How many 4* recruits does Hurley need to not lose to USF?

[Husky68]

These are some laugh out loud funny posts blaming Hurley. We are a season and a half into his tenure and he's not a good coach? Haha

Saying he is not a good coach vs. he is not coaching good recently are not the same. If these last two games are Hurley's best coaching we are in big trouble. If he's done a crappy job preparing guys and then game coaching and he sees it (hard not to) he'll make some logical adjustments, they may or may not work but that's part of the game.

Many on here think Ollie was a bad coach, maybe he was/is, but he coached the Shabazz team well. Maybe all it took was stay out of the way as the boys climbed the stairs but whatever it was there are a lot of coaches that have had teams with more talent than the Shabazz team and have zero NCAA championships to their credit.
So, after a season and a half of his tenure Hurley indeed did not do a good job coaching the team to blowout losses to Cincinnati and USF.

Why is it ok for Hurley to say he's got to get Josh going as Josh hasn't been playing well and not for me to say Hurley has got to get his coaching going as the whole team has not been playing well. Hurley is the one getting those big checks.

 

[superjohn]

I went back and looked at the kids Ollie brought in that are still on the team vs kids Hurley brought in and compared rankings from 247:

Player(247 ranking)

Ollie kids
AG(32)
CV(166)
Polley(168)
Carlton(178)
Whaley(NR)
Wilson(89)

Hurley kids
Akok(92)
Bouk(66)
gaffney(105)
Adams(178)

Right now in terms of guys on the active roster you can clearly see a difference in level of player that Hurley is bringing in vs what was on the roster when he took over. The upperclassmen outside of AG and maybe Sid would not have ever been on any of the past UConn teams that were successful. If they were on those rosters I guarantee they would not be starters playing 30+ mins.

The kids Hurley are bringing in are clearly at a different level and once they get used to the college game things will start changing. I still think the future is bright and we just need to let the process continue. Its miserable right now watching us struggle but once you look at level of talent of the upperclassmen vs underclassmen it should not be a surprise.

Coming in next year we have:
Cole(NR): 25+scorer 1st years in college albeit at a lower rated conference
Jackson(71)
Javonte Brown Ferguson(131): reclass from 2021 so low rating is expected
Springs(160): another reclass up a year so lower rating is going to happen

Akok was top 30.

 

[Huskyfan990411]

Akok was top 30.

That 92 number did seem off for Akok as I remember it being much higher. I took those rankings straight from 247 but even at 92 I think its clear that Hurley is consistently bringing in top 100 talent vs what was recruited in previous years. The results will follow.

 

[bendm]

That 92 number did seem off for Akok as I remember it being much higher. I took those rankings straight from 247 but even at 92 I think its clear that Hurley is consistently bringing in top 100 talent vs what was recruited in previous years. The results will follow.

he plummeted after leaving highschool and joining UConn mid-year but he was top 30 before that

 

[superjohn]

That 92 number did seem off for Akok as I remember it being much higher. I took those rankings straight from 247 but even at 92 I think its clear that Hurley is consistently bringing in top 100 talent vs what was recruited in previous years. The results will follow.

It's the same thing they did with Drummond when he reclassified, he was #1 or #2 all through high school and then when he changed his mind last minute to enroll at UConn they dropped him to some weird low ranking.

 

[HooperScooper]

It's the same thing they did with Drummond when he reclassified, he was #1 or #2 all through high school and then when he changed his mind last minute to enroll at UConn they dropped him to some weird low ranking.

I think that composite ranking number is an average of a bunch of recruiting sites. Akok waas definitely in the 30-40 range. Once Akok and Drummond left their original class and didn't enroll in the fall of the classes they were originally ranked in some of the recruiting sites just dropped them out of any rankings completely, thereby skewing the composite ranking.

Rivals dropped Akok out of the 2019 rankings altogether once he enrolled early at UConn. I did ask Corey Evans at Rivals why not keep him in the 2019 rankings since that is the first year of college basketball he would play. I don't remember his specific answer but he did say they are consistent that they take recruits out of the rankings altogether if they enroll early. He said they don't do that in football, where enrolling early is more prevalent, because the college football season is over before the 2nd semester starts. Whatever.

 

[Huskybass]

After a few weeks to ponder these questions my truth is this: Hurley is not at this point a good coach and we do not have even AAC level talent aside from Bouk, Akok. And I’ll give Hurley a few seasons to grow into the role because it seems like he actually might be good at spotting players.

Thinking back to all these 4,5* “stud” recruits since 2013 how many do you recall thinking they would be special after seeing them play actual games? How many of them do you recall thinking they were seriously flawed and overrated right out of the gate? Until this year I cannot think of one that I would put in the former category.

