Hurley for BE COY?

[HuskyHawk]

but a couple weeks ago the yard said he isn't the man to take us to the next level

That was a dumb take. But the criticisms have often been valid. Let’s see:

Why does Adams play 30+ minutes a game!? Played zero last night
Why is he hard hedging all the time? We didn’t last night.
Why all the handoffs and the weave? He has reduced that.
Why did he go small and bench Sanogo vs St. John’s? I think he learned from that.

Other criticisms were bad, like why is he starting Whaley and Sanogo? I think we see why.
Hurley is learning. He has different kinds of players than he has ever had in HS, at Wagner or URI. He’s facing different kinds of teams as well. I think he will keep getting better.

 

[husky429]

That was a dumb take. But the criticisms have often been valid. Let’s see:

Why does Adams play 30+ minutes a game!? Played zero last night
Why is he hard hedging all the time? We didn’t last night.
Why all the handoffs and the weave? He has reduced that.
Why did he go small and bench Sanogo vs St. John’s? I think he learned from that.

Other criticisms were bad, like why is he starting Whaley and Sanogo? I think we see why.
Hurley is learning. He has different kinds of players than he has ever had in HS, at Wagner or URI. He’s facing different kinds of teams as well. I think he will keep getting better.

The 4 criticisms of Hurley that he has changed are things I roasted him for and people told me I was wrong to criticize in the game chat and elsewhere. Coach is a little slow to adapt--frankly, too slow--but he knows the right steps to take eventually. Despite the way we play defense and his demeanor he's actually a pretty conservative guy.

IMO our offense still has the potential to go to the next level when we get some more shooters on the roster, and spend an off-season watching film/figuring out some better Xs and Os options. I have heard Kimani has a great offense mind to tap into. We're relying on a lot of individual heroics right now instead of getting creative with the structure of movements/screens etc. We can't really change that now, but I think nixing the weave and letting the guys play FAST has been a great coaching move.

Loved that we finally stopped hard-hedging with Sanogo yesterday. We didn't really even use it that much. I think with such skilled bigs these days, our best bet is to use the hedge sparingly and play straight up aggressive pressure defense with smart help rotations. Seems like Hurley started to recognize that last night.

 

[Palatine]

It’s hilarious how polarizing our fan base is. We lose a game and it’s “Hurleys game management is terrible, he makes no adjustments”, now we win 4 of 5 games and lock up the 3 seed and he’s coach of the year. To be fair, I in no way ever shared the first opinion, I’ve always thought he was a great coach, but the irony has to be called out.

Game management is only a part of being a head coach. Hurley as run the program very well. His team has improved every year. He has been an great recruiter. His players improve. The practices are clearly well run. He has picked great assistants.

He had a couple of head scratching moments during games this year. The number of minutes he gave Adams are inexplicable. Yanking Sanogo in the St. John's game probably cost us a victory. It's reasonable to call him out on decisions like those.

The statements on Hurley may seem incompatible or opposite but they are not. And hence, not really irony.

 

[Huskygrad88]

He was the favorite but they have fallen off a cliff

???Aren’t they 7-3 in their last 10 including beating Villanova (and us one game before that)?

 

[8893]

???Aren’t they 7-3 in their last 10 including beating Villanova (and us one game before that)?

They are 0-3 in their last three.

 

[Platt81]

@BFieldHusky is as pro-Hurley as it gets here. Not sure if this is post directed at him (my bad if it is not), but he is the last person to call out for the absurd overreactions to any loss on this forum.

Not directed at anyone in particular, it was a generalization of the fan base as a whole. Even within this post someone replied to me saying “well maybe in the games we won we made the right adjustments” which literally could be read as “in the games we lost we didn’t adjust correctly” which would be a direct reflection of the coaching. The way I see it is, we’ve won the games we were supposed to win (at full strength) and have literally had all close games. Every, every last uconn team had at least one head scratching loss and other games where the outcome was known ten minutes in. Hurley has instilled in these kids a work ethic that the game isn’t over until it’s over and they have bought in. But they’re still kids and sometimes the strategy and buying in just isn’t enough, and that shouldn’t be the coach’s fault everytime there’s a loss.

 

[Huskygrad88]

They are 0-3 in their last three.

Didn’t they win their last game???

 

[8893]

Didn’t they win their last game???

My bad. I was thinking Seton Hall.

