A week off for this? SMU postgame

[whaler11]

I mean no shade or anything, I'm very curious what Uconn fans think of Hurley so far? I figured a year grace period is expected, but I definitely didn't expect his squad to look that unenthused to be somewhere. He seems to have a lot of fire that isn't translating to the team.

Is it the Memphis type of situation that's like "wait until he gets his own guys next year"? I just found it kind of odd, especially considering SMU is truly awful this year

all you can really watch is recruiting and see how they look next year when the conference schedule starts for progress.

once adams got hurt they were cooked even if people were too angry at adams to admit it. i personally enjoyed the nit bracketology

 

[Kemba15]

I want to believe that, but he spent a lot of time before the season telling the media there is a lot of talent here, Jalen should be an NBA player, and his expectations were higher than any UConn fan. If he ends up with a worse record than Ollie, I will have some serious reservations, especially if we end up with a JUCO kid and Grad Transfer.

Hurley did that to inspire confidence. This team was beyond broken so he thought that by talking them up, he would get them to at least play well together. It did not work. But that was the reason he was publicly saying these things

 

[UConnSwag11]

We are down to about 6-7 healthy players.

 

[Marat]

We are down to about 6-7 healthy players.

And that is a big problem. Not much Hurley can do given the personnel available and quality. I'm just not sure what Hurley meant that there will be changes for Sunday (vs Cincy).

 

[freescooter]

Maybe true but why wouldn't players like Wilson, Carlton & Polley care? They're probably going to be here a couple of more years so I hope they care. I don't think Cobb & maybe Smith care at this point being seniors.

I think we're not very good, have you seen our roster....some players can be good but that is a small number.

Smith is a backup from Duquesne or some comparable place. Not a major player. Cobb is a backup who would probably play 3 minutes a game when the other bigs got in foul trouble late in the first half. Expecting much more from them is like what happened when the guy entered the mule in the Kentucky Derby.

 

[intlzncster]

It seems like your trying to say we need more talent to compensate for the poor coaching after being blown out by SMU.... especially considering the somewhat comparable landscape of talent at the top of the AAC right now. Sure I am wrong and this league is loaded with *4 and 5*'s.

That ain't coaching. And I'm not even saying coaching was great.

But I watch our guys, and see smaller, thinner, less athletic kids trying to compete against other athletes. It's a mismatch, damn near every game.

We have kids who:

• Who are damn near incapable of shooting well consistently
• Can't move their feet fast enough on D
• Who get bodied on the interior
• Who don't have high natural motors (nice kids)
• Who are 'basketball dumb', no matter what coaching goes into it

You can't teach 3/4 of that. And what you can teach, is habits that are built up over time. And most of these guys have gotten somewhat better this year. Unfortunately, this group has been ingrained with damn near every bad habit in the book. So it still looks like crap.

We gotta unbake a cake.

 

[Tommyboy]

That ain't coaching. And I'm not even saying coaching was great.

But I watch our guys, and see smaller, thinner, less athletic kids trying to compete against other athletes. It's a mismatch, damn near every game.

We have kids who:

• Who are damn near incapable of shooting well consistently
• Can't move their feet fast enough on D
• Who get bodied on the interior
• Who don't have high natural motors (nice kids)
• Who are 'basketball dumb', no matter what coaching goes into it

You can't teach 3/4 of that. And what you can teach, is habits that are built up over time. And most of these guys have gotten somewhat better this year. Unfortunately, this group has been ingrained with damn near every bad habit in the book. So it still looks like crap.

We gotta unbake a cake.

If you're gonna recruit slow players they better be able to shoot and have a high bball IQ. We are the opposite of how to build a decent team.

 

[JB75]

Someone here said polley had a Great game? What? Just cuz he had 20 points on all threes? He did nothing else at all and also committed a few bonehead plays. This team is beyond bad. I don’t understand what is happening in practice. How bad can these players be?

 

[gampelcrazies]

Someone here said polley had a Great game? What? Just cuz he had 20 points on all threes? He did nothing else at all and also committed a few bonehead plays. This team is beyond bad. I don’t understand what is happening in practice. How bad can these players be?

Very bad

 

[Vancat]

Again, Boys vs Men.

 

[intlzncster]

If you're gonna recruit slow players they better be able to shoot and have a high bball IQ. We are the opposite of how to build a decent team.

