Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="husky429, post: 3036895, member: 6696"] Agree with all you have to say here. I think we'll see improvement as kids get used to the system, but more importantly when Hurley gets his own recruits at UConn. Let me try to analyze the defense at the rim a bit this year vs our recruits. Guards: Hurley has consistently recruited athletic guards with size that can shoot. Ballhandling and passing ability seem secondary (true for Adams, Bouknight and Gaffney--all good not great ballhandlers). Everything else is gravy. Current Guards: we have Rique and CV defending opposing guards. Adams getting spot minutes. CV is going to be solid closing out because he's a hustler, but he's a bit undersized to defend good guards if they can shoot and drive. Rique is awesome at pressure in the backcourt but he's not the kind of guard Hurley would recruit himself because he cannot defend the drive or switch onto anyone due to his size. Still love both these guys. All heart. Recruits: Gaffney and Bouknight. Both fairly big guards for their position, assuming we want Gaffney playing primarily point by his second year. Hurley has always been about backcourt size. Both great, long athletes with high defensive potential because of their size. Bouknight in particular could be super effective locking down slashers IMO. From what I saw he has pretty good instincts. Gaffney is going to have 'Riques role: make life hell for opposing ballhandlers. He has amazing lateral speed. As he puts on weight (he already looks much stronger than last summer), he could be a lock down defender. Gaffney and Bouknight are going to need to learn to play down a position with Hurley--symptom of them not having the greatest ballhandling abilities yet. Wings: DEFENSE is 100% what Hurley is recruiting in wings. Every wing we're recruiting is limited offensively, but a great defender. He needs hyper-athletic players who can get deep into help and block or alter shots, but still close out on shooters. This is super key because we pressure the ball so much, we're likely to give up more drives. Especially necessary if he is going to try to implement a system that involves doubling 1&5 on ball screens. Current wings: Polley is a major weakness defensively. Not very quick so he can't cover the drive very well, and has trouble helping and closing out in time. He needs to be in the paint, but can't because of his defensive limitations. Leads to layups. Sid has the athleticism, but lacks the IQ. Sid, as we know, is the higher ceiling player because of his ability to get all over the court defensively. If he develops defensively, he could kill in the AAC. Wing Recruits: Hurley recruits wings primarily for their defense. I'll count Akok, Precious, and Andre Jackson here since I don't know much about else about 2020 wing recruits. These are all the *type* of wing recruit I'd expect from Hurley. Ultra-switchable and super athletic. Akok is going to be great stepping back into the post to block the living *#$%^ out of opponents drives if they break through our 1-5 double teams on the perimeter. He has the length to help all over the court. Precious and Andre Jackson are similar defensively. Super athletic and switchable on the perimeter--both with the ability to make plays in the help-side, but still cover their own man. Bigs: Not sure we have a vision for a perfect Hurley big yet. Partly because someone with size and skill is generally going to be out of our league recruiting-wise right now. But Hurley definitely wants players that aren't string beans at the 5 like we've had recently. I think ideally we are looking for a 6'11 250lb guy who can catch lobs, make layups and block shots. A player smart enough to double and recover, and who can defend the drive well when helping guards. The post up isn't a big part of basketball these days, so I expect that low post footwork to be a secondary consideration. Current Bigs: Hurley's system puts HUGE defensive pressure on the bigs. They're going to need to double team on ball screens, cover the roll man, and block shots after we've given up the drive. It's expected that the 5 is going to have to contest way more shots than they would in a more packline-type defense. Admittedly, I wish we'd tighten up the high-hedging. Carlton, Cobb are just not good enough shot blockers or quick enough covering the roll to play that style. I can see what Hurley's vision is. With the right personnel, it could be extremely effective. Especially with the modern game being so perimter and shooting-based. I think he's sticking to his defensive guns this year because he needs to create a culture and a system to recruit players into. But I think I would have liked to see some more flexibility defensively early in the season. I wish we had pulled away from that high, trapping hedge earlier. It was obvious game 2 it wasn't going to work with Cobb and Carlton this year, but he stuck with it for half the season. Snow day. But man do I need a life. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach