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

[uconngb]

Hurley cannot shoot the ball, dribble the ball, rebound or defend for his players - I fully understand that so lets get that out there now

However, Hurley can prepare his team for the game, understand the opponents strengths and weaknesses and make adjustments
He did none of these things today and for the most part all season
He is a great recruiter, his name gets him into many doors and he obviously can close the deal. Being in the NBE is a bonus.
He is a ineffective Xs and Os coach and his player management/usage is more than questionable

Everyone knew that NMSU is a one man team yet that one player, who is not a great basketball athlete, goes crazy and scores more than half his teams points. Nobody else on that team is going to beat anyone. Period. Where was Hurley's plan to stop that big mouthed punk?
Yeah he hit some "blow it out your arse" shots but not 37 points worth - as one ESPN radio commentator said - someone on that UConn staff didn't do their homework - inexcusable
The opposing coach saw something I have been talking about all season. Uconn's bigger players, with the exception of Whaley, do not hit the boards with conviction. What did he do? sent everyone crashing the offensive boards keeping Whaley away and came away with a lot of boards - that was a killer. They also cut off UConn's head - Cole. A lot of teams had tried but these guys effectively did it for the most part.

It confuses me why there were no apparent defensive adjustments made during this game - no wrinkle in the defense to even try to stop that punk and nothing on offense to try to drum up production. Last I heard on Tuesday morning was Hawkins was able to play. The fact that he didn't step on that court is ridiculous. DH's decision not to play his freshmen early in the season was and could prove to be a huge mistake.

This is a completely avoidable loss. Anyone who says NMSU is the better team is either certifiable or just fooling themselves. They had the best player on the court (on this night) but that one player should not beat a team like UConn.

Hurley and Sanogo have a lot to think about this offseason. 0-2 in your only NCAA games, both being the higher ranked team has gotten other coaches on the hot seat or even out the door. I am not saying at all that Hurley should be fired but he is being paid a whole ton of money to be producing these results. If AD David Benedict has any brains and guts (huge question) there should be a coming to God discussion on the table.

On to next season..........................................................

When I am agreeing with you I KNOW there are serious problems

 

[AntG168]

Seems like Rese is gone

 

[UncleSpliff]

We were prepared. NMSU was just the better team

The same team that got beat by a team called “Sam Houston st” by 40 points is better than us? I think not….

 

[HuskyHawk]

Carlton wasn't being compared to Whaley or Polley. He played the exact same role as Sanogo, and Sanogo was better and younger.

Both first team all-conference.

Of course. The point is even before Sanogo Hurley strugggled with Carlton because he can’t play Hurley D. He wouldn’t adjust.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

That's a very good point on Carlton. I thought he was pretty bad and was regressing and then he goes to Houston and Kelvin Samspon has him playing great. That's an indictment on Hurley.

I saw Carlton make a comment that Sampson had him doing a lot of repetitive “touch” drills working on post moves and finishes with both hando turning both directions. His point was that this was completely different than how it was at UConn.

You have to develop skills that you want players to use. Light bulbs seldom just turn on by themselves.

 

[uconngb]

Hurley does not deserve to be on the hot seat. He's a good coach with CRYSTAL clear strengths and weaknesses, but we've gone to the tournament two years in a row and ultimately that is the measurement like it or not. In time with more recruiting, roster tweaks, improving in-game coaching and demeanor we will be good for a long time. And he recruits like a monster and gets who he wants. I think the bigger problem is IDing who he wants better, and understanding his coaching weaknesses and having a plan to improve now that they are clear.

Strenghts -

1. the Dude can recruit. He wants a guy, he usually gets him. In some ways I think this is his problem at UConn. He gets to UConn and now he can recruit a bunch of athletic monsters that he couldn't touch at URI, so he gets a stable of them and doesn't worry so much about fit/style/traits. Cuz at URI you get a stud you can give him 35 minutes a game from day 1, and he'll develop fast and with the confidence that he is the MAN at URI. That alone will bring you success at URI, Wagner, etc, cuz if you are a killer recruiter at mid major you can really just out-talent people like the UConn Women do. If there's enough of a talent gap through recruiting nothing else matters at a mid-major school. You win 1 or 2 ok out of conference games, go 18-3 in your conference and you are a god. At UConn, you are at the top level of talent, the gaps are not there when you get to the top 25 teams, so roster management, in-game coaching ability, system, all plays a much more impactful role on success. That's new for him, we'll see if he can figure it out but now its a real struggle.

2. Effort/tenacity - no one will say this guy doesn't get his players to give max effort, sorry. They always fight, always play hard. There is massive value in that.

Weaknesses

1. Roster management (and this IS coaching. Hurley is the GM) - Its probably not good to have like 2-3 extra talented 6'10 guys who are just not useful at all because they are redundant. You give Akok, Springs, Samson Johnson to any other D1 team and they are each getting 10-30 minutes a night and putting up numbers. For us, they dont even sniff the floor(rightly or wrongly). Meanwhile, we have 1 guard who can dribble the ball and make shots off the dribble on the entire team. Our second ball handler is a 6'6 guy who is best off as a 3&D guy, and isn't a threat to score at all for himself. And our backup "PG" is a well below average combo guard with zero confidence. The one guy who could have helped us in the backcourt and dominated an intramural scrimmage(Floyd) getting to the paint and finishing at will was redshirted(looking back and even bigger ?) Finally, though it was clear from the very first set of real games exactly what problems existed with the roster and yet he didn't pull Floyds Redshirt, he didn't build up the freshman to get them experience and develop them. No, he put all the other pieces in the freezer and rode with the known quantities. And the results were exactly as they should be expected to be. The same.

