Hurley after Cincinnati: “Leash is going to be a lot shorter”

[nelsonmuntz]

Not buying DH anymore. The first Cincinnati possession Carlton overplays his man 25 ft from the basket, gets beat back door and fouls the guy on a dunk. He should have Ben yanked immediately.

Carlton is being coached to hedge out 25 feet from the hoop, which we know because Carlton does it every play. We need to stop blaming the players for Hurley's coaching decisions.

 

[UConn2SF]

in a decent system with the right teammates, Polley could be such a potent weapon.

 

[dennismenace]

He didn’t score in the game......that’s part of the problem

He didn’t score in the game......that’s part of the problem

He will not rebound and seems to shy away from any kind of contact on either end of the floor.

 

[dennismenace]

Question: If we had played a zone tonight would that have made a difference? Cinn. shot 22 % from three and basically looked terrible shooting from the arc. Other teams throw zones at us all the time until we prove we can make them pay. I saw Carlton "guarding" Vogt 25 feet from the rim. What the hell was he doing out there besides opening up the middle? Is Vogt a three point threat? Please explain as I am a rabid but casual fan.

 

[willie99]

Question: If we had played a zone tonight would that have made a difference? Cinn. shot 22 % from three and basically looked terrible shooting from the arc. Other teams throw zones at us all the time until we prove we can make them pay. I saw Carlton "guarding" Vogt 25 feet from the rim. What the hell was he doing out there besides opening up the middle? Is Vogt a three point threat? Please explain as I am a rabid but casual fan.

First possession of the game, he's trying to deny a seven foot center from catching the ball at the top of the key, just stupid defense, and he gets burned for a cupcake layup plus he fouls the guy

I just don't get it, that could not be the game plan, we're just not playing very smart basketball.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

First possession of the game, he's trying to deny a seven foot center from catching the ball at the top of the key, just stupid defense, and he gets burned for a cupcake layup plus he fouls the guy

I just don't get it, that could not be the game plan, we're just not playing very smart basketball.

If we are 15 games into the season and Carlton starts the game doing that, then that is the game plan. Stop blaming the players for Hurley's bad coaching decisions.

 

[willie99]

If we are 15 games into the season and Carlton starts the game doing that, then that is the game plan. Stop blaming the players for Hurley's bad coaching decisions.

I disagree, that can't be the game plan. That's like an accountant telling somebody you never have to file tax returns, or a mechanic saying your car's engine doesn't need motor oil, it makes no sense.

Just like I'm sure he's not telling Gilbert to tricky dribble into a triple team

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I disagree, that can't be the game plan. That's like an accountant telling somebody you never have to file tax returns, or a mechanic saying your car's engine doesn't need motor oil, it makes no sense.

Just like I'm sure he's not telling Gilbert to tricky dribble into a triple team

He does it every time, and other coaches expect it and are exploiting it. It is just stupid coaching. You don't need to hard hedge the shooter unless it is a good 3 point shooter and he is at the 3 point line. If he is 5 feet back, just go under the screen. Hard hedging with the slowest guy on the court is just stupid.

 

[Walker11]

There is value to a guy who sits behind the 3 point line and needs to be closely guarded. This opens the floor up.

 

[UConnStats]

You don’t have to look too hard to see what our problem is offensively. Our 2nd and 3rd highest usage players have offensive ratings of 92.3 and 91.8

 

[Griggs]

Nice, finally we'll get Whaley starting over Carlton

Like Carlton better. At least he can score around the rim; sometimes.

 

[mauconnfan]

Not buying DH anymore. The first Cincinnati possession Carlton overplays his man 25 ft from the basket, gets beat back door and fouls the guy on a dunk. He should have Ben yanked immediately.

I agree on him being yanked that play alone JC would've been stomping to find Whaley totally agree. He overplayed a guy at the top of the key which is beyond stupid already only to get beat backdoor but to foul that early to top it off stupid all around for 3 seconds.

As far as not buying DH I'm not there though.

 

[CTBasketball]

Carlton is being coached to hedge out 25 feet from the hoop, which we know because Carlton does it every play. We need to stop blaming the players for Hurley's coaching decisions.

There is no way in hell Carlton was taught to do that. You can’t fix stupid.

 

[mauconnfan]

Like Carlton better. At least he can score around the rim; sometimes.

We have to have Carlton playing better to be good. I have been a Whaley guy for a long time but we will not be better if he has to take Carltons minutes because he's playing bad. But Carlton needs to get quicker getting the ball to the rim since he doesn't have explosion. A few times in the past 2 games he's had shots immediately off the pass and has elected to make it more difficult with ball fakes and pivots. Just get it up there!

 

[mauconnfan]

There is no way in hell Carlton was taught to do that. You can’t fix stupid.

Please don't think they wanted him guarding a 7 footer out there aggressively that's ridiculous.

 

[methodology]

The team sucks at setting screens and the players don't know how to use/ come off screens.

