Is Hurley Really The Answer? | The Boneyard

Is Hurley Really The Answer?

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Sorry, just saw how long this is but couldn't help it.

I'm just a long time fan, never played the game, and don't know as much about the game as many people on this site. I've read all the hosannas for Hurley the past couple months and frankly wasn't sure about him in spite of so many people saying he's a good coach, able to recruit and how much his players love him. My doubts were based on the way they finished their season with a senior laden roster and it was disappointing to see how they struggled to beat OK, a team that did not deserve to be in. They also struggled mightily two years ago (17 and 15 in 2015-16) when E.C. Matthews was out for the year. Does Hurley get a pass for a bad year when his best player was out? I'm not defending Ollie due to injuries, but Hurley shouldn't get a pass either.

As I thought about it after today's game though, I was more positive about him because he's done well at Rhody, and at UConn would benefit from much better facilities and resources, coach in a better league and also have the aura of UConn's four championships to help him with recruiting. Plus, he has eight years experience as a head coach and has twice rebuilt programs............then I watched Buffalo dismantle Arizona.

Buffalo did it convincingly, going away, and Nate Oats (the head coach) was fired up at halftime saying they should have had a ten point lead instead of two (due to turnovers) and said we ought to win because we're just as good. He didn't give the polite first national TV interview. He was bold and he was right. They won by 21 and looked as if there was no doubt they would. The players were tough, prepared and confident and played that way the whole game.

A few days ago someone mentioned Nate Oats and I looked him up on Wikipedia and saw he's in his third year, now makes $355,500 per year, and had a rough start when he took over as head coach because Bobby Hurley took the second leading scorer to AZ ST when he left and the MAC player of the year was dismissed from the team along with two others for stealing $650 from football players.

His first two years he had winning seasons in the MAC (third each year), and overall, and this year had a major breakout finishing 15-3 (first) in the MAC and is now 27-8 overall. They lost at Cincinnati in November by six, and at Syracuse (by seven) and at Texas A&M (by sixteen) in December, so they weren't blown out, as badly as UConn repeatedly was, in any game this year. Meanwhile, Rhody lost at home to St. Joe's by 26.

So what, you might say. Oats is doing it with Bobby Hurley's players.......but no, that's not the case. Three of his four best scorers are underclassmen and the fourth is a transfer from Missouri who played for him in Detroit when he was a high school coach. Bobby hired him at Buffalo after watching him coach a number of games when he was recruiting EC Matthews for Rhody and he was given the head coach job after two years when Bobby left.

What about the future? Can he recruit? Well, he has two commitments for 2018 so far, a point guard from Orlando and a small forward from Napa, CA. The point guard is a three star with 20 offers, including USF, UCF, Florida State, New Mexico and ECU. The small forward is a four star with 18 offers, including GA Tech, Marquette, Minnesota, NC State, Pitt, Providence, Rhode Island, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Temple, and VA Tech. I guess he can recruit even at Buffalo with only three years experience in a mid-level league with facilities not likely matching those at UConn.

Why waste time chasing Hurley for $3 million? Maybe Oats is the next JC..............
 
Or maybe Oats is the next Stan Heath who has a hot year early in his head coaching career and parlays it into a middling career at Bigger schools. Not a great analogy as heath had a long assistant career at mich st, but whatever.

His resume is so short. You just don’t know if he’s capable of maintaining like Hurley has shown as multiple stops. If we whiff on Hurley maybe he’s a good plan b.
 
Minor point of clarification: SF from Napa is actually from Rochester and prepping at the same school as our buddy Vance Jackson.
 
Watched his postgame interview with SVP and was impressed. Won’t go into merits of his coaching record, but did notice that he just signed a contract extension 8 days ago.
 
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My bet is Benedict will go for the "safe" hire just as Manuel did when he hired Diaco. He'll probably feel it's too chancy to hire a guy with only three years as head coach, maybe largely because of how Kevin worked out, but Oats should at least be interviewed by the search firm. He sounded like one confident guy who knew his team was ready and knew they were going to win, and his recruiting record against some major teams is off to a great start for a school like Buffalo in a league like the MAC.
Sorry if I sound like his agent or his father but I really liked what I saw and heard tonight.
 
Stainmaster said:
Minor point of clarification: SF from Napa is actually from Rochester and prepping at the same school as our buddy Vance Jackson.
Expand ...

That may be why Oats knew of him and was able to sign him. It did seem pretty unusual for Buffalo to be able to recruit someone from Napa.
 
There is no 'The Answer'. There's a calculated risk. You take all the information available and place a bet on a coach.

