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Message: [QUOTE="HailUConn, post: 5128021, member: 4174"] I truly think that there is a silver lining in these early season losses. We all know that We have THE best coaches in college. They've proven to us that they are best at what they do. We also know that tough defense is the hallmark of Hurley's teams. He preaches the hard-nose defense. That's what we've seen in his early years at UConn. We also know that our last 2 teams have been absolutely offensive monsters, and one of main hypes for the past 2 seasons' success is to run a plethora of sophisticated sets devised by our coaching staff. It's been often reported or perceived that Hurley has switched from defense oriented to more offense. We also know that we lost 80% of starters, and now our team is young and inexperienced albeit talented. Is it possible that our coaches' top priority is the integration of new pieces into these offense schemes and that's been the singular main focus in team practices? Is it also possible that Hurley did not have to instill defense in past 2 years, because we are so blessed to have best perimeter defenders: AJax on 23 team and Castle on 24 team with Clingan as rim protector, and now the poor defense or lack of it altogether is showing out because we don't have the players except Diarra? So the silver lining is that our defense has been exposed again and again, it behooves Hurley to re-evaluate, and focus more on defense while slowly and steadily bring these young/new players along in offense? I remain optimistic and trust Hurley, Murray and Kamani will figure it out as the season progresses. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach