How has UConn improved over last year?

[HooperScooper]

You are splitting hairs on some player whose best season may have been his sophomore year as justification for Hurley's player development?

I'm not trying to do that. I'm not making a case that Hurley is a good developer of talent or isn't. I'm just saying you're not making good points to support your arguments. You sound like a lawyer forcefully trying to make your case without fundamental facts.

And to be honest I find many of your posts very annoying because you sound like a person who is a know-it-all. Sorry, that's just how you come off.

 

[HoopsHype34]

I'm not trying to do that. I'm not making a case that Hurley is a good developer of talent or isn't. I'm just saying you're not making good points to support your arguments. You sound like a lawyer forcefully trying to make your case without fundamental facts.

And to be honest I find many of your posts very annoying because you sound like a person who is a know-it-all. Sorry, that's just how you come off.

Too bad he doesn't know anything

 

[Lefty2one]

First, I will say that rebuilds don't happen overnight. I don't care what Hurley's track record or timeline is at past rebuilds at other programs. He isn't free of blame here and we all want to see incremental improvement but a good chunk of our fanbase has been in denial about how far we had fallen and how bare the cupboard really was. If people can't tell the massive difference between Hurley's first recruiting class and what we've had over the last 4-5 years then I don't know what to tell them. This will take time, it may take a few more years than we realized. Hurley isn't a perfect coach and enough folks knew that X's and O's were his weakness. When that's the case, you need your Jimmys and your Joes. The biggest thing holding back this program is talent. We get the program full of Hurley guys and we will continue to improve.

Anyway...

Adams has improved.

Carlton has improved but he remains wildly inconsistent. He's a low-ceiling 3-star guy who can take advantage of certain matchups and will be a minimal factor in others. He's not much more than a beefier Gavin Edwards. I view Carlton like I view Brimah: they're both far better than I expected given their recruiting rankings but they aren't great bigs. They'll have good games and bad. No coach in the history of the sport is turning Josh Carlton into a 20 & 10 guy.

Sid Wilson is Marcus Johnson. There just isn't enough there. We talked about it during the summer: he was bad last year. Whaley has improved but not significantly. Same goes for Polley but again, these KO recruits are mid-major guys. If they're going to make a big leap it'll likely be going into their senior year.

This all comes down to a mix of a simple offense and a veteran backcourt that has been bad. Our team isn't that talented and we need a system or playmaking guards to elevate our current talent. College basketball has always been about guards and we've had terrible guard play this year. Al is shooting .306 from the field. Vital is at .381. Neither sets the table well for other guys.

 

[Bonk]

Our recruiting is better but lets not act like we're reeling in some insane class next year. Jackson is very good, but has his shooting deficiencies. Javonte Brown Ferguson is a couple years away from being a formidable big in the Big East. Springs and Cole will help, but it is unknown how Cole's Howard stats will translate to big time competition.
Hurley mentioned in his USF press conference a lack of an alpha to go to in these games. Who is that alpha next year?

Also side note, wasn't New Jersey supposed to be Hurley's bread and butter for recruiting?

 

[MadMax1999]

Not sure how much we improved on the court, seems Josh, CV and AG may be regressing a bit (sounds much worse then I was thinking when I say that out loud). But two important things happened. 1) Coach Hurley proved to be a sound judge of talent as Bouk, Akok, and Adams are all effective players. Gaffney getting better too. 2) We will be able to call ourselves a Big East team in a few months. I truly believe that will give the guys a huge mental boost which is what we need. Court improvement: slim to none. Program improvement: Pretty solid.

 

[HooperScooper]

Hurley mentioned in his USF press conference a lack of an alpha to go in these games. Who is that alpha next year?

We better hope Bouknight and Akok.