New Haven Post Game Thread | Page 9 | The Boneyard

New Haven Post Game Thread

Tenspro2002 said:
Yeah, but lightning striking twice? I mean, of the top 8 guys in 2023, we lost 5 of them, including multiple NBA players. It's not like Florida 2006 to 2007 or Duke 1991 to 1992 who basically ran back the same lineup.

Newton, Karaban, and Clingan (in a much bigger role) were the main holdovers. Diarra barely.

If this team doesn't pan out, Hurley is definitely going to get more questions about misplaced loyalty (this time to guys like Ross and Stewart) like he did 5 years ago when he held onto Whaley and Polley in significant roles. Though, one hopes that this year's team has enough talent (not just depth) that if they're not performing at an elite level he can play others.
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Exactly. The 2023 had just one NBA player who has had any NBA impact and he played 13 minutes per game. That team ran roughshod over the field in the tournament like has only been seen a couple of times in the 64 team tournament. The '24 team had three new starters and ran roughshod over the field like no other team in 64 team history.

It's an insult to describe what Hurley and those two teams accomplished as lightning striking or that it may not be repeatable when he already repeated it.
 
freescooter said:
I kind of wonder if he is going to be Coach K- won back to back then won 3 more championships plus went to 4(?) more Final Fours or will he be more Billy Donovan. Back to back and never got to the winner’s circle again. Only made the Final Four one other time. Finally went to the NBA where he has been moderately successful I guess, though I concede that the NBA is a different sort of beast with the draft, salary cap and so forth, free agency limits and coaches are less important than effective GMs. I think if you ask who was the better coach nobody would say Donovan, though.
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Big difference in my eyes is that Donovan and K won with basically the exact same team two years in a row. I don’t think either team lost anyone after winning the first one, so they just ran it back. By contrast Hurley lost 3 starters to the draft early - and the top two bench scorers. And the starters who were there for both - Newton and Karaban - aren’t the sort of generational “lightning in a bottle” sort of talents that we’ll never see again. (Clingan was there for the first one … but playing 10 mpg).

Swapping out Clingan for Sanogo and Spencer for Hawkins gave us vastly different players at those spots. Jackson and Castle had some similarities in how they played here, but they were very different too.

So yeah we won two in a row, but they were two different titles that happened to come in back to back years that required different systems/different coaching styles.

Last year, the timeline could have looked different if Liam stayed healthy (and Diarra too) - but the Aidan and Nowell whiffs didn’t give us enough margin for error. So it certainly wasn’t all bad luck.

I’ve seen too much from Hurley - he’s raised our level 3 times: taking us from a pit to being competitive, taking us from being competitive to being an NCAA team, taking us from NCAA team to NCAA champion. Each one of those levels was harder than the last.

Not sure why we’d doubt his long term coaching ability - unless there’s something systemic in NIL era where we get outbid all the time.
 
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Kemba15 said:
If it's so easy to blow every team out in 2 straight NCAA tourneys with a spectacular roster, how come no one else has ever done it?
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Now tell us about the regular season for each of those championship teams.
 
Kemba15 said:
If it's so easy to blow every team out in 2 straight NCAA tourneys with a spectacular roster, how come no one else has ever done it?
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No one said it was easy. What he did was one of the most amazing accomplishments in modern CBB history. It is plausible that he just landed a core group of guys in back to back years that were lightning in a bottle, with Clingan being at the center of it. My strong lean is definitely on the fact that he is a very instinctive coach that builds great culture & system, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to show his stuff for a little confirmation. This year wouldn't be a bad one to start.
 
Clingan played 13 MPG in the year of the first run. So is the argument that those 13 minutes led to 2023-2024 tourney dominance or that lightning somehow struck twice in 2 straight seasons?
 
This place is nuts. That was fine. That was basically an exhibition game without two starters. There's stuff that could be better but wow folks are running off the dock here. It only looked like they even ran actual offense a few times and the rest of the time they were just freeballin it.
 
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RuffRuff said:
No one said it was easy. What he did was one of the most amazing accomplishments in modern CBB history. It is plausible that he just landed a core group of guys in back to back years that were lightning in a bottle, with Clingan being at the center of it. My strong lean is definitely on the fact that he is a very instinctive coach that builds great culture & system, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to show his stuff for a little confirmation. This year wouldn't be a bad one to start.
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Translation: I'm not fully on board with the crazy people on this board, but I am crazy-curious
 
Gurleyman said:
Swapping out Clingan for Sanogo and Spencer for Hawkins gave us vastly different players at those spots. Jackson and Castle had some similarities in how they played here, but they were very different too.
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The thing here is that each one of these guys were upgrades over their predecessors.

