UConn's Season a 'Huge Success' - Dan Hurley

[BigErnMcCracken]

Imagine what Dookies will be saying when Coach K retires....

Hopefully "I can't believe they hired Nate James."

 

[WeAreUCONN]

What did we win with Ray Allen?

Ray lost to the best team in the field.

 

[Deepster]

Ray lost to the best team in the field.

With a far better team than Bouk had.

 

[TRest]

There are many ways to evaluate a coach. In my opinion, these are the essentials:



Recruitment

Player relationship

Defensive development and implementation.

Offensive development and implementation.

Player development.

Game control, adjusting as required to minimize opponents strengths, proper utilization of players and establishing opportunities for your players.

Demeanor and self-control of the coach.



Having been around this game for more than seventy years, I can tell you there are not many, in fact, very few who grade out as an A across the board.



The evaluation of Hurley from my perspective is as follows:



Recruitment - Recruitment is a solid A, especially when you consider that Uconn reputation was not good in recent years, which makes it harder to recruit. His last two recruiting classes were very good, in spite of the fat that the team had poor records an no post season play.



Player relationship - Player relationship is harder to judge and can only be surmised by what you see (game interaction with players) and what you read. This appears to be a solid A as well.



Defensive development and implementation - Even the most casual observer can see that he has developed and implemented a very good defense, again a solid A.



Offensive development and implementation. It is obvious that this team has not done well on offense. The only aspect of the offense that grades well is the out of bound plays under their own basket. Their motion offense has way too much dribbling and way too slow to pass the ball. The fact that they get called for moving screens constantly is a symptom of lack of discipline and lack of crispness, i.e., very poor implementation. It is rare they run a double screen or are able to get someone wide open. Calhoun managed this extremely well getting Hamilton, Allen, etc. Open to aid them with the double teams. Bouknight has never enjoyed that luxury. Additionally, when someone is being doubled or in cases tripled there obviously other team members open. This is clearly something coaches point out and insist players pass to open man in such a case. If this ever happen I missed it. The inability to score layups is the direct result of not developing the player. I had high school players as bad as Whaley and Martin at scoring near the basket. There are drills that they ran for hours which resulted with them becoming very proficient. This is on the coach and the player. Grade C minus.



Player development - On defense you see a lot of improvement. Offense has been poor, as stated above, this team is terrible scoring near the basket. The inability to teach veteran players how to score underneath is blatant failure of coaching. To watch players like Whaley shoot so poorly from the foul line, particularly, their form is terrible and he isn’t the only one. To watch players leave their feet and then attempt to pass is mind boggling, at this level. Grade C +.



Game Control - This, realistically, is the one the least evident in coaches in general. Calhoun was excellent but there are not many that are. I believe, in the theory, you don’t take a “hot player “ off the court unless there is a good reason, e.g. foul trouble, tired, etc. The appearance is he has a plan and sticks to it, regardless of what is happening. But this is conjecture but his moves in many cases are baffling. On more than one occasion, he has pulled two players at the same time and they are the only ones scoring or pulling a player when he is making almost all his shots. Rarely uses timeouts to break the other teams momentum. Several times they have gone done double digits and he waits way too long or not ever to call for a TO. When his team is not scoring for several trips, the appearance is there are no set plays sent in from the bench or they can’t execute but I suspect the former. The appearance there is no correction of obvious player mistakes when they leave the floor. If there is, it is not obvious. Calhoun as do many coaches let their player no when they pull a dumb play. If a coach doesn’t have game control there is only one substitute and that is a leader on the floor, e.g., Napier, Walker, with neither the team will lose the majority of close games. Grade D



Demeanor and self-control of the coach. - The impression is he is way too emotional and in my experience this is reflected by players under such a coach. This would explain, why many times, the guards are out of control. Yes, Calhoun did blow up many times, by a bad call or a player doing something ridiculous and yes he was intense but wasn’t emotional without cause. Hurley makes too many excuses, e.g., we are a young team, however they are not, when you start a senior, a red shirt junior, a junior and a sophomore and your sixth man is a senior it is definitely not a young team. We lost are point guard and that is why we lost. This is self indictment in that he didn’t know how to adjust. When the coach makes excuses, guess what the players will do? Allowing Cole to take the blame for loss because he missed two foul shots, to me was horrible for a coach to do. Saying Cole was mature to take responsibility was good but should have been followed by we lost as a team. With 20 seconds to go in a game and a four point lead and to allow the game be tied is a coach’s failure. Bouknight was making everything that game, the out of bounds play should have been designed to get him the ball. Yes this goes back to game control, but you have to wonder if his emotions cloud his judgement. Grade - D

T/L D/R, good for you/ I'm sorry that happened.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

With a far better team than Bouk had.

