Hurley press availability | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Hurley press availability

superjohn said:
He means return for a sophomore season.
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Oh. Then no Hurley has said he’ll push any player that’s going in the1st round never mind the lotto and an ankle sprain isn’t changing that
 
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The one thing about Liam is we know he'll be laser focused on his recovery. Hurley already called him aqua man for his work in the hot tub, lets hope it's more like 4 weeks and not 6.
 
Chin Diesel said:
I'm holding off adjusting expectations for his return until some 50+ year old BY'ers tell us about their high ankle sprng from 1997 while playing beer league softball.
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What about. 60 - 70 year old boneyarders ? They sprain ankles too ! lol
 
We are in the Big East, not the SEC. We only play one good team rest of the year. Everyone else is terrible besides Marquette. If we can’t beat the dregs of the BE without a player, then uhoh for real. I’m excited to see other guys get real minutes and expect to beat teams like Providence by 25. This should be good thing in long run. If we go 500 when he is out, what talent do we really have on this team?
 
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jibsey said:
This will be laughed at but Mahaney is going to be a factor now. Mark it.
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Hurley mentioned both Ross and Mahaney(playing more off ball) as stepping up in Liam's absence, I don't know, he doesn't seem all that high on Jaylin right now.
 
Some of you are a laugh riot with the hand-wringing and garment-tearing.

Hurley has historically been very good with injury return projections. If he says Liam could be back in a few weeks 'if all goes well', then I am inclined to believe him-McN is already doing pool work (love the 'Aquaman' quip).

I do not think he would provide that timeline if it had not been informed by competent medical professionals. So if Dan says end of January, it's end of January.

To quote SVP:

'That's it, and that's all.' If you absolutely positively cannot deal with the prospect of the team losing a few contests in the interim then don't watch.

The kid's gonna miss 5-6 games. Not a damn thing any of us can do about it. The team is just going to have to collectively step up and fill in the blanks.

Lastly, while injuries always suck this one most definitely is NOT going to be the difference in making the En Cee Double Ays or winning the BET. Maybe we don't win the regular season trifecta but oh well who gives a damn that's a victory lap at this point.

All we need is to be fully and completely weaponized going in to March Madness. And then we'll be good, high seed or no.
 
aceboon said:
Hurley mentioned both Ross and Mahaney(playing more off ball) as stepping up in Liam's absence, I don't know, he doesn't seem all that high on Jaylin right now.
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Yeah, he really didn't mention Jaylin much. I guess that also means that we will see Nowell return finally from his sholder injury as the backup PG to Diarra.
 
UConnTrumbull said:
It’s just basic math. If we go 3-3 while he’s out we’re at 6 losses. You expect some losses to good teams. Say 1 at Marquette, 1 at Creighton, maybe another vs St. John’s. Now at 9 Ls. If we don’t win the BET, 10 Ls. I’m just saying his injury does have the potential to derail the season if we can’t win the games we likely would have with Liam available.
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Luckily it’s not just about math
 
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UConnTrumbull said:
It’s just basic math. If we go 3-3 while he’s out we’re at 6 losses. You expect some losses to good teams. Say 1 at Marquette, 1 at Creighton, maybe another vs St. John’s. Now at 9 Ls. If we don’t win the BET, 10 Ls. I’m just saying his injury does have the potential to derail the season if we can’t win the games we likely would have with Liam available.
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So we win the chip as a 5 or 6 seed for the first time
 
bendm said:
Most of the board prob thinks stew is the obvious replacement in the starting lineup but Ross is actually averaging more mpg this season. Will be interesting how Liams 30mpg gets redistributed. This might also mean Nowell finally gets some PT. Rose colored glasses but if Liam truly is back by the end of the month maybe this could help us in the long run.
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No player can duplicate what McNeeley has been doing on both ends of the floor. It will have to be a sum of the parts kind of thing.

