It’s hard to be that unprepared for a game. | Page 4 | The Boneyard

It’s hard to be that unprepared for a game.

AntG168 said:
I don’t think it’s coaching as much as it is roster construction.
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You could count 3 major mistakes in the last 60 seconds including inbounding with nobody flashing to mid court wasting 6 seconds with Ce fighting his way up the court, failing to take a TO on a key possession resulting in a huge turnover, and failing to double Allen on inbounds and forcing the foul on others. A terrible offensive game plan with players standing around the 3 point line deleveraging our rebounding. Failing to push the floor. Failing to deny Allen’s dominant hand all game. The guy sucks. Big mouth. No results. If he had the 5 best players in the country, he would screw them up and couldn’t get it done.
 
husky429 said:
Blaming the kids is ridiculous. They were energized as hell for this game. Dreaming about it since they were toddlers. Teams lose energy naturally in the flow of the game. When you're losing to an inferior team, of course you're deflated. Good coaches use timeouts, play calls, and personnel management to keep their guys energy up and keep them focused.
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Energized?, what game were you watching? The energy came when we were down and fought back. There was absolutely no energy that first half, none.
 
AntG168 said:
I don’t think it’s coaching as much as it is roster construction.
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Exactly. He has made the adjustment. He is recruiting more basketball players like Clingnan, Karaban and Diggins than Athletes who play basketball like Whaley. When I look at the upcoming recruiting I am very pleased with Hurley. Getting a great playmaker like Castle this early is huge
 
uconngb said:
I have preached this all year and it ultimately ended our season. When you start a game with 2+ players that are so offensively deficient you are putting yourself behind the 8 ball EVERY game. We have a very stubborn, and unproven, coach.

Not a good mix
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Agree with this. Offense was stagnant to start but the construction of our lineup lends itself to these slow starts. I love all our starters individually but we really were playing with a 1, two 3’s, and two 5’s in today’s college game.

That being said, they hit some ridiculous shots and the last foul on that crappy Allen shot when we were down 1 really hurt us. But we can’t let it get to that point.
 
auror said:
Until FTs at the end, we outscored them by 11 in the 2nd half. We were scoring at will down the stretch.
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Right, we made adjustments. It just can’t take until halftime. We never should have been down 14. Thats the difference between a mediocre coach and a good coach.
 
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Two more hot takes since this is going to inevitably be a hot take thread given that we're all frustrated right now. As I've noted I really do like Hurley and believe he is the long term answer. That throat-clearing aside:

1) He has to stop talking about how he "rebuilds" programs and has this storied formula that he has implemented everywhere he's gone. He won games at Wagner and URI. He talks like he's Antonio Conte who turns a club completely around, wins actual trophies, and then leaves because he fights with upper management. That analogy won't land unless you're a soccer fan.

2) For having a last name that is such a "brand" when it comes to coaching, he has incredible deficiencies in strategy and tactics. I knew that Calhoun was not going to get outsmarted in a big game. I do not, shall we say, share the same confidence in Hurley.

But I do like the guy a lot!
 
Stinger92860 said:
When you start Sanogo, Whaley, and Jackson the defense can drop and let Whaley and AJ shoot. And try play RJ and Martin tight. This is why we start slow. I would have started Polley and brought in AJ or Whaley off the bench. It seems Dan Hurley refused to make any changes. I was not a believer when we beat Nova, but not having Dan Hurley on the sideline may have been a benefit.
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It definitely was
 
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InTheRed said:
You mean their best player played like a great player? Calhoun would have focused his entire game plan on stopping him. It was like Hurley didnt know who was on the other team.
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Should have doubled him and made him give up the ball but let’s face it the rest of their team shot 7-10 from three. Not going to beat many teams that go 11-17 from three, especially when you come out like you’re sleepwalking in the first half. Not sure even JC could get these veterans to respond. Also with Hawkins out we basically have a 6 player rotation. Nobody to put in to replace those that didn’t come ready to play.
 
