Hurley adjustment

[Chin Diesel]

DH should have called that timeout with about 8:31 remaining (that's when I started yelling at my TV to call it). Instead he waited for the under 8 timeout which didn't come until the 5 minute mark. With a tired team that was getting bullied he had about 5 chances to call timeout and didn't.

He also doesn't use the first half use it or lose it timeout to stop momentum. He waits until there's under a minute to use it to draw up a Polley 28 foot three attempt.

I know some coaches believe using timeouts is a sign of weakness, not sure where DH stands on that. I think a sign of weakness is consistently giving up leads, and in this case, getting absolutely bullied. Momentum is so important in these games and you should do whatever you can to keep it on your side.

As bad as that time frame was going from 8:30 down to 5:30 or so, I think that actually helped out the team for the stretch run. It was a UConn TO, under 8 TO and then the under 4 TO all in about 10 minutes of real time. Three good breaks for everyone to get their legs and lungs ready for the final push. UConn dominated the last four minutes of the game.

 

[Chin Diesel]

This backing down problem isn't the first time we've seen this. Collin at VIL does this all the time with great success. It does seem to take our coaching staff a long time to adjust by doubling or preventing the pass. When Ako doubled, we stole the ball several times and stopped this from happening.
Strange that we have doubled coverage making our post sprint to the top of the key swinging over a smaller player like Cole to cover a down low big until our big can get back. It doesn't seem like that is effective much except to expose us near the hoop.
In any case there was good growth with many adjustments and a quality win against a well coached team.

Akok is a good 4 to have in the game to do the big to big double. He's quicker and longer than any post player other than Johnson and can recover quickly if the opponents big passes out of it.

 

[djct1999]

Funny, so many on here think Hurley can't in game coach. Yet, other coaches......

 

[husky429]

Funny, so many on here think Hurley can't in game coach. Yet, other coaches......

This is the same motion we run constantly and teams have learned to defend. Cole made that read on his own--not Hurley.

This isn't "All a decoy"... it's a bunch of different looks that were covered in a motion offense. I see looks that could have been scoring ops for Polley, Jackson, Rese and Whaley if it was covered different. The initial cut could have been a post up if Polley passed to Whaley, Jackson had a back cut opportunity, Polley came off a screen from Rese and could've hit a 3. We got to the end of the motion offense and Cole read the defense for a back cut. This is simply a fantastic, high IQ play by a couple of seniors.

The weave set is fine in small doses and with the right personnel. We just use it way too much as a crutch to kill clock instead of looking to score, and our players are looking for scoring options that aren't the first or second option very often. I wonder if we're just working through the motion in practice instead of isolating every single scoring opportunity and repping it out... a lot of coaches even at the highest levels don't take the time to do that and it shows. I've watched Purdue practice (for example) and they work through EVERY SINGLE scoring option when they practice a set... I haven't seen that from Hurley because we spend so much time on defense.

When you run a motion with a bunch of looks like this, players need to be trained to look for all available scoring options... seems like we run through the motion and just go for a Cole/Sanogo iso way too often.

 

[AntG168]

Funny, so many on here think Hurley can't in game coach. Yet, other coaches......

You beat me to it. The boneyard doesn’t actually know as much as they think they do

 

[gtcam]

It was painful to see a 5 year player get bullied by a freshman. A teammate should have told Whaley to hit back and punish the young bull, but of course Whaley didn't. His reluctance to shoot just added to the miserable sequences.

Whaley should never, ever allow that to happen to him by a freshman. I just can not see Jake, Kirk King, Jeff Adrien, Rod Sellers or our other Seniors allowing a freshman to abuse them like that. I would have rather seen Whaley try and take him out, push back, or even bully him back, than get punked like that. That stupid foul call just amplified what he was going through.

Just was not a good look for our 5th year senior. Hope staff or teammates get in his ear.

