Can't blame the coaching here

[Palatine]

Coaching has something to do do with our meltdowns in the final five minutes of many games. Tonight we went scoreless for a big part (four minutes) of the final push

 

[jdb50]

Need to beat the Bonnies. No excuses.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

Losing 2/5 of your starting lineup hurts. This game would’ve been won with 1 or both of Sanogo & Martin. Despite the so-called depth, this exemplifies the problem with playing freshman for an extended period against a decent team in a hostile environment. Guys got flustered, missed shots and turned the ball over constantly. Unfortunately, Jackson and Hawkins don’t have the best handle and neither could shoot. Hawkins look like a deer in the headlight. But, let’s not go overboard, freshman Will get better and it won’t be long before we have one or both of Martin and Sanogo back.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Like I said in the other thread... it probably didn't come down to coaching tonight. When you shoot that badly, you don't deserve to win. I do, however, understand those who are frustrated. Hurley has a history of pretty poor in-game coaching. His record in close games sucks. He isn't ready to hang with HOF coaches like Huggins, Wright, Or Izzo right now. We're getting by on amazing recruiting and talent management.

Personally, I've really resigned myself to knowing that pulling out close games in the last 4 minutes with creative and smart coaching simply isn't something we're going to see with Hurley.

No reason we can't shoot the ball better though. That's squarely on the players right now. We haven't had a true road game with fans in a long, long time. This is an important experience.

Do I have to be the first one to say that Hurley got here by getting lesser programs to overachieve through passion and will, and that’s not enough to win at high levels at the top of D1 competition? Like, the 6/10 guy throwing himself at every chick in Torrington and getting laid here and there, moving on to New York and falling on his face?

I acknowledge that might be a little hot of a take

 

[AdamaNation]

Not concerned. Great learning experience for the young kids. Martin and Sanogo would be our two most important players on the floor in a game against that specific roster in that style of play. Lots of playground-style ball. Martin, specifically, excels at that kind of game.

Won’t show as a bad loss either. Probably in the field come March.

 

[auror]

Won’t show as a bad loss either. Probably in the field come March.

From what I saw tonight, I doubt this. But maybe I'm just underrating our defense.

 

[LIuconn]

Looks like DH spends more time with the refs than the team during time outs

 

[Rocktheworld]

Looks like DH spends more time with the refs than the team during time outs

I mean there were several horrific calls toward the end of the game such that I wonder if DH worked them enough

 

[UConnJim]

Going into this year, we all wondered who was going to be the alpha scorer on this team as you need one to win close games. By alpha, I mean the player who can create his own shot when the game is on the line and everyone knows who the alpha is. I really don’t think this team has one. Yes, Cole is having a good year, but he is not James Bouknight, Jalen Adams, Shabazz Napier, Kemba Walker, Caron Butler, Ray Allen….. I don’t think we will have an alpha this year, so Hurley is going to have to figure out another way to win close games. Maybe Hawkins can become the alpha, but he needs a lot of development.

 

[Husky Alien]

As much as I like Hurley his in game coaching lacks some polish. Sure we had a horrible shooting night and part of that was contributed due to WVU D. In the presser Coach mentioned the 1 3 1 that WVU instituted twords the end of game and how awful we did on the 1st possession of it. Imo would you not call a time out to collect your team for somthing like that? Calhoun would have in a heartbeat. Great coaches adjust to combat what is seen on the court. WVU played man all night up until Huggins installed that zone with about 4 min to play surprisingly we went cold in that stretch. Great call from a great coach Bobby Huggins. Could Hurley institute something like that? Hope he is taking notes cause if he does and with the team we currently have March can be very entertaining.

 

[superjohn]

As much as I like Hurley his in game coaching lacks some polish. Sure we had a horrible shooting night and part of that was contributed due to WVU D. In the presser Coach mentioned the 1 3 1 that WVU instituted twords the end of game and how awful we did on the 1st possession of it. Imo would you not call a time out to collect your team for somthing like that? Calhoun would have in a heartbeat. Great coaches adjust to combat what is seen on the court. WVU played man all night up until Huggins installed that zone with about 4 min to play surprisingly we went cold in that stretch. Great call from a great coach Bobby Huggins. Could Hurley institute something like that? Hope he is taking notes cause if he does and with the team we currently have March can be very entertaining.

