Confidence in Danny Going Forward

[kemba]

While we're debating the quality of the players recruited in the past, here's a glimpse of the physical difference in a first year UConn recruit and a fourth year Cincinnati recruit................both guards but one's a man and the other needs to develop but with a body type that will never be like the other.

Okafor, Villanueva, Boone, Voskuhl, Oriakhi, etc. didn't come to UConn looking like Akok but we either can't get those type players anymore or Hurley's pursuing the wrong ones. Did past teams have today's emphasis on weight training, or did we just recruit bigger guys and keep them toned? Forget the Kofi's and get a Jake.

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It's also a different era. We won the 2014 title with skinny freshmen and sophomore bigs and Olander. As ugly as last night was, Cincy is not the program we want to model.

 

[Kolumbo]

All Hurley has to do is come up with one of these soon.

 

[Rich]

Hurley’s mistake was allowing Ollie’s guys to stay. It reduced everyones’ expectations and forces him to accept a lower playing level floor than he would otherwise tolerate. Call it ‘socializing mediocrity’.

Three recruiting classes, maybe four to completely fill out the roster + migrate to the Big East. Deal with it.

 

[Vuce]

It's also a different era. We won the 2014 title with skinny freshmen and sophomore bigs and Olander. As ugly as last night was, Cincy is not the program we want to model.

And the best backcourt in the country. Don’t forget them

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think Danny needs to get his own players, who are recruited with his culture profile in mind. We have
3 guys in that category getting playing time and 4 in the pipeline ( Cole, Jackson, Javonte Brown Ferguson, Springs). So if we add 1 or 2 more in the Spring - we are about a recruiting year away. True, guys need to mature, etc. But, Chief sees progress but we are a season or two away from translating consistently into wins against quality teams.

I think this is overrated as an excuse. It applies because Hurley seems to ignore that these players are different than he wants. Give Harbaugh Lamar Jackson and run a spread 4 wide offense where Lamar executes the old Dan Marino offense. He‘d suck at it and the team would be bad. It’s the same here. We have seen Carlton be very effective in the right role. He’s not being allowed to do that because it isn’t DHs system. That is BS. It’s bad coaching. Your system and style of play must be flexible enough to fit varied rosters.

I think I he’s a super smart, passionate guy who is perhaps a little bit too set in his ways. He thought by year two he could just run his stuff. He can’t. He probably can’t next year. He might wait a long time, even with “his” guys to have a team that can run his system the way he wants.

With the exception of having the center play aggressively outside on D they execute his defense pretty well. Even the Ollie guys. In fact the Ollie guys play best on that end aside from Akok. But the offense. Just put that five out offense in the trash for good and run traditional half court basketball With at least one if not two guys in the post. We are bringing Josh outside so a 5”11 guard can get to the rim? Really? How’s that working so far? Maybe if we had Russell Westbrook. Maybe.

I saw Calhoun play lots of varied offense based on his guys. He didn’t waste Adrien or Boone on the perimeter. if we had Shon Miller on this team he’d be standing on the three point line scoring 4 a game on offensive rebounds.

 

[kemba]

And the best backcourt in the country. Don’t forget them

That's my point. Guard play wins

 

[Get a Job]

Geezus, dude...this is exhausting.

You clearly keep showing you don't know what players play for the two programs and you clearly don't follow recruiting, if you did you would stop with this class nonsense. We have higher ranked recruits than Cincy.

Could you list numbers like Towney did to support your point? I'm not doubting you, but you are coming off really poorly by telling him he's wrong without a counter argument.

 

[kemba]

I think this is overrated as an excuse. It applies because Hurley seems to ignore that these players are different than he wants. Give Harbaugh Lamar Jackson and run a spread 4 wide offense where Lamar executes the old Dan Marino offense. He‘d suck at it and the team would be bad. It’s the same here. We have seen Carlton be very effective in the right role. He’s not being allowed to do that because it isn’t DHs system. That is BS. It’s bad coaching. Your system and style of play must be flexible enough to fit varied rosters.

Carlton gets plenty of touches in the post. Force feeding him the ball down there is not the key to turning this offense around. He's a limited player. Nothing to do with how they are using him

 

[Waquoit]

Agreed. I didn’t say Calhoun didn’t have it hard. He did the greatest building job in Collegiate sports history. But we can’t poo on Hurley’s second year because of what Calhoun did his second year when Hurley’s second year is still in progress lol.

