Let’s not lose sight of….

[UCan3]

In the transfer portal you don't have to plan for departures. You re-up and bring in players to build the best team possible year after year. That was evident last year. We lost NBA caliber players and came back with the the freshmen and the addition of Cam, another NBA caliber player.

This year we missed in the transfer portal when it was all said an done. If we had another tough point guard. Mahaney could've focused on being himself and been a pesky combo guard 6th man of the year type scorer. They guy is still there but for some reason Hurley trying to make him as point guard prevented him from unleashing his true talent.

I agree with the comment above. Hurley has to own that.

I think if we think about it some more, Liam went through and extended slump too… His shooting was atrocious the last 4-5 games… So you’ve got Mahaney not performing, Liam throwing up bricks, Solo turning the ball over time and time again and yet, Alex with a huge and length shooting slump AND Still we should have beat the best team in the country.

And we beat a very good OK team on the way.

I don’t know why but I’m willing to say “well done” we made some mistakes but again only 1 Div 1 team wins it all… We must appreciate the unpredictability this season brought - no game was boring and it was a wild ride.

Can’t wait until next year! Let’s keep our heads up and maybe a little less finger pointing… This season threw the coaching staff some curveballs. I’ll admit they whiffed on some but ultimately nothing to be ashamed of in what happpened Sunday.

 

[FreeKlaiber]

I think our use of Tarris this year was maddening. He was, at times, our best offensive player and we literally reduced him to a screener and handoff guy for entire games. He had three post-up opportunities yesterday. Against Seton Hall he legit had none. When announcers are repeatedly stating that he needs to get involved, it is an issue.

34 games into the season we still could not inbound the freaking basketball

We had an okay year for us and what would amount to a great year for others. Hurley and staff are more than entitled to have several more okay years with what they've already done. But I can't say that this was a great coaching year. I'm confident they know where they went wrong and are going to revamp the roster in the next month or so.

Spot on. He did a real nice job with the team in a lot of ways, but to claim that this years as a whole was a coaching masterclass is something I can't get behind. Not his best year coaching when compared to what he has done in past, PT/roster managment alone IMHO. Looking forward to next year.

 

[jibsey]

We had a point guard and a great shooting #2 guard but we didn’t have a player who could almost always get their own shot on a pull-up or going to the rim. Trust me I believe that will not happen next year and I bet he gets 2 players who can do that.

 

[RuffRuff]

You have to give the Hurley system a lot of credit in that Florida game. It took a group of players, none of which were playing great basketball individually, and almost won. Meanwhile you watched St John's and the pure disaster of what they displayed and realized Pitino needs perfect pieces to have any chance in March. It offers a lot of confidence to the fact that if Hurley can get some plus athletes/bodies out there, we'll be right back.

 

[NHUConnfan]

This season will be remembered as one of "what-ifs?".

What if....

Maui goes differently
Karaban hits late Nova FTs
Liam doesn't get hurt mid-season
Seton Hall doesn't win late
Hassan is 100% all year
Mahaney finds his footing/confidence
The last 2 min of the FLA game bounces our way

I'm thankful for the effort from Diarra and Samson. I'll miss them. But very very excited for the injection of talent that's coming through the door next season. Let's hope we can keep the staff together, gain some perspective, and make another run for 2026.

Idk man, this season isn't even that high up on the all time list of "what if" teams UConn has had.

Sure, we can ask these, but realistically a three-peat was a long shot from Day 1. You never say never with a coach like Danny, but it was always an uphill battle. This team is not a "what if" team like 06, 08 or 09.

 

[uconngb]

Ahmad wasn’t insurance in November?

No. I think it's clear that they missed on him as well. That guy is not a high-major point guard. He can barely dribble. And it has nothing to do with his injury. Anyone with eyes could see that when he came in he was overmatched at this level. That is not revisionist as you say. it's just a fact. They really missed the boat BAD with the point guard position.

 

[ddent68]

No. I think it's clear that they missed on him as well. That guy is not a high-major point guard. He can barely dribble. And it has nothing to do with his injury. Anyone with eyes could see that when he came in he was overmatched at this level. That is not revisionist as you say. it's just a fact. They really missed the boat BAD with the point guard position.

A fact? The kid barely played. I thought that was because of injury or was it because he wasn’t good enough? I don’t know but neither do you. On paper the kid was a stud.

