Hurley in thief mode

[rip7774]

He needs to watch how Kelvin Sampson and Houston handled the Orange zone:

1) Crisp passes into foul line
2) Quick decisions from the guy at the foul line to down low man or out to another shooter.

Houston for much of the game got what they wanted against that zone. The key was the lack of indecision (that we often play with) and pace they did everything with.

 

[husky429]

He needs to watch how Kelvin Sampson and Houston handled the Orange zone:

1) Crisp passes into foul line
2) Quick decisions from the guy at the foul line to down low man or out to another shooter.

Houston for much of the game got what they wanted against that zone. The key was the lack of indecision (that we often play with) and pace they did everything with.

Pretty interesting how Houston beat the zone without shooting well. That's tough to do... ultimately I think it was Houston's defense that did it.

TBH zone offense isn't something Hurley really needs to be focusing on very much imo. Going into a 1-3-1 and putting a playmaker with size at the foul line is middle school basketball basics that still works in college... the problem was that we didn't have enough shooters or playmakers to contend with a decent zone.

I would like to see us run something similar to that old Pitt zone set they used to use against Syracuse in the OBE days. Just screening the zone to open up skip passes and drives from the wing.

 

[Dean Wormer]

He needs to watch how Kelvin Sampson and Houston handled the Orange zone:

1) Crisp passes into foul line
2) Quick decisions from the guy at the foul line to down low man or out to another shooter.

Houston for much of the game got what they wanted against that zone. The key was the lack of indecision (that we often play with) and pace they did everything with.

Houston won that game with defense first. They only scored like 63 pts or something? If Coach Hurley gets that type of defense and junkyard dog mentality, we’ll win plenty.

 

[pj]

The problem sometimes is that he points out what everyone us doing wrong but himself. It makes sense... he needs to keep his job, but it isn't what fans want to hear after his historically atrocious SJU game. Or when our offense looks like crap against nearly every tourney team we played.

He's obviously improving. Game management took a few big steps forward the second half of this season. Recruiting keeps elevating and that's his #1 most important skill. Still needs to work on his adjustments and coaching offense big time.

IMO one of his mentors needs to talk to him about play style and recruiting. We recruit less skilled, but super athletic players. Coach SAYS he wants to play fast fast fast, he has ever since URI. But he's gotten slower every year he's been here and consistently had teams in the 200s or more for pace. Only 1 year did he have a top 100 pace team ever.

And that's fine. Teams can be successful playing slow, tough grind it out games. We need shooters and higher skilled, less athletic players then. But If we want to be a high-intensity pressure defense team, the coach needs to be willing to let the players run. It WILL lead to TOs. But it also leads to easy buckets... with when you have a Rese, Andre, Samson, Akok team filled with mediocre shooters you've got to allow it.

Diggins and Hawkins coming in should help the half-court offense. Hawkins is both athletic and pretty skilled in the half court shooting it... which is why he's a 2 and done NBA player. So it seems like Hurley's already aware to an extent.

Just meandering thoughts. Feel free to ignore.

This was a very good post. Hurley just needs to put everything together. It seems like he is working on excelling at each individual part of being a coach -- some of them he is great at like recruiting, some very good like coaching defense and player relationships, some mediocre like coaching offense -- but the whole is less than the sum of the parts, because all the puzzle pieces don't quite fit together -- e.g. the slow half-court offense with the highly-athletic but middling-skilled players. Some combination of further improving his weaknesses like coaching offense, but also finding a way to match style of play to players and get everything working harmoniously, will bring him the success we can all see him heading toward.

 

[freescooter]

I actually think Calhoun is the greatest coach. I just think Hurley is the greatest fit for this program right now.

I am enamored though by this notion of beating other schools for top recruits, especially in the region we reside. Something Hurley is excelling at and something the predecessor struggled with.

I think Hurley is fine. Not great, not awful. But I also think he fits the current mindset which strikes me as pretty interesting and goes something like this. UConn had an all-time great coach but now that he has retired our days of being a national power have effectively left with him. We want to be the a regional power, one of the top teams in the NBE which for all intents and purposes is the best of the northeastern conferences. We wanted a guy who knew the territory, had a bit of name recognition and will recruit pretty well between say, DC and Boston, but isn’t going to make a huge effort beyond that region. Maybe you can put together a great team doing that, but I tend to think you need to look beyond that limited footprint. But I suspect that UConn fans will be more than satisfied with being a ranked team, even if it is in the lower half of the Top 25, getting to the tournament on a pretty consistent basis, and winning a game or two here and there. BTW, I don’t hold Hurley responsible for this. He is what he is. I can’t imagine a Hurley coached team going to Stanford with its 2 best players injured and coming home with a win. Or out coaching K in a national championship game, or for that matter getting to one. I suspect if he did, he’d be hiding under the bed if he saw the Duke jerseys and Coach K on the other bench. Basically I think he is Kevin Willard. Good coach. Gonna win some games, maybe a NBE title or two, but not much beyond that. It’s fine. If he somehow puts together a run in the tourney he moves to Rutgers or a northern ACC school, if not he coaches at UConn for 10 years before he wears out his welcome.

 

[Slick]

He needs to watch how Kelvin Sampson and Houston handled the Orange zone:

1) Crisp passes into foul line
2) Quick decisions from the guy at the foul line to down low man or out to another shooter.

Houston for much of the game got what they wanted against that zone. The key was the lack of indecision (that we often play with) and pace they did everything with.

Believe it or not I think we beat Syracuse and their zone with Hurley coaching. I could be dreaming but I was actually at the Garden watching it!!

 

[auror]

On USC

The Trojans have relied much more on the zone in this three-game run than they had for the duration of the season, as a means to avoid being exposed by small-ball lineups, and it was so effective as to force Oregon coach Dana Altman to apologize to his group after Sunday’s game for not preparing them well enough to deal with it.

Would love for him to steal this for the bag and certain matchups.

 

[djct1999]

I think Hurley is fine. Not great, not awful. But I also think he fits the current mindset which strikes me as pretty interesting and goes something like this. UConn had an all-time great coach but now that he has retired our days of being a national power have effectively left with him. We want to be the a regional power, one of the top teams in the NBE which for all intents and purposes is the best of the northeastern conferences. We wanted a guy who knew the territory, had a bit of name recognition and will recruit pretty well between say, DC and Boston, but isn’t going to make a huge effort beyond that region. Maybe you can put together a great team doing that, but I tend to think you need to look beyond that limited footprint. But I suspect that UConn fans will be more than satisfied with being a ranked team, even if it is in the lower half of the Top 25, getting to the tournament on a pretty consistent basis, and winning a game or two here and there. BTW, I don’t hold Hurley responsible for this. He is what he is. I can’t imagine a Hurley coached team going to Stanford with its 2 best players injured and coming home with a win. Or out coaching K in a national championship game, or for that matter getting to one. I suspect if he did, he’d be hiding under the bed if he saw the Duke jerseys and Coach K on the other bench. Basically I think he is Kevin Willard. Good coach. Gonna win some games, maybe a NBE title or two, but not much beyond that. It’s fine. If he somehow puts together a run in the tourney he moves to Rutgers or a northern ACC school, if not he coaches at UConn for 10 years before he wears out his welcome.

Fair points across the board and you are probably right on most. There was so much collateral damage that we need to rebuild regionally first. Hurley is doing that. Maybe he grows with the program. At worst, he takes us from point a to b seamlessly.