This season was a failure.

[shizzle787]

Seriously? Win 24 games with a team devoid of consistent shooters. A grand total of one game all year with under two minutes to play they had no chance to win. They weren’t NC caliber but could stick with almost any team. We all would like to have seen them win more but it was hardly a failure.

12 were against cupcakes (6 in the Big East, 6 OOC) and we won 23 games.

 

[cohenzone]

12 were against cupcakes (6 in the Big East, 6 OOC) and we won 23 games.

Who cares. Every team plays “cupcakes“ and some even decent ones lose to them. You are almost always negative and seem to have no understanding about how even the BE is or what kind of pressure it puts on a few starters who can actually shoot when your best other scoring options are inconsistent and can‘t defend. We played a bad offensive first half last night. A pro shooter went off against us including some really high difficulty shots. There is so much pure nonsense about this team. You can pick apart the top 7 teams in the league for games they could’ve won including some they lost to us.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

We had a better record because we got to play cupcakes. Take out the six games against low majors and all of a sudden we are 17-9, very comparable to 14-8 (throw out the cupcake game last year).

This is so dumb. They were a top 25 team most of the season - that's based on a comparison with every other team in division one. Saying "well, if we don't count these __ games their record is only ____" is a meaningless exercise.

And weren't you the one who put them in the final four two days ago?

 

[navery12]

From the Final Four to the entire season being a failure in the span of a few days. A truly impressive ability to flip flop here

 

[hank970]

And what is next year going to look like?? Can't even get excited about it.

Well, you can always look forward to football. Oh, never mind...

 

[YellowMamba]

Who did we actually beat this year?
Auburn (N)
VCU (N)
St. Bonnie’s (N)
Seton Hall (N/H)
Georgetown (H/A)
DePaul (H/A)
St. John’s (H/A)
Butler (H/A)
Marquette (H/A)
Villanova (H)
Xavier (H)
Of those Nova and Auburn is impressive.
Xavier, Seton Hall, and Marquette are solid wins.
The rest are meh at best.

We won 12 cupcake games this year (6 in the Big East). We had an inflated record.

Which team does not have cupcake teams on their schedule? According to you then every team has an 'inflated record'. Our strength of schedule ranking was 29/358. Relatively speaking that's a pretty tough schedule we played this season. GET SOME FACTS AND COME BACK AND SEE ME!

 

[shizzle787]

Which team does not have cupcake teams on their schedule? According to you then every team has an 'inflated record'. Our strength of schedule ranking was 29/358. Relatively speaking that's a pretty tough schedule we played this season. GET SOME FACTS AND COME BACK AND SEE ME!

Our OOC SOS was nowhere near 29.

 

[YellowMamba]

Our OOC SOS was nowhere near 29.

We played a tougher schedule than more than 90% of the teams out there. In conference out of conference I don't know why that matters at all. It must suck to go through life being pessimistic and negative all the time

 

[pj]

This season was an absolute failure. I'm sure Hurley would be the first to say that as well.

If you want to hang your hat on a bloated win total compiled against the dregs of D1 and beating who we should have in the BE, by all means.

Nova 1-2, Creighton 0-2, PC 0-1, and choke in the tourney against NM State.

This was a limited team with significant weaknesses. Every really good team is versatility enough to adapt to exploit those weaknesses. Good opposing coaches with good teams and time to prepare did well against them.

Meanwhile this team had no versatility themselves, mainly due to the combination of having no depth and no star do-it-all player, and couldn't adapt to exploit mismatches themselves.

Therefore they played the same style themselves at all times with the same players. Generally, they played with great effort and heart and for the most part didn't let weaker teams beat them. But they had no ability to rise above a hard ceiling.

Taking out the early season win over Auburn, once the book got written on this team, they went 1-6 against good teams as you noted.

I don't think you should look at the season as an absolute failure. It hopefully opened the eyes of DH to what he needs to do to become a top coach. He needs playmaking guards; he needs depth and versatility; he needs to be able to adapt to the opponent. Some of that is recruiting/team building, some is player development, some is coaching development. Hopefully he's intelligent and introspective enough to learn what he needs to learn.

