Our Identity

[Deepster]

In before the first "I hope we bring back the full court press" post.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We will find out about the same time Dan finds out. I don't think he knows. There will be glimmers of it this summer, as the new guys play with the existing guys.

I see a deep team that should be able to play aggressive defense and score in transition. But I thought so last year, and DH kept the brakes on until late in the season. I hope we finally add a little zone to the defense, so we can prevent crappy small ball teams like St. Johns from dictating to us. If there is any identity I want to see, it's that: a team that imposes its will on the opponent; that makes them adjust to us.

 

[CL82]

Has anything ever been up to par to Boneyard standards??

Off the top of my head, I can think of 4 times.

 

[CL82]

In before the first "I hope we bring back the full court press" post.

Hurley kind of sort of has/ wants to do this. His 3/4 press is the modern equivalent of the full court press.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

but i did say AJ especially, and the team, ie; "them', will be dared to shoot. By the way, I couldn't stand english structure as a kid.

Everytime i see words grouped like that i think; Person/Woman/Man/Camera/Tv.

I recognized and respected your intent enough so that I needed to strip out the "especially," in favor of the ellipsis in order to joke that your post constrasted with that of @BGesus4.

I fundamentally agree that teams will 'force' us to 'prove' if we can shoot better this year, and that, indeed, will apply especially to AJ.

 

[BuffaloHusky]

I see a lot of mentions about being elite defensively but more so as offensive rebounders. The big difference this season needs to be finishing more often as we were really poor around the rim last year whether on drives, put backs or off dishes.

 

[husky429]

We will find out about the same time Dan finds out. I don't think he knows. There will be glimmers of it this summer, as the new guys play with the existing guys.

I see a deep team that should be able to play aggressive defense and score in transition. But I thought so last year, and DH kept the brakes on until late in the season. I hope we finally add a little zone to the defense, so we can prevent crappy small ball teams like St. Johns from dictating to us. If there is any identity I want to see, it's that: a team that imposes its will on the opponent; that makes them adjust to us.

I really do think a couple of our losses (SJU especially) made Coach realize some things. A kind of turning point for his career I hope.

He stopped forcing Sanogo to hard hedge constantly, started running more, and gave the freshman more room to grow. That kind of flexibility is how great coaches win... I hope we'll see it continue

 

[husky429]

Got bored and decided to see if Hurley is 1) actually a defensive coach like he claims, 2) every has played fast.

UCONN offense/defense rankings under Hurley (then URI)... then adjusted transition pace ranking, whatever it's caled. All from torvik.

21: 18/30...303
20: 59/65… 169
19: 84/126… 107


At URI

18: 78/53… 161
17: 58/28… 263
16: 109/73… 324
15: 176/14… 120
14: 194/70… 181
13: 189/145 …. 285

1) Any ideas on why Hurley every year of his career (including at Wagner) had a better defense than offense, but at UConn has had the exact opposite all 3 years.

In my opinion? The level of competition has improved. His strategy of in your face, hard hedging ALL the time is basically "be bigger, better, badder, faster basketball"--and it's really fun to watch. And highly effective a lot of the time. But high-major, top-25 bball takes a more nuanced approach than that. It will work versus some matchups, but other teams? You're going to need a press in your back pocket, a zone to protect guys in foul trouble (ehem, Sanogo), and teach your less athletic guys (Sanogo, hopefully Clingan) to play in drop coverage depending on the matchup and circumstance.

2) Hurley has never had a top-100 pace, and has had a top 50% pace all of twice. Our pace has dropped each year he's been here. This years was staggeringly slow. And that can be okay... we can be a team that plays slow, but we also need to recruit accordingly. Bringing in freak athletes with limited skill (Jackson, Akok, Johnson) means you need to play fast to utilize their strengths. Heck, even Gaffney plays better when he has license to play fast. I would put Rese in the camp of players that would fare better in transition as well, and Whaley. Even Polley is great at hitting those trailing wing threes on the break.

I wonder if our recruiting of guys like Diggins and Hawkins (awesome half-court player despite being a great athlete), as well as our only recently prioritizing half-court players like Karaban and Fillipowski is a signal that we're going to try to take a more balanced approach to recruiting skill vs athleticism. It also did seem like later in the year our players were getting more freedom to get out and run.

I doubt we're ever going to be a top 20 pace team. It isn't in our coaches DNA. You need to be willing to accept a lot of TOs if it means more layups... a cost-benefit analysis. And Hurley always seem to err on the side of less TOs.

I hope going forward that amazing offensive rebounding and tenacity on defense remains our priority. I'm sure we'll continue to elevate our recruiting. I also hope that we add more half-court proficient players (read: shooters), allow our bigs to play in drop coverage, and start letting the dogs run more. Getting back to around 100 or so like we were his first year would be a fair place to be IMO.

 

[bendm]

Sanogo and Whaley will be tough for smaller teams, and we can be great if coach commits to 3 shooters around them.

only 4 shooters to choose from (cole/gaff/hawk/polley) but that's ok. i dont see whaley and sanogo playing together for more than ~15 mpg but one of them should always be on the floor. when one goes to the bench in comes digg/aj/martin/akok/samson/springs

 

[Huskyforlife]

only 4 shooters to choose from (cole/gaff/hawk/polley) but that's ok. i dont see whaley and sanogo playing together for more than ~15 mpg but one of them should always be on the floor. when one goes to the bench in comes digg/aj/martin/akok/samson/springs

I'd be okay rotating those 4 guys in the 1-3 spots at all times, while hoping someone like Akok/Martin/Johnson/Springs/Whaley can contribute some spacing at the 4 spot.

 

[Umami Zen]

My sincere hope is that the two-way talent DH is accumulating on his roster(depth) can provide for opportunities to press/transition baskets/TOs/half court pressure that can be a catalyst for some easy buckets.

SJU was not loaded with shooters but they certainly created some havoc with their press to make up for what they didn't have in high % shooters.

Hope the young guys push some up tempo ball movement in combination with our team depth to keep the opposition on their heels. The talent/depth is there to do it.

 

[UofCT]

What is going to be our identity this season? I think we'll be elite defensively again. But how our offense will look post bouk is probably the most pressing question

Thought this was going to be about the new IOS update

 

[bendm]

I'd be okay rotating those 4 guys in the 1-3 spots at all times

intentional omission of digg and aj?

 

[rip7774]

we’ll be 63-61 rock fight kings. Still Lack of offensive creators and shooters. Hoping the freshman can be the answer.

 

[freescooter]

Hurley has gone on record saying he wants next year’s team to get out and run/score in transition more. I believe we will, although still probably not up to par with BY standards

Every coach in the country says that. But doing it effectively means you need the right players. You need to rebound with your bigs and Hurley sends his guards to the d boards, which limits their ability to break down the floor. You need ideally a big or a guard who can pass and score from both the perimeter and at the rim. Unless one of the fresh can do it we don’t have that. We will be a slight Variant on last years model. We have The same team for the most part.