Post game news conference Hurley and Whaley

[UCfor3]

People expect the team to not have a historically bad offensive game against a solid 10 seed or any seed in the NCAA tournament. UCONN’s C game wins this. Unfortunately they brought their D game.

If you think UConn's C game beats Maryland then you have an overinflated view on how good we were this year. Your expectations and reality are not one in the same.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Second postseason? I must have missed the first. LOL! This is one and only postseason with UCONN.

Did you miss his first season with Ollie's misfits in the AAC tournament? That's a postseason.

 

[Hamms30]

You want to play a zone against a team that plays 5 out and is shooting the lights out of the ball? Is this serious?

They were shooting the lights out with us playing man to man which also gave them the opportunity to back our guards down in the paint. At least the zone takes that out of the equation and forces them to try and keep making 3's at an unsustainable rate. Cole came out right at the beginning of the game because he got backed down from the foul line for an easy post move. We could have used him on the floor while he was sitting as some sort of a pull up or outside threat since their defense seemed to be to set up a wall outside the arc under the hoop to prevent lay-ups. We really needed somebody with a mid-range game that could have gotten to the elbow and pulled up. this season, that person has been RJ for us.

 

[willie99]

Whaley has a lot to be proud of. He will be well remembered at UConn.

I like Whaley, I like all the kids, he improved a lot under Hurley

It's all the Hurley bashing when his regime is in it's infancy that annoys me

 

[JamesinGR]

Make layups at even a remotely reasonable rate and they win.

Hurley can do a lot, but he cannot make a layup for them.

Agree and would it be too much to ask that they work in time for free throws? Just sayin.

 

[husky429]

They got dominated by a team that dictated tempo and style of play. The advantages that UConn had going into this game were not even marginally exploited. Acting like it’s some sort of fluke that they lost because they missed a bunch of layups is wild.

Yeahp. I haven't read the thread but this is it. We missed layups and shots, but we also made those layups and shots way harder than they needed to be by not putting our guys in a position to succeed or executing when we did. This isn't just about "we missed layups!" It's "we missed layups because we took them with 4 defenders draped on us and didn't think to do anything to change that!"

 

[husky429]

Our advantage was that we could outrebound the ____ out of them.

We did that. We had a ton more possessions and shots, we couldn't make them.

The one time we forced it to Sanogo he traveled. He was also embarrassed on D. Sanogo wasn't the answer.

Missing a million of our first looks and blowing the offensive putbacks is why we had so many more boards. We needed to get better looks from the perimeter to begin with so we didn't need those offensive rebounds. Way too much walking through our cuts, and defaulting to iso ball.

 

[3rdbass]

Did you miss his first season with Ollie's misfits in the AAC tournament? That's a postseason.

Ok I thought you were talking about NCAA tournament.

 

[BlueDogs]

you have been screaming about how he can't win a big game for two years now. Failing at the free throw line can only be in the players, cmon.

Umm, that’s exactly an indication of a team not prepped mentally to play, unless Maryland was playing invisible D.

 

[uconnfan68]

You want to play a zone against a team that plays 5 out and is shooting the lights out of the ball? Is this serious?

Why not? Was our man-to-man that good?

 

[DMIL]

If you think UConn's C game beats Maryland then you have an overinflated view on how good we were this year. Your expectations and reality are not one in the same.

Not really man. These guys hit a few free throws and come reasonably close to their season avg. shooting percentage they win this game period. That’s just low hanging fruit. They gave us a historically bad shooting night in the tournament. Let me say this again....historically bad. Despite the missed put backs and layups their shot selection was abismal.

 

[superjohn]

If you think UConn's C game beats Maryland then you have an overinflated view on how good we were this year. Your expectations and reality are not one in the same.

I absolutely do, that was UConn's F game and they were at the ft line to cut it to 4 with a couple minutes left.

 

[djct1999]

They got dominated by a team that dictated tempo and style of play. The advantages that UConn had going into this game were not even marginally exploited. Acting like it’s some sort of fluke that they lost because they missed a bunch of layups is wild.

They had 20 more shots than their opponent and had 21 offensive rebounds. They scored 54 points. The other team only scored in the low 60s. It’s wild you can’t comprehend just how statistically improbable last night was.

 

[UCfor3]

I absolutely do, that was UConn's F game and they were at the ft line to cut it to 4 with a couple minutes left.

