The State of the Program

[shizzle787]

Some posters on here think we are a bubble team. Others think we are world-beaters. Some things to think about going forward:

1. Brand-wise we are at the top of the Big East with only Villanova slightly behind (they are a better program right now-but I believe with recruiting in the Big East we will surpass them)

2. The Big East is a power conference (unlike the AAC) which will help the program immensely in recruiting and prestige

3. We need to schedule better going forward in the OOC. A three-game MTE event, Gavitt game, Big 12/Big East challenge, and two more home and homes with P5 schools should be a requirement every year. The better we schedule the better we get and the more room for error with the committee.

So where do you think the program is as of now?

 

[rollskies]

Definitely not how we wanted the season end, but there is so much to look forward to with this team.

So excited to see Hawkins, Sool, Samson come in and also have 3 more scholarships (and maybe even get IW back for another year). We have taken huge strides forward this year and although there is lots of work to be done in the off-season, i’m definitely optimistic about the future of the team.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Some posters on here think we are a bubble team. Others think we are world-beaters. Some things to think about going forward:

1. Brand-wise we are at the top of the Big East with only Villanova slightly behind (they are a better program right now-but I believe with recruiting in the Big East we will surpass them)

2. The Big East is a power conference (unlike the AAC) which will help the program immensely in recruiting and prestige

3. We need to schedule better going forward in the OOC. A three-game MTE event, Gavitt game, Big 12/Big East challenge, and two more home and homes with P5 schools should be a requirement every year. The better we schedule the better we get and the more room for error with the committee.

So where do you think the program is as of now?

'So where do you think the program is as of now?'
as long as it reasonably looks like, once and for all, we take typo and wrap him in silk and lace (can't be anything else as it will chafe his delicate skin), place him in a Saturn 5 and blast him to alpha centuri, along with that thinking that ever thought there was a 'there' there, (6th man? 6th man? wtf?), then we good.
james - 15 points. hurley recruit.
jmoney - 12 points. hurley recruit.
tyrese - 11 boards. hurley recruit.
again, as long as typo ain't around, and even if james goes pro, which he should, we look mighty fine. thanks coach.
(typo's year: 7.5ppg, 43 boards the entire season!, 8 assists the entire season!,
7 blocks the entire season!, 4 steals the entire season! and oh, another final stat:
typo 3s - .355%, jmoney 3s - .362%. and oh, another final stat: on the year for overall fg, typo - .362%, jmoney .410%)
addition by subtraction.

 

[EASTFLA]

We are a top 50 program as of today, potential of becoming a top 20 program soon.

 

[rollskies]

We are a top 50 program as of today, potential of becoming a top 20 program soon.

I am so antsy to see what we do with the additional scholarships. I think we are a good team as is, but could be really good depending on the pieces we add. So much to look forward too.

 

[coachn]

We should be top 10.
Need Bouk to come back
Nobody was ready.
Where was our defense?

 

[rollskies]

We should be top 10.
Need Bouk to come back
Nobody was ready.
Where was our defense?

Bouk ain’t coming back.

 

[Ts5034]

I voted top 50, but I believe we are more top 40, but that was not an option. It will be interesting to see where the pieces fall with our roster for next season though. We have a solid class coming in, but I think we may have an extra scholarship or two. I think Hurley goes after a grad transfer to round things out.

 

[auror]

We're top 20. We're about to put a guy into the league and have a good recruiting class coming in. An ascending head coach. We finished top 3 in a top 3 (usually) league. The team this year was only top 50, but the program is already better than the team and future teams will be better than this one.

 

[CL82]

I think we are just outside the top 25. I would’ve voted top 30 if that was a choice. I wonder how ready Sool will be. If he handles the jump to D1 major play well, I think that we will be pretty good.

 

[huskeynut]

We are a Top 50 right now. The rebuild is not complete yet.

Incoming class will really help. I think Bouknight should stay one more year. I know many disagree, but that is my observation.

We're in a much better league than the AAC. There are needs and Hurley is aware of them. Time will tell. It's a long road back.

 

[OkaForPrez]

3 years ago we had limited talent, limited experience and were out toughed by our opponents.

