Hurley talks about the transfer portal shuffle

[Cheddie]

No, I’m saying the right thing would be to spend time and effort recruiting a kid, get them to commit, tell the media how special they are as a player and a person, and be right about that assessment as the player shows it on the court.

Coaches certainly want to tout the kids they recruit. It makes everyone feel good. But too much hype can backfire - it raises the expectations of the players, their families and fans, to perhaps unrealistic levels. Every kid is simply not a "NBA prospect" or going to get their name on the Gampel wall.

It's also a different world, as every coach is learning. Geno had three recruits leave this season. If expectations are a mismatch with playing time or someone finds UConn isn't what they expected (Storrs is boring), its easy to say goodbye.

It's a shock to see so much turnover, but there may be a silver lining if Hurley adapts well and can recruit strongly in the portal and find HS kids willing to grow into roles.

 

[mauconnfan]

Maybe it’s all relative. Have you asked why they never finished in close games? I know everyone loves to blame the coach for everything, but often times it comes down to execution. The players were gassed because, especially towards the end of the season, Hurley had a 6-7 player rotation. Why? Because 3 of the 4 kids who entered the portal proved that they weren’t capable. And that’s what your worried about? We have one of the hardest working, well connected staffs in the country. Do you really believe they were blind sighted by this? Do you really believe they don’t have a plan or have those spots filled already? Because I don’t.
The tone on here has been crazy to me. Some of the takes even crazier and impulsive. Explain to me how the world is coming to an end when the 4 guys who left are being replaced with more talent.

In fairness the same results with the Bouknight squad the year prior, couldn't finish close games. There is a bunch of people involved but one huge dynamic, the staff. Time outs, substitutions were questionable many times there is no doubt. But agree with you we didn't have the playmakers when required as well, but who is that on. Keeping Gaff as the only other ballhandler didn't help. Ultimately he needs to get better as well as the players he brings in. Not at all on him alone, but patterns are from coaching.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

To be fair, DH has done a fair amount of talking up Floyd. Not quite Ollie “Ferrari in the garage” level, but still. By the end of the season, everyone here seemed relatively clear-eyed about Gaffney, Diggins, and post-injury Akok but Floyd represented real hope. That said, he and the staff have had a plan throughout and it’s looking like we’re going to be (much) stronger once this all shakes out. Lesson learned is taking everything Hurley says publicly about players going forward with a grain (or quarry) of salt.

I mean, isn’t Coach-speak to the media a thing pretty much everywhere? This isn’t a Hurley/UConn thing…

People on this board have either just crawled out from sleeping under a rock the past 50 years, or are being intentially disingenuous.

 

[Husky Alien]

Starting from scratch? All of the most talented underclassmen who produced last year - Sanogo, Jackson, and Hawkins - are returning. Karaban and Clingan, who are our most talented newcomers, will be here. Hopefully Samson Johnson sticks around. The highest-rated recruit Hurley has ever had, Castle, is probably coming early. Newton is much more talented than any player we’re losing in the portal. We definitely need a few more players. Maybe some players were mismanaged. The first round loss sucked. Again. But we are not starting from scratch. I wouldn’t be shocked if we’re better next year than we were this year, if we get one more plus player from the portal (admittedly, a big if at the moment).

Chemistry is the key here that is the concern.

 

[djct1999]

In fairness the same results with the Bouknight squad the year prior, couldn't finish close games. There is a bunch of people involved but one huge dynamic, the staff. Time outs, substitutions were questionable many times there is no doubt. But agree with you we didn't have the playmakers when required as well, but who is that on. Keeping Gaff as the only other ballhandler didn't help. Ultimately he needs to get better as well as the players he brings in. Not at all on him alone, but patterns are from coaching.

100%. He absolutely needs to get better at in game coaching/adjustments. And don’t get me wrong, he deserves his fair share of criticism. I just feel the venom towards this transfer portal is misguided.

 

[ToolzieFan]

Chemistry is the key here that is the concern.

I’m not saying there aren’t concerns, depth being at big one at the moment. I’m just saying we have some serious talent returning.

I am not trying to spin transfers as a positive, and I am not criticizing any player for their decision to leave, but having bench players unhappy with their roles wouldn’t have been great for chemistry, either.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Give me a break. He’s a politician. He sounds like he’s selling something with every comment in this story. Losing more respect for him because he’s pathologically incapable of admitting his own mistakes.

I still hope he’s the right guy. I appreciate that the program wins again. But he’s got to cut this BS at some point. I sure don’t want him to fail. But this is a sales job and I’m not down for the Kool Aid either

How is "I have to adapt" not admitting mistakes?

The board is schizophrenic, where one minute people are killing Hurley for being a dinosaur and preaching "culture over portal" and the next minute calling him a hypocrite for adapting to the times.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

The best chemistry is getting good players and winning. The portal (and NIL) has spawned the era of the "mercenary" player and the "rip up the roster because I gotta win now" coach. So, long term chemistry is a thing of the past. Obviously, the guys need to like each other, but the biggest emphasis is going to be on the in the moment talent level and complimentary roster parts. It'll be more like AAU as opposed to your father's NCAA.

