Contrarian View: Not Ready to Throw In The Towel

[HooperScooper]

"Adversity is good," UConn coach Dan Hurley said. "Going through adversity and tough times. If you're not soft and you keep preparing and keep working, you take a look in the mirror as a head coach and as players, don't blame, complain or defend, and you just lock in.”

We'll see if they start to "lock in" and play better.

Journal Inquirer

Serving towns east of the Connecticut River

www.journalinquirer.com

(If you right click in Google Chrome and click on "Open Link In Incognito Window" you should be able to read this.)

 

[superjohn]

"Adversity is good," UConn coach Dan Hurley said. "Going through adversity and tough times. If you're not soft and you keep preparing and keep working, you take a look in the mirror as a head coach and as players, don't blame, complain or defend, and you just lock in.”

We'll see if they start to "lock in" and play better.

Journal Inquirer

Serving towns east of the Connecticut River

www.journalinquirer.com

(If you right click in Google Chrome and click on "Open Link In Incognito Window" you should be able to read this.)

I was hoping for an article with quotes from coach and players recognizing what's wrong and how they will fix it. Something to make me feel a little better about the direction of the season and that wasn't it.

Thank you for posting though.

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

Obviously I’d rather be struggling at this point than in the big east tourney / ncaa tourney. We’re almost a lock for the tourney, so let’s just keep working on getting out of this funk and figure out what our best team is. I’m not worried.

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

"Adversity is good," UConn coach Dan Hurley said. "Going through adversity and tough times. If you're not soft and you keep preparing and keep working, you take a look in the mirror as a head coach and as players, don't blame, complain or defend, and you just lock in.”

We'll see if they start to "lock in" and play better.

Journal Inquirer

Serving towns east of the Connecticut River

www.journalinquirer.com

(If you right click in Google Chrome and click on "Open Link In Incognito Window" you should be able to read this.)

This is spot on, we’ll get better in the end from this stretch. Teams are exposing our weaknesses now, there’s more than enough time to fix things.

People can say what they will about Hurley (who personally I have the upmost faith in), but don’t forget we also have 3 top notch assistant coaches capable of adjusting and getting this team better too.

 

[Billy Jack]

No, it’s not. It happens all the time. The 2011 NC team was ranked #5 in late January before losing 7 of 11 and 4 out of 5 to close out the regular season. What’s out of the ordinary is to be ranked as high as we were.

Just this year, Baylor was ranked #12 and then opened it’s conference season with 3 straight losses a couple of weeks ago.

Creighton opened this season with 6 straight wins and a #7 ranking before losing 6 in a row.

Indiana opened the season winning 8 out of 9 and a top 10 ranking before losing 5 of their next 7.

Arkansas opened the season 11-1, ranked #9. They’ve lost 5 of their last 6.

Would you like me to go on?

Kansas just lost their 3rd in a row, a streak which included a 23-point blow out loss to TCU at home.

 

[giddyup]

This is spot on, we’ll get better in the end from this stretch. Teams are exposing our weaknesses now, there’s more than enough time to fix things.

People can say what they will about Hurley (who personally I have the upmost faith in), but don’t forget we also have 3 top notch assistant coaches capable of adjusting and getting this team better too.

Utmost faith? Hurley hasn’t seen weekend 2 in his career, and its Year 5 and he still can’t quite get it together. I would be skeptical that he can ride this team deep into the tourney given the high stakes pressure until he actually proves he can. Past performance is often fairly indicative of future results.

 

[PAHusky]

Kansas just lost their 3rd in a row, a streak which included a 23-point blow out loss to TCU at home.

Kansas lost their third in a row - one by one point to #5 KSU on the road, the blowout to #11 TCU and home, and another loss to #17 Baylor on the road (they beat #12 ISU the game before the streak). It's obvious that Kansas is having some issues too, and they're also playing tough conference games on the road.

No one thinks we should be winning every game. But to hear people acting like we're chicken littles for thinking something is fundamentally flawed with a team that lost to St John's at home and hasn't looked good against any half decent team in a month plus is crazy.

This is not 2011 or even 2014. We don't have the best player in college basketball on the team. We may not even have a top 25 player. I don't know why UConn fans, of all people, who understand just how improbably beautiful those Kemba/Bazz teams and runs were ever cites them as some sort of "relax bro" argument when UConn goes through a bad stretch.

 

[nomar]

We have 6 home games left/5 away games.. Irrespective of the opponent.. See us going 5-1 at home.. Of the 5 away games.. All except Creighton are vs opponents currently ranked below us in BE standings. See us going no worse than 4-1.. If my numbers hold up preceding the BET.. We're 24-7.. With very strong OOC wins on the resume that appear to be growing in value for Selection Sunday.

Some teams are more comfortable playing with a chip on their shoulder.. And are chasers.. Some like to lead and go wire-to-wire and be the chased. Think our guys like the chip on the shoulder kind of vibe.