It really is kinda funny if you actually put it down on paper. Make a list of sought after traits, and it's the exact OPPOSITE:

Athleticism: None
Skill level: Minimal
Shooting: Minimal
BBIQ: None
Motor: Minimal
Size: Minimal

 

[intlzncster]

I mean no shade or anything, I'm very curious what Uconn fans think of Hurley so far? I figured a year grace period is expected, but I definitely didn't expect his squad to look that unenthused to be somewhere. He seems to have a lot of fire that isn't translating to the team.

Is it the Memphis type of situation that's like "wait until he gets his own guys next year"? I just found it kind of odd, especially considering SMU is truly awful this year

It's not next year most of us discerning folks are thinking about. It's 2020. We have so few actual basketball players/athletes, it's going to take a few classes to get back to some level that is even worth assessing.

I think we struggle next year, but start to see the fruits of Hurley's labor in 2020.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

That ain't coaching. And I'm not even saying coaching was great.

But I watch our guys, and see smaller, thinner, less athletic kids trying to compete against other athletes. It's a mismatch, damn near every game.

We have kids who:

• Who are damn near incapable of shooting well consistently
• Can't move their feet fast enough on D
• Who get bodied on the interior
• Who don't have high natural motors (nice kids)
• Who are 'basketball dumb', no matter what coaching goes into it

You can't teach 3/4 of that. And what you can teach, is habits that are built up over time. And most of these guys have gotten somewhat better this year. Unfortunately, this group has been ingrained with damn near every bad habit in the book. So it still looks like crap.

We gotta unbake a cake.

Part of the recipe should be establishing a trajectory as part of the baseline (some focus on w/l others on metrics). I think that is a reasonable expectation. It is VERY debateable whether that goal is being accomplished up till now. From a recruiting perscpective no doubt we landed three great recruits. The staff UConn has put together I really like. I won't argue that patience is necessary. Some of the same concerns I had about Hurley's actual coaching from A to Z still leave plenty of concern.

 

[intlzncster]

Part of the recipe should be establishing a trajectory as part of the baseline (some focus on w/l others on metrics). I think that is a reasonable expectation. It is VERY debateable whether that goal is being accomplished up till now. From a recruiting perscpective no doubt we landed three great recruits. The staff UConn has put together I really like. I won't argue that patience is necessary. Some of the same concerns I had about Hurley's actual coaching from A to Z still leave plenty of concern.

I don't think anybody (well somebody probably did), thought he'd be a wonderful coach right from day 1. I wanted him here because of the disastrous state of the program at the time and his track record in building programs. I think he'll get us off the ground.

Now, there's a number things I'd absolutely like to see better on the court. But you can't ignore, that in less than a year, he's gotten better development from some of these guys. Most of these guys started from such low basketball points, that even though they are still rough, they have made strides. Some have stuff baked in that will never be changed. It's really, really hard to unlearn bad habits; harder than picking up new ones.

And if people don't think he's going to get better as a coach, I don't know what to tell you. It's not a static thing. He's younger than JC when he took over UCONN, and he had more/better D1 experience to boot.

I'm actually not worried too much about on the court yet, as so many things are off to get a great feel for that with regards to UCONN.

If anyone thought we were getting a perfect coach from Day 1, they were going to be disappointed. That guy was simply not out there for us. We ticked as many boxes as we could and are rolling the dice with that.

 

[goskis2018]

My assessment is new coaches have a much shorter window than one realizes. If you can’t show real momentum and a new direction within preferably 2 years and no more than 3, the ability to recruit drops precipitously year over year. Winning breeds wining. The long you don’t the harder it gets to change course. Next year defines what direction UConn heads. Another .500 year and Hurley is in a big hole he’s gong to have dig out of. He squandered this year after a great start (lesser comp) and just couldn’t keep the team mentally committed to slogging out wins in conference. Losing to SMU was more disastrous than it appears from a program psychology perspective .

I'm so confused by people who are disappointed with this seasons lack of success. This team was talent deficient before losing its best two players (and in my opinion the only two players that are respectable d1 players although I love CV). This team needs spot more than "mental to commitment" it's needs about 8 new players. Ollie wasn't canned because he couldn't get the most out of his players but because he couldn't manage a high end program

 

[SwingDog]

I have been a huge Hurley advocate all year, but this is the first game where I have some reservations.

I know everyone will say he needs his guys, but this SMU team is terrible and not that talented. There is no excuse for this.

I don’t think the three guys we have coming in next year fix the long list of problems we have. This might be a 3-4 year rebuild.