2. In-Game Coaching Jesus H Khrist - We win the games we should win on talent, effort, and athleticm. And don't get me wrong I love that. I love knowing we are going to crush the bottom half of the Big East and cruise to 10 conference wins before we start sweating. But we do it with a brutal style of game where we just physically break down the other team, bully them, etc. But put us in a game of even talent where coaching MATTERS, and we are often outmatched. Basically this is analogous to every big game we play. We see it all the time - the other coach gets their players unlimited Isos in good positions to score. The guy just has all day and space to make a a play. He does it again. And Again, no adjustments. Seton Hall the dude put up like 20 strait points before anything was even done. This game all we needed to do was bottle up one single guy and we just keep throwing a single defender on him and letting him make a play toward the rim. Creighton just spreads us out and gets easy cuts to the rim. Villanova spaces us out and lets their guards bully us down low for 5-10 minutes at a clip. Its getting insane. We just get carved up by good teams and when bad teams get a guy hot we just sit there like we've never practiced variations or different coverages and they beat us with it.

I had to stop when you said GOING to the tournament is all that matters. This isn’t Rutgers, our standards are much higher here. Losing in the first round 2 years in a row, especially as the higher seeded team, ain’t gonna cut it. Did you see when they flashed our record as the higher seeded team in the 1st round pre Hurley?? I think it was 15-1 or something like that. So no, just getting to the NCAA is not good enough

Please

 

[Avon]

Speaking of the talent on this team: highly overrated. NMSU guys had more footspeed than our guys and equal athletically.

They also had a go to guy in Allen who torched us.

Hurley has no strategy except to our hustle the other team. Sanogo very selfish and soft. His play big reason we lost.


PS: Dan Hurley is on the hot seat. This performance after last years mantra about the loss to Maryland.

Should be but probably isn’t.

 

[AzHusky]

McDermott has been at Creighton 11 years, and Cooley has been at Providence also for 11 years. Let's give DH a little more time.

 

[LIuconn]

It's a new age in cbb. Gotta hammer the portal (and know kids will leave us)

 

[The Viking]

The good news for some of you is once Florida hires Hurley, I’d imagine Kimani will be offered the job.

 

[uconngb]

McDermott has been at Creighton 11 years, and Cooley has been at Providence also for 11 years. Let's give DH a little more time.

Omg really

 

[The Viking]

The portal (or lack there of) was a huge problem. Culture means jack when you get bounced early by teams you should beat.

If anything, using the portal will help Hurley achieve his goal quicker. There are plenty of good kids, good team players with talents in the portal you need that will lift you higher and quicker than just four years ago when Hurley started here.

Do I recall Hurley was pissed at the coaching staff for portal failures? Was that a false rumor?

 

[UConnJim]

Let’s not pretend Calhoun and Hurley are starting with the same program

The UConn program that Hurley inherited was not healthy even though UConn had a history and good facilities. Not only was the recent win/loss record and recruiting poor, UConn was playing in the AAC vs. Calhoun playing in the Big East.

Look at the rosters the 2 inherited when they were hired. Calhoun inherited Robinson and Gamble, a freshman Tate George, and Gerry Besselink who average a double double at center. Two of those guys were drafted by the NBA. Sure, Robinson and Gamble ran into academic problems year 1, but they came back in year 2. Assuming Polley, Whaley, and Carlton don't get drafted, Hurley did not inherit any NBA talent. And his first year roster had 2 Community College and 4 college transfers. In other words, Hurley's first roster was a mess.

 

[Makeabucket]

12 years as a head coach. 1 conference title, 1 conference tourney title and 2 round of 32 ncaa appearances. I will never understand the hype for this guy. Mediocre coach will bring mediocre results. Florida wants this guy for WHAT? I don’t buy it.

 

[Improviser]

McDermott has been at Creighton 11 years, and Cooley has been at Providence also for 11 years. Let's give DH a little more time.

Like 7 more years?

 

[EricCantona]

I completely disagree with this take. High motors are not our problem and it wasn’t tonight.

NM ST was a terrible matchup for us like providence and creighton were. They played hard, rebounded and defended very well. For a large portion of the game they completely locked down Cole and prevented him from even getting the ball.

Then they had a kid who made miracle shots and drew terrible fouls by us. Not having a second guy who can get his own shot has killed us all year, nothing new. But I disagree about how hard the kids played. Maybe it didn’t look it because they beat us at our own game.

 

[Hoophound]

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.

The truth hurts.

 

[LIuconn]

What's hurleys record against spreads of 5 or less?

 

[Bobol]

I blame Hurley.

 

[AdamaNation]

Did you see the shots Allen made??

 

[Dove]

Besides that, we are right on schedule for Nat Champ #5. A coach worth his salt NEVER allows the other team's best player to torch you like that.

Oh.

 

[BackAftaThis]

Guess we should all just buckle up and hope he finally goes back to the drawing board and make adjustments.

After the Ollie buyout, I really don’t see us firing a coach to pay Hurley and then having the money to pay someone else.

 

[Radio206]

Should have played a zone WAYYYY sooner and or had a hybrid defense similar to the one Maryland employed on us last year in the tournament that stopped Bouknight cold. Maryland basically Would form a wall of 2-3 ppl in the interior when bouknight drove down the lane. Well. On to next year!!! Hopeful that Clingan will transition nicely and be incorporated earlier. We need a nice rotation of Akok, Samson, Clingan.

Did not watch any film on the Aggies. Struggled against the zone all year.

Overlooked them and bit him.

 

[Kitaman]

Hell we could use different fans as well.

 

[NJHusky]

Yeah. I think Hurley teaches AS to foul their best player 30 feet from the basket with 1 second on the shot clock.

This loss is on the players, not the coaches.

Maybe if our center wasn’t 30 ft from the basket it wouldn’t matter?