It wasn't all that reassuring in the post game when Hurley seemed blindsided by seeing a 1-3-1.

 

[Husky Alien]

It wasn't all that reassuring in the post game when Hurley seemed blindsided by seeing a 1-3-1.

Yes he was! He went a bit further and said that they watched their games and they have not played that 1-3-1 all year. Surprise! I don't want to sound harsh on him but when I played ball, coaches would go over these types of situations in practice and in game time would immediately call a time out when seeing it.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Going into this year, we all wondered who was going to be the alpha scorer on this team as you need one to win close games. By alpha, I mean the player who can create his own shot when the game is on the line and everyone knows who the alpha is. I really don’t think this team has one. Yes, Cole is having a good year, but he is not James Bouknight, Jalen Adams, Shabazz Napier, Kemba Walker, Caron Butler, Ray Allen….. I don’t think we will have an alpha this year, so Hurley is going to have to figure out another way to win close games. Maybe Hawkins can become the alpha, but he needs a lot of development.

Correct. There is no one capable of breaking down a defense (not just a defender) and getting points at crucial moments of the game.
Hawkins is a mess.
He, like every Husky is playing with same or less confidence than they had in beginning of the season. Whaley, with Sanogo out, is only player who plays confidently in his role.
Which leads to the next question of the players and coaches. Leadership is sorely lacking on this team. No one on the court or bench is willing to get in to the grill of players when they screw up. No one holds the players accountable. No Bazz grabbing Boat.

 

[Kitaman]

Some coaches would tell their players to stop shooting 3s and step in a little closer. Made 2 is better than a missed 3. We actually didn't need the 3s and the game was close throughout.

I noticed Huggins trapping intermittently, running zone late, double teaming Cole and our shooters and making several other in-game adjustments.

I'm not sure what Hurley's in-game adjustments were, including effective substitutions or actual offensive sets.

With that said, seasoned coaches seem to be better prepared late game than us. They also know how to exploit our weaknesses.

 

[Candyman]

Let’s see they scored 56 points. We shut down their scorers for much of the 2nd half. We missed so many open threes. Like sooo many. Hurley can’t tell his players don’t shoot open threes. These dudes just can’t shoot. Their all streaky shooters and seems to all be cold at once. Also Akok didn’t box out twice in last 2 minutes which led to big points. All of this is not on Hurley

We just had no low post scorer and no one could hit a shot. Tough to blame the coach for this loss.

I will admit he needs to realize who is playing well and who is not. Hawkins played way too much in my mind. He didn’t have it, so sit him and play Gaff at end so we have another ball handler. Let Cole play off ball. Also Cole sitting for 4 minutes during their run to take lead back was inexcusable.

 

[Bonamassa]

It's way too early to go off the deep end with the team. Give them a little time to develop and gain some experience.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

We aren’t Villanova. The comparison that Nova missed threes just like us doesn’t make any sense or mean anything. They won and we didn’t though.

The point was sometimes teams have bad shooting nights. Had we hit a couple and won, half the whiners on here would be celebrating an undermanned victory over WVU.

 

[F101Voodoo]

There were good in game adjustments: playing Cole off the ball to lead to his back-to-back threes, good TO management to have them in the pocket at the end when they mattered, good lineups and management of foul trouble

Gripe all you want but here is what in-game coaching can't control (save yanking a player for every mistake they make, which you can't really do down 2 scholarship players):

1. Most importantly - putting a body on every other player at the free-throw line. Not even talking about the mistake in the last couple of minutes (though it was bad), a huge momentum shift happened when literally nobody put a body on the shooter with ~5 minutes left, and the lead evaporated like that
2. Taking the ball down the court completely out of control (multiple times, at that)
3. Missing wide open, quality three-point looks
4. Not helping the inbounder get the ball in or providing support getting up the court to get into the set faster

Save number 3, all of those things are elementary, youth level, basketball skills. Chalk it up to the first true road game in a while and some questionable calls, and you get what happened. That being said, this loss was totally preventable and is not on the coaches.

