Coach Hurley says this year's team can't take "hard" coaching

[Kemba15]

Please stop responding to my posts. You don’t know what you’re talking about and only come from a place of being on Hurley’s jock.

Unlike you, I don’t say things just to say them.

So your argument for Hurley being unable to develop guards and wings is based on recruiting sites’ scouting reports? You do realize they’re wrong all the time right? No matter how much you watch a player it’s still very difficult to predict how he’s going to look against much better competition

 

[Mr. French]

I read it as deflection. Not sure what the question was that preceded, but he’s saying that this team can’t handle his coaching style and as a result he can’t coach the way he feels he can and has to spend time “building them up” because it’s too heavy for everyone. He’s taken some shots at the team for not having fight, energy, or having “dogs.” But dude, you chose every player. They were handpicked. You talked about the exact type
Of kid/player you prioritize and they’re here. Any issue, then, is on you if they are not responding.

So he can’t ever say anything bad about how his players play or handle adversity, just because he recruited them? I guess that goes for every coach in the history of college sports then?

 

[FreeKlaiber]

So he can’t ever say anything bad about how his players play or handle adversity, just because he recruited them? I guess that goes for every coach in the history of college sports then?

Criticism is verboten! i think its how he bragged on them being right type (coachable), but now he's saying opposite to the media to explain our failings. Might be true, but its a choice for him to do that publicly.

I also think there are degrees of criticism, fair and unfair on the board. I think anything about our record is entitled and unfair. Two b2b nattys buys a couple just ok seasons. Spoiled to expect otherwise. However, anything about his sound bites or PT/strategies i believe are the things we should be discussing on the board (both pro and con) . Or we can just all post in unison "trust the staff" (which clearly HAS worked, but then what else are we talking about on a sports forum?). Just my opinion.

 

[RuffRuff]

This is a wierd comment by DH, but for some reason it doesn't bother me as much as some of his other actions this season. I think he's just trying to send a message to his players that they need to be tougher, so I'm willing to wait for the results to come in.

During most of the Seton Hall game, I was asking myself if there's not a morale problem on this team? Then, the tide abruptly shifted and it semed as if magic happened.

You do wonder the dynamic in the locker room. Here you have AK, who was a pre-determined leader, slumping for a LONG time, trying to play a role he’s not designed for. How strong is his leadership when he’s folding at a crucial time? Neither him or Samson are natural leaders as upperclassmen. Hassan has leadership traits but banged up and limited. Liam is fiery but it’s hard to pass on a leadership role to a OAD. You got a group of guys on bench who aren’t playing much or at all, and wonder if malcontent.

What worries me into next year is that we are rolling no tough established leadership back at all.

 

[UCfor3]

So he can’t ever say anything bad about how his players play or handle adversity, just because he recruited them? I guess that goes for every coach in the history of college sports then?

Exactly. After almost every loss, "lack of toughness" or "the other team was tougher" was mentioned by Calhoun. It's no secret that some players need to be pushed while others need more of a gentle hand. Most players say they like to be coached hard but not all of them really do or do at the level that Hurley coaches. Nothing wrong with saying this group needs a different approach because what has worked for him in the past doesn't work with this group as well. I mean how long do you get to know players you recruit in the portal? Pretty fast moving process. Not exactly the Dating Game. Recruiting is risky. You do your due dilligence but you never really know fully what's inside until they are on campus and being coached hard. Maybe in a few instances the staff thought they could coach up defense, toughness etc...and they overestimated their ability to do so or underestimated how difficult that is.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

@temery my posts weren’t copyright material. They were free to find on the internet.

I appreciate the new feature though!

 

[giddyup]

It is possible for 2 opposing things to be true at the same time. Hurley is one of the top coaches in CBB. Hurley is underperforming despite reputation, resources and momentum in 2025. Why? Because the very best coaches are human and make mistakes especially following significant success. They discount the role of good fortune and believe they must know something others don’t.

