Attention AG Bashers

[ctchamps]

Those threads are filled with reasonable critiques of Alterique's form so far this season. Has Alterique had to overcome some of the worst injury luck we've seen? Yes. Does Alterique deserve credit for the team's improvement thusfar as the alpha dog in the squad? Yes. All that being said, if our point guard continually makes dumb decisions and insists on playing hero ball when he can't buy a bucket our fans are allowed to discuss it on this forum. You can root for Rique while at the same time acknowledging when he stinks out loud.

Also, I have to say, I don't think for a second Hurley meant the boneyard when he was talking about fan abuse. I assume Al was getting abuse over dm on Twitter and other forms of social media. Unfortunately that is the life of an athlete, or really anyone with any clout in 2019. Penn State was just in the news for abuse their QB got after they lost to Minnesota. It's even feasible that you could have trolls posing as UConn fans harassing him. Social media is a cesspool

Even if Hurley was calling out The Boneyard (he wasn’t except in the minds of those who have an inflated opinion about themselves) so what.

For a group of fans that believes it’s alright to criticize 20 year olds we are much too sensitive about criticism directed towards us.

It’s a perfect case of we hate to receive what we give. I say give it to us Danny Boy and maybe someday we can improve the way we critique games and players. After all if it wasn’t for us calling out Al he would never have improved his play in the Miami game. Maybe the reverse can happen.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

Even if Hurley was calling out The Boneyard (he wasn’t except in the minds of those who have an inflated opinion about themselves) so what.

For a group of fans that believes it’s alright to criticize 20 year olds we are much too sensitive about criticism directed towards us.

It’s a perfect case of we hate to receive what we give. I say give it to us Danny Boy and maybe someday we can improve the way we critique games and players. After all if it wasn’t for us calling out Al he would never have improved his play in the Miami game. Maybe the reverse can happen.

This is fair and it was all I was asking for from both AG and vital. Play within the flow of the game and take good shots. Play roles that help the team not their stats or what they think the team needs (hero ball). AG changed it up and we looked a lot better.

 

[ucp990411]

Dan, I'm happy you're here and I'm in your corner my man. But let me correct something about what you said. Many of us "know what makes a championship program". We've been observing that stuff for 20 or more years.
We've observed 15 titles in total, so we know what it takes. Maybe that's our problem.

Anyhow, I think you're the right man to get us back into the mix, and I believe our short term success relies heavily on AG's play. Most of us do, ignore the noise. You can't have the passionate fan bash without the passion

So Willie, tell us what it takes.

 

[willie99]

Even if Hurley was calling out The Boneyard (he wasn’t except in the minds of those who have an inflated opinion about themselves) so what.

For a group of fans that believes it’s alright to criticize 20 year olds we are much too sensitive about criticism directed towards us.

It’s a perfect case of we hate to receive what we give. I say give it to us Danny Boy and maybe someday we can improve the way we critique games and players. After all if it wasn’t for us calling out Al he would never have improved his play in the Miami game. Maybe the reverse can happen.

Who was he calling out? Knowing that would help us to understand what he was talking about.

Fans at the game? I've seen some really ugly behavior directed at our kids under Ollie, especially one game at MSG. I was embarrassed to be a UConn fan.

People with direct communications with Gilbert? Telling him he sucks or worse would be very inappropriate

Social media? That might include the BY

Some or none of the above?

 

[willie99]

So Willie, tell us what it takes.

Do you really think I said something wrong? Seriously?

It's easy to answer your question and talk about what we all saw, but I'd be going down a path I choose to avoid

 

[Mazhude]

This is not about the Boneyard. This is not even really about the fans (Hurley does know the crazies are not going to stop because he said to). This is about the message he is sending to AG... and by extension, the entire team (and by extension, any potential recruits out there). The message is clear and the message is simple: "Players, I got your back."

 

[nelsonmuntz]

DHs reply to social media people bashing AG
“You’re not a fan of this program,” Hurley said. “You don’t even know what you’re watching. You haven’t spent enough time studying this game, studying what we do, knowing what makes a championship program. You just don’t get it. The things that were said across the board spoke to how little people know about team, how little they know about the game, and to treat a college kid — some fans or some others — in that manner, it’s shameful and despicable. That guy is all heart. He hasn’t played a full college season yet. If we’re going to have any success this season and change the narrative of our program, who is leading the way Josh?”
Josh Carlton, sitting next to Hurley, answered, “Alterique Gilbert.”

I don't like this look by Hurley.

Hurley gave Gilbert and Vital the green light to take some of those terrible shots, and I think any player's shot selection is fair game. I think it is also fair to be critical of the team not showing up ready to play St. Joe's. This is the big time. If the players or coach don't like the spotlight, there are about 150-200 D1 programs where they can play or coach that draw friends and family to games and don't have fan message boards.