I guess you didn't notice the reach the Lewis kid has. As far as bullying - if the ref allows it, it's going to happen. The refs were going to call anything/everything if Whaley became anymore aggressive on defense. There should have been at least 3 offensive foul calls on Lewis that didn't happen. Lewis also had his way with Sanogo and Akok without having to apply any physical play, he simply went over them, he couldn't do the same with Whaley and fortunately for Lewis, the officials gave him the ability to play over aggressive on offense.
You keep saying freshman, he is really not a freshman - he played last year but because of an injury/COVID ruling he was declared a redshirt. He scored 14 against UConn last season off the bench after missing 7 games. Look at what he did against some really good big guys last year there are many freshmen bigs who come in and because of physical advantages can dominate older players. Age does not mean an automatic superiority
Lewis will be playing in the NBA

 

[gtcam]

Funny, so many on here think Hurley can't in game coach. Yet, other coaches......

One play doesn't make the guy a great game coach - maybe an assistant drew up the play?

 

[djct1999]

One play doesn't make the guy a great game coach - maybe an assistant drew up the play?

Fairly confident, almost certain, that you had no idea in that one play, all the pieces that were moved to set up the decoy.

 

[djct1999]

This is the same motion we run constantly and teams have learned to defend. Cole made that read on his own--not Hurley.

This isn't "All a decoy"... it's a bunch of different looks that were covered in a motion offense. I see looks that could have been scoring ops for Polley, Jackson, Rese and Whaley if it was covered different. The initial cut could have been a post up if Polley passed to Whaley, Jackson had a back cut opportunity, Polley came off a screen from Rese and could've hit a 3. We got to the end of the motion offense and Cole read the defense for a back cut. This is simply a fantastic, high IQ play by a couple of seniors.

The weave set is fine in small doses and with the right personnel. We just use it way too much as a crutch to kill clock instead of looking to score, and our players are looking for scoring options that aren't the first or second option very often. I wonder if we're just working through the motion in practice instead of isolating every single scoring opportunity and repping it out... a lot of coaches even at the highest levels don't take the time to do that and it shows. I've watched Purdue practice (for example) and they work through EVERY SINGLE scoring option when they practice a set... I haven't seen that from Hurley because we spend so much time on defense.

When you run a motion with a bunch of looks like this, players need to be trained to look for all available scoring options... seems like we run through the motion and just go for a Cole/Sanogo iso way too often.

90% of most college offenses is motion offense and derivatives of it.

 

[AntG168]

One play doesn't make the guy a great game coach - maybe an assistant drew up the play?

Or Hurley knows what he’s doing. Why is that a unbelievable concept

 

[8893]

90% of most college offenses is motion offense and derivatives of it.

73% of all statistics are made up.

 

[djct1999]

73% of all statistics are made up.

Especially this one. But I would still bet a lot it’s accurate. As is the 90% on here who know far less than Danny Hurley in how to coach a basketball game.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Especially this one. But I would still bet a lot it’s accurate. As is the 90% on here who know far less than Danny Hurley in how to coach a basketball game.

I'm pretty sure that one is 100%. Still doesn't mean he isn't wrong now and then. I tend to agree with @husky429 that Fran is seeing something that isn't really there. Our average number of backdoor cuts a game can't be more than about 2, yet we run that motion weave at least half the time in half court. As a fan of another team that runs a lot of backdoor cuts, it's not a UConn strength. Never has been. I'd sure like to see more of it. So if Fran is right, that's a welcome addition to the offense.

 

[husky429]

90% of most college offenses is motion offense and derivatives of it.

I mean sure, most schools run some kind of motion as a base offense. We run that weave a lot. And they should be looking for multiple scoring options within that offense... the best offenses have freedom to do that. Ours really doesn't...players aren't cutting with a purpose and looking to score most of the time for whatever reason.

Like @HuskyHawk said... Fran is seeing something that isn't there. It's a basic motion offense and Cole made a really high-level read at the end of it. Not as much to see here as he is suggesting.

 

[Get a Job]

Especially this one. But I would still bet a lot it’s accurate. As is the 90% on here who know far less than Danny Hurley in how to coach a basketball game.