 

[Travelman6]

This was a really tough loss but far from the toughest to cope with. 1. Gmason was a lot harder to swallow, as was 2. San Diego, 3. NC State, 4. New Mexico St and 5. 1994 Florida round out my top 5 most difficult to deal with.

This was more of a "one year away" type of loss like 1998 UNC or 2003 Texas, which is the vibe I'm getting here. If the core of this team comes back with another year under their belt and the new recruits are well developed by next March (likely), WATCH OUT!

 

[uconngb]

A fact? The kid barely played. I thought that was because of injury or was it because he wasn’t good enough? I don’t know but neither do you. On paper the kid was a stud.

So was Rasool DIggins. The "on paper" is based on recruiting rankings. My eyes don't lye when it comes to Nowell. He was given opportunities and when he got them he was completely overmatched.

 

[FreeKlaiber]

So was Rasool DIggins. The "on paper" is based on recruiting rankings. My eyes don't lye when it comes to Nowell. He was given opportunities and when he got them he was completely overmatched.

nah, youre jumping the gun saying its a "fact". Yes he looked a bit overmatched but he saw very little run. Not trying to debate you, but I disagree with it being a "fact" that Nowell isn't a high major PG. I'm still hopeful to be honest. We should be going after bigger guards but I cant write the kid off yet. Our offensive system isnt easy, and he went by his guy a couple of times. Agree that his overall handle seems to need some work.

 

[Deepster]

So was Rasool DIggins. The "on paper" is based on recruiting rankings. My eyes don't lye when it comes to Nowell. He was given opportunities and when he got them he was completely overmatched.

I'm not saying I was impressed by Nowell this season, but you could have said the same thing about Solo at this time last year. Last season, he averaged 3.3 ppg and in the last 16 games of the season, he had more than 3 pts once.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

This was a really tough loss but far from the toughest to cope with. 1. Gmason was a lot harder to swallow, as was 2. San Diego, 3. NC State, 4. New Mexico St and 5. 1994 Florida round out my top 5 most difficult to deal with.

This was more of a "one year away" type of loss like 1998 UNC or 2003 Texas, which is the vibe I'm getting here. If the core of this team comes back with another year under their belt and the new recruits are well developed by next March (likely), WATCH OUT!

I don't think that "one year away" phenomenon exists anymore. It's a new era. You're always one year away.

 

[ddent68]

So was Rasool DIggins. The "on paper" is based on recruiting rankings. My eyes don't lye when it comes to Nowell. He was given opportunities and when he got them he was completely overmatched.

I’m not arguing about any specific players my whole point was that you wanna sit here and act like all this was knowable before the season started. If you ask me back in November, we looked pretty stout. Just sit here and blame Hurley that he should’ve somehow known better and constructed the roster differently is ridiculous. It was a frustrating season for everyone no doubt, if you wanna play the what if game what if they had played defense throughout the season like they did it against Florida? What if the defense had gelled and played that well a month ago? It’s just an easy and weak criticism to say that we were all wrong from the start when nobody thought that not even you.

 

[RuffRuff]

I'm not saying I was impressed by Nowell this season, but you could have said the same thing about Solo at this time last year. Last season, he averaged 3.3 ppg and in the last 16 games of the season, he had more than 3 pts once.

Solo got a lot more run early in the year to assess. I don’t know what to think about Nowell - he’s certainly not a PG Picasso, as stylistically left a lot to be desired. We just didn’t see enough of him. Have to leave this one up to the coaches making the best decision. Not even worth chiming in on. He was a 35thish PG for a reason and they did offer him, so there has to be something there.

 

[GHSWolverines]

After explaining the differences between a PG and CG above I’m surprised youre saying we need the latter when we clearly need the former. Of the 6 guys that are definitely returning 4 of them can play SG: Ball is locked in as the starter with Mullins probably as his backup. Adams is a CG and Furphy is a SG/SF. but we don’t have a single experienced PG returning

CG can be PG

 

[bendm]

CG can be PG

It unnecessarily limits our targets if you’re saying we can only take a “CG”

But i would 100% agree with saying we need either a CG or a PG. Getting someone with PG skills to run the offense is the primary requirement for us so we’d take a pure PG. We’d also take a CG like you said, but we don’t necessarily need someone that can run the offense AND play off ball. We’ve already got a bunch of off ball Gs.