Do you think Hurley knew?

[uconngb]

Serious question. Do you think Hurley really know how talent-deficient this team was before he accepted the job? I understand he didn't come for a one-year tenure, but even he has to be disappointed in what this roster offers him. I think 21 games into their sophomore season it is fair to say that Josh and Polley do not deserve to be starting for this or any other major D-1 college program. There are basic fundamental things they just don't do well, and particularly in Polley's case, have minimal impact on most games. That's 40% of our starting lineup, and 100% of our frontcourt starting lineup. And that's the best we have. He's gotta be beating his head against the wall when he sees the disparity of our guys vs every non-cupcake team we've played this year. The physical difference is obvious to see, but coupled with the extremely low BBIQ we still seam to have, that's a deadly combo. I realize Rome wasn't built in a day, and I still have full confidence that Hurley is our guy, but he's gotta be extremely frustrated that he can't even get through to these guys to play hard for 40 minutes every game. When you are outmanned and outsmarted, that's your only chance at making up for the deficiencies. My guess is Danny is not getting a lot of sleep these days.

 

[Hoophound]

Yes. I think he was well aware.

 

[UConnSwag11]

It’s all about recruiting the next two years and making the tournament.

 

[JimHurley]

I think he knew it was bad, but not this bad. These kids were just exposed to the culture of a losing program. Hurley can't completely reverse that with a few months of preparation before this season started. Give the man time. This program is on its way back to the top.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

What a post.

 

[Friendship]

I think you are right. He definitely did no research at all

 

[Marat]

He knew exactly what he was getting into.

 

[BUConn10]

New thought. Seeing the talent on this team, can you believe there was a SIGNIFICANT contingent of posters here who couldn’t fathom that Ollie’s seat was hot. What the hell was he doing here for the last 4 years?

 

[EROCK CONN]

This board — I would say I’m surprised by what gets posted here, but I’m weathered.

 

[Slick]

Serious question. Do you think Hurley really know how talent-deficient this team was before he accepted the job? I understand he didn't come for a one-year tenure, but even he has to be disappointed in what this roster offers him. I think 21 games into their sophomore season it is fair to say that Josh and Polley do not deserve to be starting for this or any other major D-1 college program. There are basic fundamental things they just don't do well, and particularly in Polley's case, have minimal impact on most games. That's 40% of our starting lineup, and 100% of our frontcourt starting lineup. And that's the best we have. He's gotta be beating his head against the wall when he sees the disparity of our guys vs every non-cupcake team we've played this year. The physical difference is obvious to see, but coupled with the extremely low BBIQ we still seam to have, that's a deadly combo. I realize Rome wasn't built in a day, and I still have full confidence that Hurley is our guy, but he's gotta be extremely frustrated that he can't even get through to these guys to play hard for 40 minutes every game. When you are outmanned and outsmarted, that's your only chance at making up for the deficiencies. My guess is Danny is not getting a lot of sleep these days.

He knew exactly what he was getting into. If we had a talented roster he would not have been hired. He can recruit and he knows talent and what he wants for his style of play.Unfortunately it takes some time but we are way better then last year with out a doubt.

 

[Fishy]

Hurley hasn't completely turned the team around in half a season.

Everyone panic.

 

[Madmannsucks]

Hurley hasn't completely turned the team around in half a season.

Everyone panic.

Yeah, who knew?

 

[Stainmaster]

New thought. Seeing the talent on this team, can you believe there was a SIGNIFICANT contingent of posters here who couldn’t fathom that Ollie’s seat was hot. What the hell was he doing here for the last 4 years?

I'm trying to imagine what it's like to be so mentally stunted you're still obsessing over not just Kevin Ollie, but how people talked about him on an online message board.

Has your life at least gotten somewhat back to normal yet?

 

[Kenny11]

We should have won some of these close games. Our talent level needs to improve. Hurley knows that. He said it when he got the job and several times since, but the constant crapping on our roster on the BY is getting annoying. We should have won some of these conference games we lost and we are talented enough to have a solid conference record. Stop making so many excuses for Hurley as if he is completely helpless. Our talent level is better than most of the other teams in the conference despite roster balance being an obvious major issue.

 

[Madmannsucks]

No I doubt it. He took the job because he figured he would walk into a Final Four or better in his first season.