 

[jdb50]

Exactly. After almost every loss, "lack of toughness" or "the other team was tougher" was mentioned by Calhoun. It's no secret that some players need to be pushed while others need more of a gentle hand. Most players say they like to be coached hard but not all of them really do or do at the level that Hurley coaches. Nothing wrong with saying this group needs a different approach because what has worked for him in the past doesn't work with this group as well. I mean how long do you get to know players you recruit in the portal? Pretty fast moving process. Not exactly the Dating Game. Recruiting is risky. You do your due dilligence but you never really know fully what's inside until they are on campus and being coached hard. Maybe in a few instances the staff thought they could coach up defense, toughness etc...and they overestimated their ability to do so or underestimated how difficult that is.

When Tristen was being recruited and was first on campus Hurley kept asking him if everything was ok as he was showing him around as Tristen was so quiet. Sometimes the toughness is not seen easily on the outside.

 

[RuffRuff]

I did not read article but this should stay in the locker room! Sometimes I think Dan thinks too highly of himself!!!

Thing about Hurley this past off season was that he was so eager to lay out his recipe to the public, in part because he thought he had a unique winning blueprint that he could enlighten the college hoops world on. Practicing hard and finding culture fits is nothing new, but it sure did sound good coming off B2B. I’m good with it, it was DHs time in the sun after a historic accomplishment and something he needed to do for himself. That chance doesn’t come around often.

The rude awakening here is that finding great players is always priority 1, and everything else is a distant second. A euro action system only works with great players.

The whole great parents thing sounded great and grabbed attention, but is so utopian and honestly a tad shallow. You can find great kids that come from less than ideal families that are amazing. The looking at cell phones, better get used to it. I love it in theory but the Cam Spencer’s of the world are few and far between.

 

[Gurleyman]

So it’s reading comprehension

Lamb did not have a crazy skillset coming in. He couldn’t dribble, had a smooth but inconsistent jumper, and wasn’t a good defender. All he had were tools like the guy we’re currently talking about.

The difference is he had a coach that could actually teach him things and give him direction outside of putting him on the court and wishing him luck tossing up 3s.

Also I wish this board was smart enough to stop bringing up Newton for development. It’s so flawed.

Do you know how dumb it sounds to call someone a successful development story because he struggled here and then turned it around. So it’s a successful story because we made him play bad at first when he was great elsewhere? That’s stupid. Its embarrassing to keep propping up this story of the 2nd to last pick of the draft.

Theres a huge leap between second team All-AAC and first-team All-American. It’s odd to suggest he arrived to us as a fully developed player. He was a bad shooter (under 40 percent) at ECU and had 5 assists and 3.5 turnovers per game his last season there, which is a terrible ratio for a PG. I didn’t see anything in his stat line at ECU, or in how he played his first two months here, that led me to believe we had an All-Big East player, much less a first-team AA. He was surrounded with better talent of course, but that meant he had to adapt to a different role and a different system, and it didn’t seem to work at first.

And then he became arguably the best PG in the country his final year. He was a maestro running our offense - still not a great shooter, but the way he made reads off the bounce and found guys for shots was fantastic. His 6+ assists per game usually included great playmaking assists and not just system assists. Lobs, feeds for dunks, finding Spencer wide open in rhythm, etc. I didn’t appreciate it enough in real time, but watching replays of ncaa games, I find myself thinking “damn, Newton was good” a lot.

He was by no means that great before he came here - he had empty, inefficient stats on a bad team, which doesn’t always translate to winning basketball. An SI article had him rated the 11th best player in the portal that year (Alleyne was 16th) - not bad, but certainly not someone who the world considered a potential All-American. He greatly exceeded his “ranking”

 

[RuffRuff]

Theres a huge leap between second team All-AAC and first-team All-American. It’s odd to suggest he arrived to us as a fully developed player. He was a bad shooter (under 40 percent) at ECU and had 5 assists and 3.5 turnovers per game his last season there, which is a terrible ratio for a PG. I didn’t see anything in his stat line at ECU, or in how he played his first two months here, that led me to believe we had an All-Big East player, much less a first-team AA. He was surrounded with better talent of course, but that meant he had to adapt to a different role and a different system, and it didn’t seem to work at first.

