Is this a must win for Hurley?

[Excalibur]

I could be wrong, I just remember hearing his story and what he did at 16. He would thank Calhoun for steering him in the direction he went in though.

Lol at the revisionist history with Hawkins last year.

Revisionist? Was he not hurt? Was he not starting to play better before the concussion?

I noted in my earlier post that only the true degenerates had jumped ship already. Case in point.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Revisionist? Was he not hurt? Was he not starting to play better before the concussion?

I noted in my earlier post that only the true degenerates had jumped ship already. Case in point.

Revisionist history.

 

[UofCT]

Those are what ate known as excuses. Excuses don’t get it done. Results get it done

Patience is a virtue

 

[caw]

Revisionist history. View attachment 85134

As I said, not a world beater. He did however allow Martin to get rest and added another athletic body to the roster. He was at 15 minutes a game (including the games he came out early because of his concussion issues) and averaged 6 a game. Are you seriously implying he wouldn't have helped if healthy?

So if Clingan got injured and missed the tournament, not a loss I guess. I mean he's only at 13 minutes and 7 a game.

 

[superjohn]

As I said, not a world beater. He did however allow Martin to get rest and added another athletic body to the roster. He was at 15 minutes a game (including the games he came out early because of his concussion issues) and averaged 6 a game. Are you seriously implying he wouldn't have helped if healthy?

So if Clingan got injured and missed the tournament, not a loss I guess. I mean he's only at 13 minutes and 7 a game.

I don't want to get involved but I don't think Hawkins would've helped much, we all knew he had serious talent but he wasn't much of a player as a freshman. Between his lack of handles and lack of confidence it was a real struggle for him which made his sophomore jump impressive. Clingan is much better and far more impactful.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

As I said, not a world beater. He did however allow Martin to get rest and added another athletic body to the roster. He was at 15 minutes a game (including the games he came out early because of his concussion issues) and averaged 6 a game. Are you seriously implying he wouldn't have helped if healthy?

So if Clingan got injured and missed the tournament, not a loss I guess. I mean he's only at 13 minutes and 7 a game.

No that’s not what you said, “Not saying a team can't win without their best/significant player injured but if they don't it is a legitimate reason.”

There was no reason to lose to NM State. If we played are even C game we beat Maryland too. Here’s to us bringing our best against Iona because we cannot afford to have another clunker of a first round performance.

 

[Greathusky]

This "Hurley must win" talk reminds me of the burden JC carried for many years before winning the NC in 99.

Results do count but enjoy the journey too.

 

[superjohn]

Let's put this to rest, there was no good reason for UConn to lose to New Mexico State last season, that was a 5 vs.12 and we were heavily favored. I've seen Jordan Hawkins brought up many times here as to a reason/excuse why we lost and it doesn't hold water. New Mexico State was missing Donnie Tillman for that game, he averaged more minutes, more points, and was more efficient than Hawkins last season.

 

[NJHusky]

There’s only going to be one fan base that will be entirely happy with what happens this tourney. We have 4 national titles and we are going to be thrilled with just a Sweet Sixteen appearance? Here’s a question, would you feel worse after a loss to Iona than after our loss to George Mason. I’ll answer that for you. No. That loss still haunts me maybe because I was in a Virginia bar watching it with GM fans but that was terrible. Teams in lower ranked leagues are very capable of beating the big boys. We’ve seen this over and over in recent years, just ask Virginia.

This is well beyond one game. Yes , that one game sucked….but JC had already won 2 NC an NIT AND been to E8 and S16.

This game is about much more than just a game. If we lose its 3 cons 1/done as the favorite

so I disagree with your rhetorical answer. Losing this game shows a bad trend

 

[Kosta2005]

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.

It is not win or gone game for hurley. The recruiting class is fantastic. Fixes all our holes assuming everyone gone except karaban and clingan. I feel like hurley is coaching well, just awful pg play. The going to zone thing was awful too. I mean if we lose to St Mary's I will be really upset, and will feel free to insult his coaching.

 

[caw]

No that’s not what you said, “Not saying a team can't win without their best/significant player injured but if they don't it is a legitimate reason.”

There was no reason to lose to NM State. If we played are even C game we beat Maryland too. Here’s to us bringing our best against Iona because we cannot afford to have another clunker of a first round performance.

And it is a legitimate reason a team loses, especially when the other team has a player at their position going off.

Anyway, we aren't going to agree on this. Too much free time before the Iona game. Cheers.

 

[NJHusky]

This "Hurley must win" talk reminds me of the burden JC carried for many years before winning the NC in 99.

Results do count but enjoy the journey too.

