Hurley Apologistas

[Ctedgeman]

Hurley's personnel and strategy decisions are sometimes mind boggling and unexplainable, especially when guys are ice cold. I don't know if it's some personal culture/loyalty thing to the upperclassmen or what. I think those are fair gripes against the coach.

Regardless, I am not panicking. We are in a really weirdly abysmal shooting rut, especially from three. We are not a great three point shooting team by any means, but even a mediocre team should hit about 25% of them. And if we just did that in any of these games, we win them. A guy can have an off night and the team should still be able to hit that 25% mark. Everybody having an off night is not normal and I think those percentages can't last and will begin to even out again.

 

[tzznandrew]

He had game plans including offensive sets.

I joined this board in 2003 (prior iteration) and they absolutely slaughtered Calhoun's offensive sets. Until they didn't.

But we had teams who looked like absolute trash, like we were just rolling the ball out there and hoping for the best. After-loss threads were pretty terrible then too.

 

[8893]

It's strange how when we win coaching is never brought up as another obstacle the team had to overcome. The coaching is great until we lose. I'm impressed the team was able to overcome their terrible coach and Auburn earlier this year. These players must be really talented.

I don't think this is true. No one said Hurley was terrible, but I recall plenty of questions being raised about the coaching in the Auburn game and comments about how Pearl had out-coached Hurley just to get the game close enough--without his best player-- that we had to go to two OTs to beat them.

 

[WestHartHusk]

It’s pretty simple, Hurley got out coached by Cooley. As a friars fan you guys have more talent but we have the experience and coaching to win games.

We have experience too…you’d never know it but we do.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

It’s still early, but it’s undeniable that this team plays poorly during winning time, injuries or not. Losing to every team better than you last year, including being non-competitive against a MD team who ran their coach out on a rail before December does not breed confidence, regardless of recruiting rankings.

True Hurley has not really won what a knowledgeable fan would call a big game. He has had some ,what even a hard nose like me would call good wins.
In his first year a nice win against Cuse
Two years ago achieved a nice Chemistry, with huge wins over Houston. and Cincinnati among others
In their steak before Covid. The biow out of Tulsa on their home floor was extremely satisfying. I truly believe we could have made some noise in the AAC tourney or even post season.
Last year was a disappointing one for the reasons you stated but Covid kind of messed up the year. Hurley never achieved that magic all coaches strive for ,it happens . JC had years like that also.
We had a great win over Auburn however we shot lights out.
I’m not what you call a Hurley guy , certainly not his apologist . But it’s too early to judge the season. My strategy for surviving as a fan for 60 years is to neither overreact to a win, as the next loss is inevitable, nor to a bad loss when you know we are better than we looked.
Keep the faith , to quote Betty Davis “ Fasten your seatbelts is going to be a bumpy ride”

 

[NJHusky]

If Hawkins and Polley make their three's- Uconn wins. If they dont-Uconn loses close games over and over.

If something isn’t working u need to change it. What’s the insanity definition? U could say that about any team….if they didn’t miss shots they wouldn’t loose

 

[HuskyFich]

Personnel is vastly improving in the next year+. Not trying to state anything other than we have 2 guys from the previous regime playing 30ish min a game. That’s 40% of our offense. one is known for defense, the other has been broken down enough the past couple of days.

We are clearly improving on a year over year basis. higher expectations come with that. Totally warranted. Just stating that our talent pool is going to really be felt in the next year or so…

 

[hardcorehusky]

Yes, blame Hurley for SOME of it...like not starting our offense until the shot clock is winding down...for having too much pride to call necessary timeouts...for running an offense that constantly requires 5 man to reverse the ball 25 foot from the basket which is uncomfortable and jams everything up.

Can't blame him for Cole and Martin missing 4 free throws in a row or Polley, supposedly one of the best shooters in the conference, not being able to hit open 3's.

But you can blame him for sticking with guys who aren't playing well when there are other guys on the bench who at worst could do the same thing.

 

[superjohn]

Personnel is vastly improving in the next year+. Not trying to state anything other than we have 2 guys from the previous regime playing 30ish min a game. That’s 40% of our offense. one is known for defense, the other has been broken down enough the past couple of days.