Bouknight sucks compared to Allen. Why are you even comparing the two? Bouknight isn’t a tenth of the player that Ray was.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

Bouknight sucks compared to Allen. Why are you even comparing the two? Bouknight isn’t a tenth of the player that Ray was.

Bouknight and Jalen Adams are a good comparison. Both had talent and won nothing. Ray is not comparable to Bouknight.

 

[NowInStorrs]

Lost to Auburn by 25

I was at that game and it was quite a low point. Surrounded by orange in my UConn gear. When I first showed up, people nearby were pretty friendly and talking about how exciting it was to have UConn come play at Auburn. By the end of the game it had turned into people feeling sorry for us and apologizing for the outcome. Something had to give.

 

[BlueDogs]

I'm laughing imagining Hurley reading this comment. "Oh, ____, am I supposed to improve over time? No one told me! Thank god this BlueDogs character is here to hold me accountable." What a fanbase. From the toilet to the top 25 and the tournament in the blink of an eye and still this.

If you think he’s doing a great job game planning and managing games good for you. I respectfully disagree as do many others.

 

[AntG168]

Bouknight and Jalen Adams are a good comparison. Both had talent and won nothing. Ray is not comparable to Bouknight.

Did Bouk night take your girl or something? Good God

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

If you think he’s doing a great job game planning and managing games good for you. I respectfully disagree as do many others.

Not even remotely the point, but I'm not surprised in the slightest.

The point is that this program was barely in the top 200 not that long ago and they were ranked this year, probably would have been ranked higher in a normal season without the COVID pauses and the injuries, made the tournament as an at large, has a great recruiting class coming in, and is on an upward trajectory. The idea that some message board nobody is going to say Hurley "needs to look himself in the mirror" is a joke. So is this idea that everything else is going to improve except for the coaching. He cares more than you do.

It's like when people post plays that they think Hurley should run. You might crush it with your kids U8 CYO team but you're not thinking of anything that this professional staff isn't aware of.

It's human nature but the extent to which this fan base reverted to being spoiled after being in the wilderness for a couple seasons is just crazy to me.

 

[polycom]

ITT people who watch a lot of basketball discuss a college coach also ITT people who’ve only watched UConn and think people should be compared to one of the best coaches of all time

 

[Husky68]

I'm laughing imagining Hurley reading this comment. "Oh, ____, am I supposed to improve over time? No one told me! Thank god this BlueDogs character is here to hold me accountable." What a fanbase. From the toilet to the top 25 and the tournament in the blink of an eye and still this.

Was that a top 25 team against Maryland? Let's see what he does when all of Ollie's guys are gone!

 

[Get a Job]

ITT people who watch a lot of basketball discuss a college coach also ITT people who’ve only watched UConn and think people should be compared to one of the best coaches of all time

ITT?

Aside: Can we compile a glossary of Boneyard-approved abbreviations? I can't keep up!

 

[Waquoit]

Ray lost to the best team in the field.

Mississippi State was not the best team in the field, fraud.

 

[Kathy]

Mississippi State was not the best team in the field, fraud.

I'm guessing he was referring to the year prior when we lost to UCLA

 

[Dean Wormer]

Bouknight sucks compared to Allen. Why are you even comparing the two? Bouknight isn’t a tenth of the player that Ray was.

Ray was the best player in program history, IMO. Obviously Bouk doesn't suck, but for @Deepster to compare him to Ray is just ludicrous.
On his best day Bouk is maybe top 10 SG in UConn history...maybe.
Off the top of my head, Benny Gordon, Rip, Nadav, J lamb, Earl Kelley, T. Hanson, Chris Smith, maybe a couple more and then, you'd start talking about Bouk.