And then he became arguably the best PG in the country his final year. He was a maestro running our offense - still not a great shooter, but the way he made reads off the bounce and found guys for shots was fantastic. His 6+ assists per game usually included great playmaking assists and not just system assists. Lobs, feeds for dunks, finding Spencer wide open in rhythm, etc. I didn’t appreciate it enough in real time, but watching replays of ncaa games, I find myself thinking “damn, Newton was good” a lot.

He was by no means great before he came here - he was good, but he had empty, inefficient stats on a bad team, which doesn’t always translate to winning basketball. An SI article had him rated the 11th best player in the portal that year (Alleyne was 16th) - not bad, but certainly not someone who the world considered a potential All-American. He greatly exceeded his “ranking”

At baseline he was a 6’5” PG - those are hard to find. Staff lucked out and did a great job.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Theres a huge leap between second team All-AAC and first-team All-American. It’s odd to suggest he arrived to us as a fully developed player. He was a bad shooter (under 40 percent) at ECU and had 5 assists and 3.5 turnovers per game his last season there, which is a terrible ratio for a PG. I didn’t see anything in his stat line at ECU, or in how he played his first two months here, that led me to believe we had an All-Big East player, much less a first-team AA. He was surrounded with better talent of course, but that meant he had to adapt to a different role and a different system, and it didn’t seem to work at first.

And then he became arguably the best PG in the country his final year. He was a maestro running our offense - still not a great shooter, but the way he made reads off the bounce and found guys for shots was fantastic. His 6+ assists per game usually included great playmaking assists and not just system assists. Lobs, feeds for dunks, finding Spencer wide open in rhythm, etc. I didn’t appreciate it enough in real time, but watching replays of ncaa games, I find myself thinking “damn, Newton was good” a lot.

He was by no means great before he came here - he was good, but he had empty, inefficient stats on a bad team, which doesn’t always translate to winning basketball. An SI article had him rated the 11th best player in the portal that year (Alleyne was 16th) - not bad, but certainly not someone who the world considered a potential All-American. He greatly exceeded his “ranking”

Rankings aren’t about college potential, they’re about NBA potential.

If you can accomplish almost everything you possibly can at the college level and still be the second to last pick of the NBA draft then the rankings got it right.

Really wish we’d stop trying to force the second to last pick in the draft as a wonderful story of development. It’s embarrassing for a program with our history and is not blue-blood like.

He also actually shot the ball better in his last season at ECU both from the field and from 3. I’m not sure how that’s possible given the fact that there’s so much spacing and talent in this offense where he naturally got much easier shots than he would have had at ECU.

Tristen Newton College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Tristen Newton - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

 

[kobe]

This isn’t remotely true. We literally have fans from other programs who post here to troll us @kobe.

There is a difference between criticism and reaching to find fault in everything the guy does simply because we aren’t dominant this year. You sound spoiled. He made a vanilla comment that he’s made like 3 times since Maui and you’ve found a way to make it controversial. He’s literally saying he coached this team the wrong way early on and had to adjust based upon the personalities in the locker room. How you turned that into “throwing kids under the bus” is next to comical. But “fan” how you want.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Relax, your last first round picks son is an NBA veteran

 

[Gurleyman]

To be honest, it varies from player to player, but sometimes coaches need to use the media/public voice to motivate kids. Over the course of the season, players naturally start to tune out their coach - they’ve heard it all before, but seeing their name and their weaknesses highlighted in public can cause them to fight back with an “I’ll show him”. Geno does this all the time - all of his best players at some point in their careers “couldn’t guard a chair”. That public message just needs to me mixed with public praise when warranted and the right private talks.

 

[InKembaITrust]

You do wonder the dynamic in the locker room. Here you have AK, who was a pre-determined leader, slumping for a LONG time, trying to play a role he’s not designed for. How strong is his leadership when he’s folding at a crucial time? Neither him or Samson are natural leaders as upperclassmen. Hassan has leadership traits but banged up and limited. Liam is fiery but it’s hard to pass on a leadership role to a OAD. You got a group of guys on bench who aren’t playing much or at all, and wonder if malcontent.

