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

[metsfan2323]

He has lost as many times in the first round as Calhoun did in 25 years.

I remember Calhoun losing a first round game with Drummond, Lamb, and Napier as starters. It happens.

How about the years Calhoun didn't make the tournament?

 

[Palatine]

I agree but last year was more on the lottery pick and his poor judgment the last few games

Bouk was hobbled aftter the dehydration issue. He was cooked,

 

[uconngb]

He has lost as many times in the first round as Calhoun did in 25 years.

And twice as many as the higher seed (and the only one JC ever lost was because AJP blew out his knee in the first half and we had no backup)

 

[AdamaNation]

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.

Is Whaley sanogo a poor man oriakhi and Drummond? Our biggest issue to me, was how our vaunted depth evaporated by week 4. No pg. no Akok. No Sampson. Nothing. Anyone not called polley or Hawkins (until game 20 or so) did anything. AA is such an anomaly. I loooovvvee this guy. But he just gets played. He gif hit a nice jumper.

 

[UCOnions]

Can we ATLEAST wait until he doesn't have numerous Ollie era guys and transfers leading the team?

 

[karstenkibbe]

Quite clear tonight that fault lies with our coach and the players. First half was an absolute joke. No effort. No sense of urgency. Sanogo still making the same mistakes game in, game out. Hurley puts in Polley, who scores two quick threes, then he inexplicably takes him out. Game was tied at 20, and then NMST goes on a 12-2 run to close out the half. Our big three of Cole, Martin and Sanogo completely crapped the bed in the first 20 minutes. I was shocked. We were owned on the boards, and it was not because NMST is a bigger, better rebounding team.

Shot selection was horrid. Once again, guys can’t grab the ball with two hands, or they knock the ball away from a teammate on a rebound. The funny thing is that with the game tied, all we had to do was secure a rebound and we could have gone down and taken a lead. Instead, five guys stood there and literally watched the ball bounce into the hands of a NMST player - who simply handed it to Allen for a dagger three and that was all she wrote. No killer instinct. No mentality to hunt down loose balls. Hard to explain how UConn players always seemed a step too slow when the game was on the line this season. Or we couldn’t finish around the basket for an and-1 (over and over and over again tonight). I wish I knew the answer. But this team had lots of flaws. Maybe our collective expectations were too high.

 

[TheRealKBuks]

Patience is a virtue… some of you need to learn to tolerate things that can take a long time.

I appreciate our ability to climb back into relevance while knowing well there are areas for improvement.

I mean this sincerely, I (and the overwhelming majority of us) have been patient since 2016... how much more patience can we reasonably expect from this fan base.

 

[The Viking]

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.

I was just joking about the Florida thing after the thread the other day about some article by an ESPN intern.

 

[Palatine]

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.

We have been killed by being unable to play defense without fouling at the end of games all year. Once there are five minutes to go, we foul on drive after drive and tonight even on jump shots. Nothing new. We do it all the time.

 

[Kolumbo]

I remember Calhoun losing a first round game with Drummond, Lamb, and Napier as starters. It happens.

How about the years Calhoun didn't make the tournament?

When you build up a boatload of equity, "it happens." If you have no equity, you can't lose to #12 in round 1.

 

[metsfan2323]

When you build up a boatload of equity, "it happens." If you have no equity, you can't lose to #12 in round 1.

Equity is having a talented roster and having more talent on the way. Hurley has plenty of equity especially in a time when every player is a free agent at the end of each season.

 

[GotNets?]

Don't want him gone anyway. He's a good coach and he will fix this.

0 - 2 in the tournament as our coach is not a big enough sample size to come to the conclusion that he can't win here.

Interesting … the buyout aside (because we wouldn’t be in these financial handcuffs if the administration didn’t try to shaft a NC winning coach gone south on some ridiculous pretense)…. What would be an acceptable sample size?

This is year 4 and he’s 0-2. He does have an interesting asterisk because his 2nd team was his best and COVID botched it.

What if he was 1-4 in year 6? Or does he need to coach for 7 full seasons. Then he goes to the sweet 16. Is that ok?

You can crowdfund basically anything these days. I’ve seen 506(c) deals of $20M raised on Clubhouse. Let the Boneyard stir up interest haha.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I mean this sincerely, I (and the overwhelming majority of us) have been patient since 2016... how much more patience can we reasonably expect from this fan base.

