Hurley’s Deepest UConn Team | Page 9 | The Boneyard

Hurley’s Deepest UConn Team

Yes! A high hedge argument. The issue with the high hedge is as much about the rotations as it is about our big being 8958 feet away from the hoop. Last year, Samson would hedge to half court, but that required poor defenders to rotate and consistently give up either easy looks near the hoop or a wide-open baseline 3. If our players rotate correctly and can defend, the high hedge can be very disruptive. But if it's Mullins getting backed down by Ejiofor under the hoop then it is just dumb strategy.
Exactly. In 2022-23 Andre, Karaban and Hawkins were great with the rotations. In 2023-24 Castle, Karaban and especially Cam were terrific. The 2024-25 team Solo and Liam were very poor with the rotations. Solo got better as the season went on but Liam never got it. Teams were focused on making sure he was the one that would rotate.
 
Some of y'all don't understand the high hedge at all. You notice when a guy overextends and our back line rotates poorly. You don't notice the 9/10 times we disrupt a ballhandler and seamlessly recover.

Go watch a replay of a game. Count how many times we hedge, and how many times it leads to a bucket.
 
Some of y'all don't understand the high hedge at all. You notice when a guy overextends and our back line rotates poorly. You don't notice the 9/10 times we disrupt a ballhandler and seamlessly recover.

Go watch a replay of a game. Count how many times we hedge, and how many times it leads to a bucket.
I remember this standing out as so effective especially when Sanogo was the one hedging and we had Andre picking off passes left and right.
 
Some of y'all don't understand the high hedge at all. You notice when a guy overextends and our back line rotates poorly. You don't notice the 9/10 times we disrupt a ballhandler and seamlessly recover.

Go watch a replay of a game. Count how many times we hedge, and how many times it leads to a bucket.
Yes, there were many times when one of our guards was getting burned and Samson would hedge, disrupt him and recover.
If you have an elite shot blocker, maybe he stays home. When we had Okafor back there, Ben Gordon could take ridiculous chances, almost goading guards to try and score in the paint only to be swatted.
 
It totally disrupts the opponents offensive continuity. Takes away the pick and roll. Causes turnovers. Must be done with correct rotations
At the scrimmage Hurley said our defense was horrible last season,
 
What you're missing is that the goal is not to get a steal, it's to keep the guard from easy penetration into the paint, which isn't something you can track on the scoresheet. I thought Tarris did a pretty good job of that last year, so I'd expect it to be a staple of our defense again this season
He was on the bench with early fouls way too often and most were a result of the high hedge minefield.
 
Some of y'all don't understand the high hedge at all. You notice when a guy overextends and our back line rotates poorly. You don't notice the 9/10 times we disrupt a ballhandler and seamlessly recover.

Go watch a replay of a game. Count how many times we hedge, and how many times it leads to a bucket.
It led to a bucket a lot last season and numerous mismatches and open shooters.
 
At the scrimmage Hurley said our defense was horrible last season,
Crazy, I know, but how we performed on defense is not necessarily a result of the style of defense we played. It could just have been poor execution.
 

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