What worries me into next year is that we are rolling no tough established leadership back at all.

Can Solo take a leap?

 

[husky429]

Can Solo take a leap?

I don't care if Solo learns nothing else but to defend this off-season. He'll put up 18ppg next year banging threes, but he's gotta offer something on the other end before he can be a bona fide leader of our team. He's showed some improvement the last month but is still way behind the 8 ball

 

[boog204]

I don't care if Solo learns nothing else but to defend this off-season. He'll put up 18ppg next year banging threes, but he's gotta offer something on the other end before he can be a bona fide leader of our team. He's showed some improvement the last month but is still way behind the 8 ball

He was improving, too. Going into the St John's game I thought he was becoming a mediocre/average defender after being so hideous at the start of the year. He regressed big time last game. Earlier in the year someone had an individual defensive rating stat for us and Solo and Jaylin were in the bottom group in the entire country. Does anyone know where that stat came from?

 

[RuffRuff]

Can Solo take a leap?

Hard to say. I know he works hard. He’s got one of those frames that are muscular but small boned, so looks hard to put weight on.

He’s not a very quick player, and plays with very little “force”. He’s not as explosive as his measurables would suggest. Very much central as a starter to this teams overall “soft” image.

He actually is a lot like a shorter Hawkins. I think he could be a good piece that works off of other very good players, but not confident he’ll ever be a true go to guy or a player you build around.

I’d have an insurance plan to take minutes there, and someone that can bring dribble penetration, defense and physicality in - think a Wooga Poppler type.

 

[superjohn]

Hard to say. I know he works hard. He’s got one of those frames that are muscular but small boned, so looks hard to put weight on.

He’s not a very quick player, and plays with very little “force”. He’s not as explosive as his measurables would suggest. Very much central as a starter to this teams overall “soft” image.

He actually is a lot like a shorter Hawkins. I think he could be a good piece that works off of other very good players, but not confident he’ll ever be a true go to guy or a player you build around.

I’d have an insurance plan to take minutes there, and someone that can bring dribble penetration, defense and physicality in - think a Wooga Poppler type.

You're selling him short, he's already a really good to great piece. He averages 15 ppg in his first season of real consistent playing time on 45% fg and 43% threes. He's been our biggest bright spot for the future of the team.

 

[Gurleyman]

Rankings aren’t about college potential, they’re about NBA potential.

If you can accomplish almost everything you possibly can at the college level and still be the second to last pick of the NBA draft then the rankings got it right.

Really wish we’d stop trying to force the second to last pick in the draft as a wonderful story of development. It’s embarrassing for a program with our history and is not blue-blood like.

He also actually shot the ball better in his last season at ECU both from the field and from 3. I’m not sure how that’s possible given the fact that there’s so much spacing and talent in this offense where he naturally got much easier shots than he would have had at ECU.

Tristen Newton College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Tristen Newton - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

He had played 5 years of college and was 23. His NBA value was limited. He wasn’t ranked coming out of high school, came to us with pretty much zero NBA potential and got there - however fringe he is, he became an NBA player on our watch.

In between, more importantly, he won two national titles as a starting point guard, which is kinda sorta what we are in this for. Put up 20-5-7 and no turnovers in the national championship last year. His assist to turnover ratio took a big leap forward into pure point guard territory, and he quarterbacked maybe one of the most efficient offenses in recent memory (Cam helped in that regard as well, to be fair). He was never a great shooter (43 percent vs. 41 percent is statistical noise - amounts to maybe one extra made basket every 5 games), but seeing how much of a dumpster fire we are in late clock situations this year should make his absence glaring.

We’ve had 10 guys go to the NBA and Castle is the only one who came to us an NBA-ready guy who you can’t say we had a big part in putting there. And there are others who were never going to be NBA guys, who still developed as college players. RJ Cole was way too small to make the league. Vital was way too small as a 2 guard. Whaley was too slight and not a good enough shooter. Diarra is also too small and not a good enough shooter. Those guys got better too.

