Confidence in Danny Going Forward

[Watchdog]

By repeatedly posting the same thing you're showing you don't have a clue on this topic, I get it. For the fifth time UConn has higher ranked recruits than Cinci.

Towney007 may be right, by a hair.
I'm not going to take the time to look at each class individually in order to weight the averages by how many recruits are in each class, but if you do a simple average for the four years for each school it comes out that Cincinnati's classes average 56.5 and UConn's average 57, so Cincy does have the higher rated recruits by that measure.
And, since three of the class of 2016 are no longer with the team you'd have to lower UConn's average somewhat and that might drop them into the 60's.
Cincy has the #37 class for 2020 (4 commits) while UConn's class is currently #47 (2 commits) and if we do add 1 or 2 in the spring that could put UConn on top overall, especially is they're highly ranked.

 

[AntG168]

I think we can be good but we haven't really had any focus since Charleston and didn't use those cupcakes to ready us for conference play. I hoped the lightbulb would go on again once conference play started up but last nights performance was beyond distressing. Yes, last night discouraged me that much.

It was their first road game. That was the mistake. I think they’ll be better for last night. As I said before the game yesterday what else did we really expect from our upperclassmen? Bouknight started to get it going in he second half. Akok seemed to settle in late. Gaffney didn’t look as jittery in the second half. That was a road game they needed imo. Last night was an aberration I believe. Let’s win the games we’re supposed to(there are many in this conference) and we’ll be fine. You’ll never see me defending yesterday’s performance, but allowing one game to completely change your outlook is a mistake imo

 

[Okafour rings]

I'm with 4xChamps. I give Hurley a 10 for recruiting, a 7 for player development, and a 5 for in-game coaching.

Recruiting: the 3-player class this year and 2-player class next year provides the talent base for a Top 25 team.

Player development: I've seen enough individual physical/skill improvement in players from last year to this year (Adams, Carlton, Polley) to feel like DH has been able hone in on areas to improve individual skills. However, BBIQ has not really improved.

In-game coaching: there were a couple of times on offense last night when not one UConn player was inside the 3-point line...shades of the Ollie era. There were a couple of turnovers plus 2 possessions where the shot was missed without one UConn jersey anywhere near the rebound. Early in the first half, Carlton was overplaying Vogt past the 3-pt arc, and Vogt cut to the basket for an easy dunk. I said this last year: Carlton should NEVER go out past 15 feet on defense, but especially against this type of player. This is a coaching failure.

There have been lots of opinions here about the quality of players Coach has, but I think some of the frustration is that even the limited players should be playing smarter basketball.

 

[Huskybass]

The problem is that we are not Wagner or URI. Most reasonable UConn fans can wait 2-3 years for results, but 5 years is way too long to get back to NCAAs.

Year 3 with mostly his guys is when it should happen. He inherited a big hole to dig out of, and some of those issues are still present. We have guys with such glaring holes in their games that it's hard to believe that they practice every day. Guys that can't rebound, can't dribble, make the same mistake over and over, exercise poor shot selection, can't jump, etc. The freshmen are far more complete and the overall talent and bball IQ will rise over time.

I am confident that UConn makes the tournament next season with a roster we can be excited about. I think many here don't realize just how good Cole is, and Jackson looks like a winner to me. Springs is built well and rebounds strong from what I've heard. Javonte Brown Ferguson looks like more of a project. The pieces are falling into place, but there will be some pain along the way. Anyone who was expecting an immediate, meteoric rise wasn't being realistic.

I would give Coach Hurley a 7 or 8 so far. He sometimes pulls Bouk right after he scores 6 points in 2 minutes and I am left to wonder why. Also, he sticks with the veteran guards far too long sometimes. I sincerely hope that is what he is addressing by using the term "shorter leash".

This team has lots of guys who can be a star on a given day/night. Josh, Akok, CV, AG, Bouk, Polley and BA have all been stars at one time or another, and Gaffney certainly has that potential. Can you imagine if all 8 of them played real well on the same night? That is Coach Hurley's challenge, to get them all there consistently.

 

[Waquoit]

Yes, last night discouraged me that much.

Hurley must be doing something right that there is so much discouragement after losing the conference opener as a road dog. I remember when a 10th ranked UConn got blown out at BCU in the conference opener.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

It's not that the loss to Cincinnati was so unexpected. That's a tough place to play, and they seem to have our number ever since Adams hit the 3/4 court prayer in the AAC tourney.

It's that the team seemed to have no real concept on offense, and made few adjustments to improve the half-court offense. On defense there were too many episodes of "how'd that guy get so open?" That's what's discouraging. Need to see improvement in those areas.

