Honestly, what happened?

[Dibbie]

I’m not an X and O guy like many of you, but I remember in the early Hurley days, a lot of complaints about our offense and how we just ran a weave and high hedge endlessly. Now, anlmost overnight, we run the best offense in CBB.

Is it the players, is Hurley evolving, is Murray a mad offensive scientist, is it the cultural buy-in? Am I answering my own question by saying it’s all of the above?

 

[HuskyCLT]

After the loss to New Mexico in the NCAAT Hurley decided we needed to focus and ramp up our offense. So he hired Luke Murray and recruited offensive talent.

 

[husky429]

Good coaches adapt and hire for their blind spots. Now we won 2 more nattys.

 

[Drame]

He said just yesterday that even the coaches need to work to get better every year. They got better.

 

[nomar]

I’m not an X and O guy like many of you, but I remember in the early Hurley days, a lot of complaints about our offense and how we just ran a weave and high hedge endlessly. Now, anlmost overnight, we run the best offense in CBB.

Is it the players, is Hurley evolving, is Murray a mad offensive scientist, is it the cultural buy-in? Am I answering my own question by saying it’s all of the above?

There’s been an awful lot written about this. Basically Murray and he overhauled the offense. Check out his appearance on Redick’s podcast too.

 

[BGesus4]

To be honest, it’s all been a fever dream

 

[NowInStorrs]

He said just yesterday that even the coaches need to work to get better every year. They got better.

 

[UC0NN]

Recruiting better shooters and more offensive talent.

Hiring Murray is a huge reason. And Murray, Hurley, Kimani are all improving every year. Hurley is a student of the game and constantly trying to improve.

After winning in 23 we never got the full media attention from winning a chip. And at Uconn, we usually don't get the excessive hype. But after B2B it's a totally new level of respect.

 

[freescooter]

Partly at least we brought in better players, and especially bigger players. Newton did things his predecessors never even imagined doing and at 6-5 he was a handful For a 6-1 point to cover. Clingon was a once in a lifetime player.

Then I think he changed his offensive approach too. Much more movement and passing. More guys who can take and make the 3. To me the offensive change was clear when he moved Jackson inside to a more power forward type position where the could take advantage of his size strength and leaping ability rather than outside where he couldn’t shoot effectively.

 

[auror]

Is it the players, is Hurley evolving, is Murray a mad offensive scientist, is it the cultural buy-in? Am I answering my own question by saying it’s all of the above?

Yes, all of the above. Recruiting putting more emphasis on BBIQ and arrival of guys who were just as tough as old Hurley recruits, but higher BBIQ and more skilled. Hurley and Murray developing a new offense not once, but twice. First year of the revolution was more about Hawkins shooting off movement and setting up deep post touches and seals for Sanogo. 2nd year was building on all that, adding more, and codifying it into more of a system (creating terminology, etc.), and enhancing the plays to get more variations and secondary actions (cuts, rolls, penetration windows etc. on top of everything else.) And then yeah just getting the buy-in to make everything work, though that hasn't really been a problem throughout Hurley's tenure (so not really a recent change).

 

[Luna]

Hurley happened

 

[Travelman6]

loss to New Mexico.

Best thing that could have happened to Hurley, that loss awakened a beast. I'll happily take that loss 10 out of 10 times considering what happened next! Don't even regret it anymore or have any pain about it. Imo if he sneaks past nmst and loses a close one to 4 seed Arkansas I don't think we see the huge change that was needed or that we've seen the past two years.

 

[tuvent08]

Teddy Allen

 

[Travelman6]

Teddy Allen

I don't think I've ever seen someone smoke UConn the way he did. Anyone equal that effort vs UConn? That was an incredible game he played to be fair, dropped 37.

 

[Palatine]

People tend to overlook that Hurley had never coached at this level before UConn. He was out of the Calhoun mode. Focus on defense because defense travels. And it allows you it win with even poor offense. But the game was changing.

Just being at UConn would have led to some growth. Then two first round exits in the NCAA exposed the flaw in this thinking. The success of Jay Wright's approach was right in front of him. Literally. Wright had dominated the BE with his one in four out attack.

Then Hurley did something coaches often talk about but are not successful at doing. HE ADJUSTED!

That is an oversimplification. But the back to back first round losses and the example of Jay Wright are major catalysts in his transformation.

 

[JohnFSilver]

I don't think I've ever seen someone smoke UConn the way he did. Anyone equal that effort? That was an incredible game he played to be fair, dropped 37.

Lindsey Hunter, 1993 NIT, dude was incredible.

 

[Ricker]

I've never believed in 'a good loss', but I think the New Mexico St loss is in retrospect the clearest example that 'a good loss' is a true concept. I always viewed the concept as a loss that removes player complacency, but in this case it completely revamped a coaching style and the desired talent being recruited. The pain of that loss is gone, and replaced by a 'thankyou'.