It starts and ends with recruiting and roster construction. RJ Cole has been the best player for UConn all season. We would've had a DePaul like season if it wasn't for him. Don't get me wrong. He is a beast and played his heart out. Athletically though while he has been the best player on the floor for UConn, most times he wasn't the best player on the floor. I know that he played at St. Anthony's and that whole Dad/Danny/Bobby legend of NJ high school hoops thing. But you've got to get players that are dominant at their position if you want to make tournament runs. We saw the Brendan Adams saga play out. Tyrese Martin is a phenomenal A10 player and decent Big East player. But come on...Caron Butler, Ray Allen, Jeremy Lamb. Those are the types of players that get you deep into the tournament. Bouknight gave us a taste, but Hurley has to recruit the best player that can win games, not fulfill some fantasy ideation of a team his Dad would be proud of. High major basketball is so far removed from HS prep programs they are not in the same league.
 
BigFanCT said:
Jesus c hrist it was roster construction when Adams was on the team, it was roster construction the year after with Vital…..when do the excuses stop?
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Excuses? How is saying he constructed the roster poorly an excuse? It’s a knock on him. He should have known having one shot creator/pg was a recipe for failure. He should’ve know you can’t play Whaley, Sanogo, and Jackson together and expect a high level offense.
 
Drfla said:
Should have doubled him and made him give up the ball but let’s face it the rest of their team shot 7-10 from three. Not going to beat many teams that go 11-17 from three, especially when you come out like you’re sleepwalking in the first half. Not sure even JC could get these veterans to respond. Also with Hawkins out we basically have a 6 player rotation. Nobody to put in to replace those that didn’t come ready to play.
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The 2nd half we did focus on him (I mean we did in the first half too, he was 0/6 to start). We were blitzing his PnRs and forcing him into deep 3s and off the dribble step back 2s.

He just made a bunch. He made one from the logo in the 2nd half. And then we stupidly fouled him on 2 3-pointers.
 
Go_Huskies said:
Exactly. He has made the adjustment. He is recruiting more basketball players like Clingnan, Karaban and Diggins than Athletes who play basketball like Whaley. When I look at the upcoming recruiting I am very pleased with Hurley. Getting a great playmaker like Castle this early is huge
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The roster is flawed and that's on Hurley. You can't go into a season starting 2 players who can't score and having only one guard who can handle and break down a defense.

More troubling is that he comes up so small in the biggest moments. The team was totally unprepared and he wouldn't even use his timeouts to change things up and stop the bleeding. The non timeout at the end when RJ was right in front of him, there's no excuse for not calling a timeout there. When you have only one player who can beat you, you have to change things up so that he doesn't beat you and we've seen this happen over and over.

No excuses for next season, it's all his players, we simply have to have a much better constructed roster and he has to show he can win a tournament game.
 
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Hurleys best call of the game was switching to zone in last four minutes. Completely perplexed Allen and sanogo bum rushes him with a second left on the shot clock

After that a few non fouls against Andre on Allen’s drive to the left side and the and 1 on the untouched reverse

33% shooting team shot 65% on high volume and tough shots, plus 100% from the FT line. Just not gonna beat a team like that shooting like we did tonight
 
He’s unquestionably coming back so as awful as today is, you just have to take a breath and realize Hurley has turned the program around, albeit while falling short of everyone’s goals.

Hurley is not a good offensive coach. Never has been. Best way to get around that is to recruit shooters. Hurley can teach just about anyone to defend, but he can’t teach people how to score. Find scorers. Ollie couldn’t coach offense to save his life either, but the one year he has shooting he won a natty.

To me this was as obivous a year ago from today as it is now. But will he actually do something about it? Don’t tell me you don’t want transfers, you need them. And by the way, you just got absolutely obliterated by a kid who has transferred 40 times and I think NMSU feels fine about their culture right now.
 
