Hurley’s decision to not play Whaley his entire sophomore year. | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Hurley’s decision to not play Whaley his entire sophomore year.

Everyone has mentioned the vast improvement over the summer in response to Hurley's challenge.

Let's not also forget another big difference: Carlton was actually pretty good last year. He was by and large terrible this year. Hurley had no choice but to give Whaley minutes this year, which was not the case before.
 
Chin Diesel said:
I would add it's not just the hard hedge, it's his ability to recover and get back I position after he hedges.
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The main thing is he doesn't just hedge to hedge. It's purposeful, he goes hard after the ball. He is very disruptive and has forced a number of steals. The pressure is real. Whaley creates a strong double team that puts the offensive player in real trouble.

Watch Carlton. He hedges hard but never really goes after the ball. So the offenive players never really has to worry about the hedge. This is not to run down Carlton. Whaley is just way better at it.
 
Waquoit said:
I agree. And it seemed like he was getting a good read on his guys, he wasn't one to go flying in the air on a pump fake.
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For sure on the pump fake he's matured. He's always had great feet I pointed that out immediately as a freshman. Unfortunately he wasn't strong enough to keep rebounds to his possession and was pushed out of his position easily. Last year was a tremendous leap, one of our best as fans in all reality. I believe he has a chance to be a 10/8 guy especially if he gets to 50% on the 12-15 footers on the baseline and in the paint.

Also even when he began this past year playing better he still found foul trouble easily. But when he knew he needed to play more minutes as Polley then Akok went down he was smart enough to keep the hands out. He stayed out of major foul trouble the last 8-10 games by being smarter, thats a nice sign too.
 
mauconnfan said:
Also even when he began this past year playing better he still found foul trouble easily. But when he knew he needed to play more minutes as Polley then Akok went down he was smart enough to keep the hands out. He stayed out of major foul trouble the last 8-10 games by being smarter, thats a nice sign too.
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I was just about to add something similar.
 
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Hoophound said:
Cobb would have been a hell of a player if he’d had the right coach in his ear from day one.
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I don't think so, or at least not likely. He had physical ability but showed little understanding of team play, and didn't work hard enough off the court (aerobic fitness) to show more on the court. Those characteristics are internal, and it's very hard for external efforts to make a dent in them.
 
Altered shots that don't earn a player a block in the box score are frequently mentioned. Whaley gets about 4 of the steal equivalents to that per game.
 
joober jones said:
Altered shots that don't earn a player a block in the box score are frequently mentioned. Whaley gets about 4 of the steal equivalents to that per game.
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Is that a KenPom data point?
 
Cobb had a lot of talent—a lot. He decided to work hard too late in his career. We got a 20-something with bad habits, bad nutrition and he was in bad shape. He got himself in much better shape and made big strides in one offseason. If that kid was coached by JC or Dan Hurley from 18 years old, he would have been a terror on offense and I’m sure they could have made him serviceable on D. He had a good handle for his size, great hands and touch and strong offensive instincts. He could have been special if he was on the right path.
 
Whaley transformed himself between his sophomore and junior seasons. Looked and played like a different, much improved player. He was always agile and had good defensive instincts, but now he is so much stronger and confident offensively. He should have a great senior season and has a good future professionally somewhere.

I am probably in the minority, but I enjoyed watching Cobb play. He was skilled, but unrefined. He could have been a really good player if he had great coaching years earlier in my opinion.
 
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I believe if you go back & watch the tapes in his freshman & sophomore I don’t think you’ll see the smooth touch around the basket. There is a good chance you would see him miss a number of easy to average shots around the basket....

I think that has been Whaley’s biggest improvement- he showed superb touch around the basket in the last 15 games or so this past year....
 
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Love what Whaley did and his potential next year but let’s not forget that Carlton was on the verge of breakout after 18/19. I figured him for best center in the AAC last year. Didn’t work that way did it?
 
jibsey said:
Love what Whaley did and his potential next year but let’s not forget that Carlton was on the verge of breakout after 18/19. I figured him for best center in the AAC last year. Didn’t work that way did it?
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Good point, but it feels like Whaley is still on the rise. I would guess that Whaley has a very good Senior season, while I am honestly not so sure about Josh.
 
Huskybass said:
Good point, but it feels like Whaley is still on the rise. I would guess that Whaley has a very good Senior season, while I am honestly not so sure about Josh.
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I was half kidding. Whaley will shine next season and who knows, maybe we get the good Josh back.
 
