Hurley's Achilles heel

[nycscooby]

Crushed Hawkins confidence? He plays regularly and has more minutes than our other freshmen. Then we rub his head and pat his back when he comes out. Not that it matters but I’m tired of this narrative.
The team has not preformed well on offense the last couple of games but we are second in the BE in scoring. Even in BE only games we are 3rd. Our issue in close games is other than an undersized Cole we have no one who can go one on one with their defender Except maybe Tyrese. They should clear out for Martin more and let him try although he’s not a great at the rim finisher. In hindsight and I know he’s young but maybe CFjr should have played this year.

Yes I think his confidence is way down. Just watch his body language. And how his teammates react to his mistakes. He is a border line rotation player at the moment. I wish it wasn’t the case but it is what it is… for now.

 

[tower1]

Hurley is a great coach, and I firmly believe he's THE RIGHT GUY for our program long-term. Having said that, it's fair to discuss areas for improvement.
For me, Hurley's biggest weakness, his "Achilles heel", is when the other team goes to a small line-up, as he ALWAYS feels compelled to match an opponent small-for-small.

Hurley appears to prioritize the team's defense, assuming he needs to match a small lineup defensively with our own small line-up to avoid mismatches against our bigs. However, by matching small-for-small, he ignores any offensive advantage we'd have with a big (like Sanogo) dominating the opponent's smaller lineup down low.

Our team's strength is the front court depth and offensive rebounding. Going small negates these strengths and hurts the team... it eliminates any rebounding advantage, puts our forwards out of position, and puts more pressure on our guards to break down defenders (which is a weakness for the team, outside of Cole). Hurley is essentially playing RIGHT into the opponents hands by matching-up small and letting them dictate OUR lineup and offense.

When opponents go small, Hurley should be punishing opponents by playing Sanogo... have him post up EVERY OFFENSIVE possession and feed him. Sanogo's shooting percentages are good enough to make them pay over time. He should force our opponent to adjust to us instead of the other way around.

Instead, Hurley continues to match small-for-small line-ups, and the team struggles. This is nothing new. Last night was yet another example in a long series of Hurley matching small-for-small lineups. Sanogo didn't shoot well last night (3-10) and didn't assert himself to get better position closer to the hoop, but he was missing for large stretches late in the second half last night with Creighton not playing a true center (injured). It's a simple fact that this team is better when Sanogo is playing.

Let's look back at some of the other recent instances last year where this occurred...

• L vs St. Johns (1/18/21): St. Johns did not have a true center, Hurley only played Sanogo 18 mins, absent most of the second half, despite dominating when in the game (12pts, 4 reb, 6-11 shooting). This resulted in a home LOSS in Gampel.
• 3x L vs Creighton ('21): Creighton rotated Mahaney (6'5"), and Ballock (6'5"), and Jefferson (6'5") at the 4 spot with Bishop (6'7") at center a lot. Kalkbrenner did come in for some minutes at center, but they played small most of the year in games against us. In 3 games vs Creighton, a freshman Sanogo only played 12 mins (5 pts, 4 reb, 2-4 shooting), 20 mins (13 pts, 5 reb, 5-9 shooting), and 21 mins (13 pts, 5 reb, 6-9 shooting). That's an average of <18 mins per game despite shooting ~60% from the field and grabbing ~5 rebounds. Obviously we got swept by Creighton last year, 3 LOSSES including the BET.
• L vs Villanova (2/20/21): Nova did not have anyone taller than 6'9" in their lineup this game. Sanogo only saw 20 mins (8 pts, 2 reb, 4-6 shooting). Loss vs Nova.
• L vs Maryland (3/20/21): Early first round exit from NCAA due to a bad match-up because Maryland EXCLUSIVELY played SMALL. Their tallest guys were 6'7" (Donta Scott) and 6'8" (Jarius Hamilton). Sanogo only played 16 minutes (!?!) despite the fact he had 2-3 inches on Maryland's tallest player. Granted, he didn't shoot great (2-7, 4 pts, 4 reb), but he needed more than 16 mins. He sat on the bench for long stretches in the second half as our season ended.