Its not only the lack of in-game adjustments that kills me but also the lack of adjustments Hurley refused to make over an entire season. I feel like this team didn’t improve one bit this season. I felt like I was watching a team play their first game of the season tonight. Hurley’s stubbornness lost us the game tonight and a few games this season. I think he belongs here and can do good things with this program but he has to learn how to adapt and quickly.
 
husky429 said:
They aren't the better team. We had more talent at 4 of the 5 positions on the floor. They executed better, had more focus, adjusted better, ran better sets, mixed up their defense, etc. We were unprepared AGAIN for a big game.
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Sure. Blame the coaches. Players weren’t ready to play. This loss is on them, not the coaches. NMSU was pumped and ready, our players NOT
 
husky429 said:
They aren't the better team. We had more talent at 4 of the 5 positions on the floor. They executed better, had more focus, adjusted better, ran better sets, mixed up their defense, etc. We were unprepared AGAIN for a big game.
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NMSU was the better team today.
 
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tuvent08 said:
Two more hot takes since this is going to inevitably be a hot take thread given that we're all frustrated right now. As I've noted I really do like Hurley and believe he is the long term answer. That throat-clearing aside:

1) He has to stop talking about how he "rebuilds" programs and has this storied formula that he has implemented everywhere he's gone. He won games at Wagner and URI. He talks like he's Antonio Conte who turns a club completely around, wins actual trophies, and then leaves because he fights with upper management. That analogy won't land unless you're a soccer fan.

2) For having a last name that is such a "brand" when it comes to coaching, he has incredible deficiencies in strategy and tactics. I knew that Calhoun was not going to get outsmarted in a big game. I do not, shall we say, share the same confidence in Hurley.

But I do like the guy a lot!
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Well said
 
husky429 said:
Can we attempt to keep the Hurley debate in one thread? It may be an impossibility on this board, but I figured it's worth a shot.

My thoughts are all over the place, and feel free to critique...

1.) Hurley probably deserves to be in the hot seat next year. He does a lot of things well, but we are a team that expects to win in the tournament. 0 wins in 4 years is unacceptable. Period. Rebuild or not.

2.) He also is probably NOT on the hot seat, because we don't have the money for it.

3.) Either he doesn't know how, or his emotions get in the way, of Hurley making adjustments and coaching well in close games. Yes, the players missed shots. Yes, we didn't defend all that well. But when the team consistent lays eggs in close games and tournament games, it's on the COACH.

4.) The refusal to play a zone early this season when we could practice it with lower stakes cost us big time. The inflexibility on defense kills us. Our strategy is not much more nuanced than "play harder than the other team"... that works A LOT of the time. That doesn't work against teams like Creighton, Nova, and certainly not in big tournament games. Everyone is prepared. Everyone knows your playbook

5.) We recruited well, but made some mistakes. We expected Gaffney to contribute more than he did. I'm not sure we can blame the staff for that. Same with the Whaley/Sanogo thing... they don't play well together, but ultimately they're two of our best players and they do need to see the floor. Even if they don't mesh well.
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Absolutely perfect assessment.
 
We started the season with the a great roster construction. Unfortunately Gaffney and Akok had disappointing seasons and Hawkins got a concussion. The pieces were there.
 
superjohn said:
The roster is flawed and that's on Hurley. You can't go into a season starting 2 players who can't score and having only one guard who can handle and break down a defense.

More troubling is that he comes up so small in the biggest moments. The team was totally unprepared and he wouldn't even use his timeouts to change things up and stop the bleeding. The non timeout at the end when RJ was right in front of him, there's no excuse for not calling a timeout there. When you have only one player who can beat you, you have to change things up so that he doesn't beat you and we've seen this happen over and over.

No excuses for next season, it's all his players, we simply have to have a much better constructed roster and he has to show he can win a tournament game.
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It’s funny because all we wanted from Hurley this season is a SINGLE tournament win. We went in the higher seed, with the better overall talent. This should’ve been a layup for our trajectory as a program. It was right there for the taking. And we wet the bed in the most embarrassing way. Hurley needs to look in the mirror. You can have transfers and a culture. Look at PC. He needs to throw feelings to the side this off-season and bring back a superior team. The clock started ticking tonight.
 
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