Hurley coaching malpractice | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Hurley coaching malpractice

I certainly had issues with Sanogo not returning to the game, but UConn got flat out beaten on the defensive end of the floor. Cole could not keep his man in front of him and repeatedly got taken to the rack for either a layup, free throws, or a kickout for an open 3. Offensively, far too many missed layups--I counted at least 5 that easily could have been made. While I agree that free throw shooting is a huge issue right now (Martin has too nice of a stroke to be a 60% free throw shooter), missed layups are killing this team.
 
back2BE4us said:
And that’s fine but an O for D sub to get Sanogo in to get more interior work needed to happen to close out. Relying on just Martin to penetrate and Polley to hit 3s (which he wasn’t) just didn’t work and he had to have Sanogo in there in an offense for defense sub rotation if he’s worried about Sanogo rotating on defense to cover the perimeter.
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Whaley was scoring inside too.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
That's sort of my overarching takeaway from today. Rough loss to a trash team but holy duck the whining from this fanbase is absolutely insufferable.
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But we waited all week and would have preferred to not have to whine!
 
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The issue really comes down to defense, we had no answer to stop anyone. Sanogo 100% should have been in the game, but it's not like the offense struggled. Whaley was getting the same good looks inside
 
DaveHuskiesFan said:
St John’s played 5 shooters. 4 guards and 1 SF.

They played 5 out the last 8 minutes of the game, meaning all 5 players outside the three point line.

That’s why you saw no help defense, because all 5 were shooters and had to be guarded at the 3 point line.

Whaley is our fastest recoverer on help D, if he couldn’t get there you think Sanogo could? Imagine Sanogo trying to guard a driver from the 3pt line? If Polley is getting blown by, you think Sanogo won’t?

If you go 2-3 Zone and park Sanogo in the middle youre daring a team shooting 50% from three in the game to make threes.

Obviously there’s an edge on the offensive end, but not nearly enough to warrant playing him. You get touch around the rim but lose a ball handler.
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There were available minutes in the second half for Sanogo. At the end of the game I understand going with Whaley and 4 wings/guards but Sanogo was left out for way too long. Uconn won the first half and Whaley, akok, Carlton and Sanogo all played.
 
Also, Polley is what he is. He is a catch and shoot 3 point shooter that needs to be square to the basket to make shots. St. Johns defended him perfectly. The forced him to put it on the floor without the ability to pump fake (which he can't do), and he was unable to ever get around his man. Polley and Adams are like utlity baseball players, you start giving them tons of at-bats with starters gone, and you see the warts. If Bouknight is here, those 2 aren't nearly playing the minutes they are. Hurley has to keep it together until James returns. With that being said, it was discouraging to see them give up drive after drive playing man. I would love to have seen some zone worked in, if nothing else, to give St. John's a different look. St. Johns get easy basket after easy basket with no pushback from UConn at all defensively.
 
superjohn said:
It's not whining, it's pointing out flat out negligence by the coach. The whole point of the message board is to observe and discuss the games.
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Maybe you aren’t whining. But there is indeed some whining going on.
 
UConnDad said:
Problem is Cole has no replacement.
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Should have edited it. Ball in hands for setup and tempo, but in a situation for scoring/getting to the line in close-out situations he has to be avoided or at least a 3rd/4th option for now. But yea, he definitely needs to have it in his hands to run the offense.
 
HuskyFich said:
Please tell me.
Who is the solution?
With gaffney on the bench w/ 4 fouls..
Who’s dribbling besides Cole?
Martin? Polley? Sanogo?

come on man. Try and think with your brain
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Sure Sanogo for one... Akok for another... how about Carlton. You don't have to go small.. you can go big and run one guard. Nice try though.
 
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DaveHuskiesFan said:
St John’s played 5 shooters. 4 guards and 1 SF.

They played 5 out the last 8 minutes of the game, meaning all 5 players outside the three point line.

That’s why you saw no help defense, because all 5 were shooters and had to be guarded at the 3 point line.

Whaley is our fastest recoverer on help D, if he couldn’t get there you think Sanogo could? Imagine Sanogo trying to guard a driver from the 3pt line? If Polley is getting blown by, you think Sanogo won’t?

If you go 2-3 Zone and park Sanogo in the middle youre daring a team shooting 50% from three in the game to make threes.

Obviously there’s an edge on the offensive end, but not nearly enough to warrant playing him. You get touch around the rim but lose a ball handler.
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True, but with Sanogo in there getting easy buckets maybe St. John's would've had to adjust. UConn had a huge height advantage in this game and they should've taken advantage of it. In other words Hurley was out coached.
 
St John's shot 49.0% from the field - that is awful defense. This is the type of game that a healthy Akok would've won for us with his defense. He would've had 4-5 blocks and caused St John's to abandon the drives to the basket. Not sure why he played so little.
 
OkaForPrez said:
Whaley was scoring inside too.
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Yeah that’s a fine option, as well. But there is no denying, in this specific game, that Sanogo was causing some havoc underneath for them. That has to be incorporated at least somewhat in that situation. Hurley reverted back to his comfort 5 players but you have to be water and adapt game to game and Sanogo earned those close-out minutes...IMO
 
Forte said:
Sure Sanogo for one... Akok for another... how about Carlton. You don't have to go small.. you can go big and run one guard. Nice try though.
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They had 5 ball handlers on the floor!

I’m not defending Hurley allowing St Johns to dictate our lineups, that’s JV level crap.

but, their guards were killing our guards... so they would have prob run our bigs outta the gym
 
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General observation: Cole and Gaffney are constantly starting our offensive sets dribbling with their backs to the basket. Good ball handlers face the basket on offense. Cole has no right hand and Gaffney needs confidence.
 
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tcf15 said:
Ooph, bad explanation here:
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Maybe Hurley has been recruiting too big too slow. Looking at past programs we've had the most success with guard heavy programs. I'm looking at the roster and it looks like we have 3 centers on the roster with a 4th coming in
UCbcm said:
General observation: Cole and Gaffney are constantly starting our offensive sets dribbling with their backs to the basket. Good ball handlers face the basket on offense. Cole has no right hand and Gaffney needs confidence.
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Hurley needs to recruit more ball handling guards. Its part of UConn's DNA. This has to be one of our worst teams in decades with regard to true ball handlers. Feels like Hurley is stocking the team up to be big and slow.
 
momma said there'd be days like this

Dan may have to borrow a Geno line "Some of our players can't guard a chair."
 
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St. John's is a bad defensive team except when they play UConn. Inside to Sanogo was one of the few things working for us today and we gave up on it. Sometimes you sacrifice a little D especially when you're D isn't doing much. Would love to replay those last 5 minutes with Sanogo, I'm guessing Hurley might agree.
 
UCbcm said:
General observation: Cole and Gaffney are constantly starting our offensive sets dribbling with their backs to the basket. Good ball handlers face the basket on offense. Cole has no right hand and Gaffney needs confidence.
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Each of the last three games Gaff has had exactly one drive to the hoop where you know that is something he can do regularly. But he doesn't do it again.
 
I really, really like Coach Hurley but the more i see the more i get worried about his in game coaching especially late.
 
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