The foul shooting is moot if Sanogo stays in the game. Hurley saw them playing small ball and wanted to match them like for like defensively. IMO, by doing that Hurley was playing not to lose instead of playing to win.
Hurley hates the zone and will never go to it. But saying never to anything is just stubbornness. This was the perfect time to go to a zone. St. John's had good shooters on the floor, but playing to win is daring them to make those shots and relying on our dominant rebounding when they miss. Then use Sanogo and Whaley to abuse their small ball line up on the offensive end.
UConn is known for its dominant guards, but for better or worse, Hurley has assembled a team with a killer front court. That front court should be this team's identity while Bouk is out, not small ball line ups that rely on streaky shooters to knock down threes. A good in-game coach makes adjustments depending on the team he has. Pound it down low. If we get Kemba and Shabazz clones in the future we rely on our phenomenal guard play again, but we don't have Kemba and Shabazz clones. We have Sanogo and Whaley.
