40-100 which is pretty impressive given the dire situation we were in. The fact is that we won't be getting the top 30 ranked guys that change programs without DH showing that he can win some damn games in March. I don't think we start recruiting nationally again and getting big time talent until we're consistently ranked in the top 15 and making S16 or E8 runs year in year out.

 

[tzznandrew]

The fact is that we won't be getting the top 30 ranked guys that change programs without DH showing that he can win some damn games in March.

Castle is ranked in the Top 30.

Many people think he won't be the only 5 star coming in that year, but even if so...

 

[TouchdownHusky]

UConn, all season, was a team that had everything but a star scorer. No semblance of a Donyell Marshall, Rip Hamilton, Caron Butler, Ben Gordon, Emika Okafor, Kemba Walker, Shabaz Napier. Role players. A collection of roll players: Edmund Saunders, Jake Voskuhl, Talik Brown, Hilton Armstrong, Roscoe Smith or Nei,s Giffey. Hurley has recruited exactly one scorer . . . Bouknight.

 

[tzznandrew]

Hurley has recruited exactly one scorer . . . Bouknight.

Hawkins can score. Let's see what we get from Floyd and Karaban as well.

 

[That Guy]

Castle is ranked in the Top 30.

Many people think he won't be the only 5 star coming in that year, but even if so...

I would argue that a guy like Castle committed here because of the potential that he saw in Hurley turning the program back into a perennial power, but if the results remain stagnant and we keep getting bounced in the 1st or 2nd round then the few top 30 guys that have been looking our way because of Hurley's potential will start to ignore us completely.

 

[jdb50]

Hurley stating in the run up to the game that "it will be nice to play a normal game. The Big East is not a normal game", did us no favors. Showed disrespect to an opponent who then showed up and held us to 22 points in the first half. We were totally off balance in the first half and in the second let Allen dominate us. Just a mess from start to finish.

 

[tzznandrew]

I would argue that a guy like Castle committed here because of the potential that he saw in Hurley turning the program back into a perennial power, but if the results remain stagnant and we keep getting bounced in the 1st or 2nd round then the few top 30 guys that have been looking our way because of Hurley's potential will start to ignore us completely.

you said "The fact is that we won't be getting the top 30 ranked guys that change programs without DH showing that he can win some damn games in March. I don't think we start recruiting nationally again and getting big time talent until we're consistently ranked in the top 15 and making S16 or E8 runs year in year out."

Castle is a Top 30, big time dude pulled out of Georgia. So this is factually untrue.

At some point, it's true, Hurley needs to have success in March to keep pulling those kids in...but he's already started doing this.

 

[tennmike]

Next years roster has somewhere between 8-10 top 100 recruits on it, the talent level should be higher, if we cannot win a game next year in the tournament i will continue to be

If Cole comes back, great. But other than that I think shedding the sub150 talent will ultimately be for the best.

I cannot see Cole coming back.
1. It would be very difficult to improve on his performance from this year.
2. He's getting older and limiting his chances to make money oversees.
3. Since many of his next year teammates had little or no run (Sampson, Diggins, Floyd, Springs, Karaban), expect more losses.
4. Unless Hurley hits portal pay dirt, being a tourney team seems unlikely.
5. Basketball is a tournament sport and his coach does not look to be a good tournament coach [close games, tourney games, big games]. Unflattering record.
6. He's already earned a graduate degree and has been in school forever.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I would argue that a guy like Castle committed here because of the potential that he saw in Hurley turning the program back into a perennial power, but if the results remain stagnant and we keep getting bounced in the 1st or 2nd round then the few top 30 guys that have been looking our way because of Hurley's potential will start to ignore us completely.

“We’re not going to get top 30 guys at this rate.”

“We’re getting them.”

“Okay then we’re going to stop getting them.”

 

[Fatroony5]

Hurley stating in the run up to the game that "it will be nice to play a normal game. The Big East is not a normal game", did us no favors. Showed disrespect to an opponent who then showed up and held us to 22 points in the first half. We were totally off balance in the first half and in the second let Allen dominate us. Just a mess from start to finish.