A combination of Ross, Nowell and Mahaney driving the gaps and finishing or distributing or getting fouled. All have shown the ability to do so but none have shown any consistency in doing it. But then again McNeeley turned the ball over a whole bunch of times while trying to drive the paint last game. Normally he's been more successful than not doing so. Ross showed promise driving the gaps early in the season but has not been successful against the better teams we've been playing. He probably should be given the green light to do so to loosen the D, but pick his spots. Doing this too often can result in too many turnovers or missed shots.

As for creating and knocking down 3s for themselves, we have a bunch of players that need to step up in that category. Again few have shown the ability to do so consistently. Karaban has shown flashes of that. Most of the others are knocking down their 3s after being set up via a pass.

Defending big strong wings...hum...Stewart has shown this but done so inconsistently. He needs to do so and up his offense productivity. Ross can be a pest but needs to play more straight up and not take so many chances. He's still prone to being overpowered by stronger wings. Those two need to step up and improve their D. They don't have to be as good as McNeeley has been, but just do a better job of holding their own where the team defense doesn't completely break down.

Rebounding is more about effort and technique than size. The team just needs to show some discipline boxing out and the right players going after the rebounds. I think this might be the easier of the things that McNeeley has been doing well for the team.

Hopefully a number of players can step up and fill the gap until he returns. I posted in a earlier thread, before he was injured, that he and Diarra are the two most important players and most difficult to replace for this team. They both do things that none of the other players can do individually. It's time for players, especially the sophomores, to step up and help the team win.
 
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Get well soon Liam!

There is no doubt in my mind that there are 2 things that need to happen for UConn to keep rolling while Liam gets healthy. The obvious one is that Stewart and/or Ross need to step up offensively. Second is that someone needs to fill in for Liam attacking defenses and getting to the hoop, which prevents our offense from stagnating for long periods. Diarra already does it, so mostly looking at Karaban and Solo here. But honestly, anything we can get from Mahaney/Stewart/Ross would be great too

I also know someone that sits on the bench who is pretty good at getting by his defender..hehe
 
jibsey said:
This will be laughed at but Mahaney is going to be a factor now. Mark it.
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I am not laughing.

Totally agree. Can just go out and play, and won't be looking over his shoulder.

This is it. Also, if he just focuses first on getting his shot and scoring and then pass 2nd based on what he is doing with his shooting and scoring he will be more effective. This is what Mahaney did at St. Mary's. I know Hurley wants him playing PG, but Mahaney has to be slowly worked into that role with gradual increase of minutes doing PG duties. With Liam out for sometime Hurley and the staff might consider that more for Mahaney.
 
aceboon said:
Hurley mentioned both Ross and Mahaney(playing more off ball) as stepping up in Liam's absence, I don't know, he doesn't seem all that high on Jaylin right now.
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Stewart is more of a Karaban back up while Ross was mainly backing up McNeeley
 
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Rich said:
Some of you are a laugh riot with the hand-wringing and garment-tearing.

Hurley has historically been very good with injury return projections. If he says Liam could be back in a few weeks 'if all goes well', then I am inclined to believe him-McN is already doing pool work (love the 'Aquaman' quip).

I do not think he would provide that timeline if it had not been informed by competent medical professionals. So if Dan says end of January, it's end of January.

To quote SVP:

'That's it, and that's all.' If you absolutely positively cannot deal with the prospect of the team losing a few contests in the interim then don't watch.

The kid's gonna miss 5-6 games. Not a damn thing any of us can do about it. The team is just going to have to collectively step up and fill in the blanks.

Lastly, while injuries always suck this one most definitely is NOT going to be the difference in making the En Cee Double Ays or winning the BET. Maybe we don't win the regular season trifecta but oh well who gives a damn that's a victory lap at this point.

All we need is to be fully and completely weaponized going in to March Madness. And then we'll be good, high seed or no.
Expand ...
Being a fan means worrying about your team when it is dealing with adversity. Liam was becoming the center piece of our team.