 

[HuskyHawk]

How is "I have to adapt" not admitting mistakes?

The board is schizophrenic, where one minute people are killing Hurley for being a dinosaur and preaching "culture over portal" and the next minute calling him a hypocrite for adapting to the times.

He's talking about adapting to the portal and change in player movement. The elephant in the room is that he won't adapt his system to take best advantage of the skills and abilities of the players he actually has. It's his greatest weakness, and it causes a lot of these problems. Instead of saying "I need exactly these kinds of guys to run my offense and defense" he should say "what kind of offense and defense can I run to get the most out of these guys".

 

[CL82]

The results are that we finished in the Kenpom top 25 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2005 & 2006. Here's our winning percentage trend:

View attachment 75586

Pretty good!

The other thing is that we haven't won in the tournament b/c we've lacked enough shot creation & shot-making. In the past six months he's partially answered that by landing a pair of 6-foot-5 point guards with NBA potential, and is now working to land at least two more in the transfer window.

Pretty good!

I'm not a Hurley stan -- dude has some obvious flaws as an in-game coach, and I'm mildly concerned about his record here wrt individual player development. But I haven't seen much in the way of excuses or BS from him, and in fact in another thread here he's being savaged for being too honest about his shortcomings.

Can't win sometimes, I guess.

Anyway, expect a couple more transfer signings and a Castle reclass.

Great chart. It should be pinned at the top of the board.

 

[CL82]

I mean, isn’t Coach-speak to the media a thing pretty much everywhere? This isn’t a Hurley/UConn thing…

People on this board have either just crawled out from sleeping under a rock the past 50 years, or are being intentially disingenuous.

Can you be unintentionally disingenuous?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Try this- I would probably not be including Jackson’s set shot among the solutions for our perimeter offensive issues. Not yet anyway.

There's more to Jackson's game than shooting?

 

[Sonova]

The results are that we finished in the Kenpom top 25 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2005 & 2006. Here's our winning percentage trend:

View attachment 75586

Pretty good!

The other thing is that we haven't won in the tournament b/c we've lacked enough shot creation & shot-making. In the past six months he's partially answered that by landing a pair of 6-foot-5 point guards with NBA potential, and is now working to land at least two more in the transfer window.

Pretty good!

I'm not a Hurley stan -- dude has some obvious flaws as an in-game coach, and I'm mildly concerned about his record here wrt individual player development. But I haven't seen much in the way of excuses or BS from him, and in fact in another thread here he's being savaged for being too honest about his shortcomings.

Can't win sometimes, I guess.

Anyway, expect a couple more transfer signings and a Castle reclass.

Maybe BS is the wrong way to put it. I don’t need the “get us now talk.” Or the complaints/excuses at this point about what he inherited. Or the Stop swagger and arm waving. - just coach the team like an adult. And I really don’t care about KenPom numbers. There’s no question that things have improved since the last few KO years. NO ONE is arguing that. But I care about wins in March, beating the truly good teams we play more times than not - we weren’t remotely the 25th best team in the country) and I’d prefer that we build a program that uses the portal strategically vs a frigging fire sale.
I get how college basketball works these days. I get the transfer portal. I get the free agent nature of today’s kids. But cleaning house because you either screwed the pooch with recruiting or didn’t manage today’s kids well, or aren't very adept at roster building isn’t a recipe for success. NO ONE that we consider our peers is doing things this way. For a reason.

As someone else said, I’m a lifelong fan who will bleed blue til I die. And I really, really want DH to be successful. I just have concerns - and to my eyes, they don’t seem outlandish or far-fetched.

 

[UConnJim]

UConn had 4 seniors on the roster who were in the rotation. The last 3 years, Hurley has brought in 12 recruits, 10 of whom were rated 105 or lower. Of the top 10 rated recruits, 1 went to the NBA and 2 were basically redshirting on the bench. In other words, there were too many players who thought they should be playing not getting playing time. Hurley needs to figure out how to change his roster management.

 

[connVA]

There's more to Jackson's game than shooting?

I don’t disagree about what Jackson brings to the table but the salient point was our perimeter offense. It ain’t that.

 

[aburks41]

UConn had 4 seniors on the roster who were in the rotation. The last 3 years, Hurley has brought in 12 recruits, 10 of whom were rated 105 or lower. Of the top 10 rated recruits, 1 went to the NBA and 2 were basically redshirting on the bench. In other words, there were too many players who thought they should be playing not getting playing time. Hurley needs to figure out how to change his roster management.

It's wild how that 2015 UK team platooned 20 minutes for the A squad and 20 minutes for the B squad and none of their players had an issue with it. And both platoons would have been starting 5's at any school in the country, getting 30 MPG. That was only 7 years ago, and now if you don't promise a guy a starting spot they are a threat to bolt for another program lol. The entire landscape has changed in the past 2 years. You can't build a roster that goes 10 or 11 deep anymore. You get 8, maybe 9 guys now and that's what you roll with for the season.

