Not really. We didn't beat a team by more than 20 from the end of November until the last Big East game in March. We won only 4 games in the teens in that span, and at least two of those started as furious comebacks. In the other 2, one was a road game we won by 11 and the other one he got into.
Abraham is in the portal
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From what I'm hearing it has nothing to do with playing time. The kid is homesick and misses his family. He's looking for an opportunity closer to home so I think you will be seeing him at a school in the Mid-Atlantic area next year.
Heard he's a great teammate and loves the guys and staff, but it's about missing family more and wanting to be close to home.
Heard he's a great teammate and loves the guys and staff, but it's about missing family more and wanting to be close to home.
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The only people who know how good he was saw him in practice over the entire season, our coaches. If he reached out to the staff and they didn’t assure him that next season would not look like the last with just insignificant garbage time then who could blame him for wanting PT and a chance to show his game somewhere else?
So he wasn’t high enough in the pecking order and wasn’t apparently good enough to get that minimal assurance from the staff. Until we see him playing significant minutes for another school we will not know either. Hope it’s not a mistake by the staff which did make mistakes.
If the father is quoted that he was trying to get feedback and didn’t get it the whole family thing doesn’t quite mesh. Why would he say that?
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Honest question from a Casual Fan. So Hurley is known for his intricate game plans with an encyclopedia of multiple plays and complicated defensive schemes. Could it ever be the case that some of these guys just can't catch on mentally and remember all the details they need to? Or is it a given, at this level, that they can fully absorb it all? I know he cut it down to be simpler this year.
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His Father didn't say he "didn't get feedback"? He said "...maybe that didn't align with his future"?
It really sounds like he wants a spot where he has a more concrete assurance of some minimal minutes per game.
Our coaching staff as a fairly firm rule will never guarantee any playing time to anyone...with the exception perhaps being to an elite 5* Top 5-10 recruit,
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You may be right about him being homesick but if he saw playing time this past season he’d probably be a little less homesick. I cannot believe it had nothing to do with playing time.
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Yes, it can be challenging to understand, which might be why the emphasis is primarily on offense during the summer. I'd expect them (freshmen) to be up to speed by the time the season starts, though they may not be as sharp as the veterans on the team.
Chin Diesel
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You'll never see me jump on the "kid isn't smart enough to understand the schemes" bandwagon without first hand knowlwdge.
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No- I wasn't insinuating that. Just looking for some insight on how that stuff plays out.
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Thanks, that's the kind of answer I was looking for.
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I don't believe that is what he was saying. It's kind of an awkwardly worded response but sometimes that happens when you're talking to a reporter and just one part of the response is quoted.
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I do not blame the kid. I think it is incredible that he did not get a real shot to play considering the year that we had defensively. Plus, I think that if this kid was not good enough (Notice I said "IF"), then I place the blame on the coaching staff. I mean, one guy faltering is bad luck. But the fact that we got next to nothing all year long from Nowell, Aidan and Abraham is an indictment on the coaching staff, not the players.
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I don't believe Hurley specifically tells a kid who he recruited and has only spent 1 developmental year at UConn that he won't get playing time next year. Hurley preaches development so he may say here is what you need to work on, here is who is at your position next year that you'll be competing with for playing time, so here's what you need to do, etc. Then let the kid make his decision from that.
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I don't know what to think about this. When he arrived in Storrs, the staff was impressed with him saying he was already better than they thought he was. Then he rarely got on the floor.
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I searched the thread, so apologies if this was asked/answered: Did he receive NIL to come to the school, not play much, and then jump? I would take it if thats how it works, but it is crazy if we are paying kids to develop here, not play and then leave. It is the way of the world now, but man, maybe we need a way to keep commitments.
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Very disappointed to hear this but how can you blame him? Maybe Dan Hurley was referring to him when he recently said, "I should have played some guys more", but we'll never know.
What impressed me was his per 40 stats: 17.3 points and 6.5 rebounds, with good shooting percentages AND he played within himself when he was on the floor. Not running around pumping up bad shots like JR.
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I wouldn’t look too much into his stats. Outside of one rebound against Seton Hall, all of his stats and most of his PT came against the non-conference cupcakes and there is really nothing meaningful to take away from that level of competition.
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I understand, but what stood out to me was how he seemed to play within himself and didn't force bad shots and run around hunting for offense.
Has to be tough to sit out, especially if they have ability and want to play. It's human nature to look at how your team is playing and imagine what you could be doing better.
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Yes, absolutely. It's not even our offense though. Hurley's defense is VERY high IQ compared to most college teams. I have no idea about individual players, but I'm sure plenty of the talented guys we see on the bench just aren't picking up the schemes.
And why not… really… the stats on those who go pro and make real $$$ are not great… I too, unless I am in first couple of rounds draft discussion would look around to see where I could make some $$$ especially if I was not seeing much PT.
Makes no sense to me to say anything but good luck!
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And I'm not a hoops X&Os guy - but it seems when we make mistakes it is almost always an automatic bucket for the other team. Maybe the defense is too complicated for its own good - but this group this year seemed to struggle with it - although it was better at the end. Not sure if the light switch was being flipped or the effort was better. I'm not smart enough to know.
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The defensive scheme was fine. It is tough, yes, but we've seen when high IQ defenders are in, they can thrive. Cam was not terribly quick or athletic, but he got the scheme and had his best defensive season ever.
Our individual defenders were not up to snuff this year. IMO. If your feet are slow and you process defense at Windows 99 speed, no scheme is going to work for you.
IIRC -IA had a 4.0 GPA coming out of HS. BBIQ vs IQ are sometimes different. Grasping schemes/concepts. My point is he's a pretty smart kid. In his case this year-It didn't translate to PT. Karaban/Liam/Stewart/Ross? in front of him for PT
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His team was one of the best in a very deep region of course too. They give out accolades for every game on their socials and he consistently got the hard hat one for doing the dirty work.
Thought he’d eventually be that perfectly ideal 3 and D dirty work connector guy.
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And we didn’t have an all-world rim protector to cover up a lot of those deficiencies (all due respect to our bigs).
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I would say our bigs were "good not great" on defense. And a couplefew of our guards and wings were putrid.
Our bigs were good enough to have a top-25 defense, our guards were not. Held us back all year.
I doubt our staff makes that mistake twice.
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there was a family member in the comments of an IG post that clipped Hurley's recent 60 Minutes interview that was claiming otherwise
Feet slow is best description is what held us back on Defense. How many time did an opposing player take any one of our guards/wings to the hole and leave them In the dust?
It was hard to watch at times. And yes McNeeley was one of them - I still think he needs another year of college.
All that being said we recovered almost in time to win it all!
But our seeding suffered and we saw Florida way too early in this tournament.
It was hard to watch at times. And yes McNeeley was one of them - I still think he needs another year of college.
All that being said we recovered almost in time to win it all!
But our seeding suffered and we saw Florida way too early in this tournament.
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There is raw intelligence and quick reaction time. Those aren't always the same thing. BBIQ needs to be matched with some level of hair-trigger instinct playing at this level.
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