Let's not forget that Calhoun's 3rd season was a bitter disappointment. They had a decent win at Virginia early and made it into the Top 20. Pretty much all downhill from there. It was supposed to be back to dance for the first time in a decade, instead it was back to the NIT. Imagine if there was a Boneyard back then. He'd be getting killed the same way Hurley is getting killed now, for the same things. Things will be better next year, just like they were for JC.

 

[Kathy]

Let's not forget that Calhoun's 3rd season was a bitter disappointment. They had a decent win at Virginia early and made it into the Top 20. Pretty much all downhill from there. It was supposed to be back to dance for the first time in a decade, instead it was back to the NIT. Imagine if there was a Boneyard back then. He'd be getting killed the same way Hurley is getting killed now, for the same things. Things will be better next year, just like they were for JC.

I wouldn't call it a bitter disappointment - NCAA would have been nice but after the last 4-5 Perno years any post season was refreshing.

 

[metsfan2323]

Let's not forget that Calhoun's 3rd season was a bitter disappointment. They had a decent win at Virginia early and made it into the Top 20. Pretty much all downhill from there. It was supposed to be back to dance for the first time in a decade, instead it was back to the NIT. Imagine if there was a Boneyard back then. He'd be getting killed the same way Hurley is getting killed now, for the same things. Things will be better next year, just like they were for JC.

Spot on. That season (88-89) was a let down no doubt about it and that team had a senior player who ended up having a long and productive NBA career something the current team does not have.

 

[Waquoit]

NCAA would have been nice but after the last 4-5 Perno years any post season was refreshing.

I'm thinking that was a minority sentiment at the time. We had some brutal losses (ie @ PC). The NIT was a letdown after the year before.

 

[metsfan2323]

I'm thinking that was a minority sentiment at the time. We had some brutal losses (ie @ PC). The NIT was a letdown after the year before.

We lost a home game vs PC that year too. I think Cliff had a shot bounce off the rim at the buzzer, I was seated behind the rim and remember it well. I still dislike PC's Marty Conlon.

 

[Vuce]

It

I wouldn't call it a bitter disappointment - NCAA would have been nice but after the last 4-5 Perno years any post season was refreshing.

it definitely was a bitter disappointment. We won the NIT and had most of the team back led by Cliff Robinson and Phil Gamble. NCAA Tourney was totally anticipated for 1988-89 season. Brought in Chris Smith, Rod Sellers, etc. It was back to the NIT and sorta ho hum. And yeah JC would have been savaged that season if The Boneyard was around.

 

[superjohn]

I literally just posted one of the largest recruiting bureaus recruiting rankings for those respective years. I'm not ranking anyone - they are. They have their players *ranked* ahead of ours. On average as classes - their recruits are rated better than ours. We have *some guys* rated higher than theirs - but on the whole - the last four years it's not even close. I'm not sure how you could make the argument that it is considering that in two years we basically didn't have classes. I'm surprised we're even arguing about this.

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

 

[metsfan2323]

This! Also, from like 1991 to 1998 there were PLENTY of fans calling for Calhoun's head saying he can't win the big one, can't coach offense, could not develop a competent big man (constant calls of UConn being a "donut" team with no center). Hurley is 1 1/2 seasons in rebuilding a roster that was devoid of the talent needed to consistently compete. I want to see Akok, Bouk, Gaffney, Cole, Springs, Jackson, Javonte Brown Ferguson, et al with experience. I know some don't have any patience for it but I think DH is going to get it done and maintain it.

Yup, "donut team" you are correct sir.

 

[Chief00]

Yeah this one is weird to me. I don't get what Sid did to get so buried. I mean it's gotta be SOMETHING.

Indeed.

 

[Husky68]

The fact that you allow one game to put a damper on an entire season is in fact an overreaction

This isn't one game, this is the 13th game in a 30 game season and the 1st league game. All the previous 12 games was a prep for this. You call it damper, I say it just is what it is. If this is the worse UConn can play this year now we know what that is (calling this game worse than St. Joe's). If this isn't by far the worse then not going to do too well in the AAC.
Why is it so hard to call a stinker a stinker and describe why it stunk? If that was the best offensive scheme Hurley could come up with to start the game he misdiagnosed his team's offensive abilities (saying it nicely to not offend) both individually and as a team.

