Hurley Threads (merged)

[Hillhouse]

Read the section of Gavin Keefe's pre-game article about UConn in yesterday's New London Day below.
Two things jump out - 1. Ollie's termination was determined to be w/o cause resulting in a $11mm payday for him and 2. Ollie won a National Championship from the 7th spot in 2014.
Before Hurley opens his mouth again, he should put some positive numbers on the board.

"This group will always be remembered for lifting this program from a really, really embarrassing, bad point....," Hurley said. "It's not easy coming from a worst league with a bad team to one of the best leagues in the country and playing at the top of the conference two years in a row, getting to the (Big East tournament) semis and being a hair away from playing for a championship Saturday, going to back-to-back NCAA tournaments from where we were in the AAC."

Really? Go win your first game at the dance for UConn before you say another peep!

Exactly he’s not coaching up to UConn standards a horrible X and Os coach

 

[metsfan2323]

It became a problem. His own players tranferred out. The Prince Ali and MAL decommittments. Kwintin Williams fiasco, Lukas Kisunas? It got pretty bad. The roster and recruiting got worse as time went on.

Players transferring out en masse is not a recruiting problem it's a coaching problem. Ollie was mailing it in and the players recognized it.

 

[HungryHuskies]

I assume majority of the people complaining didn't watch UConn from 2016ish-2018.

Give it some more time. Back in the Big East, Top 25 program this year, great recruiting classes. Hurley is still a fairly young coach, there's gunna be games he gets outcoached, its all a process.

 

[Madmannsucks]

Ollie won with mainly Calhoun's guys

This has zero relevance. It is a tired old phrase. HE coached them...period. Guess we can go through history and every 1st or 2nd year coach....I mean Calhoun won the NOT with Perno's guys.

 

[Madmannsucks]

It became a problem. His own players tranferred out. The Prince Ali and MAL decommittments. Kwintin Williams fiasco, Lukas Kisunas? It got pretty bad. The roster and recruiting got worse as time went on.

Kwintin was recruited off youtube. That never works...well, unless you don't count Journey.

 

[Improviser]

I’ve said it before. Hurley’s greatest asset is as a recruiter. He seems stubborn and unable to adjust in game. He’s going to need top 5 recruiting classes to make up for his coaching. And that’s ok if you are far superior athletically.

Sounds like a take on the old adage about in spite of and not because of.

In other words, if the players are good enough and athletic enough, maybe they can win in spite of, and not because of, the coach.

Maybe Hurley is not as much stubborn as he is unable to make in game adjustments on the fly. Maybe he is risk averse, rather than stubborn. Not playing Diggs and SJ more may have been a risk averse thing, rather than a stubbornness trait.

IDK really which one it is.

 

[metsfan2323]

I assume majority of the people complaining didn't watch UConn from 2016ish-2018.

Give it some more time. Back in the Big East, Top 25 program this year, great recruiting classes. Hurley is still a fairly young coach, there's gunna be games he gets outcoached, its all a process.

Yup, by all reasonable standards Hurley's first four years here have been successful. Calhoun's amazing success and Ollie's fluke title has generated much entitlement amongst this fanbase. We are an unreasonable group to say the least.

 

[UConnSwag11]

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.

You’re going to hear the “look how far we’ve come” for awhile as a justification for poor play

 

[UConnSwag11]

Ollie won with mainly Calhoun's guys

He still won and didn’t make any excuses

 

[UConnSwag11]

What does the AAC have to do with this? New Mexico State is in the WAC. The measuring stick is the WAC. The AAC's teams are still alive and will probably go further than many (or all) of the NBE teams.

Helps deflect from bad in game coaching.

 

[metsfan2323]

He still won and didn’t make any excuses

True, he just blamed his collapse on Glenn Miller and fired him.

 

[UCfor3]

Players transferring out en masse is not a recruiting problem it's a coaching problem. Ollie was mailing it in and the players recognized it.

Im aware. He had both trouble retaining his own recruits and them later getting good ones. I lumped them in.

 

[businesslawyer]

It became a problem. His own players tranferred out. The Prince Ali and MAL decommittments. Kwintin Williams fiasco, Lukas Kisunas? It got pretty bad. The roster and recruiting got worse as time went on.

K. Williams? Who cares if your last man is someone good. If it’s someone with a lot of potential, the board complains that they’re not playing enough. And if it’s someone who isn’t good enough to ever make an impact, we ask why don’t we have young kids not ready yet but who if we sat them a few years might be good.

