Blaming the coach

[UConnSwag11]

How often does he take a timeout to stop a run? Are they too late?

 

[Hunt for 7]

I have read most of these comments. And I admit I can be somewhat negative when expressing my UConn fandom….but why is no one talking about the zone. One it could be a path forward on how to get AS and DC on the floor together. It was horrible timing last night. But think about a 3-2 zone with AS and DC at the bottom and AJ and the point with JH and AK on the wings. Syracuse had teams with two big and the pulled it off. We would be very long and it could work.

 

[Hoophound]

How often does he take a timeout to stop a run? Are they too late?

Yes. Too late for timeouts and too late to bring in Clingan and Diarra. Those two consistently turn the tide in our favor. I hate that we never get them back in until the lead is gone.

Clingan is clearly more important than Diarra, but both change our team entirely. We have another gear with them on the floor. They aren’t consistent enough for them to play most of the game, but they are almost always capable of changing the game. When our opponent is on a run, they stop it. Eventually, the opponent adjusts and we need to go back to Sanogo and Newton. That’s fine, but identify those trends faster and we won’t keep burning 7-12 point leads.

 

[Mike Honcho]

What a bunch of garbage. The coach makes dumb decisions, has no rational offense, makes no adjustments, gets Teed up in the last 2 minutes and by the way recruits the players yet none of it is his fault. Wasn’t Ollie’s fault we fell off a cliff either. Actually, using your logic, we should have just kept Dom Perno. Mean he got to the NCAA tournament and won a game back when you actually had to win a tournament to get in. Something Hurley hasn’t accomplished to date. Hurley is a pretty good recruiter, though hardly the great one he is made out to be here. He’s had what? 1 draft pick.

You're a weird dude, only showing up after losses to criticize. Where were you during our 14-0 start to the season? Can't wait for you to crawl back into your hole when we resume winning.

Also - Bouk and Tyrese = 2 draft picks.

 

[coachn]

We got beat last nite on defensive intensity . They got into our Gs from the start and we didnt match it.

 

[MTBingNinja]

This is a great & 100% original idea that we’ve not seen on the BY before

Was going to start my own thread with this

 

[Hoophound]

We got beat last nite on defensive intensity . They got into our Gs from the start and we didnt match it.

Their guards were better against ball pressure. Our guards are not disciplined ball handlers with real PG skills.

One thing I will say, we break the press fine for not having a PG. Height and athleticism help us with that.

 

[USNavyDog]

Team win. Coach the carpenter. Team loses, he can’t win close games.

That’s what happens when you are paid $4M a year. This is the business.

As far as the team, glaring issues with backcourt offensively. He just isn’t impactful enough, which doesn’t make sense considering the talent he has. He should be able to with his size, skill and athleticism attack the basket and create for other players.

I don’t like they are only using Hawkins as a spot up shooter off screens. He needs to attack the rim and be more aggressive.

Sanogo, offensively, is a beast 1-on-1, but the book is out in how to defend him. Double him, make him make a play. He has to process faster

I just want to team to oaky with pace and power. They are robots out there just running the offense, but not making basketball plays .

Somehow this team has to put together an effective strategy to make it harder to double Sanogo. Basically, neutralize the game plan of the opposing team, and suddenly Sanogo can dominate the paint again.

 

[LIuconn]

And for those saying he’s young and has room to grow. He’s 50. He’s not gonna change much. His best move was getting Luke Murray’s recruiting prowess

 

[willie99]

I'm on to St John's

 

[80shusky]

He's the head coach. Buck stops with him. When he wins he's a genius, when he loses he's a bum. That's how it works. But you can see with better talent he "coaches" better. When they shoot well he "coaches" better. When he gets a T with 3 minutes to go on the road in a 2 point game he "coaches" worse. He's proving to be a very good recruiter here so far and the players buy in and would run through a wall for him. Strongly net positive, better than most. But he is absolutely worthy of criticism when they don't play well. I'd bet you he'd tell you that himself.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

that's p*ssing in the wind and hence, useless

Useless?
When was the last time you pissed in the wind?