 

[UConn3432]

8, just based on not showing up in big games so far. I feel good about the future with DH. I love the family atmosphere and culture he is building that will only get better with some subtraction. One thing i don't like is his initial reaction to adversity. He's usually a little late to call the timeout that stops the run or make the substitution when the guy needs to be calmed down. Body language is very important when things are going wrong because the players look to the coach for that calm confidence that things are ok. if they see panic, they start to think things might not turn around. there's nothing i love watching more than coach k, self, squid in tight games when they just don't know what to do and you see that confused look in their face. it infects the players. DH doesn't get like that, but he could do better to control his nervous energy when things are going bad and continue to unleash it when players make good plays and he pumps them up.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Coaches can improve as game coaches, but it is hard. Some of the same characteristics that make an athlete a great player, confidence in one's own ability, drive, super-competitiveness, are generally not conducive to enabling a coach, who are all former players, to learn from his own mistakes. Most coaches just try to do the same thing harder.

I think this is part of why great players are usually lousy coaches. Clyde Drexler and Chris Mullin sucked, and Patrick Ewing is struggling. Bill Russell was pretty bad when he didn't have Bill Russell playing for him. Larry Bird was effective, but he completely delegated every aspect of coaching to his assistants. Magic ended his coaching career after 16 games. Isiah Thomas was terrible.

Whether Hurley will be the next promising coach to flame out, or whether he will develop into a good or great top tier coach, will depend on how he adapts and learns from his mistakes.

 

[superjohn]

Coaches can improve as game coaches, but it is hard. Some of the same characteristics that make an athlete a great player, confidence in one's own ability, drive, super-competitiveness, are generally not conducive to enabling a coach, who are all former players, to learn from his own mistakes. Most coaches just try to do the same thing harder.

I think this is part of why great players are usually lousy coaches. Clyde Drexler and Chris Mullin sucked, and Patrick Ewing is struggling. Bill Russell was pretty bad when he didn't have Bill Russell playing for him. Larry Bird was effective, but he completely delegated every aspect of coaching to his assistants. Magic ended his coaching career after 16 games. Isiah Thomas was terrible.

Whether Hurley will be the next promising coach to flame out, or whether he will develop into a good or great top tier coach, will depend on how he adapts and learns from his mistakes.

Yep...Larry Brown, Pat Riley, Don Nelson, Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloane, Rick Carlisle, Jim Boeheim, Billy Donovan, Fred Hoiberg, Coach K, Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr etc. all suck.

 

[John]

Yep...Larry Brown, Pat Riley, Don Nelson, Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloane, Rick Carlisle, Jim Boeheim, Billy Donovan, Fred Hoiberg, Coach K, Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr etc. all suck.

sorry, not a lot of "great" players on that list.

 

[Kolumbo]

I seem to remember JC once calling a timeout 30 seconds into a game. I remember him calling a timeout and walking onto the court pointing at players meaning "You! You! and You! Get your Arses on the bench." Found this little clip. No one did it quite like JC, that MoFo.

 

[superjohn]

sorry, not a lot of "great" players on that list.

Nelson's post was about Dan Hurley being a former player and what it has to do with him being a good/great coach or a failure.

You think Dan Hurley was a better player than Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, George Karl, Fred Hoiberg, Doc Rivers, Billy Donovan, Don Nelson, Jerry Sloan etc.?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Nelson's post was about Dan Hurley being a former player and what it has to do with him being a good/great coach or a failure.

You think Dan Hurley was a better player than Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, George Karl, Fred Hoiberg, Doc Rivers, Billy Donovan, Don Nelson, Jerry Sloan etc.?

Keep working on it and you can turn it into an attack on me. Let me know when you got something.

 

[Kolumbo]

Nelson's post was about Dan Hurley being a former player and what it has to do with him being a good/great coach or a failure.

You think Dan Hurley was a better player than Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, George Karl, Fred Hoiberg, Doc Rivers, Billy Donovan, Don Nelson, Jerry Sloan etc.?

Let's not forget this guy. Heck he's got a .500 record at freaking ruttie!

 

[superjohn]

Keep working on it and you can turn it into an attack on me. Let me know when you got something.

You're advocating to bring back Kevin Ollie in all sorts of threads and yet you make a post that because Dan Hurley is a former player he might not cut it as a head coach and now you're whining about getting called out for making a silly post.

Can't make this stuff up.

 

[superjohn]

Towney007 may be right, by a hair.
I'm not going to take the time to look at each class individually in order to weight the averages by how many recruits are in each class, but if you do a simple average for the four years for each school it comes out that Cincinnati's classes average 56.5 and UConn's average 57, so Cincy does have the higher rated recruits by that measure.
And, since three of the class of 2016 are no longer with the team you'd have to lower UConn's average somewhat and that might drop them into the 60's.
Cincy has the #37 class for 2020 (4 commits) while UConn's class is currently #47 (2 commits) and if we do add 1 or 2 in the spring that could put UConn on top overall, especially is they're highly ranked.

Not the case, we have the higher rated recruits and it's not really all that close...

I had time to look up the rankings of our respective players...
UConn...

Jalen Gaffney-105
Christian Vital- 166
James Bouknight- 66
Alterique Gilbert- 32
Isaiah Whaley- not ranked
Brendan Adams- 178
Tyler Polley- 168
Sidney Wilson- 89
Akok Akok- 30
Josh Carlton- 178

Average of UConn players is #112 with 1 player being unranked.

Cincinnati...