 

[LStudfellow]

I’m not an X and O guy like many of you, but I remember in the early Hurley days, a lot of complaints about our offense and how we just ran a weave and high hedge endlessly. Now, anlmost overnight, we run the best offense in CBB.

Is it the players, is Hurley evolving, is Murray a mad offensive scientist, is it the cultural buy-in? Am I answering my own question by saying it’s all of the above?

This is a fair question to ask. There was more than one "debate" that went on during the first few years, and particularly up through and including our 2-6 run last year into February about why it seemed we could not get over the hump in certain games, against certain teams.

I have always loved Hurley's passion, his energy, his willingness to be all in from day 1 (no coach in the country works harder than Danny), his love for his players, the loyalty that he earns and gets from all of his players and the way we play relentless, in-your-face defense reminiscent of the Calhoun era.

That having been said, there were times that he seemed unable to coach us out of our offensive problems when it went stagnant. In addition, we had well-documented struggles in close games. There were times that he did not use timeouts to try and stop opponent runs and they got bigger... and lastly, there were games where he did not seem to have a feel for what was going on in the game and adjust. The St. Johns game at home in Sanogo's freshman year (2021) will always stick out as a game we gave away by allowing St. Johns to dictate to us the way they wanted to play that game down the stretch of the 2nd half.

The thing is, He did change... with the help of not only Luke Murray, but also Kimani Young and Tom Moore. He proved he was willing to see where he was coming up short, make the necessary changes , and as a result he has evolved into the best coach in the country with the best coaching staff in the country surrounding him. Only the best coaches and CEO's have the humility to modify, get even better and also surround themselves with great underlings who have strengths in area where the head coach/CEO is weakest.

@BGesus4 is right... we are living in a fever dream. This is a truly amazing run, and it has been nothing but sheer joy to experience it as a fan.

 

[alexd]

Lindsey Hunter, 1993 NIT, dude was incredible.

Yep - 39 pts at Gampel. Crazy.

 

[Travelman6]

I've never believed in 'a good loss', but I think the New Mexico St loss is in retrospect the clearest example that 'a good loss' is a true concept. I always viewed the concept as a loss that removes player complacency, but in this case it completely revamped a coaching style and the desired talent being recruited. The pain of that loss is gone, and replaced by a 'thankyou'.

Absolutely. Florida and Gmason Still sting, to this day...this one doesn't.

 

[HuskyHawk]

After the loss to New Mexico in the NCAAT Hurley decided we needed to focus and ramp up our offense. So he hired Luke Murray and recruited offensive talent.

Good coaches adapt and hire for their blind spots. Now we won 2 more nattys.

On top of hiring Luke to fill that blind spot, which was masterful and inspired, Hurley finally got to bring in players that fit with what he wanted to do. Some holdovers were nice players but limited, like Whaley and that's true of early Hurley guys like Cole as well. You can't run the offense we had last two years with those guys. The one guy that didn't quite fit was Andre and they found a work-around in time. This offense only works if all 5 guys on the court are running it. That's hard to recruit for and the roster building has been incredible.

 

[willie99]

I think they talked to Geno too. Last February I said it's beginning to look like Hurley is using Geno's offense now

 

[Travelman6]

That loss to Duke when he was at Rhode Island really made me wonder if he was the right guy at the time of hiring but I'm SO HAPPY to be wrong. I wonder if he could have eventually taken Rhode Island far by finding his guys or did he plateau there? And maybe never would have found what he needed there as far as personnel.

 

[boog204]

I mean, from the various articles, Luke Murray happened. He convinced Hurley to change the mindset, adopt a more "European" style of motion/movement, etc. We started recruiting players who seemed to really fit that concept and then practiced our senhors off to make it come to fruition. The awesome thing, and I think some people still don't see this, is our recruiting mindset is now mostly about "fit." Mahaney is going to be excellent here because of the way he thinks the game. Our staff basically sat Aidan down and showed him tape to interpret is next level awesome. It reminds me of those somewhat cringy ESPN John Gruden quarterback school shows where you can really see the thinker beyond the player.

That's also why Reed is a better "fit" than any of the other bigs. He has footwork, he can screen, despite his stats he looks comfortable with the ball in his hands. The Rutgers guy is the bigger name and jumps out more in film, but he wouldn't be effective in our offense.

 

[jibsey]

Luke Murray. Basketball genius. He had worked with him before so they went way back. Weren’t the other guys already here? BBIQ, we had a ton of guys with it but maybe the system fostered it.
This year will be interesting because of the team’s newness, 5 new starters with Alex gone, and that’s why we want him back so bad. But even with him it’s going to be challenging. Hurley thrives off the challenge. I’ve said this before, these are the golden years, and I was watching the NBA playoffs last night and wretching compared to watching our games. Just turned me off.