Hurley Quote - Looks for Solution on D | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Hurley Quote - Looks for Solution on D

I will add that you always have to take a post game press conference with a grain of salt, given the emotions that were just expended. However, it’s not the type of language that we haven’t heard before this season.
Granted, the goal is to win anyway you can. But, we do have a serious offensive problem and I am not hearing or more importantly seeing how we are addressing it.
 
So who is the offensive mind on the staff?
As an assistant, I always thought Tom Moore was elite at taking away the top scorer of the other team.
Murray has learned offense mostly under Hurley.
Kimani - I think he’s a good recruiter and has worked individually with guys on things.
 
businesslawyer said:
But having said that, is that a bizarre take on the game? Yes, it is. Defense played more than well enough to win. (And I thought at least two of reeves 3s were decently contested by the way.). But maybe he talked about D so as not to throw players under the bus with what he was thinking, which was probably “if my players never hit outside shots, or could shots, it’s going to be a roller coaster ride this year.”
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It is in his power as coach to make sure his guys compete and are in the right position on D.

It is not in his power to make the open shots for his players.

Of course, he did mention the guys missing open shots during the press conference, but people are too busy taking 1 quote to stand for his entire messaging.
 
Couple of thoughts:

--Marquette will be telling if lessons were learned. Shaka focuses first on D. Will Danny anticipate and practice or be surprised again on game day.

--Not focusing on O is Danny's MO. At URI his teams played intense D but it was only when an extremely talented EC Matthews and crew matured did the offense work. Saw the same with Bouk (and without Bouk) last year. Say what you will about Cooley but Friars ran plays out of TOs and in the half court. Not all the time but enough that it seemed organized and adjusted depending on D presented.

--Luke was an asst at X. X runs some nifty O sets so surprised there isn't more creativity in the half court. The cuts run at the Friars worked really well. I would expect more of those. Get a team on their heels looking for cuts and it opens up driving lanes for the athletes that Uconn has.

Huskies play strong D and have good athletes. They are not consistent shooters though. What gets adjusted and rolled out at Marquette? I think Uconn loses in a tough environment at MU and then is staring at Top 25 X, on the road, 0-2 with 0-3 looking at them. That is not far fetched. How Hurley responds may be the balance of the season.
 
auror said:
It is in his power as coach to make sure his guys compete and are in the right position on D.

It is not in his power to make the open shots for his players.

Of course, he did mention the guys missing open shots during the press conference, but people are too busy taking 1 quote to stand for his entire messaging.
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Too many guys, missing too many shots, too often. Yes, there is some randomness involved but it is also systematic and it would be foolish to dismiss it as just bad luck or not a problem.

There’s definitely a shot clock element to it - where we waste time, trying to do nothing productive and the last one with the hot potatoe gives it a toss with the buzzer soon going off.

There’s also definitely an element where guys haven’t developed a couple signature shots and spots where teammates seek them out.

The screening and cutting is sub par as well. Too many guys are too loose with their handles.

Shooting is often a by product of individual work in the gym and flow in the game. Both need to be examined.

Finally, get back to campus after the game and call a practice for foul shooting on a Saturday night. Assuming the NCAA still allows that type of thing.
 
The D is not the problem. In two of our losses we held the opponents in the 50s.

Finding a way to get some easy buckets or get to the foul line during our 8 minute droughts is the problem.
 
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Chief00 said:
So who is the offensive mind on the staff?
As an assistant, I always thought Tom Moore was elite at taking away the top scorer of the other team.
Murray has learned offense mostly under Hurley.
Kimani - I think he’s a good recruiter and has worked individually with guys on things.
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i thought murray was a basketball savant, why cant he just dust off some offensive sets from his louisville playbook for starters? the entire staff cant just focus on recruiting and neglect the actual game planning but i'm wondering how staff even describes the offense to recruits so it sounds appealable.
 
bendm said:
i thought murray was a basketball savant, why cant he just dust off some offensive sets from his louisville playbook for starters? the entire staff cant just focus on recruiting and neglect the actual game planning but i'm wondering how staff even describes the offense to recruits so it sounds appealable.
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Ok - Quite frankly, I hope you are right about Luke being an underutilized offensive savant.
 
Hurley said from the get go that the offense was going through Sanogo....almost seems like they didn't know what to do offensively once he was out.
 
This is embarrassing for Hurley. PC had 55 points with 5:30 (on the nose) left in the game. Durham's layup with :45 seconds left were the only points we gave up in the final five and a half minutes. On top of that, we held PC to under 40% from the floor and this guy thinks we need solutions on defense.
 
Husk04ies said:
Hurley said from the get go that the offense was going through Sanogo....almost seems like they didn't know what to do offensively once he was out.
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No Sanogo means the defense can be more active on the perimeter. Doesn’t help our shooting percentages.
 