I do not like a coach taking shots like this at a fan base, especially early in what is looking like a promising year. Hurley can defend his players without going after the fans.

 

[willie99]

This is not about the Boneyard. This is not even really about the fans (Hurley does know the crazies are not going to stop because he said to). This is about the message he is sending to AG... and by extension, the entire team (and by extension, any potential recruits out there). The message is clear and the message is simple: "Players, I got your back."

OK, certainly plausible. The more I think about it, AG might of had a discussion with coach about toxic comments from fans and Dan thought he needed to address it this way.

Otherwise his emotions are swinging as widely as ours do. Loving us one day and bashing us the next

 

[EBonz30]

DHs reply to social media people bashing AG
“You’re not a fan of this program,” Hurley said. “You don’t even know what you’re watching. You haven’t spent enough time studying this game, studying what we do, knowing what makes a championship program. You just don’t get it. The things that were said across the board spoke to how little people know about team, how little they know about the game, and to treat a college kid — some fans or some others — in that manner, it’s shameful and despicable. That guy is all heart. He hasn’t played a full college season yet. If we’re going to have any success this season and change the narrative of our program, who is leading the way Josh?”
Josh Carlton, sitting next to Hurley, answered, “Alterique Gilbert.”

Right on point with what I said on Saturday to a couple of you, we ain’t doing anything special this year unless Gilbert is a big part of it. Still don’t understand the bashing of the kid after a handful of games....

 

[evmore]

It required discipline to stay in-pocket after a tough loss.. Not let emotions pull you to a keyboard where you spout off something generated out of anger/frustration. I'm sure Hurley realizes that most of the criticism is from ppl who last year loved AG before he got hurt again, but all in all i'm so glad to have a HC so forcefully back his player like that. I'm sure it is hard for AG going from last year, where his role w Jalen and CV was so different than what it is this year with so much more talent. I'm also sure that he will get better as the season goes on and lead this team to theNCAA's

 

[Stinger92860]

I (we?) still don’t know if Hurley was talking about this board or twitter, instagram, etc. The latter is inexcusable. Poor shot selections, reviewed over time, should be in play for a discussion board. Nelson has a good post in another thread about the data behind shot selection. We have what appears to be a solid group of guards/wings. It doesn’t matter who starts, but who finishes and you would hope that whomever is playing well that day gets the majority of minutes.

 

[Marbles90]

My first thought when I saw Hurley's tweet was that it was partially fueled from scars that may have opened up from his own point guard playing career ("You're-Not-Bobby!"). Probably not but that was my first thought.

And my second thought was how many of us remember the abuse Taliek took during his time at UConn? There was no social media but I can remember him getting boo'd off the court back then.

I don't see any issue with criticizing AG's play, but also can only imagine how difficult it is playing point guard at this high level. You can't just throw anyone in there. Just like JC needed Tailiek leading up to 2004, Hurley needs AG.

 

[ctchamps]

Who was he calling out? Knowing that would help us to understand what he was talking about.

Fans at the game? I've seen some really ugly behavior directed at our kids under Ollie, especially one game at MSG. I was embarrassed to be a UConn fan.

People with direct communications with Gilbert? Telling him he sucks or worse would be very inappropriate

Social media? That might include the BY

Some or none of the above?

His postgame interview indicated people went to his personal social media and attacked him.

 

[HuskyHawk]

This is fair and it was all I was asking for from both AG and vital. Play within the flow of the game and take good shots. Play roles that help the team not their stats or what they think the team needs (hero ball). AG changed it up and we looked a lot better.

I had a new perspective on some of AG's and Vital's play down in Charleston. The main thing is, forget the metrics. AG makes a lot of quality passes that are dropped or not converted by his teammates. I'm sure that has had an impact on his game. He needs to keep trusting the guys. Second, AG has real leadership skills out there, and I think he felt like he had to carry the scoring load for this team. That same mind-set applies to Vital.
Third, these guys pause and get input from Hurley in every single half court set. He's calling for the penetration, it isn't AG or Vital doing it on their own.

That last point is critical to Hurley's message. AG is doing as instructed. It may be that Carlton, Akok, Wilson, Polley, and others are supposed to do something else to give AG a passing opportunity or to occupy defenders, and they are not doing their jobs. It's similar to messages I've seen Belichick give when the fans criticized the guy who did his job correctly, not knowing who made the actual mistake.

So when I step back, I see AG has tremendous ball handling skills and can get into the lane at will. He's short and gets swallowed up by help defenders. Now think about when a guard does that to us. Do you see 3-4 defenders close him down? If so, what happens (pass for wide open 3, cutter for a backdoor dunk etc.). If they don't double or triple him he scores or gets fouled. I also see Carlton and Whaley setting high ball screens and pulling off too soon and not rolling to the basket. I saw Carlton roll correctly and call for the ball one time all weekend. Once. And he got the ball.

