N.J.'s Dan Hurley reflects on tough times at Seton Hall, details ultimate goals at UConn

[HooperScooper]

Adam Zagoria caught up with Hurley at the Hoophall Classic to write an article before the Seton Hall game tomorrow.

With a recruiting class ranked No. 4 nationally coming in next season, Hurley has not shied away from his ultimate goal: to win the program’s fifth NCAA championship since 1999. He said it will be considered a failure if they don’t contend for the ultimate prize.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “For me, those are my goals. If I didn’t have goals like that, I could’ve stayed [at Rhode Island]. You only take a job like this if you want to challenge yourself like that. Right now our focus is trying to win the Big East regular season for the first time since 2005-06.”

N.J.'s Dan Hurley reflects on tough times at Seton Hall, details ultimate goals at UConn​

 

[August_West]

LOL I forgot all about the Naked Free Throws at Rutgers.


Good times

 

[aburks41]

Honestly who cares about the BE regular season crown. Duke, up until last season, had only won ONE time since 2006, and it was in 2010. Finish top 3, win the BET, and you'll get a 2-3 seed. You can even get a 1 seed without it. 2018 Nova didn't even win the regular season crown and we know how that ended.

Next year's team will be extremely fun. Still think we need another shooter from the portal though, depending on what Hawkins does.

 

[superjohn]

Honestly who cares about the BE regular season crown. Duke, up until last season, had only won ONE time since 2006, and it was in 2010. Finish top 3, win the BET, and you'll get a 2-3 seed. You can even get a 1 seed without it. 2018 Nova didn't even win the regular season crown and we know how that ended.

Next year's team will be extremely fun. Still think we need another shooter from the portal though, depending on what Hawkins does.

Need a point guard too. Castle can maybe be great at it but Hurley simply can't chance it again.

 

[AntG168]

Honestly who cares about the BE regular season crown. Duke, up until last season, had only won ONE time since 2006, and it was in 2010. Finish top 3, win the BET, and you'll get a 2-3 seed. You can even get a 1 seed without it. 2018 Nova didn't even win the regular season crown and we know how that ended.

Next year's team will be extremely fun. Still think we need another shooter from the portal though, depending on what Hawkins does.

Even with Hawkins we need another shooter. Can’t have too much shooting

 

[Hoophound]

Need a point guard too. Castle can maybe be great at it but Hurley simply can't chance it again.

I was going to say this in another thread but didn’t feel like taking the heat for implying Castle wasn’t enough. Since you went there, I really hope a true and proven floor general ends up on our roster for next season.

 

[aburks41]

Need a point guard too. Castle can maybe be great at it but Hurley simply can't chance it again.

I understand the thinking but then you have to shift Castle to the 2. He’s going to need to start or else we will never get another top 10 recruit again. Those guys want minutes, and sticking him behind a portal guard would be a huge mistake

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I understand the thinking but then you have to shift Castle to the 2. He’s going to need to start or else we will never get another top 10 recruit again. Those guys want minutes, and sticking him behind a portal guard would be a huge mistake

Yup. If we can’t get a top 10 guy to succeed then who can really.

This is CBB. Those type of talents can be the best in the country freshman year.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I personally don’t think we need anything from the portal next year. If our lineup is:

Castle/Newton/Diarra
Hawkins/Ball
Andre/Stewart/Ross
Karaban/Samson
DC/freshman center

That’s a PERFECT lineup. There’s no need to mess with it. Hawkins, Karaban, Stewart, and Ross are our shooters. Castle and Ball the slashers. We’ll have depth everywhere too. Some may be young but this is college basketball. Freshman can play when they’re suppose to be good.

 

[superjohn]

I understand the thinking but then you have to shift Castle to the 2. He’s going to need to start or else we will never get another top 10 recruit again. Those guys want minutes, and sticking him behind a portal guard would be a huge mistake

He's going to start but we don't currently have a point guard or at least an adequate one. We can't go into another season hoping we have a point guard.

 

[imno1]

I understand the thinking but then you have to shift Castle to the 2. He’s going to need to start or else we will never get another top 10 recruit again. Those guys want minutes, and sticking him behind a portal guard would be a huge mistake

I know he’s still in high school and the BE is a huge step up but is there anyone here who doesn’t think Castle would be the starting pg on our current team. He’s exactly what is missing. What I’d like is an upgrade to Diarra as a backup next year.

 

[John]

I personally don’t think we need anything from the portal next year. If our lineup is:

Castle/Newton/Diarra
Hawkins/Ball
Andre/Stewart/Ross
Karaban/Samson
DC/freshman center

That’s a PERFECT lineup. There’s no need to mess with it. Hawkins, Karaban, Stewart, and Ross are our shooters. Castle and Ball the slashers. We’ll have depth everywhere too. Some may be young but this is college basketball. Freshman can play when they’re suppose to be good.

Assuming Sanogo goes

 

[Get a Job]

Assuming Sanogo goes

I find it exceedingly unlikely that Sanogo is on UConn’s roster next year.

 

[aburks41]

He's going to start but we don't currently have a point guard or at least an adequate one. We can't go into another season hoping we have a point guard.

We have maybe 1 scholarship available next year depending on how this offseason shakes out with departures. It would be nice to find ourselves a Souley Boum.

 

[freescooter]

Dan Hurley, the Chicago Cubs of college basketball. Wait ‘til next year!

Then, when he flames out next year he’ll tell us about the great recruits he has for ‘24-25.

 

[Scrutineer]

Need a point guard too. Castle can maybe be great at it but Hurley simply can't chance it again.

Amen. I'll repeat what I've said elsewhere. We won in 1999 with Ricky and Khalid, in 04 with Ben and Taliek, in 2011 with Kemba and Shabazz and in 14 with Shabazz and Ryan.
We don't have anyone on this roster like them and, unless Castle and Ball are equivalent to those pairs, we need at least another quick, scoring, guard.
DH has been focused on "big guards" and so far they've been like Diaco's "big guys". They can't play the way the game needs to be played today to win.