There is a reason why our post Calhoun recruits are not making it to the league. Positionless, for sure. In that they cannot play any position well.

We have a few freshmen looking like they actually might be a threat on the court and we all went out of our minds for a few games. That is not an indication they will be All Americans. That is an indictment on what our recruiting had become.

Great post. I would add Gaffney to your list along with Akok and Bouk as far as very talented players on this squad. He hasn't really shown it yet, but I believe he is part of the upgrade in talent. I believe Cole will be at that level as well, and likely Andre Jackson too. My long-winded way of saying UConn is getting there, but it will take time.

 

[huskyfan224]

Saying he is not a good coach vs. he is not coaching good recently are not the same. If these last two games are Hurley's best coaching we are in big trouble. If he's done a crappy job preparing guys and then game coaching and he sees it (hard not to) he'll make some logical adjustments, they may or may not work but that's part of the game.

Many on here think Ollie was a bad coach, maybe he was/is, but he coached the Shabazz team well. Maybe all it took was stay out of the way as the boys climbed the stairs but whatever it was there are a lot of coaches that have had teams with more talent than the Shabazz team and have zero NCAA championships to their credit.
So, after a season and a half of his tenure Hurley indeed did not do a good job coaching the team to blowout losses to Cincinnati and USF.

Why is it ok for Hurley to say he's got to get Josh going as Josh hasn't been playing well and not for me to say Hurley has got to get his coaching going as the whole team has not been playing well. Hurley is the one getting those big checks.

Coaches struggle too, that's not uncommon. And I never said those were his best games, if anyone thinks that they are delusional. I don't think he's done a bad job at all, it's more on the players to me. Could he send some more messages and make some more adjustments, sure. He's a solid coach and will figure it out. Blowout losses happen to every coach, back to back sucks and it was a bad week. Put it behind and move forward.

Ollie was an okay coach, had a nice run and then ran this program into the ground and look where we are at. He had one of the best players in college basketball that season in Shabazz, that is a huge reason why UConn won the tournament. Having an unstoppable player does wonders. It was a confident team that knew how to play together and get after it.

I just feel like there are a lot on here acting like liberals who want everything handed to them without the hard work that goes with it.

 

[AdamaNation]

Coaches struggle too, that's not uncommon. And I never said those were his best games, if anyone thinks that they are delusional. I don't think he's done a bad job at all, it's more on the players to me. Could he send some more messages and make some more adjustments, sure. He's a solid coach and will figure it out. Blowout losses happen to every coach, back to back sucks and it was a bad week. Put it behind and move forward.

Ollie was an okay coach, had a nice run and then ran this program into the ground and look where we are at. He had one of the best players in college basketball that season in Shabazz, that is a huge reason why UConn won the tournament. Having an unstoppable player does wonders. It was a confident team that knew how to play together and get after it.

I just feel like there are a lot on here acting like liberals who want everything handed to them without the hard work that goes with it.

Am I alone wanting free 5* recruits and titles every year? I guess not if you want to “work” for it.

 

[Lefty2one]

Do any fans watch our team and--outside of the freshman--think, "Gee, these guys are so much more talented than other players in the AAC"? Ignore recruiting rankings and use your eyes. I just don't see it. Are they better? Sure. Is it a big enough gap to guarantee wins most nights? Certainly not.

Vital, Carlton, Polley, Whaley, Wilson, etc aren't anything special. They aren't too good or too talented for the AAC. They aren't leaps and bounds better than what Tulane is trotting out there. Gilbert is maybe the only KO guy who can stand out: despite his issues his quickness is on another level from other AAC guards and he has the ability, albeit inconsistently, to make plays that most AAC guys can't make. Even more to the point, it is clear as day how different Bouknight and Akok are compared to the rest of our team. These are vintage UConn recruits and they are clearly a leap above the players we've brought in over the last five years, with the exception of Jalen Adams. They also aren't one-and-dones and need time to develop. They won't fix this overnight.

Once you get out of the Top 100 there really isn't a huge gap between guys. You'll get a mixed bag whether a kid is ranked 115 or 300. It's a crapshoot. Recruiting analysts don't spend a ton of time ranking guys after the Top 100 anyway, and even the Top 100 is a disaster every year.

This was one of the most hotly debated topics towards the end of the KO era: coaching vs talent. For as terrible of a coach as KO was--and he was that bad--the talent level in this program was trending downward and then fell off a cliff after the 2016-17 season. It's going to take several years to get this program back to Top 25 status. We need more talent.