I think Bouknight has helped AG by doing more of what he's supposed to do off the ball. I expect to see more of Wilson as well, as (strange as this sounds) I think he's another guy who is starting to make the right play away from the ball. Carlton doesn't help at all. Watch every other team, a big center like Josh can effectively screen one side of the lane for AG or Vital, and he doesn't. If they go around him, he should be available for a bounce pass dunk on the weak side.

 

[Hoophound]

I’ve been protective of AG and understanding of the situation. I’ve also stated that to be good as a team, AG needs to play and play well. I don’t expect Danny to give me a shout out because I agree with him.

I also don’t expect him to call fans clueless because they were critical of a situation that clearly warranted criticism. The fans wanted AG to play like he did against Miami. He did, it worked. Yes, saying things like “AG is trash“ is ridiculous, but that was just a few people and I think it was mostly on the game chat.

 

[Excalibur]

There's discussing basketball.....and writing a post that's so convinced that you know more than a D1 coach. Like the ones calling for Gilbert to be benched.

And, on a greater scale, I've found the point of this forum is to build relationships with like minded people where you can share the highs and help live through the lows as a collective group.

I particularly like the "coaching malpractice" line . . .

 

[MuchoDogYears]

His postgame interview indicated people went to his personal social media and attacked him.

If that happened that’s wrong.

Anyway it’s the holidays and we’re all one big UConn family, the players, the coaches, the fans. And since “family is family”, these blowups are going to happen. But at the end of the day we’re still family. Except for Kathy. UConn! Huskies!

 

[QDOG5]

I've been bashing Jeff Dunham's act for years. I'll admit it. Come at me bro. If we're talking X's and O's, he needs to talk less and not move his lips as much when the Dummy speaks. It pretty obvious and if you people can't see it that means you've never been elbow deep in a puppet before.

 

[Excalibur]

My first thought when I saw Hurley's tweet was that it was partially fueled from scars that may have opened up from his own point guard playing career ("You're-Not-Bobby!"). Probably not but that was my first thought.

And my second thought was how many of us remember the abuse Taliek took during his time at UConn? There was no social media but I can remember him getting boo'd off the court back then.

I don't see any issue with criticizing AG's play, but also can only imagine how difficult it is playing point guard at this high level. You can't just throw anyone in there. Just like JC needed Tailiek leading up to 2004, Hurley needs AG.

JC also, subtly, conveyed the same "you don't know what the $&#$ you're talking about" to the fan base re: Taliek.

 

[Kathy]

If that happened that’s wrong.

Anyway it’s the holidays and we’re all one big UConn family, the players, the coaches, the fans. And since “family is family”, these blowups are going to happen. But at the end of the day we’re still family. Except for Kathy. UConn! Huskies!

Sorry if I don't conform to your little boys club. I have been part of the UConn family for 45 years - starting in high school - I dont need your acceptance.
But I won't stop offering my thoughts and opinions. If you don't like what I have to say put me on ignore.

 

[willie99]

His postgame interview indicated people went to his personal social media and attacked him.

Ok, that's wrong, and they're not very good fans. I think we all agree with that. Those specifics were omitted from his quote posted o this forum. But there are idiots in this world, AG has to learn how to ignore their chatter

 

[SubInATub]

thats what people do in 2019 mr hurley. move on

 

[BuffaloHusky]

I'm not going to criticize AG for his effort. What I do what him to do is be more efficient with his penetration which has been perilous at best. AG doesn't have to drive the length of lane and potentially get blocked. Instead, he can get into the lane and take a 12 footer (almost at will) or change pace and then kick back out to a shooter.

BTW... the same things goes for Vital. Although he constantly gets fouled on his drives, I feel like teams are eventually going to let him go because he can't to finish most of those drives especially with shot blockers in the lane.

 

[Rico444]

I particularly like the "coaching malpractice" line . . .

@ me next time.

I think it's more kosher to criticize the coach than the players, and while I agree that a lot of fans think they would be better than the head coach and that's ridiculous, I don't think it's at all unfair to point out when the coach makes a bad decision. Gilbert clearly didn't have it against Xavier, but Hurley kept him in there and kept going back to him with the game on the line. I blame Hurley more for that than Gilbert; every player has bad games, Gilbert has had great moments for us in the past, and I have no doubt he will again in the future. People going after Gilbert on social media and sending him disparaging messages are pathetic.

 

[Rico444]

Let me take it a step further.

Fishy used to post a lot of X and O stuff here. Lots of game recap "good, bad and ugly" type posts.

It was great stuff....for what it was. And, over time, you realize it's just meaningless message board fodder.

Wow, I can't believe you went at Chief like that.