This team will never take the next step with Hurley as coach

[nelsonmuntz]

Some guy named Calhoun took 9 years to get his first program into the tourney and then 4 years at UConn to get them there.

You got 21 posters to like a post that argues Hurley = Calhoun.

Nice work.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

Is Covid only happening in Storrs? I thought it was a worldwide pandemic.

Well, Storrs is in the Northeast.

 

[HuskyBoi]

Hurley chose not to schedule extra games during those breaks. We could have gotten 2-3 more games easily.

They tried

 

[ClifSpliffy]

general observation:
conference realignment, kevin ollie, hot sauce in the eyes, el jefe, etc -this place.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

They tried

Play Fordham or UMass. I think they have baskets and balls at those places too.

 

[HuskyBoi]

Play Fordham or UMass. I think they have baskets and balls at those places too.

Why would we play those teams? They offer nothing to the resume

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Why would we play those teams? They offer nothing to the resume

Every other P6 team that plays mid-majors is wrong and you are right.

 

[UofCT]

I was somewhat with you until the last sentence. It is funny when someone defends Hurley by arguing that he is not a good coach. Your last statement makes two presumptions: 1) Hurley is using the wrong lineups, and 2) that Hurley is such a bad coach that players do not get better under his coaching so he is better off playing those who he has coached less.

Why do you hate Hurley so much?

Hurley had a stretch of 16-4 towards the end of last season and the beginning of this season until Bouks injury. That is VERY IMPRESSIVE.

We only have TWO losses by double digits since the beginning of last season. The St. Joes debacle and the recent providence loss without our best player.

 

[HuskyBoi]

Every other P6 team that plays mid-majors is wrong and you are right.

because playing a team that is 2-11 is going to help us right

 

[the Q]

Good Lord. What a horrid take. I have criticized his approach quite a bit, but he's a very good coach. I still believe he came to UConn with some preconceived notions about how to win. I think he is adjusting to the reality of play at this level, and may need to reconsider his offense and defense given the players he can recruit and the opponents we play. You cannot win at UConn playing the way URI played.

As long as he adjusts far far away from this weave garbage and the Ollie run the shot clock down for no reason stuff, the team will be fine.

It still fouls a little too much, but it’ll get there.

Still on path to win #5 in 2024 lol

 

[HuskyHawk]

Talk about cherry picking facts....

You forgot to mention that Calhoun took Northeastern from Div II to Div I, and during his final three seasons, Northeastern achieved automatic bids to the NCAA tournament and had a 72–19 record. He received six regional Coach of the Year accolades at Northeastern and remains the institution's all-time winningest coach (245–138).

You also neglect to mention he took over a Uconn team that hadn't been to the tourney in 10 years and had NEVER even been to the final four and played in the student field house! In his SECOND season, they won the NIT! Oh, and that 4 years to make the NCAA....you neglect to mention they were 2 points from going to the final 4...so it was more than just making the tourney

Hurley already is 11 years into his NCAA career, and took over a program with 4 NC in the past 20 years and facilities that are probably top 15 in the country.

Comparing what Calhoun started with and what Hurley started with is ridiculous IMO. My concern is that if Hurley hasn't become a good game day coach by now, what makes you think he will have a metamorphosis going forward? I seem to recall Calhoun talking with Blaney all the time on the bench. I see Hurley standing by himself yelling instructions.

You do realize that Hurley took a historically meh program at URI and brought them to the NIT in his 3rd year, and then two straight NCAA tournament appearances in his last two years, right?

Just FYI, UConn was a 5 seed in the tournament in 1979 playing in the Field House. Then 3 years of NIT after that, when the tournament was 32 teams.

Hurley isn't Calhoun. There is no point in comparing them. The situations aren't the same. The game itself is quite different.

 

[HeGotGame]

I am not ready to write him off, but Hurley just has to get better on gameday. UConn has 5 or 6 seed talent and it is on the bubble right now.

You think this team - Bouk, Jackson, and Akok is a 5 seed talent? Really?

 

[HeGotGame]

They tried

Not in November and December. That is when they should have been scheduling games. Hurley said practice was more important.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

There have been a lot of Dan Hurleys in college basketball over the years. Ex-players that were super competitive, from the right coaching tree, and could recruit. The guys who get to the next level have all that and can coach on gameday too. The jury is still out on that with Hurley.

I agree that the final jury verdict is still out on DH.

But the returns, as outlined by a previous poster, have shown our national ranking has improved significantly each year that Hurley’s been here.

We’re obviously in a much better position than we were three years ago. I don’t think there’s any room for debate on that.

The next step is to be a tournament team every year which DH has put us in position for this year and, based on recruiting, looks promising every year going forward. But the returns aren’t in on this yet. We’ll see.