 

[CheshireCat]

Thank goodness Clingan was in our backyard - that was a massive recruiting advantage for DH. Doesn’t always work out nabbing local kids, but a big advantage nonetheless. We are a fringe tournament team, 8-11 seed otherwise. Not getting a real point guard was a huge miss.

It starts at the top whether it’s in a company and their ceo, or a team and their coach. Until DH has deep Ncaa tournament success, the jury is out on him, period. Doesn’t help that he has the reputation he has with his antics on the sidelines - I still have a very hard time getting past that, hopefully he can.

 

[jake14mw]

Hurley coaching resume:

1) Takes over historically mediocre Wagner program. In second year there, they are 25-6. Leaves and they are now back to a mediocre program.
2) Takes over historically good Rhode Island program which had not been to NCAA tourney this century, and were 7-24 the year before he got there. Steadily builds it back, makes NCAA tournament in his last two years, including a 26-8 in his last year. Wins twice as many NCAA tourney games in his last two years there than UConn has won in the last 8 years. He leaves and they have been mediocre since he left.
3) Takes over historically great UConn program that had fallen mightily, and had only made the NCAA tournament 1 time in 4 years, two consecutive losing seasons. Steadily builds it back to a nationally relevant Top 10 program.

This doesn't mean he's perfect. I think his antics with the referees are childish and inexcusable.
We were a mess when he got here, and now as fans we are trying to figure out how to win a National Championship. Good enough for me.

 

[HeGotGame]

it’s absolutely on Hurley. When you fail to game plan, knowing exactly what the opposing team is going to do and you get your butt handed to you, it’s on the coach. If Hurley gets paid what he does, and gets praise when he wins, he absolutely deserves to get ridiculed. We rip on other coaches for the exact same stuff. And of course, posters will take this comment and other peoples as “not true fan” or “haters”, which isn’t true. Some fans (and national pundits) disappeared for 8 years and have come back after the PK Invitational.

The insanity behind your posts is that you admit, which is quite something, that every win and every loss is solely on the coach. Ignoring, the stupidity behind that rationale, you continue to have a temper tantrum over the coaching of a 15-3 basketball team.

 

[jake14mw]

Thank goodness Clingan was in our backyard - that was a massive recruiting advantage for DH. Doesn’t always work out nabbing local kids, but a big advantage nonetheless. We are a fringe tournament team, 8-11 seed otherwise...

I want to make sure I'm reading this correctly. It sounds like you are saying 1) Hurley shouldn't get much credit for getting Clingan because he's a CT kid, and 2) that if we didn't have Clingan that we would be barely making the tournament?

 

[HeGotGame]

Pfft. A lot of you guys had no problems taking endless shots at Ollie for every thing we did wrong on & off the court after 2014 until he was pushed out the door. Now Hurley is untouchable to criticism and it's all on the players? Please. People have a right to question coaching strategies for anyone if something isn't working.

Umm, you okay? You are really bringing Ollie into the discussion? Do these years look like this year? What a silly comment.

 

[NotADime89]

Thank goodness Clingan was in our backyard - that was a massive recruiting advantage for DH. Doesn’t always work out nabbing local kids, but a big advantage nonetheless.

So now Hurley doesn't get credit for signing Clingan because he's from CT?

 

[CheshireCat]

I want to make sure I'm reading this correctly. It sounds like you are saying 1) Hurley shouldn't get much credit for getting Clingan because he's a CT kid, and 2) that if we didn't have Clingan that we would be barely making the tournament?

#1 - no
#2 - yes

I'm not discrediting DH getting Clingan, but perhaps he doesn't get him if he's not in his backyard, and it's safe to say we're not having the level of success we are without him.

 

[CheshireCat]

Hurley coaching resume:

1) Takes over historically mediocre Wagner program. In second year there, they are 25-6. Leaves and they are now back to a mediocre program.
2) Takes over historically good Rhode Island program which had not been to NCAA tourney this century, and were 7-24 the year before he got there. Steadily builds it back, makes NCAA tournament in his last two years, including a 26-8 in his last year. Wins twice as many NCAA tourney games in his last two years there than UConn has won in the last 8 years. He leaves and they have been mediocre since he left.
3) Takes over historically great UConn program that had fallen mightily, and had only made the NCAA tournament 1 time in 4 years, two consecutive losing seasons. Steadily builds it back to a nationally relevant Top 10 program.