So this sucks for everyone. Probably most of all Liam. He won’t have as much time to showcase how good a player he is. For the team this means we now have to have Ross, Stewart and Mahaney play way better than they have been playing.

It also means that another piece maybe Nowell has to step in and fill minutes competently.

You call it hand wringing some might call it being more than a casual fan.

Just when we were starting to see what this team could become we now have to develop a whole different identity and then when Liam comes back figure out how he now can fit into whatever we become as a team over the next thirty days.

We can be optimistic and I am ok with thinking that this could be positive (and even hate saying that because under every circumstance it sucks for Liam) but only if the role players step up and do what Ball did last year when we lost Castle. But even Hurley said last year we had more answers and Steph was more defense at that point in the year.

Liam’s injury is more like losing Cam or Tristen last year and even then we still had answers,

Also on the optimistic side January is the best month for our team to pick to stink in. We have a history of turning bad January’s into great Februarys and even better March’s. So yes the season is not over but as a fan this stinks. For Liam it stinks. But for Nowell, Mahaney and Ross it might be the opportunity they needed to find the next level.

I am not including Stewart as I don’t see this changing his role much not meaning he won’t see more minutes but he was never going to be a ball handler on this team. He may slide over a play four on offense and let AK handle more but that is not AK best role.

Even before the injury Hurley said he had to find a way to get Ross playing well enough to play more than 20 minutes a game.

I think we have the talent to compete in everyone of our January games without Liam but in tight games when we need a play off the dribble Hass cannot be our only option. Ball and AK will have a more difficult time spotting up for open three or moving into them without Liam on the court.

I will stop my rant with this. I think we could get 17 points a game from Reed Jr and play him with Samson which could help hide Liam’s absence for certain stretches.

The whole purpose of a fan message board is to do exactly what we are doing when our best players who was just starting to peak and find his niche suffers a somewhat significant injury.
 
UConnTrumbull said:
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While some on the yard feels this an opportunity for others, we have seen enough body of work from the bench to be rightly concerned. Mahaney hasn’t developed as hoped, Stew and Ross the same. Danny may be forced to go with the twin towers with Stew or Ross at small forward and Diarra and Alex in the backcourt. That would give us two ball handlers with Alex as a three point threat, and the ability to see over the defense for lob passes to Samson and Tarris.
 
FearThePups said:
While some on the yard feels this an opportunity for others, we have seen enough body of work from the bench to be rightly concerned. Mahaney hasn’t developed as hoped, Stew and Ross the same. Danny may be forced to go with the twin towers with Stew or Ross at small forward and Diarra and Alex in the backcourt. That would give us two ball handlers with Alex as a three point threat, and the ability to see over the defense for lob passes to Samson and Tarris.
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I just finished a post about this same idea of playing with Reed and Johnson on the floor together. I think Reed can be a 17 pt a game player. Also I like the idea of the big lineup and running some screen and rolls with AK and SJ. I wonder how effective Ross would be as I think the defenders will go under the screens set for Ross which effectively takes the lob opportunity away. But I do really think without foul trouble we will see more Reed and Johnson on the court.

I have been touting Ross all year but because I saw the same thing Danny did he is our best perimeter defender. Now we really need him to be an offensive threat. I really think the combination of SJ and TRJR on the court together and Ross becoming a better offensive player the keys to dealing with this setback.

I might add Nowell as I mentioned in a post last week, I thought the lack of playing time was shoulder related one way or the other. I hope it is fully healed as before Hass went on this latest run I thought Nowell was our best PG. I still think he is our best option other than Hass.
 
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Hunt for 7 said:
Being a fan means worrying about your team when it is dealing with adversity. Liam was becoming the center piece of our team.

So this sucks for everyone. Probably most of all Liam. He won’t have as much time to showcase how good a player he is. For the team this means we now have to have Ross, Stewart and Mahaney play way better than they have been playing.