 

[AntG168]

This isn't one game, this is the 13th game in a 30 game season and the 1st league game. All the previous 12 games was a prep for this. You call it damper, I say it just is what it is. If this is the worse UConn can play this year now we know what that is (calling this game worse than St. Joe's). If this isn't by far the worse then not going to do too well in the AAC.
Why is it so hard to call a stinker a stinker and describe why it stunk? If that was the best offensive scheme Hurley could come up with to start the game he misdiagnosed his team's offensive abilities (saying it nicely to not offend) both individually and as a team.

Where 9-4 with 1 bad loss. And 3 good to decent wins. Things are not as bleak as they are being painted. Period. When win the next 2 and beat Nova yourself and others will be screaming sweet 16 again. Stop overreacting. One game doesn’t give you enough information to make difinitive statements. If your taking the whole season into account you’d come to the conclusion that we’re a good young team that has a lot to learn I terms of performing consistently. This year is a set up to next season. Is the performance in Charleston now moot? Last night sucked. The players sucked and Hurley sucked. But it was one game. If we’re gonna throw up a clunker every 7 games that’s massive improvement from the last half decade. We’re making progress

 

[superjohn]

Where 9-4 with 1 bad loss. And 3 good to decent wins. Things are not as bleak as they are being painted. Period. When win the next 2 and beat Nova yourself and others will be screaming sweet 16 again. Stop overreacting. One game doesn’t give you enough information to make difinitive statements. If your taking the whole season into account you’d come to the conclusion that we’re a good young team that has a lot to learn I terms of performing consistently. This year is a set up to next season. Is the performance in Charleston now moot? Last night sucked. The players sucked and Hurley sucked. But it was one game. If we’re gonna throw up a clunker every 7 games that’s massive improvement from the last half decade. We’re making progress

We were 9-3 last year with a win over #15 Syracuse and close losses to Arizona and Florida State. If you aren't recognizing that things are trending down significantly since Charleston and it needs to be fixed I don't know what to tell you. What makes you think we have any chance at Nova after watching last night?

Away at USF next, Tulane at home, Wichita at home, away at Nova, and then away at Houston. Things could get out of control quickly if changes aren't made by Hurley and the players.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Hurley just got skunked by a coach who, a whole day later, I still haven't bothered to look up his name.

 

[Get a Job]

Where 9-4 with 1 bad loss. And 3 good to decent wins. Things are not as bleak as they are being painted. Period. When win the next 2 and beat Nova yourself and others will be screaming sweet 16 again. Stop overreacting. One game doesn’t give you enough information to make difinitive statements. If your taking the whole season into account you’d come to the conclusion that we’re a good young team that has a lot to learn I terms of performing consistently. This year is a set up to next season. Is the performance in Charleston now moot? Last night sucked. The players sucked and Hurley sucked. But it was one game. If we’re gonna throw up a clunker every 7 games that’s massive improvement from the last half decade. We’re making progress

If you think we're going to win the next 4 you're out of your mind. Not saying it can't happen, but to expect it defies rationality. I agree that many are overreacting to the last game, but we're not beating Villanofun.

 

[AntG168]

We were 9-3 last year with a win over #15 Syracuse and close losses to Arizona and Florida State. If you aren't recognizing that things are trending down significantly since Charleston and it needs to be fixed I don't know what to tell you. What makes you think we have any chance at Nova after watching last night?

Away at USF next, Tulane at home, Wichita at home, away at Nova, and then away at Houston. Things could get out of control quickly if changes aren't made by Hurley and the players.

I didn’t say I think we beat Nova, I was pointing out how quickly narratives change. You yourself lamented yesterday about how much better we are than last year. One game really discouraged you that much? We can’t stress over something that hasn’t happened yet. Last season injuries were a major reason for our implosion. We were definitely headed towards a winning season last season. I think we’ll be fine if we remain healthy

 

[AntG168]

If you think we're going to win the next 4 you're out of your mind. Not saying it can't happen, but to expect defies rationality. I agree that many are overreacting to the last game, but we're not beating Villanofun.

I don’t “expect” is to beat nova. I believe we can but idk if we will. Yesterday was our worst performance all year sans St Joes. I’m not gonna paint this team with that brush because of 2 games. This season we haven’t normally looked THAT bad. I chalk it up as a learning curve in a roller coaster season. It was their first road game and they looked overwhelmed in the moment. They’ll be better for it

 

[superjohn]

I didn’t say I think we beat Nova, I was pointing out how quickly narratives change. You yourself lamented yesterday about how much better we are than last year. One game really discouraged you that much? We can’t stress over something that hasn’t happened yet. Last season injuries were a major reason for our implosion. We were definitely headed towards a winning season last season. I think we’ll be fine.

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.