Adams and Enoch was a good enough class. The class after it, on paper, was unbelievable. Getting Purvis and Gibbs and Miller were great. EVen the last year, with everything falling apart, Akinjo — and all conference level player and important starter on a top ten team — wanted to come here.

Every coach has recruiting failures. Even Calhoun. KO’s recruiting was not the problem. The problem is that whatever changed with him, whether his divorce or something else or just picking kids who were entitled, kids didn’t want to play hard for him and take order. I’m not excusing that. While I’ll always think we pulled the plug quickly given the natty, I understand why and I don’t think he was going to turn us around quickly. But recruiting was the least of his problems.

 

[NJHusky]

Sounds like a take on the old adage about in spite of and not because of.

In other words, if the players are good enough and athletic enough, maybe they can win in spite of, and not because of, the coach.

Maybe Hurley is not as much stubborn as he is unable to make in game adjustments on the fly. Maybe he is risk averse, rather than stubborn. Not playing Diggs and SJ more may have been a risk averse thing, rather than a stubbornness trait.

IDK really which one it is.

Much more eloquently said

 

[Chief00]

This may be the off-season of the portal?

 

[Madmannsucks]

Helps deflect from bad in game coaching.

Yes. For no good reason, he took a swipe at Ollie. Guessing he is frustrated because he lost a game in the tourney for the 2nd year in a row., to a team he should have beaten. They were flat in the early stages, they were outhustled most of the game, and he was outcoached. All those things fall squarely on his shoulders. If he was really feeling like "look how far we've come" after this loss....then he is clearly not the right guy for this job.

 

[UC4L]

Don’t forget Ollie did this largely with Calhoun’s recruits.

Don’t forget assistant coaches do a lot recruiting…..

 

[Dean Wormer]

He's trying to use the failures of the last administration as his go-to and to explain his own administrations fails. We see it in politics all the time. That usually works for the first couple of years until he starts to build his own track record. This is year 4, so enough with the it's Ollie's fault crap.
He's a good recruiter who acts like a maniac on the court, and whose team seem to tighten up in pressure games. That's not an Ollie problem, that's a DH problem. How about sucking it up and admitting you have more work to do?

 

[auror]

He's trying to use the failures of the last administration as his go-to and to explain his own administrations fails.

The quote is from before the loss.

 

[AntG168]

He's trying to use the failures of the last administration as his go-to and to explain his own administrations fails. We see it in politics all the time. That usually works for the first couple of years until he starts to build his own track record. This is year 4, so enough with the it's Ollie's fault crap.
He's a good recruiter who acts like a maniac on the court, and whose team seem to tighten up in pressure games. That's not an Ollie problem, that's a DH problem. How about sucking it up and admitting you have more work to do?

And his track record is pretty damn good on its own merrit. He’s been successful so far by any objective eye. This was the first season that ended shy of expectations. There is no pattern yet. His first 2 years he lacked talent severely.

 

[cohenzone]

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’s teams including his NC team were crazy Inconsistent within games and from game to game. The intensity level was random. People act like Hurley drove a NC contender into the ground. There are things to question, like never using certain players or maybe not bringing in good enough shooters, but this offensively challenged team was out of exactly one game all year.

 

[tentoes4rings]

One thing I'll say about Hurley: I never want to see anyone post that ridiculous "Come get us now" video until he makes a deep tournament run. I promise you nobody's considering UConn a juggernaut of the league when they can't win a Big East regular season or tournament title or even an NCAA tournament game.

It looks completely classless to emphasize just how embarrassing the program was before he got here. I understand the intent to praise the kids who dug the program out but there’s a much classier way to do it. Should fans be frustrated for no results in March when Hurley himself said two years ago teams better get us now, or earlier this year that when we got healthy we’d be “monsters”? Talk less Dan, produce more.

 

[GotNets?]

Cmon, the first several years are ok but nothing special. Musselman won 20 games, below 500 in the SEC in his first year. How about year 2? Elite 8!

Watch what he does with this joke New Mexico State team. They’re up 16-11 now…. Just wait. Maybe I’ll eat my words of course but just wait….

 

[Madmannsucks]

True, he just blamed his collapse on Glenn Miller and fired him.

Notice how NO ONE came calling for Miller to resume his career.

 

[Conquistador]

Until he is willing to admit he is wrong, he made a mistake and he is changing his approach I think a lot of people are going to be frustrated when he underperforms.

Exactly!!