This team will be fine - that game would have been a W if players did any one of the above, but they didn't. Still not concerned given the personnel problems, and the fact that it was the first true road game in a while. Certainly frustrating, but not the end of the world

Agree that the coach is not at fault here. Too many foolish mistakes and hyper active immature players committing needless fouls and wild uncontrolled passing. As for threes not going in well IMHO there were too many rushed 3 point attempts. Those are mostly state of mind and attitude cause mistakes that you cannot effectively coach out of the player during the heat of the game. WV managed to keep UCONN off their game for too long stretches of time.

 

[F101Voodoo]

Losing 2/5 of your starting lineup hurts. This game would’ve been won with 1 or both of Sanogo & Martin. Despite the so-called depth, this exemplifies the problem with playing freshman for an extended period against a decent team in a hostile environment. Guys got flustered, missed shots and turned the ball over constantly. Unfortunately, Jackson and Hawkins don’t have the best handle and neither could shoot. Hawkins look like a deer in the headlight. But, let’s not go overboard, freshman Will get better and it won’t be long before we have one or both of Martin and Sanogo back.

There is a good chance that Hawkins and Gaff will not be acting like freshman by February. Hope that is not too late.

 

[LStudfellow]

I will start this with a mention that I am thankful that Dan Hurley was hired as our coach almost 4 years ago. In this time he has changed the culture, brought back a winners mentality and family atmosphere reminiscent of the program under Jim Calhoun, put together one of the best coaching staffs in all of college basketball, and taken our recruiting back to a level like we had during our best years under JC.

Overall he has proven to be the right man for the job of resurrecting our program, which was not a foregone conclusion when he was hired.

However, it has become obvious that he struggles at several very important aspects of in-game coaching. And I do not understand why some of you feel it necessary to defend his obvious mistakes during games like last night by criticizing those who are pointing out that he still needs to improve in this critical area of his job.

I have been around basketball since I was a kid. My father was a successful coach at the middle school level for the better part of 20 years (he coached the All-Star travel team). And even at that level he would have, within a possession or two, been able to recognize the switch that Huggins made when they went to a 1-3-1 defense and made an adjustment to his offense. IMMEDIATELY. And if the kids were not making the adjustments correctly he would have called timeout within a possession or two at most and walked through with them the adjustments they needed to make. Hurley did not do this. Unfortunately this has been a pattern with his coaching that has become more glaring over the last several years as our teams have become more competitive and found themselves in close games with good teams.
- and for anyone who wants to defend Hurley on the "but WVU had not used a 1-3-1 defense all year" argument... if you know anything about Huggins' history you know he has often used that defensive scheme during his coaching career. These are the types of things you have to be prepared for in a game like this. That is an integral part of Hurley's job.

In addition:
- He should have not kept Cole out of the game until WVU had tied the game at 47 and more importantly taken back momentum. We have seen Hurley make this mistake on multiple occasions in other games as well. He struggles with making critical adjustments on the fly.

- Our most effective offense all night was to have either one of the guards or AJ drive toward the middle while a cutter from the wing or baseline came from the other side. Man with the ball passes to the cutter who has a short jumper, lay up or dunk. This play sequence worked at least 4 or 5 times earlier in the game - yet we did not see it even once in the latter stages of the game. Why? We have seen this before, as well. We seem to tighten up late in close games and stop running any semblance of good offense.

Yes, I know... for many of you this will be "tl;dr". But to not be willing to admit to the obvious and say that people are just whining when the facts of what we watched say otherwise is just sticking your head in the sand.

Bottom line: overall I am very thankful for Hurley being chosen as the man to succeed Kevin Ollie and the disaster he left behind. On so many levels he has done a great job. However, it is also obvious that he needs to improve on several levels of his in-game coaching skills. And pointing out this obvious truth with multiple facts does NOT make me, or anyone else, a whiner.