Our F game has us outrebounding them by 11 and getting a million more shots at the basket? We had an F shooting game for sure. Defense wasnt great either. Maybe not an F but not great. It was a 7/10 game. I just don't see it as some big upset like some people do. We had to play well to win. We didn't. Yeah, we had a glimpse of an opportunity there at the end, but if we are being honest with ourselves, the game wasn't all that close from when we had 19 points until that one brief moment when we decided to brick foul shots again.

 

[superjohn]

Our F game has us outrebounding them by 11 and getting a million more shots at the basket? We had an F shooting game for sure. Defense wasnt great either. Maybe not an F but not great. It was a 7/10 game. I just don't see it as some big upset like some people do. We had to play well to win. We didn't. Yeah, we had a glimpse of an opportunity there at the end, but if we are being honest with ourselves, the game wasn't all that close from when we had 19 points until that one brief moment when we decided to brick foul shots again.

Our F game has our starters shooting 28% from the field, shooting 42% from the ft line, having as many turnovers as assists for the game, our superstar having a horrible game, our starting forward going 1-10.

 

[UCfor3]

Our F game has our starters shooting 28% from the field, shooting 42% from the ft line, having as many turnovers as assists for the game, our superstar having a horrible game, our starting forward going 1-10.

Do you think for a second that outside of the foul shooting that Maryland had anything at all to do with our poor performance? Not all of it of course but you don't think their defensive effort had any effect? To me an F game is bad across the board. We did some things decent. They played good defense and we couldnt make a shot to save our lives. Nova did a similar number on us.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

They had 20 more shots than their opponent and had 21 offensive rebounds. They scored 54 points. The other team only scored in the low 60s. It’s wild you can’t comprehend just how statistically improbable last night was.

Who gives a _____ if it's statistically improbable? Are you people serious? They played like ____ and lost. For whatever reason they could not defend a pretty mediocre to decent college 2 guard like Ayala when half our lineup is the same size as the kid.

When their inconsistent offensive performers make shots this team looks pretty good. When they don't, it doesn't. Same story all year. Christ with this fluke nonsense.

 

[superjohn]

Do you think for a second that outside of the foul shooting that Maryland had anything at all to do with our poor performance? Not all of it of course but you don't think their defensive effort had any effect? To me an F game is bad across the board. We did some things decent. They played good defense and we couldnt make a shot to save our lives. Nova did a similar number on us.

I thought we were absolutely horrendous across the board, the only good thing was offensive rebounding because we missed so many shots and then kept missing the layups off of our offensive rebounds. I always think the other team has something to do with it but I knew we were in trouble very early in that game because we were walking the ball up the court.

I said it was going to be a game where we let the other team dictate pace, it's a problem with Hurley and he seems unwilling to make adjustments. if we lost the game while pushing the ball and using our open court athleticism and abilities I would have been okay with it. i don't think we would've lost if we played that way but it would've been a lot easier to accept. The way we played and Hurley coached left a bad taste in my mouth. His quotes after the game made it even worse.

 

[Greg]

What is Hurley's NCAA record anyway. Has he won any games ever. I know I can look it up but this guy should be a lead recruiter not a head coach IMO.

 

[Ricker]

I'm thankful for the turnaround of the program. I'm thankful for the recruiting battles we have won. I'm thankful that we made the tournament and had no 'bad' losses in a quad sense. I also am 100% on board that the team did this in spite of injuries, and not being 100% rehabing from injuries. There was also great individual improvements by players in spite of offseason and in season limitations. Credit to players and coaches. We rebounded, played hard, and hung in fighting in every game. I wish we could make 2 ft shots because this was maddingly frequent. I wish we could make foul shots in a couple key spot but it happens. The Maryland game is disappointing, but one positive takeaway was Gaffney being aggressive and trying to step up.

I also don't think a person is a bad fan to expect the team, each player, and the coach, to perform up to what they have set as their own expectations based upon how they can perform. With respect to Hurley, does it really make sense that you have an impact player like Sanogo that you call transformational, and sit him on the bench forfeiting his strengths for half a game against good teams because you haven't schemed a way to cover his weaknesses? Is it unfair to point out that Hurley benched Sanogo in every game that he didn't like the defensive matchup, yet we didn't win any of those games with the alternative strategy he chose? Is it unfair to point out that the team can't reliably get open shots for your best 3 point shooter who is 6'9?