How can u compare Jc Can’t win the NC to DH hasnt won single tourney game???

 

[Rico444]

Let's put this to rest, there was no good reason for UConn to lose to New Mexico State last season, that was a 5 vs.12 and we were heavily favored. I've seen Jordan Hawkins brought up many times here as to a reason/excuse why we lost and it doesn't hold water. New Mexico State was missing Donnie Tillman for that game, he averaged more minutes, more points, and was more efficient than Hawkins last season.

It's simple why they lost: New Mexico was a below average team shooting from 3 and they shot 65% against us. Not much chance when that happens.

 

[Husky25]

No doubt in my mind that if social media existed in the 90's the way it does now that this fanbase would have chased off Calhoun to another job. Absolutely no doubt it would have happened. It would have been exactly like the Cincy fanbase chasing off Cronin to UCLA.

Here's next year's starting lineup that you are sending to the portal if you think Friday is a "must win" with the implications involved in saying such a dumb thing:

Clingan,
Karaban
Jackson
Castle
and whoever wins the other back court position.

This thread reminds me of Buddy Ryan's Eagles tenure in the late 80s. He went to the playoffs three years in a row, but it wasn't their 31-17 regular season record in those years that got him fired.

Another post season loss will probably not get Hurley fired. If for no other reason, his buyout was $3M-$4.5M for this timeframe in the initial deal. I can't imagine he agreed to anything less in the 2021 extension. However, this is a must win game in terms of perception, whether it be fans/boosters/donors, recruits, media, or administration. It should not be a difficult concept to comprehend.

Two factors that put me immediately more at ease that they will win are:
1) Officials - It should be neither a Big East (for some reason still peeved about Bouknight from February '22.), nor MAAC crew, but am I hoping against hope that Hurley doesn't repeatedly call any of them, "Clowns?"
2) UConn's bench - In the prior two season, There was a noticeably sizable gap in both talent and offensive production between the starting 5 and subs. UConn's bench is longer as well. Nine players average more than 13 minutes and none are in the 30s. Only Seven and six players got significant minutes vs Maryland in 2021 and NMST last year, respectively.

 

[John]

This "Hurley must win" talk reminds me of the burden JC carried for many years before winning the NC in 99.

Results do count but enjoy the journey too.

not the same.

 

[Waquoit]

It wasn't can't win the natty for JC, it was can't make the Final Four. UConn had the record for most tourney appearances without one brfore 99.

 

[Dean Wormer]

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.

"Must win" always makes me think of another saying, like if a player is injured we say he's "day to day". Well in retrospect, aren't we all "day to day"? Hmmm...
It's a must win, until it isn't. Every coach and even players, goes through the same thing. As a kid I remember Wilt Chamberlain & Jerry West, Don Shula, Michael Jordan, Dean Smith, even JC, etc. getting stuck with the "he can't win the big one" tag. It's what fans do.
I think DH better win this game though or I'll be piling on with everyone else. No excuses, just win.

 

[Skies2018]

I’ll just say this as someone who was a freshman in 2014 the year after we won it all. In my 4 years in campus and 4-5 years since, I have not seen one tangible success besides the PKI. No BET no BE regular season, barely a second round NCAA game. I love this team I follow them religiously but younger fans don’t have the Calhoun nostalgia to hold on to. We need wins now. Big ones. So yeah if he loses to Iona I think his seat gets hot.

 

[Scottobot]

Some UConn fans are just ridiculous with their desire to boo and blame the head coach. Maybe some of you are not old enough to remember but the same booing and griping happened at start of Calhoun’s career.

Season 1 - UConn went 9-19, and all the boo birds said “bring back Dom Perno”

NIT championship season … 1 more loss and UConn would not have been eligible for NIT, and the boo birds were out again, until they made that run.

Season after NIT Championship, fans expected and demanded JC get UConn into NCAA. Team didn’t make it, losing some close games at end of season. Again the boo birds came out and said Calhoun is never going to get thing team into NCAA.

Then their was the dream season. They started that season awful losing to 2 bad teams in Alaska Shootout. Again the boo birds came out calling for Calhoun’s job.

Then something miraculous happened, Nadaev Henefeld, a foreign player, who most people thought wouldn’t even make the rotation emerges as a freshman as one of the best players in the country. He probably got 2-3 steals a game on defense and was a key cog in UConn’s full court pressure defense. He was an incredible passer. He made clutch outside shots, and a solid rebounder. Without him the dream season doesn’t happen, and perhaps the boo birds run JC out of town.

 

[CL82]

Cooley was right.

Cooley was just laying the groundwork to reignite a Georgetown UConn rivalry.