This year we had upperclassmen with limited talent, but had the experience and toughness to make up for it. The perfect example of this is Whaley, who became and excellent defender and rebounder but didn’t have the offensive skill set to play back to the basket which was a limitation.

This year we had underclassman with exceptional talent but limited experience. They showed signs of toughness but not full maturation 3 years in the program can bring. Dre, Sanogo, Bouk and Gaff have all flashed their talent at varying degrees of consistency but all need simply more reps.

When our upper classmen are both experienced, tough and elite talent and our underclassman remain equal to what they are today we’ll be fully back.

This is why the indictments on Hurley as a coach ignoring our 3 year trend and fixating on this year as if it’s a ceiling are out of bounds. If in 2 more years we’re still a fringe tourney team those conversations may be warranted, but now they’re absurd.

It’s tough being a UConn fan these days but not because of our Kids or Coach. The entitlement and vitriol on this board is over the top and elevated from years past IMO. It’s always been bad after losses and especially season ending. But the criticism after wins in the context of the trend of the program is head scratching.

Some of you sound like Kentucky fans. And they are decidedly the worst fanbase in sports. Don’t become Kentucky fans.

 

[oshkosh]

I think Whaley coming back could help his chances of getting NBA attention in 2022. He has shown to improve year over year, no reason to believe trend wouldn’t continue

 

[scotty0330]

They didn’t win enough games against the top teams on the schedule to be considered top 20. Not sure how anyone can think they’re in that company.

Feasting on DePaul, Marquette and Butler programs two of which fired their coaches doesn’t make a top 20 program....

 

[my2cents]

I think every Uconn fan realizes we need more shooters/shooting. We have the physical ability to match up with most teams, but we have too many guys that don't even need to be guarded, "gumming" up our half court.
We also need some pass first guards who can run fast breaks and either finish or dump it to a player for a dunk. Too many 2/1's become misses or passes that hit people's feet..
We need the coaches to develop players by getting rid of bad habits, Cole was getting much better when he pulled up to shoot rather than taking it to the rim to get stuffed. Gaffney is a huge talent, but his BB IQ is the lowest I have ever seen.
It remains to be seen if Hurley can return Uconn to the NC perch, or be another "participation" team that is happy just to get to the dance.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

I think next year will be another frustrating one but with another good haul in '22 I think we'll be right in the conversation for top 20 building back to top 10

Hopefully hurley sees how unbalanced the roster is and addresses that in recruiting. Along with that he's got the pedigree to figure out the in game stuff so with a few years under his belt in the BE I'm optimistic about the future of the program

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Tough to give a composite number because of inconsistent play all year which is probably more the result of the schedule being the way it was with all of the stoppages and injuries, etc. There are games where we look like a Top 10 team and there are games where we look like we'd struggle with mid-majors. Probably right outside of the top 25 and hopefully moving up next year although with no Bouk, I struggle to figure out who our go-to guy will be.

 

[CTFIRERETIRED]

This team is slowly ascending. It took Calhoun 3 to win the NIT (no one interested tournament) and 13 years to win the NCAA. With the fact that players do not stay 4 years, some only stay 1 or 2, makes it hard to build a club for the long haul. I give Hurley credit. He is finally in a big time conference, the past sins of Kevin Ollie have finally gone, he is recruiting talent. Those of you that are so impatient should calm down.

 

[SubbaBub]

This was a high ceiling, low floor, but not so low as the post 2015 AAC, year. Wildly inconsistent and unable to do more than scare top 25 level teams. We had the talent to go as far as the Elite 8 (especially given the rest of the East Bracket). We handed Maryland a potential program defining gift.

At the top level, the little things matter. 5 buckets was the difference in winning or losing against a below average NCAA squad. Sorry, MD isn't good. We saw the best they could produce and still held them to 60 pts.

5 buckets, whether on offense or defense would have sent us against Bama with the winner of that game having an easy S16 matchup. Those 5 buckets and more were given away in some of the dumbest plays we can remember, most on offense in missed layups, or comically bad turnovers. Early in the season it was bad shot selection from tip to buzzer, but last night I don't remember that many bad shots though I didn't like Whaley 2nd 3pt attempt from the corner. You could also point to the 3 or 4 complete breakdowns on D that led to no less than 9 easy points, but they held MD scoreless for about 4 minutes at the end and 60 pts total minus the end of game FT's. Defense wasn't the problem.