Despite this evidence of poor play and losing when going small, Hurley is as stubborn as they come and continually sitting Sanogo in those scenarios.

Opposing teams will start to scout this and take advantage, regardless of their depth at center. It's already hurt us repeatedly with no adjustment. Will that change moving forward, or will we blame another early NCAA exit on a bad match-up?

REALLY ??

 

[donyell34]

We tend to forget Hurley has never coached at this level. He is facing coaches who have coached in major conferences for decades. He's still growing and learning. Isn't this why we have JC hanging around the program?

I believe that Dan Hurley would benefit from having an older X & O guy, his version of Blaney, on the bench.

I agree Pal and I'm all in with Hurley but I see many posts saying he's still growing and learning which should always be important no matter how long you've been coaching but he’s had ample experience, 2 years at Wagner, 6 at Rhody and now in his 4th year at Uconn plus years grinding in the high school ranks just saying he's got experience .

 

[husky429]

We tend to forget Hurley has never coached at this level. He is facing coaches who have coached in major conferences for decades. He's still growing and learning. Isn't this why we have JC hanging around the program?

I believe that Dan Hurley would benefit from having an older X & O guy, his version of Blaney, on the bench.

That guy is already on the bench.

 

[mauconnfan]

That guy is already on the bench.

I saw the OT and thought Dan Hurley was injured and we were seeing Kamani run it tomorrow

I’m scared of this matchup but hope we see the real Huskies and I have some crow with cold ones to wash it down by 2:30.

 

[gtcam]

We tend to forget Hurley has never coached at this level. He is facing coaches who have coached in major conferences for decades. He's still growing and learning. Isn't this why we have JC hanging around the program?

I believe that Dan Hurley would benefit from having an older X & O guy, his version of Blaney, on the bench.

I have said for 3 years that Dan Hurley needs a mentor. It is very risky to bring any coach into this level that has little experience at the level but even more so is having a guy who is so unwilling to change or seek consultation from an experienced person who worked this level. His father is not the answer at all. Regardless what the OP said, Dan Hurley is far far away from being an excellent coach. He has the potential if he decides to throw out the ego and do the things he needs to do to make himself an effective game coach. He can recruit because of the inherent advantages the NBE and his family name lends him. It’s fantastic to bring in big name recruits but it’s what you do with them when they get here that counts. There’s time to find the right rotations, work on set pieces and work on those late game yips but it starts now. This team in my eyes, is too good to lose the way that they have yet at times it’s the not the talent that loses the game.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I have said for 3 years that Dan Hurley needs a mentor. It is very risky to bring any coach into this level that has little experience at the level but even more so is having a guy who is so unwilling to change or seek consultation from an experienced person who worked this level. His father is not the answer at all. Regardless what the OP said, Dan Hurley is far far away from being an excellent coach. He has the potential if he decides to throw out the ego and do the things he needs to do to make himself an effective game coach. He can recruit because of the inherent advantages the NBE and his family name lends him. It’s fantastic to bring in big name recruits but it’s what you do with them when they get here that counts. There’s time to find the right rotations, work on set pieces and work on those late game yips but it starts now. This team in my eyes, is too good to lose the way that they have yet at times it’s the not the talent that loses the game.

I don’t know about all this. Calhoun went from Dedham high to Northeatern to UConn. What I agree with is the ego. The hubris. Being a Hurley is something Calhoun never had. Dan needs to check that at the door. He hasn’t and a range of people have coached circles around him as a result. Some humility would serve him well. He’s not maximizing his roster.

 

[Watchdog]

We tend to forget Hurley has never coached at this level. He is facing coaches who have coached in major conferences for decades. He's still growing and learning. Isn't this why we have JC hanging around the program?

I believe that Dan Hurley would benefit from having an older X & O guy, his version of Blaney, on the bench.

So you want to make Dan Hurley the UConn equivalent of Hardaway and Howard?

If he was embarrassed by the performance against Creighton, imagine how he'd feel if we had to put training wheels on him and put our version of a Brown or Martelli on the bench.

It was my impression we hired a solid, well prepared coach to lead the resurrection of the program, ALTHOUGH any coach should have enough self confidence and awareness to listen to others at times.