We've got our "warts".. Areas for improvement. Fans can make a choice as to their optimistic or pessimistic views.. I'm still "in" on the season being a success.. A choice I've made as a casual fan.

post/handle

This casual fan agrees that things can turn around (although 9-2 might be a stretch). Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor or Ben Hansbrough earned Big East MVP honors? Hell naw

 

[ValleyGuy]

God you people on here are the worst. Everyone hits a wall, it happens. Kansas just lost 3 in a row. They’ll be fine. Sound Like a bunch of Patriots fans on this blog

 

[nomar]

Kansas lost their third in a row - one by one point to #5 KSU on the road, the blowout to #11 TCU and home, and another loss to #17 Baylor on the road (they beat #12 ISU the game before the streak). It's obvious that Kansas is having some issues too, and they're also playing tough conference games on the road.

No one thinks we should be winning every game. But to hear people acting like we're chicken littles for thinking something is fundamentally flawed with a team that lost to St John's at home and hasn't looked good against any half decent team in a month plus is crazy.

This is not 2011 or even 2014. We don't have the best player in college basketball on the team. We may not even have a top 25 player. I don't know why UConn fans, of all people, who understand just how improbably beautiful those Kemba/Bazz teams and runs were ever cites them as some sort of "relax bro" argument when UConn goes through a bad stretch.

Good post and I agree with you a lot more than I disagree with you.

I wonder if we drew a Venn diagram, how many people that were in the "UConn's the best team since 1990 UNLV" circle and those in the "we're not making the NIT" circle would be in the overlapping portion. Probably a lot.

This is a bigger valley than I expected but I expect there will be another peak. I agree the team is flawed. Most teams are. I don't thin we can "fix" the PG issue but at least better shooting from the position would help.

 

[Billy Jack]

Kansas lost their third in a row - one by one point to #5 KSU on the road, the blowout to #11 TCU and home, and another loss to #17 Baylor on the road (they beat #12 ISU the game before the streak). It's obvious that Kansas is having some issues too, and they're also playing tough conference games on the road.

No one thinks we should be winning every game. But to hear people acting like we're chicken littles for thinking something is fundamentally flawed with a team that lost to St John's at home and hasn't looked good against any half decent team in a month plus is crazy.

This is not 2011 or even 2014. We don't have the best player in college basketball on the team. We may not even have a top 25 player. I don't know why UConn fans, of all people, who understand just how improbably beautiful those Kemba/Bazz teams and runs were ever cites them as some sort of "relax bro" argument when UConn goes through a bad stretch.

OMG. The sky is falling.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Indiana, Arkansas and Creighton all had major injuries to top players on their teams. We haven’t…

Injured psyches.

So is this expression on our 50 year old coach… the man most definitely has some serious issues.

You can carp or joke about emotional immaturity, or you can model emotional maturity. Choose wisely.

I can see you’re panicking. Hilarious.

Your post is aligns poorly with a comment directed to a fan of a team you frequently mention with the word "we."
Contemptuous.

Utmost faith? Hurley hasn’t seen weekend 2 in his career, and its Year 5 and he still can’t quite get it together. I would be skeptical that he can ride this team deep into the tourney given the high stakes pressure until he actually proves he can. Past performance is often fairly indicative of future results.

Would you rather be right or be happy? Which are you pursuing with a comment like that?

OMG. The sky is falling.

Is that a wish, a provocation, a hidden cheer, or a cry for help?

 

[giddyup]

Injured psyches.



You can carp or joke about emotional immaturity, or you can model emotional maturity. Choose wisely.



Your post is aligns poorly with a comment directed to a fan of a team you frequently mention with the word "we."
Contemptuous.


Would you rather be right or be happy? Which are you pursuing with a comment like that?


Is that a wish, a provocation, a hidden cheer, or a cry for help?

I’d rather be proven wrong than right.

 

[JB75]

You can substitute stupid as being synonymous with stubborn, maybe even a little crazy( doing the exact same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome each time is the clinical definition of insanity). And if you remember the last seton hall game Richmond scored 16 points in a row before Hurley made any meaningful changes and we lost that game too. He had a week to prepare for New Mexico St last year in the NCCA tournament and stop what was basically a one man team and he did nothing, he came into the game with no specific plans on how to defend the one player who proceeded to have a career game and we were bounced as a 5 seed in the first round. Apparently he doesn’t have the ability or desire to change

I agree —nothing to say.

 

[Conndog]

post/handle

This casual fan agrees that things can turn around (although 9-2 might be a stretch). Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor or Ben Hansbrough earned Big East MVP honors? Hell naw

Doesn't really pertain to the discussion, but what does "post/handle" mean? I've seen it a few times and have always been curious about it.

 

[nomar]

Doesn't really pertain to the discussion, but what does "post/handle" mean? I've seen it a few times and have always been curious about it.

Ha, happy to elucidate. It means the content of the post corresponds to the poster’s handle—basically, “of course you’d say that.”

I said it here because UmamiZen was being very zen about the team’s current posture.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I’d rather be proven wrong than right.

Is that an actual pursuit, or merely a way of hedging your emotions, playing it safe, and limiting your losses?

Is such an outlook available to coaches or players? Imagine...

"Yeah, we really don't match up well and probably can't win, but we'd love to be proven wrong!"

 

[Umami Zen]

Ha, happy to elucidate. It means the content of the post corresponds to the poster’s handle—basically, “of course you’d say that.”

I said it here because UmamiZen was being very zen about the team’s current posture.

Of course you'd say that