Chief’s Briefs - USF Edition

[Bonk]

Because Hurley was left with a mess that is going to take a year or two to clean up. This isn't rocket science.

That’s a lame excuse. I saw minimal structure in the offense and sloppy defense. Not fair to praise Hurley when we’re good and blame players when we’re bad

 

[uconnyankee]

What has been happening in FB is sort of happening in BB. UConn is making other teams look good

That's as clear an indication of where both programs are. In BB one or two recruits can have an impact. But you still need some support players to surround them. those impact recruits aren't on this current team. It's going to take a recriuting cycle or two for Hurley to build a roster that fits his system. I think Ollie's biggest deficiency is killing the team. He just never had a balanced roster. It was always flawed in some regard.

Full faith in Hurley. Just typical UConn fans wanting tomorrow today and then pointing fingers when it doesn't happen.

 

[whaler11]

What has been happening in FB is sort of happening in BB. UConn is making other teams look good

That's as clear an indication of where both programs are. In BB one or two recruits can have an impact. But you still need some support players to surround them. those impact recruits aren't on this current team. It's going to take a recriuting cycle or two for Hurley to build a roster that fits his system. I think Ollie's biggest deficiency is killing the team. He just never had a balanced roster. It was always flawed in some regard.

Full faith in Hurley. Just typical UConn fans wanting tomorrow today and then pointing fingers when it doesn't happen.

Yeah wanting to beat #175 in the Pomeroys is just runaway expectations.

 

[huskyrob1]

Past two years we have gotten used to losing games, and it shows. Great programs, like the program we once were, do not get accustomed or used to losing games, but here we are. Need to figure out a way to change that mentality.

Should have benched all the starters 5 min into the 2nd half. That's what Calhoun would have done.

 

[cohenzone]

At this point, Jalen Adams is 2010 Jerome Dyson.

The question is: who's Kemba? Frankly, I haven't been all that impressed with Gilbert or Wilson, though there's still plenty of season to go.

I think Gilbert started to get it in the last 5 minutes yesterday. It’s probably a little hard for him to play the leader with Adams around. Is the personality there to lead? Vital has the fire, but it sure makes a difference when the guy with the fire is a primary ball handler who can score.

Wilson and Gilbert are almost in the same boat. Haven’t played much or at all for a year or more and as you said, lots of season to go. Wilson is probably in that stage where he’s playing faster than he needs to.

 

[Kenny11]

If you do, you don't know much about basketball. The coaching staff inherited this mess. Start blaming the coach after a full cycle of his recruits. I guarantee you the results will be different.

Its ok to put some blame on the coaching for this game in particular. We should have won. Hurley should have done a better job last night. That doesn't mean Hurley sucks and isn't the man for this job. I believe he is. But we shouldn't have lost to USF. Blaming our talent level and people saying things like "just wait until he gets his recruits in" is stupid. A good coach should win that game without guys that he recruited.

 

[CL82]

Its ok to put some blame on the coaching for this game in particular. We should have won. Hurley should have done a better job last night. That doesn't mean Hurley sucks and isn't the man for this job. I believe he is. But we shouldn't have lost to USF. Blaming our talent level and people saying things like "just wait until he gets his recruits in" is stupid. A good coach should win that game without guys that he recruited.

Disagree with the bolded text. It is fair to say that we don't know how good a coach Dan Hurley is until we see him coaches guys who have the skills to play his system.

Calhoun didn't win a natty his first year either. (Ironically enough KO did, the first season his team was eligible.) I'm not sure that DH will lead us back to being a national power, but he's giving us a lot reasons to think he has a shot to it.

Agree with the rest of your post though.

 

[djct1999]

Its ok to put some blame on the coaching for this game in particular. We should have won. Hurley should have done a better job last night. That doesn't mean Hurley sucks and isn't the man for this job. I believe he is. But we shouldn't have lost to USF. Blaming our talent level and people saying things like "just wait until he gets his recruits in" is stupid. A good coach should win that game without guys that he recruited.

Most coaches in rebuilds aren't judged until a full cycle of their recruits are in place for numerous reasons. To blame Hurley with this roster is unfair. You can objectively criticize some of his in game decisions but to blame this loss on coaching or the staffs ability moving forward is silly.

 

[olehead]

Toughness isn't muscle, it's a mentality. These guys don't have it.

Preach!

 

[UConnDad]

Most coaches in rebuilds aren't judged until a full cycle of their recruits are in place for numerous reasons. To blame Hurley with this roster is unfair. You can objectively criticize some of his in game decisions but to blame this loss on coaching or the staffs ability moving forward is silly.

Just to be sure, is a full cycle 4 years of his recruits, so 5 years total?

 

[August_West]

Yeah wanting to beat #175 in the Pomeroys is just runaway expectations.

Ive been digging the "no talent" argument.

I would love to see the across the board player rankings out of HS of the starting 5 of each team last night.

Do we have ill fitting pieces? Cant argue it. Some headcases that are beaten up by 3 years of losing? Sure.

But the more talented team lost last night.

And Hurley owns a part of it.

 

[djct1999]

Just to be sure, is a full cycle 4 years of his recruits, so 5 years total?

A full cycle will start next year and go four years out. In other words, when the roster from freshmen year to senior are his players.