SMU is NOT "terrible" but UConn's performance against them sure was. After recently competing with the #9 team in the country (Houston) and only losing by 8 and a few weeks ago playing the #2 team in the conference (Cincinnati) and giving them all they can handle before losing by just 2 points, this game was just a huge letdown.

 

[jibsey]

I hope you are right but that will only happen with an influx of 4* talent. The 3 we have coming in next year seem to be a good start but we need 1 or 2 more bigs for next year and then several more the following year. If that doesn't happen then this is the new normal for UConn Basketball.

You’re right of course but so many here think Hurley has magic that can spin crap into gold.

 

[pj]

My assessment is new coaches have a much shorter window than one realizes. If you can’t show real momentum and a new direction within preferably 2 years and no more than 3, the ability to recruit drops precipitously year over year. Winning breeds wining. The long you don’t the harder it gets to change course. Next year defines what direction UConn heads. Another .500 year and Hurley is in a big hole he’s gong to have dig out of. He squandered this year after a great start (lesser comp) and just couldn’t keep the team mentally committed to slogging out wins in conference. Losing to SMU was more disastrous than it appears from a program psychology perspective .

Hurley has already shown real momentum and a new direction. I think recruits can see the progress, as can players within the program, and players talk to recruits.

If we're .500 next year, it will be due to injuries again. If Alterique can play, we'll be over .500.

 

[BFieldHusky]

My assessment is new coaches have a much shorter window than one realizes. If you can’t show real momentum and a new direction within preferably 2 years and no more than 3, the ability to recruit drops precipitously year over year. Winning breeds wining. The long you don’t the harder it gets to change course. Next year defines what direction UConn heads. Another .500 year and Hurley is in a big hole he’s gong to have dig out of. He squandered this year after a great start (lesser comp) and just couldn’t keep the team mentally committed to slogging out wins in conference. Losing to SMU was more disastrous than it appears from a program psychology perspective .

Couldn't keep the team mentally committed to slogging out wins in conference? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this team lost its 2 best players. How do you think Cincinnati would look if Broome and Cumberland were out the last month?

 

[Hi-Low]

It's going to be a 3-4 year process.

It's year 1 which really is just a year for Hurley to evaluate players, band-aid the program & RECRUIT. The recruiting has been very good thus far but losing Adams & AG put a bad season in the toilet pretty much.

Year 2 the re-build starts with hopefully 4 or 5 new core players to go with the current players Hurley has decided he can work with and more recruiting.

Year 3 we hopefully will start to enjoy the fruit of the labor & will be a AAC title contender and solidly in NCAA.

Year 4 if all goes well we are building & improving on prior year success.

That's the glass is half full assessment I have right now.

 

[pj]

Couldn't keep the team mentally committed to slogging out wins in conference? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this team lost its 2 best players. How do you think Cincinnati would look if Broome and Cumberland were out the last month?

In theory, players should be able to give 100% effort and passion for 40 minutes regardless of whether they have a chance to win.

In real life, players are human, they get tired, and the thought that the talent differential is too great and that effort is futile commonly leads to a slight ratcheting down of effort. The experience of falling behind is often further demoralizing. Meanwhile the act of taking a lead often excites the other team to give even more effort. Remember their coach is trying to get them to give 100% energy and passion. Even a slight difference in effort, 100% vs 98%, amplifies the talent differential and things can look much worse to fans than they are.

A one game lapse is understandable. Hurley is addressing it. Let's see how things go. But remember, without Jalen and with an impaired Alterique, this team is at a talent disadvantage against other AAC teams.

 

[BlueDogs]

Couldn't keep the team mentally committed to slogging out wins in conference? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this team lost its 2 best players. How do you think Cincinnati would look if Broome and Cumberland were out the last month?

Maybe I have more faith in these kids than you. They competed hard against Houston and Cincy. You don’t do that with no talent. They didn’t compete hard against SMU. When you dont win winnable games, those are opportunities squandered. The difference between 14-12 and 13-13 is big. They can play better and I think Dan Hurley himself would tell you that’s on him. We have lived excuses here over year. There is no reason any UConn team should finish with less than 19- 20 wins a year. None.

 

[gtcam]

Don't look now but that SMU juggernaut is losing to UCF by 50+ pts and have scored a huge 38 pts with 4 minutes left in game

 

[Hamms30]

SMU not shooting 57% from the field or whatever god forsaken number that was that they did against us.

 

[Marat]

Don't look now but that SMU juggernaut is losing to UCF by 50+ pts and have scored a huge 38 pts with 4 minutes left in game

Beating us must have drained them.