We are clearly improving on a year over year basis. higher expectations come with that. Totally warranted. Just stating that our talent pool is going to really be felt in the next year or so…

The talent greatly increased this year with Akok coming back and three freshmen who are all ranked right around 50th in the country. Two of those freshman have sat all season and Akok inexplicably has a short leash while those less talented upperclassmen all play big minutes despite two of them playing terribly this season.

 

[8893]

Personnel is vastly improving in the next year+. Not trying to state anything other than we have 2 guys from the previous regime playing 30ish min a game. That’s 40% of our offense. one is known for defense, the other has been broken down enough the past couple of days.

The current regime stated that recruiting Polley and Whaley to return was his priority this past off-season, so I think we can stop "blaming" the previous regime for them. They wouldn't be here if Hurley didn't want them here.

 

[freescooter]

There really isn’t any thing close to a fire Hurley movement. Haven’t seen a single serious post saying that. I think where the difference is is over what is acceptable level of achievement for the head coach of UConn Basketball and at what point do we say, eh, this guy isn’t going to get there. Let’s either move on or accept a lesser level. As for me, I say merely getting to the tournament isn’t enough. He has been here long enough that we need to see tough wins and in the post season at least getting to the Sweet 16 as a regular expectation. Doesn’t need to be every year, but it should be a regular thing. I’d say it ought to start next year. This year 1 win is enough.

I also know enough to know that getting another Calhoun is likely a bridge too far. But getting a really top coach ought not be. I used UNC as an example. Dean Smith retired, his buddy took over briefly then Daugherty wasn’t cutting it, so they didn’t waste a ton of time worrying. They went out and brought on Roy. Maybe not Dean’s equal, but certainly a guy who deserves to be spoken about in the same sentence. My guess is Duke will do the same. If K’s replacement doesn’t perform they won’t throw up their hands and say we’ll never find another K. They’ll go get another above Average coach. That should be what we do. We’ll know by next season if Hurley is or isn’t going to get us back to an elite level. If not, say thanks Dan. You got us to respectable. Now we need someone to get us to great.

Finally about this great recruiter tag…gotta say the jury is kind of out on that one. This years supposed great class has so far been pretty ordinary. Zero guys breaking into the starting line up. 1 seeing anything like regular time, and fairly unimpressive in those minutes. Maybe that changes as the year goes ….

 

[Palatine]

I was disapponited to hear Hurley say (in the Pee Cee post game) the team was unprepared to attack switches on defense. It seems something pretty basic to prepare for.

 

[Improviser]

I was disapponited to hear Hurley say (in the Pee Cee post game) the team was unprepared to attack switches on defense. It seems something pretty basic to prepare for.

And why were they unprepared?

 

[AZHuskiePop]

The current regime stated that recruiting Polley and Whaley to return was his priority this past off-season, so I think we can stop "blaming" the previous regime for them. They wouldn't be here if Hurley didn't want them here.

Polley has won games for us and we’re complaining about a guy many on the board said would be playing garbage minutes saving us every game. Averaging 12 a game in 20 minutes . That laughable.
The problems isn’t Polley is he part of it of course
But you have a bunch of highly rated guys suffering from that same inconsistency.
Where’s Hawkins,Gaffney, Johnson, Diggins or even Akok.
when some one is off someone else has to step up off the bench
that’s what winning teams do. It seems the bench either outscored our opponents or they take the night off .
As far as Whaley goes he is a horse every basketball guy knows that.
Trust me when I say this if both those guys entered the portal
They would have been grabbed by higher rated teams than us.
Carlton a matchup role player for us is in the rotation of a better team. They have so many injuries he is actually starting.

 

[uconngb]

It's strange how when we win coaching is never brought up as another obstacle the team had to overcome. The coaching is great until we lose. I'm impressed the team was able to overcome their terrible coach and Auburn earlier this year. These players must be really talented.

I think you’re not paying attention. There has been plenty of criticism even when we have won it’s just not focused on because we won. Remember, we had a FIFTEEN point lead on Auburn with 12 min to go and had to squeak that game out in double OT. VCU was an atrocious coaching job against that press. Every other game we didn’t lose was against a cupcake. Hell, the UMES guy coached circles around Hurley (and had his guys hit a few circus shots to boot). It’s a trend in wins AND losses. And a very disturbing one at that.