 

[Dean Wormer]

Ray didn’t win a title. Neither did Bouk. Caron Butler didn’t either. If that’s what you want to use to gauge someone’s 2-3-4 years here? Have at it.

Oh and Ray’s sophomore year he had Donny, Ollie, Brian Fair, Sheffer, Travis Knight and Kirk King on his team.

That's definitely not my standard, can't speak for anyone else. But even then, Bouk is maybe, maybe Top 10 SG in program history. Its not totally fair to him because he won't get a chance to prove people wrong, but he's nowhere near the GOAT.

 

[Improviser]

I was at that game and it was quite a low point. Surrounded by orange in my UConn gear. When I first showed up, people nearby were pretty friendly and talking about how exciting it was to have UConn come play at Auburn. By the end of the game it had turned into people feeling sorry for us and apologizing for the outcome. Something had to give.

Well, I guess the Auburn fans were empathetic.

I remember watching the game on TV and seeing an under-talented UConn team get destroyed. I reflected on how Bruce Pearl was able to turn around their program so soon, and how Ollie found a way to shred the UConn program.

An upward trajectory is a positive sign, but next year seems to a year of uncertainty, with reliance on freshmen, hope for dramatic improvement of returning players, and I guess, hope for some new impact transfers or grad transfers.

 

[BlueDogs]

Not even remotely the point, but I'm not surprised in the slightest.

The point is that this program was barely in the top 200 not that long ago and they were ranked this year, probably would have been ranked higher in a normal season without the COVID pauses and the injuries, made the tournament as an at large, has a great recruiting class coming in, and is on an upward trajectory. The idea that some message board nobody is going to say Hurley "needs to look himself in the mirror" is a joke. So is this idea that everything else is going to improve except for the coaching. He cares more than you do.

It's like when people post plays that they think Hurley should run. You might crush it with your kids U8 CYO team but you're not thinking of anything that this professional staff isn't aware of.

It's human nature but the extent to which this fan base reverted to being spoiled after being in the wilderness for a couple seasons is just crazy to me.

I think it’s precisely the point whether you are surprised or not. Your sophomoric rhetorical skills belie a simple reality. It presupposes Dan Hurley reads the message board, and that the statement is directed at Dan Hurley as opposed to being about Dan Hurley. I don’t coach kids. I am a professional who leads an organization of over 100 people. Every single day, I have to ask myself how do I do better. I have to ask myself if I am imposing my way over the best way because of hubris or impatience? Did I really honestly listen or seek advice? Do I allow for constructive criticism. What do I need to do better to serve the team? So looking in the mirror rises well above your youth soccer team experience or whatever reference point you operate from. It’s means literally, Dan Hurley has a lot of work to do and I hope he has the humility and self awareness to recognize it.

 

[UConniki]

You mean from the last coach, who won a National Championship?

You mean Shabazz Napier? With help from players that JC recruited ?

 

[Waquoit]

I'm guessing he was referring to the year prior when we lost to UCLA

Why would he do that? Ray wasn't the team leader that year.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I don't think anyone in the pro Hurley crowd believes this is the pinnacle. Its a start. A good start. Nothing more.

Yeah, the biggest complaint in this thread is that Hurley didn't speak with enough nuance to avoid the word "huge."

It took almost 75 posts before somebody quoted the words Hurley said directly before that sentence. It left room for much that's here. If he'd said, "On balance, it was a pretty successful year," I wonder if posters would be more forgiving of things yet to improve.

 

[Kathy]

Why would he do that? Ray wasn't the team leader that year.

If not him who was leader that year?

 

[freescooter]

This is a really great point. I guess we're all just really disappointed at the way the season ended. One thing we can all agree on is that this team didn't live up to its potential (basing off post-season results).p

No it was in shambles and the only people arguing that are everyone who watched the games and paid attention. There literally has never been a less controversial take posted here than the program was in shambles at the time of Ollie's firing.

Unless you think losing to Wagner and Northeastern and getting run out the building by Tulsa and Tulane doesn’t constitute shambles.

 

[WestHartHusk]

He used a National Championship, which he won, to triple his pay. He was stupid to stay.

He was stupid to stay if (a) he would he have been able to make as much/more money and be expected to work less, or (b) would have actually done his job somewhere else. Which are you suggesting it is?