Beautiful charts about our offense, but what gives?

[HuskyHawk]

The NBA doesn't like to see anything from college coaches at this point in time--it's a hard barrier to cross straight from college to an NBA HC job. In the last 15 years, Hoiberg, Donovan, and Stevens are the only ones to try. Hoiberg was a disaster, Donovan is about to lose his job, and obviously Stevens was a star.

Most guys are working their way up the NBA ranks directly now. G-league assistants, player development, etc. Like Daigenault did. Honestly, I haven't even heard of half the NBA head coaches. Whereas guys like Calipari, Hurley, Scheyer, Pitino, etc. are pretty household names for people who knows sports.

Billy Donovan is the only current NBA coach who went directly from a college HC job, and he only ever made it past the first round of the playoffs his first year. I'm not sure he's a sought-after coach by any means.

Considering the lack of job security, the different role as more of a manager, 82 games + playoffs and travel... I'm not convinced an NBA job is something Hurley wants. Or honestly, that the NBA will even want HIM.

He's also making more than plenty of NBA coaches and is darn close to average.

This article from 4 years ago was interesting. Donovan and Stevens are the only college-to-NBA coaches in the past 30 years to have a winning NBA record. A number of those guys were NBA players, and we're talking about 11 coaches total in the past 30 years.

TL;DR: I'm not buying it. The NBA doesn't want Hurley, and Hurley isn't suited for the NBA. There's remarkably little history of college coaches having success in the league.

It's amazing that everyone focused on my throwaway line about Hurley. I agree with everything you wrote. That being said, a guy having success running what Hurley is running might tempt a desperate team. You can only recycle NBA losers so long. But I'm not worried about it. He's pretty happy here.

 

[husky429]

It's amazing that everyone focused on my throwaway line about Hurley. I agree with everything you wrote. That being said, a guy having success running what Hurley is running might tempt a desperate team. You can only recycle NBA losers so long. But I'm not worried about it. He's pretty happy here.

It's something I've been thinking about and wanted to do a little bit of digging. Not really about your comment as much as concerns I've had.

 

[HuskyHawk]

It's something I've been thinking about and wanted to do a little bit of digging. Not really about your comment as much as concerns I've had.

The only counterpoint I have really is that it was more common in the past. Pitino, Calipari, etc. In the ISO era I think the NBA and college games were more similar. I think Stevens was plucked away from Butler for running really advanced modern offense at the time. Looking at the college game and who is running modern motion offense and switching defense, and Hurley stands out with Self (who is old and going nowhere). Dusty Mae at FAU is running pretty impressive modern offense. I'm sure it is moving into the college game more and more, but old guys like Izzo and Cal don't seem to truly embrace it.

 

[CL82]

His coaching style is perfect for nba. You adjust to coaching adults. Big thing is sideline demeanor. He would also adjust.

But, as post above says, lifestyle is an issue and he is getting premium dollars in college. Doubt he gets that in nba.

Note that it was Hurley who said that he had to adjust his coaching style before he would be able to coach in the NBA. When you are saying coaching style you're talking about schemes. I agree with you that Hurley runs NBA style sets, and his team runs them exceptionally well. Though he did not define it, what I think Hurley meant about adjusting his coaching style was 1) sideline demeanor and 2) the way he interacts with his players. Hurley is an excellent college coach and a very demanding one. I suspect what he was referring to is the need to adjust that style when working with pro athletes, many of them have larger contracts than the Coach.

 

[Kemba Time]

Hurley addressed coaching in the NBA after the title last spring, saying it’s something he aspires to someday but also knows he needs to mellow out first and also wants to put UConn in position where what we accomplished last season (and so far this season) is a year-after-year thing before he’s consider it. The exact line was something along the lines of “I’m not ready for them and they’re not ready for me”

If he wants to make the jump at some point, I certainly wouldn’t bet against him. How many coaches have made the leap from coaching high school to D1 successfully? Or remade their coaching identity to reach another level while at a major program?

Hurley is the elite of the elite in this profession and his ability to keep evolving is a separator (along with his willingness to surround himself with voices who keep challenging him to do so).

Thankfully, if it ever happens — we’re likely talking about years down the road after he has accomplished much more at UConn and with the legacy of the program in a very good place.

 

[ctchamps]

Game by Game. Very inconsistent.
7-25
10-31
11-28
7-22
7-24
9-20
4-28
11-28
10-31
13-28
7-17

96-282 for the season. 34%.

4 made 3's - 1
7 made 3's- 4
9 made 3's- 1
10 made 3's- 2
11 made 3's- 2
13 made 3's- 1

Take out the 4-28 in meaningless win against UNH and you get 92-254 which is 36.2% and an average of 9.2 made per game.

Go the other way and also take out the "really good" game of 13-28 against Pine Bluff and you have 79-226 over 9 games which is 35% and an average of 8.8 per game.

What's this mean? IDK. I just had a few minutes to mess around but at the end of all this I'm still breathing easy and expecting end of season numbers to be around 36% and 9 3's made per game. And I'm fine with those numbers.

Too bad we can't have an exchange. Because there are at least ten redundant threes made by our team that I would exchange for the one missed Cam three in the Kansas game.

 

[Samoo]

To me, Hurley and nba makes sense if you go to a real spot that has a player. For example, Celtics come calling, 76ers, Nuggets. If the team has an elite talent, you do it.

Dont do the calipari/Pitino and think you can out coach nba guys. The players know.

Hurley would have to tone down sideline antics.

I like Hurley to the Trail Blazers. A little bit like Storrs, it's also off in the hinterlands where he can work his basketball mad genius magic with just the right amount of attention and a very forgiving fan base. Portland is one of the few places he could probably instill his "culture" and us against the world schtick without getting too much pushback from entitled stars. Chauncy has already done it to a certain extent, he just sucks as an actual game coach.

 

[CL82]

I like Hurley to the Trail Blazers

I wonder what PJ Carlesimo's advice to Hurley would be regarding that.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Early-season stats in college basketball have become a lot like spring training performance in baseball.

As fans, we love to think players perform to their true value every game, but getting kids to bring it against KenPom 300-types is among the biggest challenges coaches face and those results can really skew things early on.

We also don’t know exactly what a coach is telling his players to focusing on in a specific game, just like what a pitcher might be working on in a spring training start.

There have been pretty clear examples of letting Solo play through things and take shots against cupcakes that he isn’t pulling the trigger on in bigger matchups — or Spencer going 2-for-10 from 3 when trying to find his shot against Stonehill — along with games that the plan was obviously to force feed Donovan to work on establishing the post.

We’ll get a much better sense of how teams really stack up statistically as conference play begins.

I was surprised by how few assists the Zags had against us

 

[Fan1978]

It's an aberration, and look out when it shifts to the norm.

Probably an aberration, but also depends on who is taking them. My guess is ball shoots the most and he hit almost none until last few games. Diarra and bad finger and wrist karaban as well and most recently castle bricks. Will work itself out over time. Out-rebound, get better shots and you will win most games.

 

[Fan1978]

I wonder what PJ Carlesimo's advice to Hurley would be regarding that

 

[Fan1978]

Hurley is where he belongs. Would be terrible in nba. Sprewell ruined his career

 

[jake14mw]

Very interesting stats.

Cam and Karaban are of course the top two shooters, and Newton is next. After that, it's pretty limited. Another bad shooting game last night.