 

[businesslawyer]

If something isn’t working u need to change it. What’s the insanity definition? U could say that about any team….if they didn’t miss shots they wouldn’t loose

Yes. When we can‘t hit shots, let’s stop taking them. Giving up on shooting 3s makes it harder to get good looks from 2, not earlier.

 

[mrl2016]

If something isn’t working u need to change it. What’s the insanity definition? U could say that about any team….if they didn’t miss shots they wouldn’t loose

If this is the logic we are using to coach the team we will be starting Andrew Hurley by the end of the year

Coaches know the teams most effective players from practice. If the guys playing are not performing well putting worse replacements in will make it even uglier

 

[NJHusky]

Yes. When we can‘t hit shots, let’s stop taking them. Giving up on shooting 3s makes it harder to get good looks from 2, not earlier.

You’re saying since we can’t hit a 3 We should take more of them instead of trying to find other ways to score? If I’m the opposing coach I’m happy if we r chucking up threes if we are hitting 12%.

 

[mrl2016]

Hawkins as a freshman gets a load of minutes. We’ve seen Johnson play this year. Has what you’ve seen make you think he is ready to get serious minutes in 4 point BE games?

If Hawkins & Johnson have been hit or miss is there anything indicating Diggins getting minutes will be the difference for this team besides the fans hopium?

 

[navery12]

You’re saying since we can’t hit a 3 We should take more of them instead of trying to find other ways to score? If I’m the opposing coach I’m happy if we r chucking up threes if we are hitting 12%.

No but you have to keep taking the open 3's you get, especially when the offense looks like ours does the deeper we get into the shot clock.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I think you’re not paying attention. There has been plenty of criticism even when we have won it’s just not focused on because we won. Remember, we had a FIFTEEN point lead on Auburn with 12 min to go and had to squeak that game out in double OT. VCU was an atrocious coaching job against that press. Every other game we didn’t lose was against a cupcake. Hell, the UMES guy coached circles around Hurley (and had his guys hit a few circus shots to boot). It’s a trend in wins AND losses. And a very disturbing one at that.

You don't have a point. The UMES coach wouldn't help us score more than 53 points at home. I can't believe it has to be explained to people that the players own a significant chunk of the blame when execution is piss poor. Jim Calhoun would've lost with how poorly we've been shooting this season.

 

[Get a Job]

You don't have a point. The UMES coach wouldn't help us score more than 53 points at home. I can't believe it has to be explained to people that the players own a significant chunk of the blame when execution is piss poor. Jim Calhoun would've lost with how poorly we've been shooting this season.

You don't think coaching has anything to do with a team's shooting percentage? Put another way, you don't think better offensive coaching couldn't get this team's shooting percentage up?

 

[AntG168]

You don't think coaching has anything to do with a team's shooting percentage? Put another way, you don't think better offensive coaching couldn't get this team's shooting percentage up?

Not when they’ve shown no matter how wide open they are they’ll brick. He drew up a beautiful play for Hawkins late. Result? Wide left

 

[navery12]

You don't think coaching has anything to do with a team's shooting percentage? Put another way, you don't think better offensive coaching couldn't get this team's shooting percentage up?

I think we'd get much better 2 point looks so it would probably improve a few percentage points, and over the course of the season that's a big difference. But we've missed a TON of open 3's recently

 

[HuskyHawk]

I joined this board in 2003 (prior iteration) and they absolutely slaughtered Calhoun's offensive sets. Until they didn't.

But we had teams who looked like absolute trash, like we were just rolling the ball out there and hoping for the best. After-loss threads were pretty terrible then too.

Anybody who thinks Jim Calhoun was a great offensive coach is looking back with very husky blue glasses. He wasn’t. He was a great defensive coach, motivator and had a terrific eye for talent. It was enough. Our offense avoided being ugly when we had players that made it so. Other times yeah, not so good.

But the game has changed. I wonder if we realize it. I keep seeing calls for guys who can beat their man, that’s 90s 00s era Calhoun and NBA offense. Modern game is move the damned ball, do it fast, with players moving so the defense can’t possibly match up. Great offense is designed so that the team without better players still scores.