Hurley: "I didn't think our problems were at the defensive ends of the court. Our issues were on offense." | The Boneyard

Hurley: "I didn't think our problems were at the defensive ends of the court. Our issues were on offense."

McLovin

McLovin

Gangstas, what's up?
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Great analysis, coach. Now do something about it. If you are going to play 2 guys who are 6'10" against a team that doesn't start someone over 6'7", then you should probably pound the ball down low. Play inside out basketball. Screen off the ball OR if you are going to screen on the ball have your guards hit the bigs on the roll.
 
The prior 2 games when we played up-tempo and looked competent on offensive, we did exactly the above. Hurley knows what to do, just tried to get too cute today like he has in all of our other losses. In some weird way I don't blame him... He is still looking for his "signature" win here and hoped to steal one from Nova by playing to their style and hoping we could make just enough stops to hide some of the deficiencies we still have. But enough trying to steal a win. Go take it! It will be great when the day finally comes that he just put his nuts on the table for once and make other teams play to our style, not the other way around.
 
McLovin said:
The prior 2 games when we played up-tempo and looked competent on offensive, we did exactly the above. Hurley knows what to do, just tried to get too cute today like he has in all of our other losses. In some weird way I don't blame him... He is still looking for his "signature" win here and hoped to steal one from Nova by playing to their style and hoping we could make just enough stops to hide some of the deficiencies we still have. But enough trying to steal a win. Go take it! It will be great when the day finally comes that he just put his nuts on the table for once and make other teams play to our style, not the other way around.
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Amen!!
 
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Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
“Coaching malpractice” to not get 10 or more touches for Sanogo. None of their guys had a chance vs him.
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I got news for you, at the critical moment Sanogo's inexperience showed and cost us big time. We need a reliable outside shooter and better ball handling in the half court. That's really it. Various guys fill in for stretches but it's always a crap shoot if someone will.
 
August_West said:
Eh Martin had some good looks today and couldn’t hit side of barn from 3. Bouk after getting banged up was woeful shooting too. Making shots is name of game we didn’t make them today.
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It’s amazing how much better they look when they knock down shots. Guys who put points on the board when they win weren’t making anything today.
 
SubbaBub said:
I got news for you, at the critical moment Sanogo's inexperience showed and cost us big time. We need a reliable outside shooter and better ball handling in the half court. That's really it. Various guys fill in for stretches but it's always a crap shoot if someone will.
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That “critical moment” was not on Sanogo. You don’t pass to a big at the 3-point line and then run away. The big’s job there is to re-distribute the ball, or just give it back to the guard who passed it if he can’t find someone open. Sanogo had no one to pass to as there was no blue jerseys near him. He’s not a ball handler, so leaving him alone to act like one was a critical error.
 
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We didn't get "too cute".

Our goal on pretty much every single offensive play was "get Bouk going downhill towards the rim" or "get the ball into the post".

That's exactly what we all would have wanted. Credit Nova for shutting down both of those things in the 2nd half. They packed the paint, sat in the driving lanes, attacked Bouk's handle when he made his moves from the wing. Bouk tried to force through the defensive pressure a bit too much. I'm not putting that on Hurley. Bouk knows what to do in those situations, although he did look tired. So maybe Hurley should have pulled him for one more breather, but giving your All American extra minutes is usually the better strategy.

So what did the D leave open? Cole, Polley, Martin from 3. They went 2-9 from 3 in the 2nd half. And didn't make many moves that I saw to help Bouk when he faced extreme pressure.
 
Gaff made a couple shots and RJ never found his stroke so it may have played out the same, but, as soon as Gillespie backed RJ down for the first 'and one', it was obvious they were going to do that until we stopped it. We should have made a defensive adjustment to trap and get the ball out of Gillespie's hands and risk their ball movement in spite of our need to scramble. We chose to risk giving up 2 instead of 3, but by default we also lost our point guard a minute later because he was physically outmatched to play that scheme. Not having your starting point guard for 15 minutes in the first half doesn't help offensive flow much. Then they backed down Gaff the same way and we were really at risk.

We are so close. Even against a well coached efficient opponent we are a couple plays away. That's what makes a handful of calls so impactful. We can't lose Jackson because refs anticipate fouls. The out of bounds called off Whaley cost us a foul and basket. I'd also love to hear the explanation of how Gillespie can keep throwing his body into defenders until he gets the advantage he is looking for. If you don't knock the defender down it's not a foul? I thought contact that resulted in advantage was the foul. I think a big like Sanogo would be called.
 
Ricker said:
Gaff made a couple shots and RJ never found his stroke so it may have played out the same, but, as soon as Gillespie backed RJ down for the first 'and one', it was obvious they were going to do that until we stopped it. We should have made a defensive adjustment to trap and get the ball out of Gillespie's hands and risk their ball movement in spite of our need to scramble. We chose to risk giving up 2 instead of 3, but by default we also lost our point guard a minute later because he was physically outmatched to play that scheme. Not having your starting point guard for 15 minutes in the first half doesn't help offensive flow much. Then they backed down Gaff the same way and we were really at risk.