 

[Travelman6]

If they had hung on to win that first one vs Creighton and beaten St. Johns, I would say, at 12-4 in the conference and 15-4 overall, no doubt it would be Hurley. That would be good for #2 in the BE and an overall ranking around #15-20 in the country. As it stands, he loses out to J. Wright but comes in 2nd for votes.

 

[Waquoit]

He had a couple of head scratching moments during games this year. The number of minutes he gave Adams are inexplicable.

I think it's totally splicable. Hurley doesn't like to bury guys, especially his first recruit I would imagine. He has good size for the job and he was giving him a chance. He couldn't keep the minutes so Hurley moved on. That's the kind of stuff you do to keep a team together. Pays off in the long and short term. Just last year there were multiple parties insisting that Hurley was a fail because he didn't run Whaley off the team.

 

[MCNPA]

3 man race: Wright, Hurley, Anderson

Who shouldn't win it: Anderson (sorry, but a .500 record isn't worthy)
Who should win it: Hurley (top 3 in a new conference despite injuries/adversity)
Who will win it: Wright (1st place team's coach has won COY in 6 of the past 8 seasons)

SJU has a .500 record with 1 game left but has played significantly more games than Nova as . Nova has only played 14 games. I don’t think percentage alone tells the whole story.

A team like Xavier only has 6 wins, but because their percentage they’re ranked higher than some teams with 8 wins in conference? Doesn’t jive with me. Gotta actually play the games, otherwise SJU should have shut the season down 3 games ago before that 3-game losing streak and finished further up the rankings.

 

[Zissou]

Ewing, Anderson, and Hurley are all in a program building mode. Hurley has had the best year, managing to 3rd without Bouk for a spell.

Many were below expectations this year. Wojo, Willard, Cooley.

Wright won the conference but was expected to win, and McD finished 2nd as expected.

UConn was expected to be 4th to 6th, so a modest beating of expectations.

Maybe the lean is Hurley. New Conference. Building. Finishing strong. Making the NCAAs. It’s a good story for the conference. Jay has won it enough that maybe they go Dan Hurley for good conference PR.

 

[Zissou]

SJU has a .500 record with 1 game left but has played significantly more games than Nova as . Nova has only played 14 games. I don’t think percentage alone tells the whole story.

A team like Xavier only has 6 wins, but because their percentage they’re ranked higher than some teams with 8 wins in conference? Doesn’t jive with me. Gotta actually play the games, otherwise SJU should have shut the season down 3 games ago before that 3-game losing streak and finished further up the rankings.

You can only reasonably play the games you are cleared for - no penalties for the teams having Covid and having to pause. We are fortunate to have any season.

 

[UKemba15]

No, one chucklehead did, and with very few exceptions the Yard was united vehemently against that premise.

I was half expecting a thread from that chucklehead yesterday along the lines of “Willard was wearing a shirt and tie and our coach just wears a pullover? Is this who we want representing our program?”

 

[Tyler2Rings]

Why should Wright get it? He’s got the best team so coaching them to be good isn’t worthy of the honor IMO. Hurley or Anderson are more worthy

I don't think Coach Hurley will get it for the same reason JB wasn't pre-season 1st team All-Big East. There seems to be either a lack of familiarity or an "old boys" attitude toward us in our first year back.

 

[BlueDogs]

It’s hilarious how polarizing our fan base is. We lose a game and it’s “Hurleys game management is terrible, he makes no adjustments”, now we win 4 of 5 games and lock up the 3 seed and he’s coach of the year. To be fair, I in no way ever shared the first opinion, I’ve always thought he was a great coach, but the irony has to be called out.

It’s possible that he has good players, teaches well, but doesn’t manage games well. He is a mediocre in-game strategist seemingly getting better just like his players.

 

[ucawn]

If St. John’s wins Saturday it’ll be Anderson... they’ll finish 4th or 5th

 

[HooperScooper]

BY cracks me up - one week you come here and the discussion is all about how Hurley can build a program and recruit but can't coach. The next week he should be BE COY. By next week he should be fired I'm sure.

Not surprising. There are about 500 people that post pretty regularly on here. You know what they say, opinions are like a---holes, everyone has one. So of course you're going to have divergent opinions on any subject on here.

 

[Dooooooomed]

I don't think Coach Hurley will get it for the same reason JB wasn't pre-season 1st team All-Big East. There seems to be either a lack of familiarity or an "old boys" attitude toward us in our first year back.

This is true. And I don't think Willard or Cooley are voting for Hurley anytime soon.

 

[Huskybass]

I think Hurley is very deserving. I am confident he will win it.