Let's be serious. 100% of us know far less about coaching than Hurley. But this is a message board. It's OK if 100% of us act like we know more than him.

Also, on a serious note, just because he knows more than all of us put together, it does not mean that our criticisms are automatically invalid.

 

[HooperScooper]

Let's be serious. 100% of us know far less about coaching than Hurley. But this is a message board. It's OK if 100% of us act like we know more than him.

Also, on a serious note, just because he knows more than all of us put together, it does not mean that our criticisms are automatically invalid.

Or in other words, it also doesn't mean that any coach is right 100% of the time. Nobody is.

 

[Edward Sargent]

It was painful to see a 5 year player get bullied by a freshman. A teammate should have told Whaley to hit back and punish the young bull, but of course Whaley didn't. His reluctance to shoot just added to the miserable sequences.

Whaley should never, ever allow that to happen to him by a freshman. I just can not see Jake, Kirk King, Jeff Adrien, Rod Sellers or our other Seniors allowing a freshman to abuse them like that. I would have rather seen Whaley try and take him out, push back, or even bully him back, than get punked like that. That stupid foul call just amplified what he was going through.

Just was not a good look for our 5th year senior. Hope staff or teammates get in his ear.

Hyperbole or what?

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I mean sure, most schools run some kind of motion as a base offense. We run that weave a lot. And they should be looking for multiple scoring options within that offense... the best offenses have freedom to do that. Ours really doesn't...players aren't cutting with a purpose and looking to score most of the time for whatever reason.

Like @HuskyHawk said... Fran is seeing something that isn't there. It's a basic motion offense and Cole made a really high-level read at the end of it. Not as much to see here as he is suggesting.

It was actually Whaley that made the read, but whatever.

Some additional food for thought/discussion: maybe Fran showed Hurley his analysis to get some thoughts/feedback before he posted it? Maybe there’s actually more truth to it than you’re thinking?

 

[husky429]

It was actually Whaley that made the read, but whatever.

Some additional food for thought/discussion: maybe Fran showed Hurley his analysis to get some thoughts/feedback before he posted it? Maybe there’s actually more truth to it than you’re thinking?

We run that play 20x a game and score on it all sorts of ways. There's probably 10 different scoring options at least. It's not a bad play if you look to score. (We just tend to give up and go iso if it breaks down). It is certainly possible Hurley had them look for the back cut, but it's hardly just motion for a 'distraction"

I mean they both had to read the defense. Whaley didn't make the read that really mattered though. Cole did. Whaley had a wide open pass to make. Cole read the overplay by the defense and backcut behind.

Generally speaking a passer is making a "read" if they're on the move and finding gaps in the defense. Not sure I've really heard anyone refer to a player making a basic backdoor pass "a read" even if it technically is. The cutter reads tje defense and moves.

In the "read and react" offense, for example... the passer doesn't read and react. The 4 other players do.

You do you, but a lot of people aren't gonna understand you if that's how you refer to a "read"

 

[JustbrewitMan]

We run that play 20x a game and score on it all sorts of ways. There's probably 10 different scoring options at least. It's not a bad play if you look to score. (We just tend to give up and go iso if it breaks down). It is certainly possible Hurley had them look for the back cut, but it's hardly just motion for a 'distraction"

I mean they both had to read the defense. Whaley didn't make the read that really mattered though. Cole did. Whaley had a wide open pass to make. Cole read the overplay by the defense and backcut behind.

Generally speaking a passer is making a "read" if they're on the move and finding gaps in the defense. Not sure I've really heard anyone refer to a player making a basic backdoor pass "a read" even if it technically is. The cutter reads tje defense and moves.

In the "read and react" offense, for example... the passer doesn't read and react. The 4 other players do.

You do you, but a lot of people aren't gonna understand you if that's how you refer to a "read"

I won’t pretend to know more than you and I overall enjoy your posts, so recognize I’m not trying to throw shade at you.