 

[pj]

He shot 4-7 from 3 and 13-13 from the line. Let’s be real here, the rest of NM ST didn’t beat us.

The rest of NM State shot 7-10 from 3, outrebounded us, and held UConn to 63 points. I'd say they held up their part of the deal.

 

[pj]

The four seniors high school rankings from 24/7 Sports:

Cole: #479
Martin: #220
Polley: #168
Whalley: N/R

All were key players on the team, not highly thought of coming out of HS, and developed by Hurley and staff. They all had great college careers and played their hearts out.

Hurley has been upgrading the talent and that's cause for optimism about the future. I actually think he's been good at player development for the most part, although investing more effort in less talented upperclassmen over more talented freshman is a dubious strategy. Roster construction, depth, and versatility are the keys for Hurley ... and developing the coaching acumen to take advantage of versatility by adapting to opponents.

 

[pj]

I feel like a broken record, but two things can be true at once:
1. Hurley has done a really good job building the program up.
2. He continues to do a bad job with his in-game coaching and doesn’t seem to have his teams ready for March.

#2 doesn’t matter much if #1 isn’t true. But it would be nice to see Hurley be less stubborn and show progress on #2 as well.

On #2, I am not sure how much is due to weak in-game coaching, and how much is due to bad roster construction that left him with no options. If all you have is 5-6 role players who can each play only one role, you have no ability to adapt. Is it stubbornness to do the only thing you can do? The problem was putting yourself in a position where you had only one option.

 

[UofCT]

We finished 3rd in the Big East, lost in the BET semis, and lost in the first round in an upset. The program arguably took a step back this year.

Would have signed up for all those things 12-months ago after Bouknight declared. I’m happy with the season.

 

[ARIDE]

We finished 3rd in the Big East, lost in the BET semis, and lost in the first round in an upset. The program arguably took a step back this year.

Spoiled...be happy were in the mix..we have no where near the talent we need to so what has been done under Calhoun ..talent upgrade takes time..trend is up and its better than being under Perno....thank you

 

[Husky68]

Spoiled...be happy were in the mix..we have no where near the talent we need to so what has been done under Calhoun ..talent upgrade takes time..trend is up and its better than being under Perno....thank you

Year 4 and have no where near the talent needed, think that is on the coach. How many more NCAA wins does Hurley have in his 1st 4 years at UConn than Perno had in his 1st 4 years?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

This was a limited team with significant weaknesses. Every really good team is versatility enough to adapt to exploit those weaknesses. Good opposing coaches with good teams and time to prepare did well against them.

Meanwhile this team had no versatility themselves, mainly due to the combination of having no depth and no star do-it-all player, and couldn't adapt to exploit mismatches themselves.

Therefore they played the same style themselves at all times with the same players. Generally, they played with great effort and heart and for the most part didn't let weaker teams beat them. But they had no ability to rise above a hard ceiling.

Taking out the early season win over Auburn, once the book got written on this team, they went 1-6 against good teams as you noted.

I don't think you should look at the season as an absolute failure. It hopefully opened the eyes of DH to what he needs to do to become a top coach. He needs playmaking guards; he needs depth and versatility; he needs to be able to adapt to the opponent. Some of that is recruiting/team building, some is player development, some is coaching development. Hopefully he's intelligent and introspective enough to learn what he needs to learn.

You're right. Absolute failure is too harsh. I do think it was a pretty big disappointment though.

Would have liked to seen them advance to the BET final and win a tournament game or two.

 

[UConn990411]

On #2, I am not sure how much is due to weak in-game coaching, and how much is due to bad roster construction that left him with no options. If all you have is 5-6 role players who can each play only one role, you have no ability to adapt. Is it stubbornness to do the only thing you can do? The problem was putting yourself in a position where you had only one option.

Probably a bit if column A and a bit of column B.

The roster construction was not good, but he also refused to develop his young talent, insisted on playing Gaffney at point when he’s very clearly a shooting guard, and decided to overplay his good but limited veteran players. Other posters have mentioned this before, but it felt like he was only coaching to win that night and forgot about building a team for March.

All in all, Hurley did an underwhelming job with this roster to say the least.