Chris McNeal- 412
Jeremiah Davenport- not ranked
Keith Williams- 128
Nika Adams-Woods- 244
Tre Scott- 268
Mamadou Diarra- 196
Jaevin Cumberland- not ranked
Zach Harvey- 49
Chris Vogt-349
Jarron Cumberland- 56
Jaume Sorolla- not ranked
Trevor Moore- 340

Average of Cincinnati players is #227 with 3 players not ranked

 

[nelsonmuntz]

You're advocating to bring back Kevin Ollie in all sorts of threads and yet you make a post that because Dan Hurley is a former player he might not cut it as a head coach and now you're whining about getting called out for making a silly post.

Can't make this stuff up.

That's not what I said. You are having trouble keeping up. The Internet may not be the place for you.

 

[Tuna]

In that season Ollie got manhandled by Pitino 3 times. And was a miracle by Amida Brimah from losing to.....St Joes lmaooo. He also had a couple of guards names Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright. Who would’ve fit Hurley’s style like a glove

Nothing to add to the Hurley discussion but the bolded is so irritating every time I read it. Miracle? The guy made a put-back and 1 down 3 with 40 seconds left. Even if he didn’t pull down the rebound, doesn’t make the layup or does then misses the free throw, they were down at most 3 points with 40 SECONDS LEFT. Yeah, no one’s ever come back from that hole. Truly God’s work.

 

[traitor71]

I seem to remember JC once calling a timeout 30 seconds into a game. I remember him calling a timeout and walking onto the court pointing at players meaning "You! You! and You! Get your Arses on the bench." Found this little clip. No one did it quite like JC, that MoFo.

I think I remember him doing that like 20 seconds into a game against Kentucky (I think it was). He was pissed at Jerome Dyson I believe, and just stormed onto the court, pointed at Jerome, and then pointed to the bench. He didn't even need to say a word lol.

 

[Excalibur]

Nothing to add to the Hurley discussion but the bolded is so irritating every time I read it. Miracle? The guy made a put-back and 1 down 3 with 40 seconds left. Even if he didn’t pull down the rebound, doesn’t make the layup or does then misses the free throw, they were down at most 3 points with 40 SECONDS LEFT. Yeah, no one’s ever come back from that hole. Truly God’s work.

He made a shot he didn’t make before or after that in his entire career — an 8 foot jump hook falling away from the hoop. So yeah, pretty miraculous. And if he missed we are fouling, so we are likely down 4 or more. Your chances of winning at that point are around 10%, but you can feel free to rely on those odds.

 

[superjohn]

He made a shot he didn’t make before or after that in his entire career — an 8 foot jump hook falling away from the hoop. So yeah, pretty miraculous. And if he missed we are fouling, so we are likely down 4 or more. Your chances of winning at that point are around 10%, but you can feel free to rely on those odds.

He made a 5 foot shot, it was a really nice play but it's constantly used to detract from Ollie's run that season. Ollie blew up the program after but nothing from that run should be taken away from him. He went through Phil Martelli, Jay Wright, Fred Hoiberg, Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan, and John Calipari. Trying to take that away from him on a "what if" Brimah didn't make a 5 foot "miracle" with 40 seconds left is silly. The weirder more "miraculous" play on that sequence is that Bazz bricked a layup.

 

[AntG168]

He made a 5 foot shot, it was a really nice play but it's constantly used to detract from Ollie's run that season. Ollie blew up the program after but nothing from that run should be taken away from him. He went through Phil Martelli, Jay Wright, Fred Hoiberg, Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan, and John Calipari. Trying to take that away from him on a "what if" Brimah didn't make a 5 foot "miracle" with 40 seconds left is silly. The weirder more "miraculous" play on that sequence is that Bazz bricked a layup.

I didn’t use it to disqualify Ollies run. He pointed out that we lost to st Joes. I just found it ironic how we almost lost to them in our championship season. You need miracles to win championships

 

[superjohn]

I didn’t use it to disqualify Ollies run. He pointed out that we lost to st Joes. I just found it ironic how we almost lost to them in our championship season. You need miracles to win championships

There was no miracle, Bazz bricked a layup and Brimah rebounded and made a 5 foot shot. Jalen Adams chucking in a 70 footer at the buzzer was a miracle. I'm not trying to accuse you of using it to diminish Ollie but often when that championship run is brought up it turns into something to the effect of "but Brimah made a miracle, UConn loses first round without Brimah's miracle."

Come on, you know getting run out of the gym by a horrendous St. Joe's is in no way similar to us gutting out an OT win against a really good St. Joe's team in the NCAA tournament.

 

[Waquoit]

"but Brimah made a miracle, UConn loses first round without Brimah's miracle."

Yeah, that's the kinda stuff one should leave to fans of other teams.

 

[superjohn]

Yeah, that's the kinda stuff one should leave to fans of other teams.

It's used against Ollie. I was Ollie's biggest detractor when he stopped doing his job and blew up the program but those first 2 seasons happened. I don't get trying to pretend they didn't or trying to diminish those accomplishments. I agree Shabazz was the biggest part of us winning it all but that holds true for Calhoun's last title as well but you rarely see people say that title was 100% Kemba winning it all for us.