 

[ctchamps]

Can you be unintentionally disingenuous?

Was having fun with you when I gave the dislike for this post. Same way I was having fun with the poster in the women's forum about objective/subjective perspective which I received a dislike from you for that post. I do not take you as a vengeful chap that needs to dislike every one of my posts because of this action (which I have removed just in case I am wrong about this assessment).

 

[shizzle787]

The NCAA should shrink the numner of basketball scholarships from 13 to 12. They won’t but they should. It would reduce the number of transfers significantly and the 13th player at CCSU would be playing at the level he belongs at: D2 or D3.

 

[evmore]

Newton is a major get.. Castle reclassing is a major deal.. Add in Hawkins & Jackson.. You still need another shooter. Gaffney could raise his game and should.. But losing Akok hurts. There is no getting around it.. Not for what he was but for what he could be. He never realized his potential here & most of why is not his fault, but such is life. I LOVE the way Coach is adapting on the fly to improve the team. Suddenly I have forgotten all about Teddy buckets & I'm ready for next year's 4 seed - Eastern Bracket.

 

[Mooch82]

Newton is a major get.. Castle reclassing is a major deal.. Add in Hawkins & Jackson.. You still need another shooter. Gaffney could raise his game and should.. But losing Akok hurts. There is no getting around it.. Not for what he was but for what he could be. He never realized his potential here & most of why is not his fault, but such is life. I LOVE the way Coach is adapting on the fly to improve the team. Suddenly I have forgotten all about Teddy buckets & I'm ready for next year's 4 seed - Eastern Bracket.

Gaffney transferred long ago. We need another shooter and a guy that can play PG. Preferably a guy that can do both. If we do that and Castle comes, we still have 3 open scholarships, so I wouldn't mind adding just an experienced body or two even if they aren't super high level talents.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Exactly. I took Hoophound's comment to mean that DH was rattled, not is rattled.

Like he was rattled when Kofi chose Illinois (outrecruted Seton Hall for reclassifying Sanogo), when Precious transferred to IMG (welcomed Alex Karaban midyear after he'd transferred to IMG), and when Kenya bolted for Indiana (replaced him with Luke Murray). All three of thes represent good responses to unexpected shifts.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

The results are that we finished in the Kenpom top 25 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2005 & 2006. Here's our winning percentage trend:

View attachment 75586

Pretty good!

The other thing is that we haven't won in the tournament b/c we've lacked enough shot creation & shot-making. In the past six months he's partially answered that by landing a pair of 6-foot-5 point guards with NBA potential, and is now working to land at least two more in the transfer window.

Pretty good!

I'm not a Hurley stan -- dude has some obvious flaws as an in-game coach, and I'm mildly concerned about his record here wrt individual player development. But I haven't seen much in the way of excuses or BS from him, and in fact in another thread here he's being savaged for being too honest about his shortcomings.

Can't win sometimes, I guess.

Anyway, expect a couple more transfer signings and a Castle reclass.

'Anyway, expect a couple more transfer signings and a Castle reclass.'
whoopty ffn doo. now tell us aboot the winning part. mebbe even tell us what your expectation for winning next season looks like. mine looks like challenging for conference title, both regular and/or tourney finals, and something, anything in the ncaa's better than till now.
don't forget to tell danny that the natives are getting restless.

 

[TRest]

Like he was rattled when Kofi chose Illinois (outrecruted Seton Hall for reclassifying Sanogo), when Precious transferred to IMG (welcomed Alex Karaban midyear after he'd transferred to IMG), and when Kenya bolted for Indiana (replaced him with Luke Murray). All three of thes represent good responses to unexpected shifts.

How about when UMass hired Kimani? He weathered that storm too.

 

[MDHuskFan]

Like he was rattled when Kofi chose Illinois (outrecruted Seton Hall for reclassifying Sanogo), when Precious transferred to IMG (welcomed Alex Karaban midyear after he'd transferred to IMG), and when Kenya bolted for Indiana (replaced him with Luke Murray). All three of thes represent good responses to unexpected shifts.

Last one is the best example. He didn’t replace Kenya with Luke, he replaced him with Freeman. It didn’t work, he realized it quickly, let him move to another position while saving his dignity & replaced him with Luke.

I say this to say, DH makes mistakes, but he’s shown an ability to identify them relatively quickly & pivot accordingly

 

[Sportsman5]

I think what fans need to adjust to is that quality depth will be near impossible to maintain due to the ease of transferring.

This means quality is much more important than quantity.

We won't have 6 good guards that are all fighting for playing time because most guys that didn't play the previous year will transfer out and once 2-3 good guards are on the roster, then it will be difficult to lure other good guards to commit from the transfer portal. This is reality whether or not fans want to accept it.