So the broad consensus seems to be that he needed to put on some muscle and put in the work to get on the court, and there is something to that. But in my opinion what makes Whaley the player he is, can't be easily taught. The guy is a basketball player. He has a great awareness of where everyone else is on the court, and where they are likely to go. He's six nine and makes great passes on a fast break, he make crazy good bang-bang passes out of the post.

So kudo's to Hurly for challenging him to improve, but I'm not sure he recognized what he had the first season.
 
mussels said:
So the broad consensus seems to be that he needed to put on some muscle and put in the work to get on the court, and there is something to that. But in my opinion what makes Whaley the player he is, can't be easily taught. The guy is a basketball player. He has a great awareness of where everyone else is on the court, and where they are likely to go. He's six nine and makes great passes on a fast break, he make crazy good bang-bang passes out of the post.

So kudo's to Hurly for challenging him to improve, but I'm not sure he recognized what he had the first season.
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The main argument is that he was too raw but there’s no way he was a worse option than Adams or Sid(both ended up playing significant minutes)in the post. He showed signs freshman year.

It had to be something that he was doing that put him in the dog house. Maybe nursing the injury too long and not practicing, or not practicing hard when he got back or something that rubbed Coach the wrong way initially.

At any rate we have an absolute beast of a forward returning next year now so whatever happened it worked.
 
UcannUconn said:
The main argument is that he was too raw but there’s no way he was a worse option than Adams or Sid(both ended up playing significant minutes)in the post. He showed signs freshman year.

It had to be something that he was doing that put him in the dog house. Maybe nursing the injury too long and not practicing, or not practicing hard when he got back or something that rubbed Coach the wrong way initially.
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Sometimes even the best of us make mistakes (I know this from direct experience). You don't think there's any chance that Hurley made a first initial assessment of Whaley, and never really reevaluated (when he should have) ?
 
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UcannUconn said:
The main argument is that he was too raw but there’s no way he was a worse option than Adams or Sid(both ended up playing significant minutes)in the post. He showed signs freshman year.

It had to be something that he was doing that put him in the dog house. Maybe nursing the injury too long and not practicing, or not practicing hard when he got back or something that rubbed Coach the wrong way initially.

At any rate we have an absolute beast of a forward returning next year now so whatever happened it worked.
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I generally like your insight but I can't quite figure out why you hate on Hurley so often
 
navery12 said:
I generally like your insight but I can't quite figure out why you hate on Hurley so often
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I love Hurley lol. He can be questioned at times, it’s healthy.
 
navery12 said:
Maybe it's just the negative standing out, but you just seem to do it way more than anyone else. And not just this thread
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He really has a problem with how Hurley conducts his recruiting.

UcannUconn said:
@UConnStats Any idea what’s going on with Diarra? Makes no sense that we haven’t offered and aren’t even showing interest any more. Kid has Uconn/Hurley written all over him.
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UcannUconn said:
Dasonte Bowen is a nice looking prospect. Lead guard with size, excellent shooter. Holds a bunch of high major offers already. Surprised we haven’t offered yet.
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UcannUconn said:
Syracuse’s primary 2021 target is this 4 star TTO wing Benny Williams. Long, can score on three levels. Offers include a lot of the same schools we’ve been competing with as of late Cuse, UF, Seton Hall, GTown. We graduate Polley that year. Surprised we haven’t offered @UConnStats @Storrs South
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UcannUconn said:


How haven’t we offered this kid? The top CT prospect in his class. A 6’8 wing who can play every position. We need to offer.
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Matt Cross is dominating the circuit. Where are we? (He committed to Miami on 9/4)

Quinones Interview

Chol Marial - Chesire, CT (IMG Academy)
 
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A lot of good points about IW here and one other thing that I’m not sure has been mentioned....confidence and believability. It goes without saying how much more impactful a player can be that is confident
 
Would love to see Whaley have a big year next year and parlay that into a pro career overseas! The kid really deserves it, has really worked his butt off to get better!
 
Rocktheworld said:
It took Porkchop half of his junior year to start turning heads.

What do you think we were missing when he was a sophomore?
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Minutes? It’s tough to turning heads when you were sitting on the bench. Just playing devils advocate here.
 
Rocktheworld said:
It took Porkchop half of his junior year to start turning heads.

What do you think we were missing when he was a sophomore?
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Not sure it took half his junior year. It took Polley and Akok to go down for him to get a chance. Not saying he was ready when he was a sophomore but someone certainly missed the boat for some of last season with him. It didn't suddenly come the last 9-10 games, he just wasn't getting enough minutes early on. No matter nice to have that guy for all of 2020-21.
 
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