Both coaching and player execution deserve criticism. Not enough passing/ sharing the ball and way too much dribbling. Frustrating to watch

 

[Rico444]

He does it every time, and other coaches expect it and are exploiting it. It is just stupid coaching. You don't need to hard hedge the shooter unless it is a good 3 point shooter and he is at the 3 point line. If he is 5 feet back, just go under the screen. Hard hedging with the slowest guy on the court is just stupid.

You can't constantly give the other team wide open looks from 3, which is what would happen if our bigs didn't hedge. I can only remember one possession in the 2nd half where Carlton didn't hedge (not sure if it was by design or if he just didn't get out there in time) but our guard that was defending was expecting the hedge and went under the screen, and the Cinci player got a wide open look from 3, which he made.

We have two huge problems as a team which I don't expect to be solved this year: Carlton's lack of mobility on the offensive and defensive end, and weak point guard play. Carlton and AG are the main culprits, and their backups either aren't good enough (Whaley) or aren't ready (Gaffney) to take over.

 

[uconngb]

Carlton is being coached to hedge out 25 feet from the hoop, which we know because Carlton does it every play. We need to stop blaming the players for Hurley's coaching decisions.

This is a great point. Slowest guy on the team and he’s constantly losing his man at the high post by over hedging. No way he is doing on his own because he does it 20 times a game. It’s like putting a linebacker on OBJ 1:1 the whole game. Makes zero sense. His recovery speed is measured in minutes.

 

[uconngb]

There is no way in hell Carlton was taught to do that. You can’t fix stupid.

If you believe that, than we are in MASSIVE trouble. Because he does it all game long. So in that case, the stupid that needs to be fixed is Hurley, not Josh.

 

[jdb50]

I have no idea why Hurley does not yank players out of the game after stupid plays at this point in the season. No need to call timeout just get the sub up and at the scorers table. Carltons opening fail a casein point. I also have no idea why he is slow to stop a big run with a timeout and waits till things are out of hand. We have no ability to score easily so every deficit is a big issue. We have no go to shooter or scorer. Gilbert is not going to suddenly stop getting stuffed in the lane or turn the ball over at this point. Start Gaffney, isn't he the point for next year? I also think starting Bouk over Polley has to be on the table as well as Whaley over Carlton.

 

[jdb50]

We are still physically weaker than Cinci and wait till we play Houston. This years freshman can't be blamed for this and Akok worked to get stronger and it shows but Hurley needs to recruit more solid players up front.

 

[RayRay]

After this game, a test to see if DH is the real deal is if he makes a lineup change to start the game. You can't say all these things in the post game and not back it up. We need an infusion of young talent in that starting lineup. Akok can't do it alone. I realize we need the older guys to succeed this year, but bringing one or 2 of them off the bench is the way to do it at this point. Let's see if he pulls the trigger for Saturday.

 

[yungdowork]

Akok's hands on offense was most perplexing. He was still active and grabbing rebounds well and his timing on blocks qreat. Even had the alley oop and put back slam. But my goodness, he must have had four easy passes go through his hands tonight.

I was surprised by this too because he’s had great hands all year. He did seem to get it together later in the game including in that play where he got a block, sprinted the floor, and finished with an alley oop. I think once we got down, we lost confidence and everyone started trying too hard instead of getting in a rhythm

 

[HuskyHawk]

Gilbert's role should probably be reduced and he should have a shorter leash.

Carlton gums Hurley's offense up completely. He's a back to the basket big man who's slow as molassas and he clogs up lanes. I feel like they play him less and stretch the floor more and create lanes, things get better quickly. Hurley's never liked using guys like him so i'm not surprised that of the older vets not playing well - he's been the guy Hurley's had no issues sitting.

The rest is just off the ball movement. Our pick and rolls are slow. Guys don't get open I mean heck - go watch some rando footage of tonight's game and just look at guys off the ball and watch how many of them ever get open consistently. It's wild. So we weave up top, no one is open - Vital/Gilbert are forced to force something, they drive into a lane with Carlton dragging two rhinos in tow and we either throw up something contested in the lane or pass and take a bad jumper.

Young guys have got to get better off the ball movement. Carlton needs to be clogging the lanes less. Those two things happen and i think a lot changes.

Carlton gums up Hurley's offense. So Hurley needs to change the offense to stop that from happening. He doesn't have an athletic big man who can shoot from outside. So he needs to stop asking Josh, or Whaley to do that. Calrton needs to be standing in the lane all the time, and the guards need to stay the hell out of the lane, except Bouk and Adams.

Pick and roll? I have seen us run a pick and roll one time all season. Josh caught it and scored. The rest of the time nobody comes out to guard Josh, because why would you? So he never rolls and the defender has no problem staying with the ball handler. It accomplishes nothing. Stop running those ball screens. Those are great if you set solid screens and you have Kemba or Bazz with the ball.

 

[HuskyHawk]

There is no way in hell Carlton was taught to do that. You can’t fix stupid.

Of course he is being taught to do that. 100% Dan wants man pressure on all five guys. So he expects every player to do that, even when they aren't capable of it. He needs to realize he cannot play defense that way with this team, and likely not with any roster he's ever going to have. Plant your 260 pound 6'11" guy under the hoop and leave him there. Josh is great in that role.