Some really thoughtful self reflection and comments by Hurley.

[mauconnfan]

What JC did is amazing. I'm not taking away from it. But he didn't inherit what say, Bill Snyder did in K-State football (the worst D1 program) but JC's success was far greater. Perno had some pretty decent teams and good players like Tim Cole, Norm Bailey, Hobbs etc.

He had good players I agree. But they were cellar dwellers in the BE because while being a great guy, he wasn’t a very good coach. Corny Thompson became a less impactful player after his freshman year each year and he would’ve been a stud if JC (or Dan Hurley) had a piece of him. Truth is they weren’t a program anyone was concerned about even though they were in the BE. Basically still Yankee Conference level.

 

[HuskyHawk]

He had good players I agree. But they were cellar dwellers in the BE because while being a great guy, he wasn’t a very good coach. Corny Thompson became a less impactful player after his freshman year each year and he would’ve been a stud if JC (or Dan Hurley) had a piece of him. Truth is they weren’t a program anyone was concerned about even though they were in the BE. Basically still Yankee Conference level.

I was there for it, so yeah, I get it. We got the BE invite because we were pretty good in the Yankee conference. Still remember the joy of the NIT championship. That was huge.

 

[Waquoit]

We got the BE invite because we were pretty good in the Yankee conference.

We got the Big East invite because we were the best team and had the best and newest arena in New England at the time of it's founding.

 

[Chasm64]

Please stop with the JC build this program from nothing. This was a strong regional program for decades. The Huskies appeared in the NCAA tournament 11 times between 1939 and 1970—second most of any school in the tournament's early era—reaching their first Sweet Sixteen in 1956 and first Elite Eight in 1964. That ain't nothing.

Calhoun and the Big East created by Dave Gavitt elevated the program. Calhoun could never have done what he succeed in doing without the brainchild of Dave Gavitt. The Big East was nationally significant before the Huskies. Calhoun made the Huskies significant in the Big East and then broke though at the national level.

Calhoun is one of the best coaches in the history of college basketball. But he did not build the program from nothing.

Apparently you didn’t suffer through the sleepwalking Perno years.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

2004-2006 was a pretty epic run too.

National Championship
Round of 32
Elite 8

2 top 5 draft picks
4 top 10
7 first roundsrs

If it wasn’t for Bynum he would’ve brought in a 5* in 3 straight recruiting classes as well.

Crazy to say Calhoun hasn’t been there and done that.

Maybe I read wrong, but he never said "Calhoun hasn't been there and done that". What he said is that winning back to back have put us in a different level. And that is objectively true. Calhoun started this madness. But Dan has elevated it. Sorry. I lived through the entire Calhoun era. I love Coach. But facts are facts.

 

[dennismenace]

I was there for it, so yeah, I get it. We got the BE invite because we were pretty good in the Yankee conference. Still remember the joy of the NIT championship. That was huge.

Invited as well for the TV map coverage which was the real genius to Gavitt's dream. At the time all these cities/areas were producing great basketball prospects and they were all going to traditional basketball strongholds:
Tobacco Road
Big Ten
UCLA
etc.

Gavitts dream was to build the league around the tv markets which included all the Northeast and DC/Bal. areas and keep the young men home to stock it. Brilliant.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

What JC did is amazing. I'm not taking away from it. But he didn't inherit what say, Bill Snyder did in K-State football (the worst D1 program) but JC's success was far greater. Perno had some pretty decent teams and good players like Tim Cole, Norm Bailey, Hobbs etc.

I have no clue about KState football except they never won a national championship. So if your point is that Snyder started lower, sure. But JC still had a more impressive program build

 

[Waquoit]

He inherited a Robinson who didn’t play much under Perno and made him what he turned out to be with some tough love.

No, he didn't. Cliff made himself what he turned out to be by getting his head on straight once he got to the bigs. Cliff's senior year was a disaster for him and the team by any measure. That team should have made the dance and didn't even make it to the bubble. Trust me, if there was a Boneyard in 1989 all the wise guys here would have been screaming for Calhoun's head. JC and Cliff never really got along. Cliff was a churl and his game was that of a mostly inefficient ball stopper. If JC was truly able to tap into his potential, he doesn't drop to the second round of the draft. Calhoun did enough good stuff that you don't have to gild the lily.

 

[gtcam]

Maybe I read wrong, but he never said "Calhoun hasn't been there and done that". What he said is that winning back to back have put us in a different level. And that is objectively true. Calhoun started this madness. But Dan has elevated it. Sorry. I lived through the entire Calhoun era. I love Coach. But facts are facts.

If Dan Hurley does not win another NC its JC 3 Dan Hurley 2 facts are facts

 

[Deleted at users request]

Maybe I read wrong, but he never said "Calhoun hasn't been there and done that". What he said is that winning back to back have put us in a different level. And that is objectively true. Calhoun started this madness. But Dan has elevated it. Sorry. I lived through the entire Calhoun era. I love Coach. But facts are facts.

