Hurley Threads (merged)

[InKembaITrust]

Hurley should have very few excuses in year 5. The roster is finally all his guys with Whaley and Polley gone. Keys in the offseason:

Develop AJ's perimeter shot.
Samson, Hawkins, and Diggins must get stronger.
Everyone minus Sanogo and Springs should be shooting threes all day every day.

 

[methodology]

Would have loved Musselman if UConn struck out on Hurley. Great basketball background, connections and IQ

Hurley gets more than next year but the clock is ticking if he continues to lay eggs when it counts

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

He can and I really hope he does but there's worrying signs so far. We're really easy to scout and the moment has seemed too big for him so far. He has to get a couple of very good players before next season.

I don’t disagree with that in the slightest. I was at Best Buy buying a new flatscreen today because of it. But plenty of coaches have had rocky tournament starts.

 

[methodology]

He’s coached under and learned from some of the greatest coaches in basketball. Highly respected and considered an offensive genius

 

[connVA]

I always wonder where we would be with a consistent, steady Kevin Ollie. No knock on Dan just wonder. You can never tell what life will throw at you.

Ollie was a solid play-caller before he started mailing it in- his chip is testament to that- but he was subpar at player development (think of how much better Hamilton and Adams could have been with decent coaching). If anything, I imagine that would have ultimately been his undoing, even if he had decided to continue doing his job instead of chasing skirts or whatever he was prioritizing those last few years.

 

[GotNets?]

Musselman could be an option down the line possibly… see if Arkansas extends him this off-season.

It’s time to start casually looking around the dance floor. DH apparently gets stage fright or maybe he just has no rhythm. The band will play a few more for him fortunately.

 

[uconnyankee]

I mean, Hurley can say whatever he wants. And I agree that where he picked up the program might have been an all time low point for UConn.

I’m glad we now have Hurley leading our team, KO was a good coach who let his personal life derail his career.

I believe Hurley is still the right guy to bring us back to the top.

But in KOs 5 year tenure, he went 7-1 in the NCAAs, 3 conference final appearances, 1 conference championship and 1 National championship.

Hurley needs to start producing some results before he talks about his teams creating legacy… no more excuses or “look how far we’ve come” b.s.

Those stats are accurate but how quickly people forget.
Ollie produced the bulk of those results in year 1-2.
The trajectory was down with players leaving. The program was in a free fall.

I give credit to Ollie for winning the NC. But he didn't build that team. under Ollie the caliber of player fell off and the construct of the team was horrible.

 

[BapeKidd88]

I give credit to Ollie for winning the NC. But he didn't build that team. under Ollie the caliber of player fell off and the construct of the team was horrible.

Would Ollie have won an NCAA tournament game by now with a veteran team led by James Akinjo (3rd team All-American) and Josh Carlton (1st team All-AAC)??

I tend to believe that Ollie could've won an NCAA game by now with that.

Cole (1st team All-BE) and Sanogo (1st team All-BE) aren't bad but I don't think that Hurley's results to date are untouchable for what Ollie would/could have done.

 

[dennismenace]

I always wonder where we would be with a consistent, steady Kevin Ollie. No knock on Dan just wonder. You can never tell what life will throw at you.

It is a good lesson for all to ponder. I suspect KO thinks about that a bit. The question is also where does KO go from here and hoping for the best for him. Uconn may be "bigger" than Dan but life is bigger than Uconn. You only get one life. This season ended very abruptly. It's over. But it's still Spring and life is about starting over again. Jump in.

 

[AntG168]

Oats and Mussleman are not “above” Hurley. Hurley just took a different approach regarding transfers and pushing players out.

Comparing any new coach to Calhoun is idiotic. Comparing our coach to Calhoun as a slight is even more so. Calhoun is arguably the greatest program builder ever.

The ending to this season sucked. Some fundamental things about how he’s constructing his rosters need to change or he’ll never reach the heights he wants to. But the personal attacks and name calling of a man who without a doubt brought this program back from life support is weird and uncalled for imo. No one who’s met Hurley would call him a “loser”. It’s a step too far. Dan coached on the AAC, he wasn’t taking a dig at Ollie. Matter of fact earlier in the season he named Ollie as one of the coaches who achieved something great here. You guys have your panties in a bunch over a passing quote. He said from where “we” were and gave all credit to the players. We’re reaching now. Chill out.