(Yep, he was already gazing longingly at the exit door in the middle of the season.)

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I’ll just say this as someone who was a freshman in 2014 the year after we won it all. In my 4 years in campus and 4-5 years since, I have not seen one tangible success besides the PKI. No BET no BE regular season, barely a second round NCAA game. I love this team I follow them religiously but younger fans don’t have the Calhoun nostalgia to hold on to. We need wins now. Big ones. So yeah if he loses to Iona I think his seat gets hot.

Woah no respect for the 2016 AACT Champions?!?

 

[Kathy]

It wasn't can't win the natty for JC, it was can't make the Final Four. UConn had the record for most tourney appearances without one brfore 99.

Still not the same as not winning a round 1 game in the tourney

 

[Tenspro2002]

It's simple why they lost: New Mexico was a below average team shooting from 3 and they shot 65% against us. Not much chance when that happens.

There's really nothing more to say than that.

"Hurley let one guy beat us!" OK, what about the other 4 guys who went a combined 7-10 from 3, including guys who shot 24%, 36%, 34%, and 37% on the year. Even Allen himself was a 34% shooter, went 4-7.

The game plan for defending the foul line was awful too (/s), we let him go 13/13 (an 18% occurrence even for an 88% shooter).

By shot quality, we were about 13 points better, a 20 point swing from reality.

It was just a Twilight-Zone type game. Freak occurrence. Still should have won, but it was way out on the tail of the distribution in terms of NMSU's performance.

Edit: I'm going to expand on this. Their made field goals were:

• stepback elbow jumper
• handoff 3 off a screen
• spot-up 3 off a pass
• contested fadeaway after drive was cut off
• post-up fadeaway from 16 feet
• contested pull-up 3 off the dribble
• corner 3 off an off-ball screen
• driving runner off glass
• extra pass off of pick and pop for open dunk
• spot-up corner 3
• stepback fadeaway from 18 feet
• spot-up corner 3
• pick and pop 3
• contested layup
• layup off a pick and seal
• semi-contested 3 off off-ball screen
• drive and dish dunk
• seal and layup
• pull-up contested 3 at end of shot clock
• 3 off elevator screen
• pull-up contested 3
• contested layup

About half of those the defense was right there and they just made difficult (bad) shots.

 

[auror]

Revisionist? Was he not hurt? Was he not starting to play better before the concussion?

I noted in my earlier post that only the true degenerates had jumped ship already. Case in point.

Revisionist history. View attachment 85134

I don't want to get involved but I don't think Hawkins would've helped much, we all knew he had serious talent but he wasn't much of a player as a freshman. Between his lack of handles and lack of confidence it was a real struggle for him which made his sophomore jump impressive. Clingan is much better and far more impactful.

He had that awesome Georgetown "homecoming" game where he drove to the rim, had a couple dunks with authority, and generally looked a lot more confident. People were hoping he was going to build on that to close the year, and then he immediately got hurt in the next game.

So revisionist history, yes and no. He HAD played better... but for one game.

 

[Skies2018]

Some UConn fans are just ridiculous with their desire to boo and blame the head coach. Maybe some of you are not old enough to remember but the same booing and griping happened at start of Calhoun’s career.

Season 1 - UConn went 9-19, and all the boo birds said “bring back Dom Perno”

NIT championship season … 1 more loss and UConn would not have been eligible for NIT, and the boo birds were out again, until they made that run.

Season after NIT Championship, fans expected and demanded JC get UConn into NCAA. Team didn’t make it, losing some close games at end of season. Again the boo birds came out and said Calhoun is never going to get thing team into NCAA.

Then their was the dream season. They started that season awful losing to 2 bad teams in Alaska Shootout. Again the boo birds came out calling for Calhoun’s job.

Then something miraculous happened, Nadaev Henefeld, a foreign player, who most people thought wouldn’t even make the rotation emerges as a freshman as one of the best players in the country. He probably got 2-3 steals a game on defense and was a key cog in UConn’s full court pressure defense. He was an incredible passer. He made clutch outside shots, and a solid rebounder. Without him the dream season doesn’t happen, and perhaps the boo birds run JC out of town.

Yeah exactly - we arent old enough to remember. That’s the problem. It’s been 9 years since we’ve lived up to our potential. We like to claim we hang with the blue bloods but for all the younger UConn fans out there and the kids at school now and the ones looking at UConn, we don’t see it. We get pain every year. It would be nice to make a single run in a decade - I don’t think that’s too much to ask for considering the banners on the walls.

So should he be fired if he loses to Iona? Idk.that’s complicated by recruiting and financials but at some point you actually have to do the damn thing.