Cam was a more consistent shooter and true 3 level scorer in a way Hawkins wasn’t.

Clingan was a force on the defensive end of the floor while still being a dominant lob threat at the rim and passer that Sanogo wasn’t.

Castle was the defender, athlete, playmaker Andre was while being the scorer that Andre wasn’t.

It turned out we had an even better roster than the year prior (something I called before the season started).
 
This is just a reminder that in 2003-04 opener, we beat Yale at Gampel by 10 points. The Yale coach dissed UConn after the game implying that Yale was the better team. The Huskies went on to win our second national championship.

So please, keep in mind that this game means absolutely nothing beyond the fact our record is 1-0.
 
Kemba15 said:
Clingan played 13 MPG in the year of the first run. So is the argument that those 13 minutes led to 2023-2024 tourney dominance or that lightning somehow struck twice in 2 straight seasons?
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Yall do know he was a projected first round pick and a top 10 player according to analytics in those 13 minutes right.

Yall forget he was a whole early season tournament MVP. We do this thing where we try to diminish our players to make Hurley seem bigger (which he doesn’t need).
 
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HW611 said:
Yall do know he was a projected first round pick and a top 10 player according to analytics in those 13 minutes right.

Yall forget he was a whole preseason tournament MVP. We do this thing where we try to diminish our players to make Hurley seem bigger (which he doesn’t need).
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yall know a game is 40 minutes, right? So even if he was prime Kareem in those 13 minutes, we'd have to have been at least ok in the rest of the time for us to win some games.
 
Kemba15 said:
not sure what you mean
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He doesn't know what he means either, except that he hates Dan Hurley with the heat of a thousand suns for some reason, likely because he's not Jim Calhoun, but who really knows why
 
Inyatkin said:
yall know a game is 40 minutes, right? So even if he was prime Kareem in those 13 minutes, we'd have to have been at least ok in the rest of the time for us to win some games.
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Every time I show ignored content it’s you. Lol
 
RuffRuff said:
No one said it was easy. What he did was one of the most amazing accomplishments in modern CBB history. It is plausible that he just landed a core group of guys in back to back years that were lightning in a bottle, with Clingan being at the center of it. My strong lean is definitely on the fact that he is a very instinctive coach that builds great culture & system, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to show his stuff for a little confirmation. This year wouldn't be a bad one to start.
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You're still doing it.

A core group of different guys. You know what that's called? Two different teams.

'23 destroyed the field in the tournament by a combined 120 points. After losing 65% of their scoring from the year before the '24 team destroyed the field in the tournament by 140 points. It was two different teams that destroyed everyone.
 
Is it official that Mullins’s injury is his knee or are we still saying ankle?
 
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Inyatkin said:
He doesn't know what he means either, except that he hates Dan Hurley with the heat of a thousand suns for some reason, likely because he's not Jim Calhoun, but who really knows why
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This is pretty much the reason why. And that Hurley doesn't develop players over the long haul to be successful NBA players like JC did, at any cost of negative impact on the program, back when players/coaches knew they had each other for 3-4 years.

If you're going to look at Clingan as being a key factor over the first season, his net+ is probably the one thing to look at. He'd come in an extend leads signficantly in those 13 minutes (sometimes against their backup), often putting knife in coffin. When you have an NBA lottery pick coming off the bench at the 5, even for 13 minutes, it's meaningful.

Any who - this is a good year to a get a feel for Dan Hurley. This team is going to need to be coached up, synced up, roles defined. He's got the pieces to be very good, coaching will determine if they're great.
 
HW611 said:
Yall do know he was a projected first round pick and a top 10 player according to analytics in those 13 minutes right.

Yall forget he was a whole early season tournament MVP. We do this thing where we try to diminish our players to make Hurley seem bigger (which he doesn’t need).
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Clingan is not the reason why we won in 23-24. Teams that win titles and great teams that don't win titles have awesome, surefire studs every year. Why is it that Hurley gets discredited for this, but other coaches do not?
 
superjohn said:
You're still doing it.