 

[temery]

Crapping on your predecessor is rarely a good look, even if correct.

 

[pepband99]

That quote is an embarrassment. Hurley hasn't accomplished anything, and he is trashing Ollie?

OLLIE WON A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.

Ollie's last season was skewed by Gilbert's injury and several unexpected transfers out. As for the conference situation, that helps Hurley, not hurt him. He wouldn't have been able to recruit anyone to play at UConn in that stupid southern mid-major league that UConn shouldn't have joined in the first place.

Ollie stayed loyal to the school when he could have gone anywhere, and was then dealt a sandwich as a reward. Hurley has accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING at UConn despite huge advantages, and now he is talking trash about old coaches?

Anyone who says something like that quote is a loser. The kind of person that looks for excuses rather than solves problems. I don't think Hurley will be successful here.

Reading that quote, and thinking he's talking about anything but the seniors/super-seniors, is a much larger embarrassment. RIF.

 

[jchusky]

I've checked out on this dude, always excuses. Kevin Ollie dissapointed at the end, but at least the man when he lost stood up and said he got outcoached. Neither Hurley brother is liked around cbb from their peers either, starting to notice why.

 

[djct1999]

Oats and Mussleman are not “above” Hurley. Hurley just took a different approach regarding transfers and pushing players out.

Comparing any new coach to Calhoun is idiotic. Comparing our coach to Calhoun as a slight is even more so. Calhoun is arguably the greatest program builder ever.

The ending to this season sucked. Some fundamental things about how he’s constructing his rosters need to change or he’ll never reach the heights he wants to. But the personal attacks and name calling of a man who without a doubt brought this program back from life support is weird and uncalled for imo. No one who’s met Hurley would call him a “loser”. It’s a step too far. Dan coached on the AAC, he wasn’t taking a dig at Ollie. Matter of fact earlier in the season he named Ollie as one of the coaches who achieved something great here. You guys have your panties in a bunch over a passing quote. He said from where “we” were and gave all credit to the players. We’re reaching now. Chill out.

100%. This pushback on Hurley after where he has the program headed in 4 short years is astonishing. UConn was on the brink of irrelevance and he flipped that narrative almost immediately. Sure, the Big East helped but more than that, you see it in the the type of kid he is proving to constantly bring in. UConn, in its prime, was always about elite talent, whether highly regarded out of the gate or developed in Storrs. Calhoun's teams had multiple NBA players, most times multiple lottery picks. This team has none.
Is Hurley perfect? No. He does need to improve his in game coaching. But he was perfect for this job and still is. Where Hurley went wrong is he decided to focus on culture vs the transfer portal. It backfired. It backfired because Hawkins wasn't truly ready, Gaffney regressed, and Polley didn't bring as much as we would have liked. I truly hope he learned from this mistake. We need multiple experienced guards.
I have always praised our fanbase as extremely knowledgeable about basketball. The takes on here over the past day are as embarrassing as they are unbecoming. It reeks of entitlement and delusion. Entitled because of our past that feels like ancient history and delusional in terms of what this team really was. We should have won on Thursday regardless. It was unquestionably a bad loss. To put Hurley on the hot seat, to discredit what he has accomplished, to whine and complain like most have, is a total joke and lacks perspective that most on here usually have.

 

[djct1999]

I would make Kimani the coach tomorrow after that Hurley quote.

and thats why you aren't in power to make any decisions.

 

[John]

Benedict has done it twice now, and both times for zero reason. For good or bad we are stuck with hurley through at least 2024 because of this.

Agreed. Zero need to have locked this guy up, if he leaves he leaves. This athletic department hands out contract extensions like they're Subway buy-one-get-one coupons. It's gotta stop.

 

[freescooter]

I’m mad we lost that game but Hurley’s not wrong with that quote.

Yeah except
A.we likely go the the NCAAs from that worse league had they not been cancelled by COVID.
B we won a national championship from that worse league
C that worse league sent a team to last year’s final four, while the top league in the country didn’t get anyone past the sweet 16.