I like Oats. Seen three games. They play good hard nosed basketball. He might even be a better basketball coach than Hurley. But that is just one aspect of running a major college basketball program.

At the end of the day, Hurley has earned his shot. He's put in the years and has the track record of success you are looking for. He's ready. Whether he succeeds or not will be up to him.

Nate is still very green. He looks like he will be successful. But he needs more seasoning, and a longer track record, to be the top option for a job. Nate may end up better than Hurley in the long run, idk, but that doesn't mean you don't give Hurley the job right now.

And if you want Oats to come, you'll probably have to offer that $3m anyway. He's a confident guy; he knows he'll get his shot over the next couple of years, so there's no point in settling for lower money just to get a gig. He and his wife apparently really enjoy Buffalo, he's just been elevated to one of the top paid coaches in that league, and in all his interviews, it sounds as if he'd like to stick around for awhile.
 
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Scrutiner said:
My bet is Benedict will go for the "safe" hire just as Manuel did when he hired Diaco. He'll probably feel it's too chancy to hire a guy with only three years as head coach, maybe largely because of how Kevin worked out, but Oats should at least be interviewed by the search firm. He sounded like one confident guy who knew his team was ready and knew they were going to win, and his recruiting record against some major teams is off to a great start for a school like Buffalo in a league like the MAC.
Sorry if I sound like his agent or his father but I really liked what I saw and heard tonight.
Expand ...


In what ways are Hurley and Diaco similar?

Hurley has 8 years head coaching experience at the college level, 9 years head coaching at a top Prep school. He took over a bad NEC team and made them good in 2 years and a bad Atlantic 10 team and has taken them to 2 Atlantic 10 championships and 2 NCAA 2nd rounds. He has beaten and played competitive against ranked teams, Power 5, and Big East teams.

Diaco had no head coaching experience. Other than that, totally similar.

We want to hire Oats based off a game? Arizona was underachieving most of the year. Needless to say I'll be interested to see how Coats/Hurley fare against Kentucky/Duke.
 
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Hurley has rebuilt multiple programs and consistently has teams that play great defensive via pressuring the ball.

Oats is offensive minded and has a very high tempo offense. It’s an attractive style for recruits with NBA aspirations. But Buffalo was already at a high point when Bobby Hurley left him the job. He’s never had to rebuild, and his name doesn’t carry quite the weight Dan Hurley’s does in the recruiting world.

Oats would need a great recruiter as an assistant, but he’d be a nice hire thinking long term. However, I’ll still take Hurley over him. Oats is still too green, despite his obvious talent. I would take him before Frank Martin, though. He’s #2 on my personal depth chart.
 
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No Oats isn't the answer.

And Hurley isn't either.

No one is - you take the best swing you have at the best pitch you have a chance to hit. Right now - Hurley seems like that guy.
 
When I heard his name and then saw his interview, i had two thoughts:

1) Wow, didn't expect him to be white.

2) Nate Oats sounds like a Mark Twain character name.

If Buffalo keeps playing man defense like that and shoots even close to what they did, they'll blow Kentucky out too.
 
Scrutiner said:
Sorry, just saw how long this is but couldn't help it.

I'm just a long time fan, never played the game, and don't know as much about the game as many people on this site. I've read all the hosannas for Hurley the past couple months and frankly wasn't sure about him in spite of so many people saying he's a good coach, able to recruit and how much his players love him. My doubts were based on the way they finished their season with a senior laden roster and it was disappointing to see how they struggled to beat OK, a team that did not deserve to be in. They also struggled mightily two years ago (17 and 15 in 2015-16) when E.C. Matthews was out for the year. Does Hurley get a pass for a bad year when his best player was out? I'm not defending Ollie due to injuries, but Hurley shouldn't get a pass either.

As I thought about it after today's game though, I was more positive about him because he's done well at Rhody, and at UConn would benefit from much better facilities and resources, coach in a better league and also have the aura of UConn's four championships to help him with recruiting. Plus, he has eight years experience as a head coach and has twice rebuilt programs..then I watched Buffalo dismantle Arizona.

Buffalo did it convincingly, going away, and Nate Oats (the head coach) was fired up at halftime saying they should have had a ten point lead instead of two (due to turnovers) and said we ought to win because we're just as good. He didn't give the polite first national TV interview. He was bold and he was right. They won by 21 and looked as if there was no doubt they would. The players were tough, prepared and confident and played that way the whole game.

A few days ago someone mentioned Nate Oats and I looked him up on Wikipedia and saw he's in his third year, now makes $355,500 per year, and had a rough start when he took over as head coach because Bobby Hurley took the second leading scorer to AZ ST when he left and the MAC player of the year was dismissed from the team along with two others for stealing $650 from football players.