Is this serious or sarcasm? You know a five seed from the Big Ten lost today that has never won a national championship. You want some kind of kudos because you’ve been patient since 2016?

 

[SwingDog]

We were prepared. NMSU was just the better team

A prepared UConn team doesn't score 22 points in the first half and find themselves down 10 points.

 

[Hi-Low]

Dan Hurley will learn and assemble better teams going forward. Was loyal to a fault, now needs to get best players on the court he can

 

[TheRealKBuks]

Is this serious or sarcasm? You know a five seed from the Big Ten lost today that has never won a national championship. You want some kind of kudos because you’ve been patient since 2016?

You know UConn, as in 4 time national champion UConn, hasn't won a single NCAA tournament game in 6 years?

is your post sarcasm?

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Everyone knew they had one guy who could beat us. He did.

Other than hating it, he was great to watch.

 

[AdamaNation]

Most important stat of the game. Great comment

Most important stat of the game. Great comment.

Yet they were one of the absolute worst shooters from the arc this year. We game planned for novas poor shooters too.

 

[Kolumbo]

Equity is having a talented roster and having more talent on the way. Hurley has plenty of equity.

That kind of equity and $3.00 will get you a ride on the staten island fferry.

 

[metsfan2323]

Is this serious or sarcasm? You know a five seed from the Big Ten lost today that has never won a national championship. You want some kind of kudos because you’ve been patient since 2016?

Yup, especially when it was 2019 when Hurley completed his first year. The yard sometimes, SMH.

 

[uconngb]

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

I hate when people make that stupid comparison. UConn was an abysmal job/program when JC took over. Dan Hurley took over a program 3 years removed from a NC and with more NCs over the last 20 years than any school in the country with impeccable facilities. Please.

 

[YoungFree]

Patience is a virtue… some of you need to learn to tolerate things that can take a long time.

I appreciate our ability to climb back into relevance while knowing well there are areas for improvement.

4-5 years usually...we are improving each year...in the top 25 most of the year for the first time in ages. Just need to Crack that ncaa tourney win bubble. If that doesn't happen next year, we need to cut ties.

 

[The Viking]

By the way can you imagine Calhoun in the days if a portal? He would Have “suggested” three kids a year find more fruitful work elsewhere and then reloaded every year and probably won another 1-3 rings.

 

[Hi-Low]

You know UConn, as in 4 time national champion UConn, hasn't won a single NCAA tournament game in 6 years?

is your post sarcasm?

AAC and Covid had big assists. Program in a good spot if give it some time.

 

[Dove]

Is this serious or sarcasm? You know a five seed from the Big Ten lost today that has never won a national championship. You want some kind of kudos because you’ve been patient since 2016?

Just give him a kudo.

 

[metsfan2323]

That kind of equity and $3.00 will get you a ride on the staten island fferry.

Nope, sorry you're wrong. Having talent and more talent on the way and being known as a good recruiter gets a coach plenty of equity. Nobody wins without the ability to recruit.

 

[ChocRaisins]

Some of you have to learn to be upset without wanting to tear everything down. It’s sucks, we get it, but Jeeze, take a breath.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Play of the game was when Akok actively sought out the three point line so he could put his toe on it and take a point off the board.

I guess one benefit of the season ending is no more Polley takes from you.

Akok was better than polley today.

 

[TheRealKBuks]

AAC and Covid had big assists. Program in a good spot if give it some time.

Fair point but its completely reasonable to be upset with the lack of success we've had. its been a 6 years since we won a game in the tournament and 8 since we made a run. That's the longest dry spell in my lifetime and I imagine the majority of this boards.

 

[bmayuc]

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

You guys are all fired up I get it and blah blah we won some ships we have higher expectations here blah blah. Remember 3 years ago when we hadn't been to a dance in like 3 years and we were in the AAC and our life sucked and our program was dead? Now look where we are and just chill out a bit.

We come into Big East with a big of a weird roster, some real missing pieces, and still truck our way to a couple top 4 finishes and two trips to the big dance.

Seed last year w/ Bouk? 7

Seed this year w/o Bouk but a more solid overall team? 5

Are the results in the tourney great? no.

Do I think Hurley has work to do with roster mgmt, recruiting prioritization, and personal development(in game coaching, etc) Yes definitely

But the trend is still good overall with a couple duds here and there.

Look either we are looking back in 3 years as a 1 or 2 seed going wow glad danny made some changes and matured a bit and recruited more playmakers, or we have a new coach.

But I think overall this year was fine.