No JC hasn’t won back to back, but there’s a lot of things JC has done that Hurley hasn’t. The statement that Hurley is somehow above advice from him because of that was preposterous in that sense.

 

[mauconnfan]

No, he didn't. Cliff made himself what he turned out to be by getting his head on straight once he got to the bigs. Cliff's senior year was a disaster for him and the team by any measure. That team should have made the dance and didn't even make it to the bubble. Trust me, if there was a Boneyard in 1989 all the wise guys here would have been screaming for Calhoun's head. JC and Cliff never really got along. Cliff was a churl and his game was that of a mostly inefficient ball stopper. If JC was truly able to tap into his potential, he doesn't drop to the second round of the draft. Calhoun did enough good stuff that you don't have to gild the lily.

Wow way off again I’m gilding nothing you just somehow have a little bit of butt hurt when anyone wants to compare JC and Dan Hurley. I promise you if they didn’t hire JC he wouldn’t have even been drafted. I was there for all of those days every game watched him be wasted until JC got there. While he might not have liked him (and why would he Perno didn’t coach so JC was the absolute extreme opposite?) he did get much better and was still somewhat raw due to his start in college as well as his rebellious ‘tude. But no doubt he was better, to believe otherwise is ridiculous.

 

[mauconnfan]

Maybe I read wrong, but he never said "Calhoun hasn't been there and done that". What he said is that winning back to back have put us in a different level. And that is objectively true. Calhoun started this madness. But Dan has elevated it. Sorry. I lived through the entire Calhoun era. I love Coach. But facts are facts.

No wrong. The run they had from irrelevance prior to 88 NIT and then 89-90 Dream season and the continuous Sweet 16s, Elite 8s and later is undeniably more impressive due to where it started and who the BE was then, which was the best basketball conference in college.

Let’s be happy where we are but please let’s see more before we dare to compare.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I have no clue about KState football except they never won a national championship. So if your point is that Snyder started lower, sure. But JC still had a more impressive program build

For sure, because he got to the mountain top. Some here seem to think he took over a complete dumpster fire and started from "nothing" and that's not really true. He never would have left Northeastern for UConn if UConn didn't already have a solid fanbase and some track record of success.

 

[superjohn]

This thread is weird. There's people diminishing what Calhoun did and what Hurley is doing. They are both legends, Calhoun over a lifetime of coaching and Hurley still in the early to mid stages...

UConn basketball sucked before Calhoun got there. I wasn't around for it but my dad was and he was blown away by what Calhoun did and we have the numbers to look at. They had 4 straight seasons of getting their butts kicked and hadn't made the tournament in 7 years. They had 2 tournament appearances in the 19 years before Calhoun got there. They had some success as a program but you had to go back to the 50's and early 60's when they had Hugh Greer and Fred Shabel. Calhoun created a national giant of a program from the ground up with the help of a powerful Big East which was the best basketball conference in the country. He had to slay giants like John Thompson/Georgetown, Jim Boeheim/Syracuse, Lou Carnesecca/St. John's, PJ Carlesimo/Seton Hall, Rollie Massimino/Villanova. While those other big name coaches and programs started to faulter Calhoun kept building and building and blew by all of them.

Hurley took over the program in a precarious situation because Ollie stopped doing his job and because UConn was stuck in the AAC. It was quite a hole to dig out of because Ollie left it in tatters but the program had already won 4 national championships. The program was a major national brand and needed someone to steer it back on course. Hurley got them on the right trajectory quickly and the move back to the Big East was necessary. Nobody could've or should've expected him to take the program to new heights but that's what he's done. This is now the best version of the UConn program there's ever been which is remarkable because the program is at a bigger disadvantage than it was during the Calhoun years due to realignment and money.

No reason to bring one down to bring the other up. If we're excluding John Wooden who built the UCLA program and dominated the NCAA tournaments (a very different tournament and time) nobody has done what they've done.

 

[Mr. French]

If Dan Hurley does not win another NC its JC 3 Dan Hurley 2 facts are facts

That is a fact. Unfortunately it doesn’t really change what you responded to.

This is a weird thing on this board, but really in life. No one started this by denigrating Jim Calhoun. Anyone on this board loves and respects Jim Calhoun. If you can’t tell any nuance in a very nuanced discussion, it’s tough to have a conversation.

 

[Mr. French]

This thread is weird. There's people diminishing what Calhoun did and what Hurley is doing. They are both legends, Calhoun over a lifetime of coaching and Hurley still in the early to mid stages...