Hurley isn't quick to jettison his preconceived notions and those notions haven't been universally right. I'll point out that Hurley stayed with Gilbert in spite of boneyard criticism and eventually the change in tactic worked last year. Hurley had Whaley playing limited minutes last year and got forced into a change worked, (to the surprise of most). Adams was playing out of necessity, but in the opinion of many, he was playing too many minutes as a Hurley defensive favorite. There hasn't been much of a clamor objecting to Adams lack of play down the stretch. Nothing wrong with saying that Hurley has to up his game planning schematically and use of personnel in addition to having a few shooters.

 

[UCfor3]

I thought we were absolutely horrendous across the board, the only good thing was offensive rebounding because we missed so many shots and then kept missing the layups off of our offensive rebounds. I always think the other team has something to do with it but I knew we were in trouble very early in that game because we were walking the ball up the court.

I said it was going to be a game where we let the other team dictate pace, it's a problem with Hurley and he seems unwilling to make adjustments. if we lost the game while pushing the ball and using our open court athleticism and abilities I would have been okay with it. i don't think we would've lost if we played that way but it would've been a lot easier to accept. The way we played and Hurley coached left a bad taste in my mouth. His quotes after the game made it even worse.

I agree with the uptempo pace. All season in fact. Even JC mentioned it in that interview. It's my biggest complaint on Hurley. If we are going to recruit athletes like AJax, we need to turn them loose a little. I think Hurley thought he could manage our poor shooting by playing a slow, low scoring style and play defense and rebound. Kind of how an NFL teams tries to play ball control and run the ball a lot to hide a mediocre QB and keep their defense off the field. Problem is it made our margin for error razor thin and we just didnt have the shotmakers to play that style. We would inevitably have stretches or in this case entire games where we just couldnt score. We are just too easy to defend in the half court. We have 2 threats. Bouk and Adama. Sanogo is always in foul trouble. Teams can also converge on him and have little fear of our 3 point shooters. Bouk gets their best defender and help. Teams are aware of him always. They also dare him to shoot the 3 and he was subpar from there this season. The only thing I disagree with is I dont think we are good enough to have the luxury to throw our C game out there against any 10 seed and expect to win. Maybe we could squeak one out but Maryland, while not world beaters, played a tougher schedule, beat better teams. They had wins against Wisconsin, Purdue, Illinois, Rutgers, Mich St. We beat USC 4 months ago. It was a 7/10 game. The spread was like 3.5.

 

[UConniki]

What is Hurley's NCAA record anyway. Has he won any games ever. I know I can look it up but this guy should be a lead recruiter not a head coach IMO.

He got R. I. to the tournament twice and won a game each year as an underdog to schools from power conferences ( Oklahoma with a college player of the year candidate, Trae Young) and Creighton. It's amazing how little knowledge many posters have about college basketball in general...... but have no problem sharing how little they know by asking ?? that they could simply google and educate themselves before posting nonsense. What's that old saying...... If people think that you're an idiot stop posting before you remove all doubts.... yup that's the saying.

 

[djct1999]

Who gives a _____ if it's statistically improbable? Are you people serious? They played like ____ and lost. For whatever reason they could not defend a pretty mediocre to decent college 2 guard like Ayala when half our lineup is the same size as the kid.

When their inconsistent offensive performers make shots this team looks pretty good. When they don't, it doesn't. Same story all year. Christ with this fluke nonsense.

Now you are talking in circles. Last week, you were arguing Cole is a good to great defender. Now its Hurley's fault because Cole was unable to stop Ayala(or anyone for that matter)on the defensive end and really struggled even getting into an offense on the other end. Maybe you should shift the blame. At some point, the kids simply didn't execute. This was one of those games. The stats prove it. They suggest that we weren't dominated at all. It suggests we sucked on the floor.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

This board is odd. Is it split 50/50 ollie/ Hurley still? Who was the other northeast recruiting head coach option for us? I’m not being a jerk. I was into musselman and Oates and no too into Hurley but realized the Tristate recruiting he could bring. Add in Kimani and the staff. Who was your choice if not Dan nosweetsixteen Hurley? FYI- he has until this contract to get there.

Let’s be honest here. Being in the Big East is a pretty big advantage in recruiting that coach Hurley has and coach Ollie did not have.

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

Yes. They were getting wide open 3's and dunks already.

A zone would have broken their rhythm, made them think, prevented Ayala from getting our players on an island in the paint with no help.

They would've still taken 3s, but hopefully contested instead of wide open. Maryland struggled against zones this year. Maybe it wouldn't have worked. But he didn't try... anything else schematically.

I probably would have tried the triangle and two. Or maybe 1-3-1. Heavy zone on the perimeter with a few bigs anchoring the paint.