Nice job building the culture Danny

[nomar]

There's literally no mention of KO in this thread until this comment. No one is vindicating Ollie, who's been gone for quite some time now. And it would be hard to vindicate him, given the team's trail-off in performance.

On the other hand, there definitely is a large contingent of "Hurley can do no wrong!" followers that attack anyone who calls attention to what may well be red flags. All of us hope they're not, but you'd have to be oblivious to not notice them.

Can you name a poster who thinks Hurley is infallible?

 

[UConn990411]

They feel as if any misstep by Hurley somehow vindicates KO. Weird breed for sure.

I couldn’t be happier Ollie is gone, but Hurley has had way more than one misstep lately.

All throughout the season, I was critical of his in-game coaching all season while defending his recruiting and program building...but that program building piece looks shaky right now. I’m not out on Hurley by any means, but it’s fair to question the job he’s done over the past 12 months.

 

[MDHuskFan]

I would challenge folks to simply state why the transfer of all of these guards is necessarily a good thing and something not to have any concern about if we are eagerly going to build excitement and momentum going into next season. Typically when you see this level of transfers it either signals a shift internally and additional expected talent at that position coming or committed to the program.

I'm not pulling the Fire Alarm here but I think folks are looking for some positive news to anchor themselves on for the upcoming season which is a long ways off. Sometimes you need to call news what it is and there is always a backstory behind it. Fans and Alumni have the right to vent particularly about unfavorable news. Any insight would certainly be appreciated. I'm sure Hurley is working on something.

I think your second paragraph hits on what’s happening here.

No one is saying these transfers are a good thing. But too many people are pulling the alarm. DH & Co. have a track record of pulling teams together.

Question for everyone. Has the talent level on our teams year to year increased? The answer is yes. So let’s cut them some slack

 

[uconngb]

It's past time for some of our fans to enter the transfer portal.

Keep attacking. But again…..give me an explanation of why this development is a positive. You’ve all taken your pot shots at me. But still not one person has been able to answer that question.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

This isn’t a fair comparison. AJ averaged like 9/3/3 his first year here. Kemba the same. Marcus played limited minutes freshman year but averaged like 4 assists plus. Bazz played good minutes as a fresh on a young team.

Gaffney was a fringe top 100 kid & we’re comparing him to 3 top 50 kids and a guy who was like 75ish after reclass. All those guys had considerably better freshmen years than Gaffney. Additionally, all those guys got NBA minutes. Talent wise it’s completely unfair to bring up Gaff in convo with those names.

This whole “recruited over vs supporting players” thing is so wild too. All schools recruit good players. Fight for your spot or leave. Dont kill the staff though for kids not wanting to compete.

Lastly, to all the “DH did Jalen dirty by going to RJ during Jalens Sophmore year” everyone realizes they both were on the team the same amount of time right?

By the end of Gaffney’s freshman year he was starting and the Boneyard loved his upside. Only to never actually invest in it. Those guys got NBA minutes because they were coached and developed to do so. Outside of Kemba none of those guys were burger boys. They got better every year consistently. Every single guard because there was a plan for them. Hurley has not shown that he has a true plan to develop guys yet.

According to Hurley Gaffney had all the talent in the world too. He showed it in flashes, it was all mental with him. Which could be a result of not managing him the right way. Gaffney did nothing wrong his freshman year to be recruited over and not have the reigns handed to him.

All this to say I’m still not out on Hurley. I just hope he learns his lesson in investing in his players or else the portal is going to became our best recruiting source.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I think your second paragraph hits on what’s happening here.

No one is saying these transfers are a good thing. But too many people are pulling the alarm. DH & Co. have a track record of pulling teams together.

Question for everyone. Has the talent level on our teams year to year increased? The answer is yes. So let’s cut them some slack

This is a tough question, overall? Yes. But last year was the first time we didn’t have a top go to alpha dog on the team in years. I do expect that to change with Jordan Hawkins this year though. Hopefully Andre Jackson if he has a good summer. Picking up Newton and a Castle reclass will make me feel good about next season.

 

[DMIL]

I think your second paragraph hits on what’s happening here.

No one is saying these transfers are a good thing. But too many people are pulling the alarm. DH & Co. have a track record of pulling teams together.

Question for everyone. Has the talent level on our teams year to year increased? The answer is yes. So let’s cut them some slack

I just read something about a target named Castle reclassifying and committing to UCONN as a Top 30 recruit. You may be on to something here. Maybe Chef HURLEY is cooking up something magical.

 

[uconngb]

I think your second paragraph hits on what’s happening here.

No one is saying these transfers are a good thing. But too many people are pulling the alarm. DH & Co. have a track record of pulling teams together.