I get that Ross and Stewart haven’t taken the sophomore leap we hoped, but they were fringe top 100 guys and those tend to be guys you take a flyer on - some pan out and carve out roles or turn out to be way better than you expected. But some don’t find their fit. We didn’t have our program’s hopes pinned to Ross (a 3-star ranked No. 113 by 247 and No. 83 by ESPN) or Stewart (a 4-star ranked No. 56 by 247 and No. 95 by ESPN).

 

[RuffRuff]

You're selling him short, he's already a really good to great piece. He averages 15 ppg in his first season of real consistent playing time on 45% fg and 43% threes. He's been our biggest bright spot for the future of the team.

Agree that right now he’s the best we are rolling back. Statistically some of it might be out of circumstance. I’m looking at him from a well rounded perspective, and one that could close the deficiencies that create imbalance out there.

1) poor defender, may have improved a bit, but still far from a reliable one. I saw that many many times against StJ. Defense is really important.

2) rim game is below average - doesn’t finish well or embrace contact. Doesn’t get to the line as much as you’d like. That part reminds me of Hawk, who had trouble finishing.

You’re left with a fairly one dimensional player. That can be fine in the right roster. He gets stronger, maybe some of these things can uptick.

There is also something in the “it” factor with him - he feels totally dog-less. A 100% void of it. Hard to have that in a small 2G. Ok with it in a big spacing 3-4, but I want my back court to be a set of ninjas.

 

[superjohn]

Agree that right now he’s the best we are rolling back. Statistically some of it might be out of circumstance. I’m looking at him from a well rounded perspective, and one that could close the deficiencies that create imbalance out there.

1) poor defender, may have improved a bit, but still far from a reliable one. I saw that many many times against StJ. Defense is really important.

2) rim game is below average - doesn’t finish well or embrace contact. Doesn’t get to the line as much as you’d like. That part reminds me of Hawk, who had trouble finishing.

You’re left with a fairly one dimensional player. That can be fine in the right roster. He gets stronger, maybe some of these things can uptick.

There is also something in the “it” factor with him - he feels totally dog-less. A 100% void of it. Hard to have that in a small 2G. Ok with it in a big spacing 3-4, but I want my back court to be a set of ninjas.

I can tell you right now we're not getting a better shooting guard in the portal than Solo Ball. There's all sorts of other deficiencies on the current roster that need to be fixed before next season, namely a big point guard and a small forward. Solo isn't a problem, he's a strength.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Reminder again, Ball, Stewart, Ross, and Singare were part of a top 5 class.

Wont mean anything if we can’t develop them.

Wow, easy tiger. The prime jewel of that class is missing!

 

[Iluvsuebird]

Is your vibe that Hurley doesn't develop perimeter players? He just put two in the NBA in Hawkins and Jackson, we saw Newton make a huge jump from Sr. to Super Senior year (let's be honest, he was mediocre until the tourney in 23), and Ball is undoubtedly a better player this year, albeit flawed, but better. So again, what is your point? Lamb's minutes fluctuated until things clicked once the BE season began. He was far and away our best (only?) option at the 2G. Our guards that year were Kemba, who was going to play 35 minutes, Bazz, and Lamb. DBev was there but only played a few minutes. JC saw enough and said let's go all in and that was that. I know its hindsight, but in terms of skillset, Lamb was a vastly superior player and I'm one of the biggest Ross fans on this board.

Ross and Stew have been big disappointments this year. But I do not think it's DH's lack of development. Both have been horrifically inconsistent, are prone to truly bonehead plays on both sides of the ball, and play with absolutely zero confidence. Stew was the starter for over a month with a longer leash and you still never knew who was going to show up game-to-game.

I'm all for being critical of aspects of DH this year. But player development, this year, is not one of those aspects, IMO.

To criticize Hurley’s player development is beyond stupid. There is a long, long list of players that are playing professional ball right now, that improved under his leadership. This conversation went from dumb to dumber very fast.