This doesn't mean he's perfect. I think his antics with the referees are childish and inexcusable.
We were a mess when he got here, and now as fans we are trying to figure out how to win a National Championship. Good enough for me.

Hopefully WE AS FANS can figure it out. It's up to us to bring it home.

 

[icednct]

I do blame the coach for planning, rotations, set plays, and other things he not only controls but designs. Getting Ts for no reason? That's on him. Even some of those missed shots are on him and his overreliance on set plays. His job is to help shore up our weaknesses and exploit our strengths.

11s left in 1st half with Marquette inbounding. Based on what we had seen so far do you leave Clingan in or swap in Adama? I seriously doubt anyone here thought swapping in Adama was the right move. What was he going to add? Leaving Clingan in gives you a chance for a block/rim protection. No foul trouble you need to plan for either.

I'm definitely not a savant but some stuff sure seems plain from my couch. This season is starting to give me deja vu vibes and that's no good especially when we started out so hard. Less standing around & more creativity is needed on the floor.

IMO Hurley still needs to work on the same things as last season - temper control and in game decision making. I do think the rotations and other in-game adjustments (ie, TOs) are better than last season but like the one I referenced above there are still ones that are headscratchers to the peanut gallery. I'm still in support of DH but I'd like to see meaningful improvement here as well as some results in BET\NCAAs.

At least we don't have a bagel against Creighton anymore, so we've got that. Which is nice.

Well said.
If you're an underdog, less talented team it can behoove you to play scrappy and physical to hopefully get the other team off of their game. Imo this is a strategy that DH has implemented while coaching previously at smaller programs to very good success.
But now at UConn and especially with this team he has guys that on any given night are more talented than their opponents. During TOs you can see DH yelling at players to be more physical and imo it's playing into the opponents hands.

UConn is one of the most penalized teams in the country!
I would like to see less "ra ra" type coaching and more whiteboard plays during TOs to get players open looks off of whatever the defense is doing in those particular games.
HCJC was so good at this his teams would get several easy shots every game in these situations and off of inbounds plays.
This team struggles with too many turnovers, especially on inbounds plays which is a reflection of coaching.

It also really looks like they are pressing a bit instead of playing loose and confident. How many times did players struggle with their dribble unforced especially late in shot clock.
During the PK tourny the team was playing loose and confident, but now they're playing more physical games in the BE and instead of designing more elaborate plays DH is yelling at the players to be more physical and picking fights with the refs.
MU looked to have an answer for their simple screens as evidenced by the # of shot clock violations.
UConn scores a lot of points on talent, they need more from coaching.

I hope Coach learns and adapts because he definitely has great skills and knowledge, but the situation dictates a different tool; You can't use a hammer for every project Coach!

 

[icednct]

We got beat last nite on defensive intensity . They got into our Gs from the start and we didnt match it.

I disagree. Defensive coaching not intensity imo.

They knew what UConn was running and looked like they had been practicing everyday for a week to stop it and for the most part did.
They also made in game adjustments and were much more effective in the second half by sending help early against DC and driving right at him.
This team has too much size, talent, and skill to coach them into a bruise-fest every game. They commit too many fouls, it's stupid. Design more elaborate plays. MU won on coaching, designed plays that got a lot of open looks down the stretch.

 

[superjohn]

Thank goodness Clingan was in our backyard - that was a massive recruiting advantage for DH. Doesn’t always work out nabbing local kids, but a big advantage nonetheless. We are a fringe tournament team, 8-11 seed otherwise. Not getting a real point guard was a huge miss.

It starts at the top whether it’s in a company and their ceo, or a team and their coach. Until DH has deep Ncaa tournament success, the jury is out on him, period. Doesn’t help that he has the reputation he has with his antics on the sidelines - I still have a very hard time getting past that, hopefully he can.

I wouldn't worry about Hurley's recruiting and him being lucky that a stud is in his backyard. According to 247 we have the #2 rated combo guard in the country coming in next year, along with the #2 rated shooting guard in the country, and a stud small forward. They hail from Georgia, Maryland, and Seattle.

 

[jake14mw]

Good enough for me.