 

[Fishy]

I'm trying to imagine what it's like to be so mentally stunted you're still obsessing over not just Kevin Ollie, but how people talked about him on an online message board.

Has your life at least gotten somewhat back to normal yet?

Ollie's gone.

You can stop carrying his water.

 

[Stainmaster]

The Wagner team Hurley took over was ranked 335th out of 347 by KenPom. I think he has plenty of experience coming into bad situations and working with circumstances that are less than ideal. He's been coaching for 23 years and a HC for 18 of them - he knows what he's doing.

 

[Stainmaster]

Ollie's gone.

You can stop carrying his water.

I haven't carried his water in over a year and a half. You can stop accusing me of doing so.

 

[jibsey]

I am to the point that I don’t care what he does this season. Now he has 1 thing and 1 thing only to do and that is to get a couple bigs to go with Carlton. Athletes with BBIQ and attitude. If that does not happen next year will likely be ugly too. We were all hopeful that because we had good guards that it would carry the day this season. It did not. And we are still losing the recruiting wars on centers as we have been for years. I like what he has for commitments so far but he has to finish it.

 

[Kemba15]

Serious question. Do you think Hurley really know how talent-deficient this team was before he accepted the job? I understand he didn't come for a one-year tenure, but even he has to be disappointed in what this roster offers him. I think 21 games into their sophomore season it is fair to say that Josh and Polley do not deserve to be starting for this or any other major D-1 college program. There are basic fundamental things they just don't do well, and particularly in Polley's case, have minimal impact on most games. That's 40% of our starting lineup, and 100% of our frontcourt starting lineup. And that's the best we have. He's gotta be beating his head against the wall when he sees the disparity of our guys vs every non-cupcake team we've played this year. The physical difference is obvious to see, but coupled with the extremely low BBIQ we still seam to have, that's a deadly combo. I realize Rome wasn't built in a day, and I still have full confidence that Hurley is our guy, but he's gotta be extremely frustrated that he can't even get through to these guys to play hard for 40 minutes every game. When you are outmanned and outsmarted, that's your only chance at making up for the deficiencies. My guess is Danny is not getting a lot of sleep these days.

This is a really good question and I’m not sure why people are missing the point by mocking the OP. The post wasn’t saying that it’s panic time, or even that Hurley is packining. It’s just asking if Hurley—who had options other than UConn—is starting to realize the turnaround might take longer than originally imagined. Let’s keep in mind that his URI team made the second round of the tournament last year. Yes, he knew what he was getting into but maybe he didn’t know we’d be this bad.

It’s not at all an unfair question at all and it’s one I have asked myself too.

 

[Fishy]

The original poster and the post above seem to presume that Hurley was somehow incapable of knowing how bad this team has been.

No one, other than I guess some on this board, are surprised that we're still not good.

The roster is bad - everyone with eyes voted this team as a mid-pack AAC team with little chance of an NCAA bid because we're a mid-pack AAC team with little chance of an NCAA bid.

 

[GHSWolverines]

I think you are right. He definitely did no research at all

Hurley is not a fool. He researched. Given Uconn"s long tradition Hurley feels he can get it back to what it was and I believe him.

 

[Kemba15]

The original poster and the post above seem to presume that Hurley was somehow incapable of knowing how bad this team has been.

No one, other than I guess some on this board, are surprised that we're still not good.

The roster is bad - everyone with eyes voted this team as a mid-pack AAC team with little chance of an NCAA bid because we're a mid-pack AAC team with little chance of an NCAA bid.

That’s not what was said in either post though. Just that it’s worse than he might have thought originally. Expectations change over time—not sure why that’s so crazy.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I’m sure he was very confused at the lack of lottery picks.

 

[ctchamps]

Knew what? That Carleton needed time to develop? Cause he certainly is doing that. I’m not sure after watching recent games why the Op is using Carleton as an indictment against Hurley’s awareness. Maybe with Polley but I’m not even ready to sell his stock. He could very well be the type of player that will have an uneven upside to his development but make a big improvement his junior year.

My concern has been over Cobb. Given Cobb’s defensive liabilities and a medically reduced Diarra why did Hurley chose to bring in Yakwe with known foot problems?