Question for everyone. Has the talent level on our teams year to year increased? The answer is yes. So let’s cut them some slack

Hard to say that right now since we’ve lost SEVEN players off our team from last year and so far replaced them with ONE. And with oodles of guard minutes available, ALL of our returning scholarship guards have decided to transfer.

Are you people for real?? This doesn’t concern anyone???

 

[uconngb]

I just read something about a target named Castle reclassifying and committing to UCONN as a Top 30 recruit. You may be on to something here. Maybe Chef HURLEY is cooking up something magical.

Where did you see that he’s reclassifying?? And even if he is, so what?? How does that scare away another top rated guard when we have no one else on the roster and the coach was just singing his praises a week ago??

 

[UconnFanDC]

Let's wait to see how the transfer process ends before we all get all in our feelings. At the end of the day, if we get nobody good to come in and contribute, more of us will have something negative to say. We were spoiled by the Calhoun Era and want so much more then what we've gotten over these last few years.

 

[MDHuskFan]

Hard to say that right now since we’ve lost SEVEN players off our team from last year and so far replaced them with ONE. And with oodles of guard minutes available, ALL of our returning scholarship guards have decided to transfer.

Are you people for real?? This doesn’t concern anyone???

It’s legit not hard to say this at all.

I’m saying the track record year to year is we’ve been better. Let it play out. Because we’ve continually got better, they at least earned the right to build their roster before judgment.

Again, no one is saying transfers are good, but the world isn’t burning

 

[DMIL]

Where did you see that he’s reclassifying?? And even if he is, so what?? How does that scare away another top rated guard when we have no one else on the roster and the coach was just singing his praises a week ago??

It's in a separate thread however if true that would be a significant bump in talent level at a key position needed for the future. Some would say the most important position. We haven't had an elite guard on paper since Adams and Napier / Boatright before that. It's been quite a while. Elite guard play used to be a signature for the UCONN's men's program.

 

[MDHuskFan]

By the end of Gaffney’s freshman year he was starting and the Boneyard loved his upside. Only to never actually invest in it. Those guys got NBA minutes because they were coached and developed to do so. Outside of Kemba none of those guys were burger boys. They got better every year consistently. Every single guard because there was a plan for them. Hurley has not shown that he has a true plan to develop guys yet.

According to Hurley Gaffney had all the talent in the world too. He showed it in flashes, it was all mental with him. Which could be a result of not managing him the right way. Gaffney did nothing wrong his freshman year to be recruited over and not have the reigns handed to him.

All this to say I’m still not out on Hurley. I just hope he learns his lesson in investing in his players or else the portal is going to became our best recruiting source.

I hear you to a degree.

Who is the recruit though that Hurley brought in & recruited over Gaff after his freshman year?

 

[olehead]

cant pass judgment until the roster is set for next season. the way i'm looking at it for now is that 5 of the bottom 6 players on the team are transferring.

this happens at kentucky every year. people were saying hurley was too loyal, well be careful what you wish for. if we get newton, ramey, castle, and two depth pieces the offseason will have been a huge success in my book and everyone can eat crow.

Wish we had Kentucky's problem of loading up on 7 stars and having high 4 star recruits transfer out. One can dream.

 

[mauconnfan]

By the end of Gaffney’s freshman year he was starting and the Boneyard loved his upside. Only to never actually invest in it. Those guys got NBA minutes because they were coached and developed to do so. Outside of Kemba none of those guys were burger boys. They got better every year consistently. Every single guard because there was a plan for them. Hurley has not shown that he has a true plan to develop guys yet.

According to Hurley Gaffney had all the talent in the world too. He showed it in flashes, it was all mental with him. Which could be a result of not managing him the right way. Gaffney did nothing wrong his freshman year to be recruited over and not have the reigns handed to him.

All this to say I’m still not out on Hurley. I just hope he learns his lesson in investing in his players or else the portal is going to became our best recruiting source.

Gaff was completely overrated by many on the Boneyard his freshman year based only on the fact he made less mistakes than AG who many began to dislike. He had a couple of flashes of good games but by no means was he anything more than solid, couldn’t defend and way too much East West offense. Vital got hot as hell and made many weaknesses on the team fade. They had to find better talent to compete at a higher level entering the Big East there was nothing he ever showed to believe otherwise. Holding pat last year while leaving Cole as our only go to definitely hurt.

 

[karstenkibbe]

Granted, this is totally your baseless armchair psychoanalysis but your conclusion is that Gaffney didn't get enough of an opportunity to succeed here? Really? It "rubbed him the wrong way" that he was "outside of Hurley world looking in"? If anything Hurley was overly loyal to Gaffney to the detriment of the team. That is, frankly, an absurd conclusion based on the available evidence.

And I'm legitimately curious where you get the idea that he doesn't "apply" the culture of "hard work, dedication and commitment" to Jackson and Sanogo, two guys whose work ethics are pretty well-regarded. Is this based on anything or are you just typing stuff to say it? Could it be that they were just better than Gaffney and Diggins?