 

[tzznandrew]

I only got to watch the last 15 minutes, but it looked a lot like last year's KO offense. Basically trying to take their man one on one with whoever had the ball. Not a good look, not a way to win conference games.

When you're essentially playing 3 on 5 on offense, the defense can easily gum up any set plays.

Just because you want to run a smooth, pass-happy offense, doesn't mean you can. The defenses' goal--if you have a reasonably good coach--is to force you to do that.

I feel like so much of the criticism of offenses comes from people who don't coach or really know the game. All JC's offenses looked like this until, miraculously, they didn't even though it was the same players.

I also think KO's pro-style offense--yes, he had an offensive system, just one his guys couldn't run--is part of the problem here, too. They've learned a lot of plays (poorly) and now they're being asked to do different things. It takes time.

 

[tzznandrew]

This thread is hilarious. Nobody thought the roster was ‘devoid of talent’ in September. The search function can lead you to many chuckles.

Yeah. That's true. I did think the turnaround would be easier, and that's because I thought:

1. Jalen would make a leap.
2. Carlton wouldn't stink
3. Sid would play from the beginning and be in a groove by now.

Those didn't happen. And, well, yeah, they still shouldn't have lost to USF after having a double-digit lead. We have more talent than they do. But I'm also not surprised they'd cough up a road game against an inferior opponent, especially this game. They always play horrible the first game back after the break.

Progress isn't linear. This was a dip, but not one I'm overly concerned about once I came to grips with 1-3 above.

 

[UConnDad]

Just to be sure, is a full cycle 4 years of his recruits, so 5 years total?

A full cycle will start next year and go four years out. In other words, when the roster from freshmen year to senior are his players.

That's what I thought you meant.
So we shouldn't judge Danny for 5 years. Well I do like Danny. I liked the hire, I liked him most after the Cuse game, today I like him less. No one is going to wait to judge him until 2023.

 

[businesslawyer]

Why is Hurley not getting more blame for this? Just curious

Did you read the thread before asking this question? It's almost impossible to imagine you did.

Hurley isn't under fire because our problems are not about the x's and o's, they are about the jimmies and the joes.

 

[NEforceUConn]

Couple of added thoughts;
On rebounding we lost at least a half dozen rebounds off their missed free throws! At one point (I was in Section 103 Row B) we had four guys on the free throw line adjusting their shorts and lost the rebound to the one USF guy!
We had no answer to Rideau
Polly and Sid had bad shooting nights.
We missed all our one and ones
They were under 50% for FT in the first half
At one point with USF shooting free throws Eric is standing at half court - again adjusting his shorts when Jalen shoves him a bit and points to the box where he should have been.
Whats with the shorts? Can't we get them unis that fit?

They are looking for their balls.

Man up and play hard.

 

[Madmannsucks]

Florida has always been a curse for Uconn. Been that way for years.

 

[buddy]

It kind of has/hasn't. There's talent here. Adams has been a flame out and who knows why. But Gilbert is obviously really talented, but he's a first year D1 player for all intents and purposes. Ditto for Wilson. Those guys are legit. Polly can step it up, but he's inexperienced too and not that athletic so he can't do it consistently. Vital is one of those max effort that almost tries too hard sometimes and you just have to take the good with the bad. Those guys can do stuff.

What kills them is depth. There's almost no one off the bench that's good enough to play at a high level. And that depth issue really comes from the patch work job Ollie did two years ago. Then this past year in the transition, we didn't pull in much playable talent, either. So when you basically sit out two years of serious recruiting - when you're acustomed to the talent we've seen - that's going to hurt you - and maybe for longer than you'd like.

So you get this goofy limbo we have right now - where you've got really talented, inexperienced youngsters figuring their life out and under developed role payers who were really lottery tickets to begin with and a bunch of nothing after that. It's frustrating because they're at this place where everything hinges on your youngsters getting better as soon as possible and that's just asking a lot for any program minus a few.

Next year might be more of the same, but you'll have some talent that'll get better and mature and hopefully a lottery ticket that we have now gets a little better. Then the guys who are talented and starting this year, well the guys next year take their place but they're coming off the bench. Then you're in a spot where you can take a step forward. Get another recruiting class after that, well that's when the engine begins to turn over. It's just critical mass.

Gilbert may be talented, and he may have recovered from his injury and surgery, but he is way too small.

 

[buddy]

I would've given you 3 "likes" but could only give you one. Lol

There is no one who can get the ball to him! AG penetrates and falls or gets blocked. JA looks like he is in a different game. I would like to know how many assists AG had in last nights game. I believe that JA and AG should not be on the court at the same time. No chemistry there.

 

[uconnyankee]

Yeah wanting to beat #175 in the Pomeroys is just runaway expectations.

And yet, look at the outcome.

 

[buddy]

Florida has always been a curse for Uconn. Been that way for years.

Tell that to the Florida Gators in 2014!

 

[GemParty]

How come when an NBA team changes coaches, they aren’t getting any new guys, they are expected to win with the same crew the previous guy failed with?

Is this team better than they were a month ago? They better be a month from now.

 

[pj]

Tell that to the Florida Gators in 2014!

The games against Florida were at Gampel Pavilion and in Arlington, Texas. It is playing in the state of Florida that has cursed us.

 

[huskyrob1]

Tell that to the Florida Gators in 2014!

Uh....buddy, I think Madmann meant playing anywhere in the State of Florida. The 2014 FF was in Texas.