 

[zls44]

I have been around basketball since I was a kid. My father was a successful coach at the middle school level for the better part of 20 years (he coached the All-Star travel team).

…

 

[F101Voodoo]

I will start this with a mention that I am thankful that Dan Hurley was hired as our coach almost 4 years ago. In this time he has changed the culture, brought back a winners mentality and family atmosphere reminiscent of the program under Jim Calhoun, put together one of the best coaching staffs in all of college basketball, and taken our recruiting back to a level like we had during our best years under JC.

Overall he has proven to be the right man for the job of resurrecting our program, which was not a foregone conclusion when he was hired.

However, it has become obvious that he struggles at several very important aspects of in-game coaching. And I do not understand why some of you feel it necessary to defend his obvious mistakes during games like last night by criticizing those who are pointing out that he still needs to improve in this critical area of his job.

I have been around basketball since I was a kid. My father was a successful coach at the middle school level for the better part of 20 years (he coached the All-Star travel team). And even at that level he would have, within a possession or two, been able to recognize the switch that Huggins made when they went to a 1-3-1 defense and made an adjustment to his offense. IMMEDIATELY. And if the kids were not making the adjustments correctly he would have called timeout within a possession or two at most and walked through with them the adjustments they needed to make. Hurley did not do this. Unfortunately this has been a pattern with his coaching that has become more glaring over the last several years as our teams have become more competitive and found themselves in close games with good teams.
- and for anyone who wants to defend Hurley on the "but WVU had not used a 1-3-1 defense all year" argument... if you know anything about Huggins' history you know he has often used that defensive scheme during his coaching career. These are the types of things you have to be prepared for in a game like this. That is an integral part of Hurley's job.

In addition:
- He should have not kept Cole out of the game until WVU had tied the game at 47 and more importantly taken back momentum. We have seen Hurley make this mistake on multiple occasions in other games as well. He struggles with making critical adjustments on the fly.

- Our most effective offense all night was to have either one of the guards or AJ drive toward the middle while a cutter from the wing or baseline came from the other side. Man with the ball passes to the cutter who has a short jumper, lay up or dunk. This play sequence worked at least 4 or 5 times earlier in the game - yet we did not see it even once in the latter stages of the game. Why? We have seen this before, as well. We seem to tighten up late in close games and stop running any semblance of good offense.

Yes, I know... for many of you this will be "tl;dr". But to not be willing to admit to the obvious and say that people are just whining when the facts of what we watched say otherwise is just sticking your head in the sand.

Bottom line: overall I am very thankful for Hurley being chosen as the man to succeed Kevin Ollie and the disaster he left behind. On so many levels he has done a great job. However, it is also obvious that he needs to improve on several levels of his in-game coaching skills. And pointing out this obvious truth with multiple facts does NOT make me, or anyone else, a whiner.

Whether or not one agrees with most or almost most of your points or not you made an intelligent reasonable argument and your points should Not be dismissed off hand as a whiner.

 

[McLovin]

At the end of the day, the coaches can’t make the shots for the players. I have actually been impressed with the number of open looks from deep out team has gotten this year. But 3-21 from 3, many great looks, is unacceptable. Idk if it’s more shooting drills, getting the team a sports psychologist, or what, but a high school team could shoot a better percentage on the looks we got.

 

[F101Voodoo]

At the end of the day, the coaches can’t make the shots for the players. I have actually been impressed with the number of open looks from deep out team has gotten this year. But 3-21 from 3, many great looks, is unacceptable. Idk if it’s more shooting drills, getting the team a sports psychologist, or what, but a high school team could shoot a better percentage on the looks we got.

At the fear of being 3.5 - 4 minute mark I mentioned to my wife that with the 3 ,s not being made we are going lose. I think I overheard Hurly tell Hawkins or Polley to forget the threes but that must have been just before or just after halftime.

 

[Magic32]

Hit a few more FT's or knock down only 20% of 3's and we would have won at WV minus two starters, can't complain too much. On a positive note I felt UConn really stepped up the defensive intensity. On a negative note I felt nobody really wanted to be "the guy" taking the crucial shot in last four minutes especially.