A core group of different guys. You know what that's called? Two different teams.

'23 destroyed the field in the tournament by a combined 120 points. After losing 65% of their scoring from the year before the '24 team destroyed the field in the tournament by 140 points. It was two different teams that destroyed everyone.
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I agree, but also disagree. Not totally different teams. Same PG, same 4, a lottery pick 5 with overlap. He then landed a perfect portal kid inadvertently and the best HS player in that class.

I'm the first one glaze those two seasons as the best two years in Uconn hoops history, so I'm not taking anything away from the amazement of what was accomplished. I'm just saying it's not entirely without the possibility of being lightning in a bottle. Last year he tried making wine out of water, and made a good run at FL. I see it as a full pass reset year. This year, I think we get to really see what his coaching chops are all about. Doesn't make or break his status as best coach in the sport, but I do think it gives us a little more realistic understanding that lofty perch.

Recruiting the right players is like 80% of success anyway, so you can't take that part away from him.
 
Kemba15 said:
Clingan is not the reason why we won in 23-24. Teams that win titles and great teams that don't win titles have awesome, surefire studs every year. Why is it that Hurley gets discredited for this, but other coaches do not?
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Nobody was the reason we won. He was one of the many reasons we won and had a significant role like every other important player.

He wasn’t just a middling 13 mpg guy. He might’ve been the best bench player in the country. Clingan’s impact was just so crazy for those two years whenever he was in the game.

I mean how many times do you hear about a guy winning a tournament MVP without even playing 20 minutes in any of the games?
 
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A guy who won back to back national championships in historically dominant fashion in an era of virtual free agency needs to "show his stuff" this season to prove he can actually coach. 99% of the programs in college basketball would sacrifice a family member for these problems.

Setting aside the completely expected overreactions, we have a newcomer at the position that takes the longest to adjust to. It's not like we haven't seen this before with Newton. It would be far more surprising if Demery hit the ground running with no hiccups. And we have yet to play our most important and impactful player. And we're down another starter whose offensive ceiling is as high as any freshmen's in quite some time. And the crisis of confidence is being occasioned by a 25 point win in a C- performance where the outcome was never for a minute in doubt.
 
RuffRuff said:
This is pretty much the reason why. And that Hurley doesn't develop players over the long haul to be successful NBA players like JC did, at any cost of negative impact on the program, back when players/coaches knew they had each other for 3-4 years.

If you're going to look at Clingan as being a key factor over the first season, his net+ is probably the one thing to look at. He'd come in an extend leads signficantly in those 13 minutes (sometimes against their backup), often putting knife in coffin. When you have an NBA lottery pick coming off the bench at the 5, even for 13 minutes, it's meaningful.

Any who - this is a good year to a get a feel for Dan Hurley. This team is going to need to be coached up, synced up, roles defined. He's got the pieces to be very good, coaching will determine if they're great.
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He’s talking about temery not me bruh lol
 
Shabazzkets said:
UConn will be fine but expectations need to be reset. This is nowhere near a championship caliber team like we saw a couple years ago. Which is fine, winning three in four is insanely hard to do.
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Tempering expectations is fine but the whole take is way too premature. I remember watching the MVSU game in-person in 2023 and leaving disappointed
 
RuffRuff said:
Recruiting the right players is like 80% of success anyway, so you can't take that part away from him.
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His recruiting has been amazing here. The strategies have been changing as of recently and I’m hoping it doesn’t affect things moving forward. But the combination of talent identification that we’ve shown combined with getting people we want has been phenomenal.
 
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RuffRuff said:
This is pretty much the reason why. And that Hurley doesn't develop players over the long haul to be successful NBA players like JC did, at any cost of negative impact on the program, back when players/coaches knew they had each other for 3-4 years.

If you're going to look at Clingan as being a key factor over the first season, his net+ is probably the one thing to look at. He'd come in an extend leads signficantly in those 13 minutes (sometimes against their backup), often putting knife in coffin. When you have an NBA lottery pick coming off the bench at the 5, even for 13 minutes, it's meaningful.

Any who - this is a good year to a get a feel for Dan Hurley. This team is going to need to be coached up, synced up, roles defined. He's got the pieces to be very good, coaching will determine if they're great.
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putting a knife in the coffin feels like overkill but what do i know
 
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