UConn basketball sucked before Calhoun got there. I wasn't around for it but my dad was and he was blown away by what Calhoun did and we have the numbers to look at. They had 4 straight seasons of getting their butts kicked and hadn't made the tournament in 7 years. They had 2 tournament appearances in the 19 years before Calhoun got there. They had some success as a program but you had to go back to the 50's and early 60's when they had Hugh Greer and Fred Shabel. Calhoun created a national giant of a program from the ground up with the help of a powerful Big East which was the best basketball conference in the country. He had to slay giants like John Thompson/Georgetown, Jim Boeheim/Syracuse, Lou Carnesecca/St. John's, PJ Carlesimo/Seton Hall, Rollie Massimino/Villanova. While those other big name coaches and programs started to faulter Calhoun kept building and building and blew by all of them.

Hurley took over the program in a precarious situation because Ollie stopped doing his job and because UConn was stuck in the AAC. It was quite a hole to dig out of because Ollie left it in tatters but the program had already won 4 national championships. The program was a major national brand and needed someone to steer it back on course. Hurley got them on the right trajectory quickly and the move back to the Big East was necessary. Nobody could've or should've expected him to take the program to new heights but that's what he's done. This is now the best version of the UConn program there's ever been which is remarkable because the program is at a bigger disadvantage than it was during the Calhoun years due to realignment and money.

No reason to bring one down to bring the other up. If we're excluding John Wooden who built the UCLA program and dominated the NCAA tournaments (a very different tournament and time) nobody has done what they've done.

I didn’t read this whole thing, but I’m pretty sure we hit send on the exact same sentiment.

People are weirdly taking sides on something that never needed to be a contest.

 

[Deleted at users request]

That is a fact. Unfortunately it doesn’t really change what you responded to.

This is a weird thing on this board, but really in life. No one started this by denigrating Jim Calhoun. Anyone on this board loves and respects Jim Calhoun. If you can’t tell any nuance in a very nuanced discussion, it’s tough to have a conversation.

Post #42 is what triggered it. Saying Calhoun isn’t speaking from experience when advising Hurley. It sounded pretty degrading to all that Calhoun has accomplished over a sustained period of time.

 

[Palatine]

Invited as well for the TV map coverage which was the real genius to Gavitt's dream. At the time all these cities/areas were producing great basketball prospects and they were all going to traditional basketball strongholds:
Tobacco Road
Big Ten
UCLA
etc.

Gavitts dream was to build the league around the tv markets which included all the Northeast and DC/Bal. areas and keep the young men home to stock it. Brilliant.

Underlying everything that Gavitt did, his #1 priority was protecting Providence basketball. That priority never changed and it hurt the Big East what the start of the conference realignment.

 

[Inyatkin]

I didn’t read this whole thing, but I’m pretty sure we hit send on the exact same sentiment.

People are weirdly taking sides on something that never needed to be a contest.

It's been 100 percent driven by old-timers offended that anyone could consider what Hurley has done to be in the same conversation. No one has tried to knock what Calhoun accomplished, unless you consider the debate over "built from nothing" to be a version of that.

 

[NJHusky]

If Dan Hurley does not win another NC its JC 3 Dan Hurley 2 facts are facts

Yup. So technically in order to surpass JC he would have to win 2 more NCs.

Not diminishing the b2b but it’s def easier with the portal. We prob do not win without 5th year Cam.

 

[ctchamps]

Yup. So technically in order to surpass JC he would have to win 2 more NCs.

Not diminishing the b2b but it’s def easier with the portal. We prob do not win without 5th year Cam.

In the past it was about who could get the best high school players with an occasional grad transfer and develop them into a top cohesive group.

Now it's about recruiting high school players, adding portal players, and trying not to lose existing players to the portal. Definitely a more complicated process. And coaches are still doing this against other programs that have access to the portal.

The level of competition is relatively the same. The process is far more complicated.

 

[Luna]

What UConn had before Calhoun was a rabid fanbase and a big Media platform… UConn was always the (pro team) in Connecticut… Calhoun saw that and jumped at the opportunity (I still remember his press conference after Northeastern beat UConn in Hartford..all he did was praise Uconn)

 

[Deleted at users request]

In the past it was about who could get the best high school players with an occasional grad transfer and develop them into a top cohesive group.

Now it's about recruiting high school players, adding portal players, and trying not to lose existing players to the portal. Definitely a more complicated process. And coaches are still doing this against other programs that have access to the portal.

The level of competition is relatively the same. The process is far more complicated.

It’s a lot more like the pros now with the transfer portal.

The need to coach and develop players aren’t as necessary because you can bring in a developed guy like a Cam or Newton to fill your roster needs.

I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s harder to win with a situation like that rather than being forced to learn how to win when you have a Phil Nolan or a bunch of freshman and have to figure out how to get the most out of those guys/rosters.

 

[Mr. French]

Post #42 is what triggered it. Saying Calhoun isn’t speaking from experience when advising Hurley. It sounded pretty degrading to all that Calhoun has accomplished over a sustained period of time.

I get it. It wasn’t degrading. I think it’s embarrassing that people started knocking Hurley because they got defensive and took that as a slight to Calhoun.