Dan Hurley is going to get a lot of reflexive hate and maybe deserves some, it was never clear aside from a couple out of bounds plays that we were working for a specific shot during the run of play. Nothing where we ran a set specifically to get Bouk a good shot or free up Polley or Martin or Cole for an open jumper. i'm sure it happened but it wasn't obvious nor often. We ran motion and let the players decide where to go. It didn't work because MD was blitzing Bouk with 3 or 4 guys every time he touched the ball. That isn't an exaggeration. The other guys were ready to take advantage nor did we seem to address it. Yeah, Bouk had an off night, but 1 on 3 would demand that he not be the one to carry the team until MD was forced to back off. We never forced them to back off.

Why? because the two ways you get them to back off are hitting threes if they double with a guard or dumping it inside if they double with a big. We'll we sucked from 3 and our bigs were in foul trouble immediately. The third option, drive the lane and get fouled, was not on the referee's menu.

Everyone was expecting Bouk to dominate and MD said, we don't care what you do but, that ain't happening at all costs.

So Dan Hurley has some blame here for not helping his team but, you need to shoot better than 32% if you plan on winning any game. That's on the players.

As for the program, it's always about the players. I enjoyed this season a lot more than I probably should have but, I like the players on this team. They played hard, every game, and most of them played above their realistic expectations. The underclassmen need to improve and step up. The returning upperclassmen need to find a way to contribute or expect to sit. Hurley is bringing in better talent on paper. We were a 2nd reliable scoring option and a reliable 3pt shooter away from being really special. We still need those things plus we need a lead dog and a reliable interior defender and rebounder.

If that sounds like we need 4 players, you'd be right.

 

[SubbaBub]

This team is slowly ascending. It took Calhoun 3 to win the NIT (no one interested tournament) and 13 years to win the NCAA. With the fact that players do not stay 4 years, some only stay 1 or 2, makes it hard to build a club for the long haul. I give Hurley credit. He is finally in a big time conference, the past sins of Kevin Ollie have finally gone, he is recruiting talent. Those of you that are so impatient should calm down.

In other words, it took him 3 years to exceed all expectations and 13 to shock the world. Though in fairness, it only took him 8 to become one of the best teams in America. After 1994 he only needed a bit of luck.

It's not fair to compare Dan Hurley or any coach to one of the all time greats, but if you are at UConn, getting past the round of 64 is the price of admission. Getting to at least the second weekend is the expectation and it is a fair one. He won't get 3 more years to get back to where we are now.

 

[UConn990411]

These last two games have been incredibly frustrating and are leaving a sour taste in everyone’s mouth, but the program is in pretty good shape at the moment. Just compare this roster to the one Hurley inherited - when he took over, it was a bunch of juniors and seniors with low upside. The current roster is not elite, but it’s miles ahead of three years ago in terms of talent, with a really good class coming in.

I’ve been impressed with Hurley’s staff from a recruiting and player development standpoint, which was a huge blindspot of the previous staff. I would like to see them build a more complete roster, and the game planning and in-game coaching needs to get much better.

There’s a ways to go with this program, but they’re on the right track toward sustained success.

 

[Vuce]

In other words, it took him 3 years to exceed all expectations and 13 to shock the world. Though in fairness, it only took him 8 to become one of the best teams in America. After 1994 he only needed a bit of luck.

It's not fair to compare Dan Hurley or any coach to one of the all time greats, but if you are at UConn, getting past the round of 64 is the price of admission. Getting to at least the second weekend is the expectation and it is a fair one. He won't get 3 more years to get back to where we are now.

You are right. If Hurley doesn’t win an NCAA Tournament game after three more years no one here will be defending him. On JC you are also correct we won the NIT which was amazing at the time. Then the next year with largely the same team, which included a guy who would play 18 years in the NBA, we only got back to the NIT. If this board was around back then people would have been calling for his head. Also you mentioned in the previous post that Maryland wasn’t any good. Yeah they only won a game AT #1 seed Illinois plus wins against tournament teams Wisconsin, Purdue, Michigan State and Rutgers. We can’t only look at the losses. Maryland was a middling team just like we were. Their best win was way better than a lot of other schools had.