His first two years he had winning seasons in the MAC (third each year), and overall, and this year had a major breakout finishing 15-3 (first) in the MAC and is now 27-8 overall. They lost at Cincinnati in November by six, and at Syracuse (by seven) and at Texas A&M (by sixteen) in December, so they weren't blown out, as badly as UConn repeatedly was, in any game this year. Meanwhile, Rhody lost at home to St. Joe's by 26.

So what, you might say. Oats is doing it with Bobby Hurley's players..but no, that's not the case. Three of his four best scorers are underclassmen and the fourth is a transfer from Missouri who played for him in Detroit when he was a high school coach. Bobby hired him at Buffalo after watching him coach a number of games when he was recruiting EC Matthews for Rhody and he was given the head coach job after two years when Bobby left.

What about the future? Can he recruit? Well, he has two commitments for 2018 so far, a point guard from Orlando and a small forward from Napa, CA. The point guard is a three star with 20 offers, including USF, UCF, Florida State, New Mexico and ECU. The small forward is a four star with 18 offers, including GA Tech, Marquette, Minnesota, NC State, Pitt, Providence, Rhode Island, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Temple, and VA Tech. I guess he can recruit even at Buffalo with only three years experience in a mid-level league with facilities not likely matching those at UConn.

Why waste time chasing Hurley for $3 million? Maybe Oats is the next JC....
Expand ...

I mentioned Oats.

I’ve been really impressed with him.

I admit he’s a bit raw, and he just started beating P5 for talent, but he seems like someone who could be special.
 
UConnStats said:
Hurley has rebuilt multiple programs and consistently has teams that play great defensive via pressuring the ball.

Oats is offensive minded and has a very high tempo offense. It’s an attractive style for recruits with NBA aspirations. But Buffalo was already at a high point when Bobby Hurley left him the job. He’s never had to rebuild, and his name doesn’t carry quite the weight Dan Hurley’s does in the recruiting world.

Oats would need a great recruiter as an assistant, but he’d be a nice hire thinking long term. However, I’ll still take Hurley over him. Oats is still too green, despite his obvious talent. I would take him before Frank Martin, though. He’s #2 on my personal depth chart.
Expand ...

I’m cool with Hurley. He also probably has the low floor.

Oats appears like he could have the higher ceiling.

But frankly it’s so hard to project how mid major coaches will recruit higher level players that it’s hard to say either way.
 
Remember when we were playing Buffalo in football every year and how we seemed to be playing down by scheduling them? If we had scheduled the Bulls in basketball this year we would have been beaten like rented mules. Most likely resembling the Northeastern UCONN game from the Perno vs Calhoun era. At halftime the media team mentioned how Buffalo put up big points in the second half as a rule and boy did they. That coach is someone to watch and if Hurley goes P5 then we should make a play for him. Watching that I also was wondering what has Ollie been doing the last 3 years.
 
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While I like the way Oats has Buffalo playing, let’s not assume that Hurley wouldn’t have UConn teams playing differently than his current URI team. What I want is a coach that understands and implements modern metrics and concepts, and knows how to turn players into a team. That requires flexibility in his approach. I would be fine with either of them.
 
I'm going to double check Wikipedia, but it also seems like Hurley may have a more established basketball network and connections, which could be a factor to potential recruits who want to get to the next level/NBA. (All respect to Oats who seems great.)
 
HuskyHawk said:
While I like the way Oats has Buffalo playing, let’s not assume that Hurley wouldn’t have UConn teams playing differently than his current URI team. What I want is a coach that understands and implements modern metrics and concepts, and knows how to turn players into a team. That requires flexibility in his approach. I would be fine with either of them.
Expand ...

I’m with you.

MattA would be nice if healthy, but I always thought Hurley and oats were more realistic options
 
Looking at Hurley team , he plays four guards , has 2 more on the bench , Ollie ran a 3 guard lineup but only had 3 guards, both teams get out rebounded , defensively their a lil better but they should be with a senior led team ... I’m not for all the hype ppl on the board tend to give him , but whatever the AD decides to hire , I just hope we win championships
 
Is Hurley the answer? Truth is, UConn will be very lucky to land him. I am holding my breath until it gets done because I am still skeptical it will, but when/if it does, he is absolutely the perfect fit for this program.
 
Ok guys, ive got 4 words for you :
Prisoners of the moment. His team blew out Arizona with their lame duck coach in a season that AZ never played up to their talent. Now if we lose out on Hurley I'd consider him but Hurley has to be the guy.
 
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