The final step is to be in the conversation as a national contender on a regular basis. Took Calhoun about six years to get us to that point and a total of 14 years to get the first national championship. We should check back in on this conversation for DH three years from now.

 

[NJHusky]

You do realize that Hurley took a historically meh program at URI and brought them to the NIT in his 3rd year, and then two straight NCAA tournament appearances in his last two years, right?

Just FYI, UConn was a 5 seed in the tournament in 1979 playing in the Field House. Then 3 years of NIT after that, when the tournament was 32 teams.

Hurley isn't Calhoun. There is no point in comparing them. The situations aren't the same. The game itself is quite different.

Good points, but I was just trying to put the post I responded to into some context. URI did make the NIT in 08-10 so not sure they were historically bad before Hurley.

I think Hurley has a lot of positives, namely being a great recruiter and he is all about effort and playing hard/attitude which is great. I'm not a BB junkie, but I find myself questioning gameday actions/inactions and wondering if he can win without superior players.

I do think his coaching has cost us games (St Johns). Calimari wins because he gets better players than almost everyone else, not because he is a great coach...you can win both ways.

 

[CallMeBruce]

And yet Cincinnati kept rolling along at the same level they were at in the Big East. Even got their first top 2 seed in the tournament since Kenyon Martin was on campus. Weird.

I think people are overestimating the effect of the AAC, but some pretty obvious differences between Cincinnati and Connecticut in a league where the teams are almost all midwestern or southern. Cincinnati is basically right in the middle of the AAC. It's a great league for them. It wasn't for us.

 

[Hoops01]

He just seems to push the wrong buttons over and over in close games. He's had enough time to prove himself. He's a much better recruiter than coach.

you are an idiot

 

[8893]

I think people are overestimating the effect of the AAC, but some pretty obvious differences between Cincinnati and Connecticut in a league where the teams are almost all midwestern or southern. Cincinnati is basically right in the middle of the AAC. It's a great league for them. It wasn't for us.

There was no school more geographically and culturally out of place in the AAC than we were.

 

[7774]

I trolled out the AAC fanboy. That was easy.

I’m not close to an AAC fanboy. Good one though.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Is Covid only happening in Storrs? I thought it was a worldwide pandemic.

i get that you’re just throwing flames but this is pretty dumb. why is it that certain programs have played double the number of games of other programs? I thought it was a worldwide pandemic.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Good points, but I was just trying to put the post I responded to into some context. URI did make the NIT in 08-10 so not sure they were historically bad before Hurley.

I think Hurley has a lot of positives, namely being a great recruiter and he is all about effort and playing hard/attitude which is great. I'm not a BB junkie, but I find myself questioning gameday actions/inactions and wondering if he can win without superior players.

I do think his coaching has cost us games (St Johns). Calimari wins because he gets better players than almost everyone else, not because he is a great coach...you can win both ways.

Yes, he blew the St. Johns game. I think he learned from that pretty quickly, although he repeated it somewhat against Villanova.

Calhoun didn't win when he didn't have the players either. There is no magic wand that allows bad teams to beat good teams regularly. This season would look pretty different if Bouk and Jackson never got hurt, and it would look even more different if Akok never got hurt last year. 3 of our 5 most talented guys have missed substantial time, and we are facing tougher competition.

Hurley is plenty smart about the game, and has access to his dad and brother. He seems a little set in his ways, and I hope that changes. I think it will.

 

[BlueandOG]

He just seems to push the wrong buttons over and over in close games. He's had enough time to prove himself. He's a much better recruiter than coach.

BOOOOO!

 

[Waquoit]

He just seems to push the wrong buttons over and over in close games. He's had enough time to prove himself. He's a much better recruiter than coach.

I had a guy at work that bellowed "Mark my words, UConn will never win it all with Calhoun". A few years later when I got back from the Trop, I looked him up and marked his words. He was not happy. I've mentioned this before, good thing there was no Boneyard in JC's third year here. That team was among the biggest underachievers in the country. Hurley is way ahead of where JC was. And DH wasn't left with NBA players the way JC was.

 

[Hungryhusky99]

LOL we lost to the best program over the last 10 years by 8 points on the road. RELAX

It’s not just that loss . We have been offensively inept all season . The guys always look lost and there is no purpose to anything we run and no improvement over the course of the season. Hopefully his recruiting success will ultimately make up for his lack of offensive coaching .

 

[7774]

It’s not just that loss . We have been offensively inept all season . The guys always look lost and there is no purpose to anything we run and no improvement over the course of the season. Hopefully his recruiting success will ultimately make up for his lack of offensive coaching .

Imagine how bad the offenses not ranked in the top 50 in offensive efficiency must look.