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CTBasketball said:
No Sanogo means the defense can be more active on the perimeter. Doesn’t help our shooting percentages.
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I think one of the realities of this current group in its current state - is you need to take more shots in the 2 point area and try to score some FT points. Of course, we need to do better than 53% from the line. I think we can.
 
Defense - very good
Offense - very bad
Helter Skelter
Rebound and Run
Use the Deep Bench
Martin and Jackson can score more easily in transition than in the half court sets

 
Far cry from the Auburn game having Sanogo makes a difference but the regression is alarming, confidence isn't there especially in the closing minutes. It's a bummer Johnson and Diggins aren't getting any playing time and I believe Hurley blew that opportunity against cupcakes. We need these guys to play with Gaffney unable to improve and make a difference and the at least to me the "mystery" of Akok.
 
bendm said:
i thought murray was a basketball savant, why cant he just dust off some offensive sets from his louisville playbook for starters? the entire staff cant just focus on recruiting and neglect the actual game planning but i'm wondering how staff even describes the offense to recruits so it sounds appealable.
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I think in an ideal world Hurley has multiple players on the court that can win 1 on 1 matchups and are given lots of freedom on offense as long as the defensive effort is where it needs to be... This is an appealing way to play theoretically and I would think is what they pitch to the recruits. The problem is this roster is not built to play like that and Hurley hasn't adjusted the offense yet to make up for the lack of pure playmaking/scoring.
 
JohnFSilver said:
Focusing on the D is insane.

Offense is what wins games. I actually think they expend too much energy defensively. Crazy, I know, but you have to play hard on offense. Offense is hard.

There has to be more balance. Good defense, good defensive principles, and good defensive rebounding.

I just feel like they max out on D, effort wise, the offense becomes where you can rest up for the next possession.

I wish they would play as hard on offense, and responsible for offensive effort, as they are on defense.

PC shot 39% from the floor and scored 57 pts. That has to be a win with the players UConn has athletically.
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I don't know. The flip side is to say that PC outplayed us in a defensive battle.

I know you have to be able to score, but great teams also defend well. Calhoun's teams won an awful lot of really ugly defensive battles and if you didn't defend you didn't see much of the floor. You have to play both ends of the floor to win imho.
 
Chief00 said:
Chief imagines we could have won 53-52, but if that’s our goal, it is going to be a long season.
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king conn said:
He is saying, we have to hold opponents in the 40's, rather than we need to score more than 50 . And rather than taking a good hard look at my offense, the players have to execute harder on defense
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I don't disagree with the above ... but we did win a national championship 53-41. Maybe Jim Calhoun was doing it wrong, but it worked.
 
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Chief00 said:
So who is the offensive mind on the staff?
As an assistant, I always thought Tom Moore was elite at taking away the top scorer of the other team.
Murray has learned offense mostly under Hurley.
Kimani - I think he’s a good recruiter and has worked individually with guys on things.
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Maybe @CL82: Fall practice highlights
 
CTBasketball said:
No Sanogo means the defense can be more active on the perimeter. Doesn’t help our shooting percentages.
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This is true about the defense, however, we had plenty of open looks from outside. We just can't seem to hit many of them.

Also, believe we often wait too late in the clock to take our shots. It puts unnecessary additional pressure on the shooters, who obviously don't respond well to it. Let's try to generate some earlier shots and see if that helps any.

Finally, would love to see Diggins in there so RJ can play off the ball. Let's see if Diggins can find him for some open looks. After all, he is our best outside shooter at this point, so what's to lose by trying? If his D doesn't measure up, well at least you explored it in a game situation. Gotta take some chances in order to grow!
 
donyell34 said:
Far cry from the Auburn game having Sanogo makes a difference but the regression is alarming, confidence isn't there especially in the closing minutes. It's a bummer Johnson and Diggins aren't getting any playing time and I believe Hurley blew that opportunity against cupcakes. We need these guys to play with Gaffney unable to improve and make a difference and the at least to me the "mystery" of Akok.
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Akok just doesn’t have the lower body strength to defend in the post. Playing with Sanogo that aspect is less of an issue.
 
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pj said:
I don't disagree with the above ... but we did win a national championship 53-41. Maybe Jim Calhoun was doing it wrong, but it worked.
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Jim hated playing in the 50s. You have to win games like that, but the best UConn teams were always elite offensively.
 
JohnFSilver said:
Jim hated playing in the 50s. You have to win games like that, but the best UConn teams were always elite offensively.
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Agreed, and all that needs to be incorporated into your recruiting assessments. Jim will be the first one to tell you without scorers, there’s a ceiling. Pitt was notorious in its Big East days for not presenting evidence that a rock fight team could go deep in the tournament.

In the meantime, Jackson can rebound, bring the ball up court in transition, pass with vision and finish. Given all that we should be thrilled with the possibilities. Unfulfilled potential at this point but very exciting if fast break is your mindset.
 
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