But how would you analyze the part where Whaley dribbles away from Sanogo, towards top of the key, then pivots and delivers the pass? Truly interested in what you think he was doing there

 

[imno1]

73% of all statistics are made up.

90% of this game is mental. The other half is physical

 

[HuskyHawk]

I won’t pretend to know more than you and I overall enjoy your posts, so recognize I’m not trying to throw shade at you.

But how would you analyze the part where Whaley dribbles away from Sanogo, towards top of the key, then pivots and delivers the pass? Truly interested in what you think he was doing there

I’m no expert at all. Just watched it in slow mo over and over. Trying to see if Fran is right and it’s designed or maybe not. Can’t tell.

Polley cuts up from the corner and Martin shifts down, they more or less switch spots. That starts when Whaley first dribbles to the top, and continues as he reverses. What I think I see is that Whaley is then looking to pass to Cole outside the 3 point line. Cole is tightly guarded but sees that Martin has drawn the interior D away from the paint. The nearest defender is loosely guarding Jackson in the Cole side corner. So Cole cuts behind his man, and Whaley makes a nice pass.

The only part that looks designed is that Whaley gets space to pass with his reversal. But really, there was no place for him to go with the ball on the other side, and we don’t really want him running the offense, so it’s possible he pivots to get it back to our lead guard.

In any event, it doesn’t matter to me. Polley makes an aggressive off ball cut through the paint, and then back outside. Jackson aggressively cuts laterally across the lane. Martin moves down to Jackson’s prior corner as Polley cuts up. It’s very good off the ball motion. When our offense is stangnant, we don’t see that. We see guys standing in spots hoping the ball comes. It’s good offense.

 

[husky429]

I won’t pretend to know more than you and I overall enjoy your posts, so recognize I’m not trying to throw shade at you.

But how would you analyze the part where Whaley dribbles away from Sanogo, towards top of the key, then pivots and delivers the pass? Truly interested in what you think he was doing there

I mean what Whaley was doing was running the motion. He takes one dribble and hands off to Polley who just got the pindown screen from Rese. Then Polley passes to Cole (I think) who hasn't back cut most of the time. Not 100% sure but That's the basics of the play ish

Whaley's read was determining that Cole waa open enough to pass to. It was an important piece of the puzzle... but Cole knowing to make that back cut is the conventional use of "read" because he was doing something outside of the normal structure of the play... Cole wasn't "supposed" to make that cut, but saw the opening and took it.

It was a high IQ moment from a couple of savvt players. Perfect example of why experience wins games. There's also a good chance one of the staff noticed the opening and told the guys to exploit it during a TO.

Am I making sense? It would be way easier to explain going over video or drawing it

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I mean what Whaley was doing was running the motion. He takes one dribble and hands off to Polley who just got the pindown screen from Rese. Then Polley passes to Cole (I think) who hasn't back cut most of the time. Not 100% sure but That's the basics of the play ish

Whaley's read was determining that Cole waa open enough to pass to. It was an important piece of the puzzle... but Cole knowing to make that back cut is the conventional use of "read" because he was doing something outside of the normal structure of the play... Cole wasn't "supposed" to make that cut, but saw the opening and took it.

It was a high IQ moment from a couple of savvt players. Perfect example of why experience wins games. There's also a good chance one of the staff noticed the opening and told the guys to exploit it during a TO.

Am I making sense? It would be way easier to explain going over video or drawing it

Great stuff. Thanks…makes sense!

 

[UConn990411]

Geez I have never questioned anything DH has done before. Do I deserve this crap? With all the bozos on the boneyard that criticize him no mercy. And I get this?

I wouldn’t sweat it - there are lots of people on here who blindly trust Hurley, no questions asked.

I’m someone who believes Hurley is the right guy to run this program, but he also needs to improve his rotations and evolve into a better in-game coach. It’s possible to have those two beliefs simultaneously, but many posters think (fair) criticism equates to wanting a coach fired.