You really enjoy going out of your way to berate people and puff your chest, don’t you? Please tell me where I wrote that Hurley didn’t give Gaffney enough of an opportunity. Take a reading comprehension test and come back and see me. Take a reading comprehension test and come back and see me. You really are an incorrigible bully and blowhard on this board.

 

[Scoe]

Hurley homers are like Brian Cashman homers. Yankee fans who settle for mediocrity.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Keep attacking. But again…..give me an explanation of why this development is a positive. You’ve all taken your pot shots at me. But still not one person has been able to answer that question.

You keep repeating this like it is some amazing gotcha moment. No one thinks this is good but this is the first transfer of anyone looking at meaningful minutes next year. You can understand this is not good and also understand there’s a path forward that we need to see play out.

 

[Edward Sargent]

My spin is this board kept complaining that we didn't use the portal enough last year so this year we are going to make up for it and we will just have to wait and see what the results are next season won't we.

 

[Magic32]

At least wait to see how everything shakes out before we crucify Hurley. Just might have better options for our program in his plans, we know that good players continue to enter the portal daily. I'll admit I wanted to see more time for a few players and it didn't happen.

 

[UConn990411]

My spin is this board kept complaining that we didn't use the portal enough last year so this year we are going to make up for it and we will just have to wait and see what the results are next season won't we.

That’s a bit of an oversimplification.

Last year’s team had one consistent ball handler and no true point guard that got minutes regularly. As a result, a lot of people on here (fairly) criticized Hurley for neither using the portal nor developing the top-50 recruit he brought in.

At the same time, I don’t think anyone wants to see UConn rely on the transfer portal to build a roster. It’s great for adding a couple pieces that will plug in roster holes and/or put an already great team over the top. But as we saw with Ollie, relying on transfers on a year-to-year basis isn’t a sustainable way to build a program.

 

[Stinger92860]

So now he's run off 2 highly touted recruits that never were given a chance to see the floor. All while giving undeserved minutes to upper-classmen in exchange for the 2nd consecutive 1st round NCAA flameout. And in the interest of building culture? Well guess what? Now he's gonna have to fill his team with a bunch of transfers or face next season with his son as our #1 option at point guard. Well done DH. Can't wait to see what you have in store next.

It worked for Boeheim, except for losing in the 1st round.

 

[Pudge]

You all can drop off now. Road mostly for free through Jim Calhoun's HOF rising. Do you think Jim was easy? Gave hugs and bon bons. Bob Hurley HOF ride? I am gonna say RJ felt Danny has a lot of his Dad in his behavior - practice and on court presence. You all are welcome to jump and throw all your negative dismissive know nothing takes here. I am going nowhere. We develop kids. Polley & Whaley; Martin & Cole all improved dramatically. Someone questioned Cole's emergence this year: watch some games from 2020-2021 and you see a great progression of skills and leadership. Floyd? Brown who went to Texas A&M? Diggins? I saw nothing. They aren't staying around for the growth - in themselves and this UCONN team.

Danny Hurley is still a relatively new HC. Where was Calhoun after a decade? DH has to get better to meet my expectations. He will.

We are in a new era in CBB. It is obvious for me - who watched Bill Musselman play roster games in the Continental minor basketball leagues in Albany - that his son Eric is well situated to play similar roster moves at our new college paradigm. Same same. But I think there's another way.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I hear you to a degree.

Who is the recruit though that Hurley brought in & recruited over Gaff after his freshman year?

It’s Cole.

Gaff was completely overrated by many on the Boneyard his freshman year based only on the fact he made less mistakes than AG who many began to dislike. He had a couple of flashes of good games but by no means was he anything more than solid, couldn’t defend and way too much East West offense. Vital got hot as hell and made many weaknesses on the team fade. They had to find better talent to compete at a higher level entering the Big East there was nothing he ever showed to believe otherwise. Holding pat last year while leaving Cole as our only go to definitely hurt.

I don’t think another player outside of Cole would’ve helped to be honest. We had nobody who was the best player on the court in the last 5 minutes. That’s what most of our season boiled down to. I kinda wish Hurley would’ve just took whatever lumps this year with not going all in on the senior players.

We were a true high floor low ceiling team. Now I hope we can start building our roster around guys we recruited.

 

[GetTheFacts]

This post is kinda BS and I've been a pretty big critic of Hurley myself. The reality is, Gaffney and Floyd were low-rated recruits and I think they saw the writing on the wall when rumors started flying about Newton committing. The fact that Diggins could not sniff the floor, at all, over Gaffney was a pretty big red-flag.

Look forward to seeing this forum do a 180 in terms of expectations for next season once Newton and Ramey commit.