My Apologies to Dan Hurley | Page 2 | The Boneyard

My Apologies to Dan Hurley

Rico444

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I'll admit, I lost faith that he was the guy during that January stretch. I didn't want to fire him, but I didn't think he could get us to the promised land.

Took him not even three months to prove me wrong. I'm happy to eat the crow.
 
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In February and March, DH seemed to completely change his attitude. He stopped coaching against refs and started coaching against the other teams.

He made a living making it known that he was not a referees coach, and it cost him. Many times. His OOC record and against top 25 records probably still aren’t very good.

But he made a change, and almost instantaneously the results changed.

That’s a hard thing to do when you’ve been doing something one way for a career…..and he did it instantly. And it worked.

If he continues down this path….the sky could truly be the limit.

The guy is a hell of a recruiter and motivator, and now he’s a hell of a coach.

We have him. And I give him all the credit in the world.

Let’s go DH.
 
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I love how people think saying stuff like Andre taking bad shots is some solution to something. Pointing out something general and actually fixing it are two completely different things.
A thing to remember: most posters here think that when a team's offense is not performing well—or, say, possessions break down and it ends in 1-on-1 at the end of a shot clock—that the coach literally isn't asking the team to run an offense. I've seen it said about Calhoun, KO, and Hurley in the down years.

It can never be that, maybe, the offense is being run well. No. Nor can it be that perhaps the offense doesn't fit with the current group of players (too complicated for a new team, not the right roster construction). Posters here have actively argued that there was literally not an offense being run. And that's all you need to know about how wise so many posters here are.
 
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I think people tend to limit their view of coaches by what they see in the game, but being a good coach is so much more.

Hurley excelled at a number of things over the course of the season. The most important thing is getting players. Get top level players, and it makes everything else easier.

It also may sound superficial, but he changed his demeanor after getting that costly technical. The same thing happened at URI. In his fifth year, he was out of control in the sidelines, and a number of people talked with him about it, and got him to understand he was losing focus. He turned that season around, and I think he did the same thing this year. My guess is in both instances, he was putting to much pressure on himself.

He changed the focus of the offense to Hawkins and Sanogo. The working to get Hawkins in a dominant role helped Sanogo, and really helped Jackson just play his game instead of trying to do everything.

The other major change was Sanogo's defense was markedly improved down the stretch. Between that and Clingan completely changing opponents gameplan when he was in the game during the tournament, they didn't give up easy baskets.

Finally, he kept the team together when they struggled early in conference play. This is vital at the college level. We saw at Providence how quickly thinks can go sour when the team realizes the coach has checked out on you. Cooley's biggest strength was keeping the team believing in themselves, and that feel apart once the team knew he was leaving. Hurley, on the other hand, kept his team believing during their rough patch. That's coaching.
 
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Best apologize cuz Andrea has spoken!!!



That is not a good look. I am all for honesty, candor and authenticity. And I get the whole New Jersey don't take any bull spit attitude.

But "jerk off" and "arse hat" need to be removed from her vocabulary because it really doesn't help. It lowers the conversation to vulgarity. It reflects on her husband and the university. And it will turn off as many people as it pleases. It's a net loser.
 
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I'll admit, I lost faith that he was the guy during that January stretch. I didn't want to fire him, but I didn't think he could get us to the promised land.

Took him not even three months to prove me wrong. I'm happy to eat the crow.
He deserved a lot of the criticism. Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom to find your footing. What makes Hurley a great coach and removes all doubt is his self reflection and evolution. He admits it and that’s why he is a great coach.
 
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He deserved a lot of the criticism. Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom to find your footing. What makes Hurley a great coach and removes all doubt is his self reflection and evolution. He admits it and that’s why he is a great coach.

No he didn't and if losing a few tough Big East games, and one bad loss at home, is rock bottom then he did an amazing job all season.
 
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No he didn't and if losing a few tough Big East games, and one bad loss at home, is rock bottom then he did an amazing job all season.
It wasn't rock bottom, but he absolutely deserved criticism.

But that tech at Xavier was horrible. That home loss vs. St. John's as well.

There were years where, quelle horreur, Jim Calhoun deserved criticism. That doesn't mean the things being criticized were always (or often) the things that should have been criticized, but it is clear he needed to make some adjustments. That's coaching. You have a plan, it works, teams scout you, you adjust. He did that exceptionally: the mark of an exceptional coach.
 