It isn’t like UConn moved from the NEC to the ACC. We moved up to one notch. Hurley should just shut up and quit badmouthing everything that came before. Win at Least a league championship, maybe get to the round of 32, then tell us how hard it was. He becomes less and less likable every time he opens his mouth. Florida anyone?

 

[freescooter]

He who does not remember history is condemned to repeat it. For those of you who were not born at the time or too young to remember, these same comments were made about a former coach after his 3-4th years. His name was Jim Calhoun.

You mean before or after he won an NIT in year 2 and a Big East title, and went to the Elite Eight in Year 4 in a league with 4 Hall of fame head coaches and 3 Top 10 ( not mid-t evens to lower 20s) ? I’d love to see where Calhoun said that, or anything like that, by the way. My recollection is he said “it’s doable.”

 

[UCSouth]

Yeah except
A.we likely go the the NCAAs from that worse league had they not been cancelled by COVID.
B we won a national championship from that worse league
C that worse league sent a team to last year’s final four, while the top league in the country didn’t get anyone past the sweet 16.

It isn’t like UConn moved from the NEC to the ACC. We moved up to one notch. Hurley should just shut up and quit badmouthing everything that came before. Win at Least a league championship, maybe get to the round of 32, then tell us how hard it was. He becomes less and less likable every time he opens his mouth. Florida anyone?

"He becomes less and less likable every time he opens his mouth." Gee, sorta like you?

 

[ninety-nine]

Here's the bottom line -- all things considered, Hurley has done a solid job. We are in a much, much better place than when he inherited the program, and yesterday notwithstanding his team has been improved every year he has been here.

That having been said, after yesterday is it reasonable to wonder if he will end up being good enough for what UConn wants to accomplish? A month ago I would have said that question is not reasonable. That while he isn't where we want to be yet, the progress was clear enough that folks shouldn't be doubting it. But with this season in the books, are there reasonable fears about whether some of his coaching skills will be sufficient for us to be a consistent second weekend team? I think that's fair. (Asking if he'll win championships is not, by the way, but second weekend most of the time is.)

He will enter the next season with reasonable eyes watching him much more carefully, no doubt. And if Cole and Martin both leave, as many here expect, he's got some work in the portal to do, unless a lot of the highly rated recruits who haven't yet helped us are ready for major roles.

I keep thinking about the look on Jans' face when his team's draw against UConn was announced. I had hoped it was dismay initially, but thinking back on it, now I'm in agreement with the people who read it as him thinking he'd just hit the jackpot in terms of opponent draws. I think he knew UConn was ripe to be upset, and some of that has to be confidence that Hurley wasn't going to spring anything on his team that he couldn't prepare them for. I'm worried that this will become a trend - UConn is a team other teams hope to face when selections are announced, because Hurley can't elevate them for the tournament and it's a great shot to knock off a big-name school.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Would Ollie have won an NCAA tournament game by now with a veteran team led by James Akinjo (3rd team All-American) and Josh Carlton (1st team All-AAC)??

I tend to believe that Ollie could've won an NCAA game by now with that.

Cole (1st team All-BE) and Sanogo (1st team All-BE) aren't bad but I don't think that Hurley's results to date are untouchable for what Ollie would/could have done.

You think Carlton would have developed into a 1st team all-AAC under KO? lmfao

 

[8893]

Calhoun threw Hurley out of his office when he first got here because Hurley was whining about the state of the program. Calhoun told him it was his job to fix it.

Four years later and Hurley still hasn't learned that lesson. No one wants to hear it.

 

[HuskyinWRNY]

Just stop....be real, JC was not out on the recruiting trail at that age. He did not just give Ollie the job. Ollie earned, by recruiting, by helping come up with strategies, etc, etc.

they came because of jc, not ollie

 

[HuskyinWRNY]

Please! He won with guys who hardly played any meaningful minutes for JC. Minus Shabazz they all had much more bench time than court time. And they came off an APR year as well. Add to that he was on the staff and helped make the players better so the Ollie win with JCs players is old and off target.

they came because of jc not ollie