It also means that another piece maybe Nowell has to step in and fill minutes competently.

You call it hand wringing some might call it being more than a casual fan.

Just when we were starting to see what this team could become we now have to develop a whole different identity and then when Liam comes back figure out how he now can fit into whatever we become as a team over the next thirty days.

We can be optimistic and I am ok with thinking that this could be positive (and even hate saying that because under every circumstance it sucks for Liam) but only if the role players step up and do what Ball did last year when we lost Castle. But even Hurley said last year we had more answers and Steph was more defense at that point in the year.

Liam’s injury is more like losing Cam or Tristen last year and even then we still had answers,

Also on the optimistic side January is the best month for our team to pick to stink in. We have a history of turning bad January’s into great Februarys and even better March’s. So yes the season is not over but as a fan this stinks. For Liam it stinks. But for Nowell, Mahaney and Ross it might be the opportunity they needed to find the next level.

I am not including Stewart as I don’t see this changing his role much not meaning he won’t see more minutes but he was never going to be a ball handler on this team. He may slide over a play four on offense and let AK handle more but that is not AK best role.

Even before the injury Hurley said he had to find a way to get Ross playing well enough to play more than 20 minutes a game.

I think we have the talent to compete in everyone of our January games without Liam but in tight games when we need a play off the dribble Hass cannot be our only option. Ball and AK will have a more difficult time spotting up for open three or moving into them without Liam on the court.

I will stop my rant with this. I think we could get 17 points a game from Reed Jr and play him with Samson which could help hide Liam’s absence for certain stretches.

The whole purpose of a fan message board is to do exactly what we are doing when our best players who was just starting to peak and find his niche suffers a somewhat significant injury.
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Yeah but we can't control this stuff so why lose sleep?
 
Ross, Stewart and Nowell are going to have to step up and become contributors. They're going to spend all month just building chemistry with the rotation.

When Liam comes back healthy, it will require another chemistry adjustment. Probably best to just bring Liam off the bench when he returns so as to not disrupt the chemistry built while he was injured.

/s
 
HailUConn said:
Hurley read the yard: in Hurley we trust!

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That also includes freshman Ahmad Nowell, who hasn't played since a Nov. 30 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore. Nowell, a point guard, had a shoulder injury that set him back a bit but is healthy now. He was also a victim of UConn's depth.

"That 10th player, if you believe in your nine, it's not always easy to get to the 10th guy," Hurley said. "But, he's definitely in play here. He should get an opportunity (Sunday). He's practiced pretty well. If Aidan's going to get a chance to play more off the ball here, that's more of an opportunity for Ahmad."
 
“if Aidan is going to get a chance to play more off the ball here, thats more of an opportunity for Ahmad.” said Hurley.

That is a pretty significant statement.

To me it seems that there was some understanding that Aidan was coming to UConn to be a point guard.
 
Rich said:
Some of you are a laugh riot with the hand-wringing and garment-tearing.

Hurley has historically been very good with injury return projections. If he says Liam could be back in a few weeks 'if all goes well', then I am inclined to believe him-McN is already doing pool work (love the 'Aquaman' quip).

I do not think he would provide that timeline if it had not been informed by competent medical professionals. So if Dan says end of January, it's end of January.

To quote SVP:

'That's it, and that's all.' If you absolutely positively cannot deal with the prospect of the team losing a few contests in the interim then don't watch.

The kid's gonna miss 5-6 games. Not a damn thing any of us can do about it. The team is just going to have to collectively step up and fill in the blanks.

Lastly, while injuries always suck this one most definitely is NOT going to be the difference in making the En Cee Double Ays or winning the BET. Maybe we don't win the regular season trifecta but oh well who gives a damn that's a victory lap at this point.

All we need is to be fully and completely weaponized going in to March Madness. And then we'll be good, high seed or no.
Expand ...
Calm Down Al Pacino GIF
 
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