We are so close. Even against a well coached efficient opponent we are a couple plays away. That's what makes a handful of calls so impactful. We can't lose Jackson because refs anticipate fouls. The out of bounds called off Whaley cost us a foul and basket. I'd also love to hear the explanation of how Gillespie can keep throwing his body into defenders until he gets the advantage he is looking for. If you don't knock the defender down it's not a foul? I thought contact that resulted in advantage was the foul. I think a big like Sanogo would be called.
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Good analysis good post. Those first two moves to get Cole out were huge
 
McLovin said:
The prior 2 games when we played up-tempo and looked competent on offensive, we did exactly the above. Hurley knows what to do, just tried to get too cute today like he has in all of our other losses. In some weird way I don't blame him... He is still looking for his "signature" win here and hoped to steal one from Nova by playing to their style and hoping we could make just enough stops to hide some of the deficiencies we still have. But enough trying to steal a win. Go take it! It will be great when the day finally comes that he just put his nuts on the table for once and make other teams play to our style, not the other way around.
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Fun take, seriously.

I still give the "3rd year in a new program, 1st year in a new conference, has never regularly faced such competition in players or coaches, has never had such players to work with, has never had a reputation for in-game adjustments, and things have been disrupted by worldwide pandemic and multiple injuries" treatment.

But I really don't disagree with you.
 
Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
“Coaching malpractice” to not get 10 or more touches for Sanogo. None of their guys had a chance vs him.
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Jermaine Samuels straight up RIPPED the ball away from Sanogo today, it was embarrassing.

if we want to play through our bigs, they need to make quick, smart decisions which include looking for the open shooter.

havent seen much of that this year

edit: the shooters we do have need to hit the rim on their shots though too
 
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Deepster said:
Maybe a little credit to a 2-time NCAA champ that's well coached and ranked 10th in the country? They were cool, calm and executed all day long. We have to continue to grow to beat a team like this regularly on their floor. Period.
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Credit a great coaching job to have Vill guards back down Cole and others. Our defense offered zero help, pure one on one. Our players also often bit for the head and body fakes by leaving our feet. Sad to see both of these developments with no coaching response except for taking out Cole early. We never established our game but ran the clock down many times with nothing passes and no set picks. Why didn't we use our height advantage? We seem to revert to the slow offensive pattern when we lost four in a row. We are a better team than the lack of interest many court minutes showed today.
 
Deepster said:
Maybe a little credit to a 2-time NCAA champ that's well coached and ranked 10th in the country? They were cool, calm and executed all day long. We have to continue to grow to beat a team like this regularly on their floor. Period.
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I thought Nova was pushed all game to work very hard, often having to move past Plan B to Plan C on offense, executing defensive adjustments throughout the second half.

They responded to the challenge. Different wording of pretty much the same take as you.
 
Nova didn’t pitch a perfect game but played well enough to win. UConn was close. It’s a good conference game.

I could point out a half dozen things Nova should have done better. Same for UConn. In reality it both teams played to the spread.

UConn’s program is on the right track. You have the right coach and are bringing in the right talent.
 
There is no reason to have Sanogo outside the 3 point line handling the ball. Put him down low and move from side to side trying to gain advantage and rebound.
 
August_West said:
Eh Martin had some good looks today and couldn’t hit side of barn from 3. Bouk after getting banged up was woeful shooting too. Making shots is name of game we didn’t make them today.
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It's almost like you're not going to beat a Top 10 team on the road shooting 26% from 3.

The team plays the same style every game but they win and Hurley's a genius when they hit 35% from 3 and he's a bum when they hit 25%.
 
Hurley's offense is offensive. I really like him as a coach but whatever that stuff he's running has got to go. We are absolutely equal to Nova but the offense is so predictable and inefficient that we are at a disadvantage. It kills me to watch that three point line weave.
 
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Think Jackson will be big time but right now not a threat with the ball. Gaff for some reason doesn't always think he is as good as this guy he's playing. What happen to Whaley's shot? Back to soph year?
 
the stat lines are essentially equal, but for blocks, 6-1 us, and steals, 7-1 them. blah, blah, blah, this guy, that guy, coaches, refs, ... hooey. both stars led, our guy got tired, their homecourt where their seniors knew the ropes.
bottom line? jump ball, till next time. we'll be ready.
is today the day when tyler gets moved to near the end of the bench? what's he do again?
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
It’s wild overreactions in either direction game to game. It’s nuts.
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On one hand UConn hasn't been good in a while so it's hard for people to remember to trust the process.

On another hand we do live in a hot take culture.

But these are then paired with people who literally don't know the basics of basketball: they have no idea what they're watching but think they're geniuses. The board's become the perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. It always had some of it, but it's much worse now.
 
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