Is this a must win for Hurley?

[CTBasketball]

Took out the sentence I can't like

My apologies. Sometimes I have a toilet mouth.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

My apologies. Sometimes I have a toilet mouth.

It's probably that ass you ate in the other thread.

 

[Husky25]

This is a college sports-centric message board, where by my guess about 85% of the posters are north of 30 years old. If any of us were to "grow up," this entire forum would seize to exist.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I don't know if it is a "must win". Plenty of coaches take a little time to get their sea legs. Look at Ollie in his first NCAA Tournament.

 

[Tenspro2002]

"Must win" for what?

A must-win for him to keep his job? Of course not.

A must-win for him to avoid a reputation as a choker, uncomfortable media narratives, and a loss of credibility among fans? Yeah, you could make that argument.

 

[huskyinfl]

if we lose the boneyard should go offline for 24 hours.

 

[Kathy]

My apologies. Sometimes I have a toilet mouth.

No apologies needed- heard worse from the students I used to have.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

2 years ago Bouknight pulled stinkers in our BET semi and in the game against Maryland. Last year many of the veterans played poorly in the BET semis and against New Mexico St. We need our best players to have big games when it counts. But be that as it may the Iona game is a must win. Period.

Someone has to be to blame if your best players constantly don’t show up. And it’s not them if this always happens.

 

[metsfan2323]

Someone has to be to blame if your best players constantly don’t show up. And it’s not them if this always happens.

Yeah, it's the coaches fault Bouknight was recovering from elbow surgery (lost his shooting touch) and our point guard was concussed the week before playing Maryland.

That game was hardly an upset if you knew that going in.

 

[Leebo]

People use "must-win game" to mean "a game I really hope the team wins" so obviously people are going to agree.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Yeah, it's the coaches fault Bouknight was recovering from elbow surgery (lost his shooting touch) and our point guard was concussed the week before playing Maryland.

That game was hardly an upset if you knew that going in.

It was one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen in the NCAAs. You can make the excuses you want. How about the year after that? And then Hawkins and Andre’s no shows against Marquette?

We have to come to play this weekend. I hope Hurley has the guys prepared to do that.

 

[metsfan2323]

And then Hawkins and Andre’s no shows against Marquette?

We were one clutch shot away from winning that game even though those two players were no shows. Maybe Hurley coached a good game against Marquette.

I think UCONN fans forget sometimes that other teams have good players and are also trying to win. Which team had the conference POY playing for them? It wasn't UCONN.

 

[Candyman]

An early exit, i.e., before Elite Eight, and Hurley goes on the hot seat next year. UConn has shown an inability to win important games and the trend must stop.

This is just a bad statement. Its not easy to make it to the Elite 8 thats next level. Hurley has never been to the sweet 16. If we lose in round of 32 he won't be on the hot seat but the chatter from all the haters will be louder as we would lose to a lower seeded team 3 years in a row. Sweet 16 and he gets a contract extension.

 

[MexicoHusky]

I’m seeing so much talk in the national media (and among our fans) that this is a "must-win" for Hurley to get the "he can't coach in the tournament" off his back.

Frankly, I think that talk is ridiculous. Of course we want to advance as far as we can and take a step forward.

But I think this fanbase majorly loses sight of how difficult it is to win in the NCAA tournament because we've been so fortunate. And, more importantly, how a single game in the NCAA tournament is not indicative of the state of an entire college basketball program.

Let's look at what some other coaches around the country have attached to their names...

Coach K- Has lost to a 15-seed and a 14-seed.
Tony Bennett- The only coach to ever lose to a 16 seed. (Can you imagine this board if that happened????????)
Calipari- Hasn't won an NCAA tournament game since 2019. In that span, he's had a 9-16 team and has lost to a 15-seeded team from the MAAC.
Cooley- Took 11 seasons to get to his first Sweet 16 (yes, different expectations at PC, but he's still a revered coach in college, and has had the talent to get to multiple sweet 16s)
Self- (Who I think is clearly the best coach in the game right now) Has lost to multiple double digit seeds.

The list goes on and on. And for all of them, they're still revered coaches.

If we lose to Iona, yeah, it's going to suck. And sting. And the insufferable fans will come out and do their insufferable thing. And the narrative will still be that Hurley can't coach in the NCAA tournament, when in reality it's probably one player going off for 40 points and some players on our side getting tight in big moments.

But then the dust will settle. The months will go by. Some people will depart the program. We'll probably land a high end transfer or 2.
Then summer session rolls around before we know it. Our top 5 recruiting class will come onto campus, and the hype will potentially be at an all time high under Hurley.

So just enjoy the ride right now. We were probably one three pointer away from being in the Big East Championship game last week, and probably rolling a gassed Xavier. The narrative right now would've been totally different.

No matter what stupid takes you have if/when we lose in the next few weeks, the sun will still come up and we will still have a dynamite team next season with a dynamite coach whose seat remains quite cool.