He has a lot of cringey coach speak moments. Him saying they’re a monster, could’ve been top 5 team if they finished games (when they were unranked), 45:07, etc. It’s fine when you win, but comes off as cheesy or cringey if the results aren’t there.

 

[Fatroony5]

The roster construction just wasn’t one that was built to win tight games in March. I harped on it for awhile about how they’re so prone to slow starts because they relied on a lineup that plays 3 guys who can’t shoot. If Sanogo can’t get it going early, they can’t score. Who knows what happens with Cole and Martin but they need to figure out how to stretch the floor more with shooters and a guy who can consistent create his own shot. I never want to see UConn play a line up again that involves 3 guys who can’t shoot, it’s brutal.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Recruiting isn’t an issue. Player development over the summer isn’t. Hurley’s in game coaching and in season development of the bench is and has been horrendous. People who brought this concern up during the year were mocked and restricted. He is not an offensive minded coach. That has to change immediately otherwise it’s going to get ugly-er

 

[That Guy]

“We’re not going to get top 30 guys at this rate.”

“We’re getting them.”

“Okay then we’re going to stop getting them.”

Castle was ranked in the 50s throughout his recruitment and we weren't exactly competing with blue bloods to get him, his top 6 was Arkansas, Auburn, Ohio State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, and the good guys.

 

[UCSouth]

Yes they did. The posers were a 5 seed

Shut up

 

[UCSouth]

Hurley is 13-24 at UConn in games decided by 2 possessions or less. That doesn’t include tonight where free throws ballooned it at the end. He has to learn to manage close games. Hate to be that guy, but I’m growing discontent with him…

There's openings on the Syracuse fan base...go for it

 

[husky429]

to everyone declaring hurley has one more year to win a tourney game....if both cole and martin leave we dont have a chance of even making the tourney, so i guess it wont be long before hurley's fate could be decided.

Transfer portal. If we don't use it we're screwed and Hurley may very well get fired.

 

[bendm]

Castle was ranked in the 50s throughout his recruitment and we weren't exactly competing with blue bloods to get him, his top 6 was Arkansas, Auburn, Ohio State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, and the good guys.

you really are "that guy."

 

[UCTitleTown]

Serious question. Was 2014 our last NCAA Tournament win? If so, that's crazy to think of. I know we had a few rough years under Ollie after the national championship etc. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[3rdbass]

Not a fan of AJ. Hes a huge liability on offense will never average more than 8 points here. Need an upgrade on the 2 spot badly

Is AJ really 2 Guard? Either way I understand he was a wing for us. I wish he was a bench player to give us a spark and not a starter.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Serious question. Was 2014 our last NCAA Tournament win? If so, that's crazy to think of. I know we had a few rough years under Ollie after the national championship etc. Correct me if I'm wrong.

'16 I believe. The team with Gibbs, Adams, Hamilton, Brimah, Purvis, etc. beat Colorado in an 8/9 game and then lost to KU.

 

[UCTitleTown]

'16 I believe. The team with Gibbs, Adams, Hamilton, Brimah, Purvis, etc. beat Colorado in an 8/9 game and then lost to KU.

I may get hammered for saying this, but when JC announced his retirement, the haters predicted the program's glory days were over. Then we won in 2014 and shut them up. But if you look at our program except for that, no conference championships or NCAA Tournament success, it seems the haters were proven correct. I think the body of work is large enough at the point. Being back in the Big East better provide the spark.

 

[pj]

Hawkins lack of development/injuries really hurt this team. A second scorer would have been huge. If he can take that next step next year, it will be extremely helpful. Idk if you lay that at the feet of Hurley for misevaluation, or chalk it up to a young kid needing time, but, for me anyway, I think Hurley was kind of in a tough spot with the makeup of the team. I’m willing to ride it out with him a few more years until he proves his recruiting isn’t up to snuff. We have some young kids with talent, now can he get a couple generational talents to put them over the top? Were they riding the pine this year already? I’ll be bullish on the future until I’m proven wrong, like usual. I’m not really all that bright, tbh.

I think with Hawkins, Floyd, Karaban we'll have good shooters. I worry about point guard/ballhandling/distribution. Will bother me if in his 5th year Hurley still doesn't have a balanced roster. When it's all his guys, there are no excuses.