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Instead of criticizing our coach and players..just enjoy the ride
 
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I'll admit, I lost faith that he was the guy during that January stretch. I didn't want to fire him, but I didn't think he could get us to the promised land.

Took him not even three months to prove me wrong. I'm happy to eat the crow.
This was me, too. I was a big fan of how he built up the program, but some of the in-game rotations and the multi-year pattern of losing close games had me worried. Those “concerns” seem to have been answered tenfold.

Well, maybe not the close games questions. But if you beat everyone by a hundred, those questions don’t matter.
 

Hans Sprungfeld

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That is not a good look. I am all for honesty, candor and authenticity. And I get the whole New Jersey don't take any bull spit attitude.

But "jerk off" and "arse hat" need to be removed from her vocabulary because it really doesn't help. It lowers the conversation to vulgarity. It reflects on her husband and the university. And it will turn off as many people as it pleases. It's a net loser.
Your overall point has merit, but if you watched the entire interview, she showed up a bit harried from efforts to find the place, sat down at a bar with 4 guys who had already ordered her drink, and had some of their own, and wisely declined a refill.

In context, she was recognizably refreshing & fun, loyal & feisty. She said more than enough to rebut any belief that she's like that all the time.

My 'little sister,' who wore a succession of vintage shirts like Andrea's across the span of the tournament, was the enthusiastic & loyal girlfriend (and now 40-year spouse) of a D3 All-American & National Champion baseball player. She was no 'party girl'-type then or since, though is quite fun & lively, and she got a big kick out of Andrea, AND she was pretty regularly appalled by my screenshots and reports of posts on BY and within the chat...even if our private texting quite naturally included our own versions of strong emotional reactions, cursing, repeated phrases, air frustrations, etc.
 
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That is not a good look. I am all for honesty, candor and authenticity. And I get the whole New Jersey don't take any bull spit attitude.

But "jerk off" and "arse hat" need to be removed from her vocabulary because it really doesn't help. It lowers the conversation to vulgarity. It reflects on her husband and the university. And it will turn off as many people as it pleases. It's a net loser.
I don’t think anyone truly cares. Maybe shift the conversation to a member of our coaches family getting spit on. She can call them whatever she pleases
 

Hans Sprungfeld

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Meh, Hurley admitting he was making mistakes. Those very mistakes people here were pointing out.

Play better on ball defense
AJ being goaded into bad shots
Finding more minutes for Clingan
Getting more production from the bench.
Getting Sanogo to focus on his bread an butter and no his NBA resume.

These are the very things we wanted fixed, and somehow this board figured it out first. The critics were right but he responded like a champion. No need for apologies.
I consider, "Meh..." to be 'opening the door' for a response in kind, if only to 'match' your perceived energy.

"...somehow this board figured [them] out first," is a dubious claim, but if taken seriously, it can be waved away as merely "the wisdom of crowds." The persistent mystery is that people so perceptive in analyzing the team or coach's failures or flaws remain unaware or beligerant in response to their own foibles.

It's not so much WHAT was often said as much as it was HOW it was said, WHERE it was said, WHEN it was said, and TO WHOM it was said. Those laying claim to some form of greater wisdom should consider their responsibility to project their smarts more wisely and maturely.
 

Mr. French

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For most of this year I have questioned Dan Hurley's coaching ability. I was willing to acknowledge that he could recruit but I thought that he fell short in managing the game. I guess this shows what I know. I was totally wrong and I apologize. This title run puts him up there in Jim Calhoun territory. Not there yet but moving in the right direction.

A lot more people should be willing to say this. I’d guess 0-3 people total on this board have even close to the experience or knowledge to discredit what he was doing as a coach. All they saw is results not being what they expected and determined he didn’t know how to coach. He does. Good on you for admitting it.
 

Mr. French

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The tendency to ascribe every result on the court - good or bad - to coaching is understandable but really, really dumb.

I just had a similar sentence texted, then deleted it. Wasn’t as concise.

Everyone assumes every great coach just runs flawlessly executed actions for baskets every play, and when the results don’t coincide with their expectations, they assume “he doesn’t know how to coach.”
 

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