Not really. I mean, it will extremely piss off the fanbase (especially me) if he were to lose to Iona. He'd be labelled a big-game underachiever by the press. But he's not going to get fired. The team/program is slowly getting better. And I don't think the University is in a great position to be firing coaches at the moment.

Worst case, I think a loss damages his prospects when it comes to resigning.... which I believe is years away.

So not really a must win as far as getting fired is concerned.

 

[Huskyforlife]

This is a must win. We know he won’t be fired regardless. But 5 years in with no tournament wins isn’t good enough. Especially since this years team has the talent to make the S16 minimum. At some point Kenpom and recruiting classes don’t cut it. Year 6 would be win, or best of luck.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

This is just a bad statement. Its not easy to make it to the Elite 8 thats next level. Hurley has never been to the sweet 16. If we lose in round of 32 he won't be on the hot seat but the chatter from all the haters will be louder as we would lose to a lower seeded team 3 years in a row. Sweet 16 and he gets a contract extension.

Imagine they make the Sweet 16 and then lose to #8 Arkansas? It'll be like the first weekend never happened. My favorite Boneyard myth is the idea of a "good loss."

 

[Tenspro2002]

It was one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen in the NCAAs. You can make the excuses you want. How about the year after that? And then Hawkins and Andre’s no shows against Marquette?

We have to come to play this weekend. I hope Hurley has the guys prepared to do that.

I'm more a believer in "Jimmys and Joes" here, yes, even across a few (though not a large sample) of groups of guys.

If Hawkins and Jackson spit the bit again, they may just be headcases. Like Bouknight. In such a scenario, Hurley's deficiency, if anything, is failing to identify leaders with the right intangibles.

But hopefully this is all moot come Monday.

 

[Scottobot]

Cincinnati fans used to complain all the time about how Cronin couldn’t win games in the tournament. All he did was get them to tournament every year. To have success in the tournament you need great players to win some close games for you. Also you need some luck. Now look at Cincinnati without him.

Regardless of what happens in the tournament I think Hurley has done a good job rebuilding the program, which has lead to getting better recruits. Next year he brings in his first top 25 player in Castle. This year we got Karaban and Clingan, who are a cut above the talent we had previously. Before that his success allowed him to get Jackson, Sanogo, and Hawkins, who were a cut above players he inherited from Ollie. Regardless oh what happens, this team is better than last year’s team.

If UConn loses this game I think it’s on the players not the coach. In particular I think it’s on the team captains to lead them to victory. I think Jackson, Sanogo, and Hawkins will lead us to victory.

UConn doesn’t need a brilliant coaching strategy to win this game. They just need their players to play loose and to do what they do. If we make to play Kansas, that’s where we need some killer strategy.

 

[NJHusky]

Someone has to be to blame if your best players constantly don’t show up. And it’s not them if this always happens.

It’s like if your kid fails a test…that’s on your kid. If every kid in the class fails a test, that’s on the teacher

 

[superjohn]

We had the people who cover the sport for a living calling us the best team in the country earlier in the season and now many of them have us in the final 4. A sweet 16 is all that's needed to get the monkey off Hurley's back and it's certainly not too much to expect. He's obviously not getting fired if he loses right away again but it will make for a miserable offseason and all that will matter is what he does this time next year. I'm not sure what you call this weekend but it will have a huge bearing on his coaching reputation nationally and at home. All of this stuff builds on itself, it's why we have threads like this. Just get it done.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Is it a must win in that he'll be fired if we lose? No

Is it a must win in that he needs to finally show he can win in March? Yes

The last 2 years are understandable losses in the NCAA tournament, this year there's no excuses

Couldnt have put it any better.

 

[Scottobot]

It’s like if your kid fails a test…that’s on your kid. If every kid in the class fails a test, that’s on the teacher

Disagree with that. I live in a city with some troubled areas that have great teachers working with large groups of kids who still can’t read in 4th or 5h grade. That’s not on the teacher.

 

[Scottobot]

What Hurley and this team are lacking is luck. Last 4 losses are by total of 9 points. A couple lucky bounces here or there and we win 2-3 of those. If that 40 point 3 pointer that Marquette doesn’t go in, we win that game. Never under estimate importance of some luck. We are due for it, and sooner or later we’ll get it.

In 2014, We we’re lucky to win first game on Brimah putback, 2011 Arizona missed wide open 3 at end of game.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I'm more a believer in "Jimmys and Joes" here, yes, even across a few (though not a large sample) of groups of guys.

If Hawkins and Jackson spit the bit again, they may just be headcases. Like Bouknight. In such a scenario, Hurley's deficiency, if anything, is failing to identify leaders with the right intangibles.

But hopefully this is all moot come Monday.

I feel like our fan base should know better than anyone how a coach can impact a player’s performance.

Caron, by all means, was a head case coming in. But we saw what the proper leadership and guidance did for him.

 

[Dove]

Later tonight, I'll scroll through this thread. But for now, I'll predict @UConnSwag11 posted 18 times.

:O