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

[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.

 

[KingAG]

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?

 

[UncleSpliff]

There needs to be some success in the tournament next year or maybe we start looking elsewhere for a coach? 4 years is plenty to win 1 NCAA tournament game, especially with all the resources at UConn and the salary Hurley is making. Another first round exit is not acceptable. If Hurley feels that losing to basically every good team we played and getting destroyed in the first round is a “successful season,” than maybe that’s the problem?? I’d like to think the goals are set higher here. That being said.... would Steve Pikiell ever come here if we continue to see these “successful seasons.”

 

[freescooter]

I'm not going to sit here and act like Ollie shouldn't have been fired, but here's some news for you: there are very few D1 college coaches who would coach for free, and every single one of them uses interest in them to leverage more compensation. , anyone in any line of work does that. As far as criticisms of Ollie go, that's about the weakest one I can imagine.

Kevin Ollie has as many national championships as Bill Self, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, and John Calipari. No matter how his tenure ended, he would be deified by 99% of the fan bases in college basketball for that alone. People need to really put this ____ to bed.

That’s just nonsense. Look at those guys and what they’ve done before and after winning it all. Virtually every year year in and year out Kansas, Michigan State, Syracuse Kentucky are ranked, in the tournament and at least in the discussion to make the Elite 8 or the Final Four. Boeheim has taken an 11 seed to the Final Four. Izzo has a title and been to the Final Four 5 more times and the tournament 23 years in a row. Bill Self has 2 additional Final Fours and been to the tournament every year he coached at Kansas. Even Calipari has a more impressive record. At Kentucky he has won a championship and been to 2 other Final Fours not even counting what he did with Memphis and UMass. In 10 years at Kentucky he missed the Tournament twice. If Ollie had had anything close to the success those guys had, he indeed have been a hero and in all likelihood he would still be the coach. Ollie got one more bid off a miracle shot. To pretend that somehow Kevin Ollie is equal as a basketball coach to the guys you named is completely disingenuous and you know that.

 

[BGesus4]

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.

This is real. Hurley literally has come in and done exactly what he said he would do, and it seemed far fetched at the time he said it. Obviously, the plan is not to stop here.

90% of college basketball is brand management since every year you are selling your program to recruits, the lifeblood of a program.

Our brand is not where it was but because of Hurley it’s taken a massive step in the right direction. I mean ppl had us as a sleeper Final 4 pick this year. That’s the brand. We’ve been known as losers for 5 years. We literally haven’t sniffed the tournament in years, Hurleys brought in at least two legit pro prospects every full class he’s had, we don’t make a final 4 run in our first time back in the tournament and people want to derail the Hurley train.
There are less than a handful of people in the country that would be better for this job. We lucked out in getting him.

 

[UCTitleTown]

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.

I agree. Some of the best UConn teams didn't win a title. A season sometimes comes down to a critical late injury like A.J. Price or an unfortunate match up in the tourney (UCLA and Tyus Edney).

 

[Sky ball]

I guess when Calhoun made and won the NIT in his 2nd or 3rd year that was failure and his ceiling. He just had the Northeastern University coaching mentality. Why UConn kept him is a mystery.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

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.

I agree!! I would even rank players like Giffey way ahead of Bouknight.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

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

I’m talking about UCLA. But okay buddy. If you say so.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

Did Bouk night take your girl or something? Good God

No but he had a meaningless Uconn career. Getting us to the ncaa tourney and losing to Maryland. Is not accomplishing anything based on our history.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

There needs to be some success in the tournament next year or maybe we start looking elsewhere for a coach? 4 years is plenty to win 1 NCAA tournament game, especially with all the resources at UConn and the salary Hurley is making. Another first round exit is not acceptable. If Hurley feels that losing to basically every good team we played and getting destroyed in the first round is a “successful season,” than maybe that’s the problem?? I’d like to think the goals are set higher here. That being said.... would Steve Pikiell ever come here if we continue to see these “successful seasons.”

Incredible.

 

[WeAreUCONN]

Incredible.

We ain’t finding a better recruiter than Hurley. Win lose or draw. He’s our coach for the next 20 years. I’m thankful we have him. We all should be.

 

[UncleSpliff]

Incredible.

not really.... it amazes me how many here are ok with mediocrity. I supposed you’re a participation metal kind of guy, and that’s ok I guess... but we’re going on year 4 next year and it’s a fair to expect some success based on the salary that is being paid to Hurley (top 20 in the nation).. weather that’s consistently beating top 25 teams / winning ncaa tournament games... neither of which have happened yet. You may have thought this year was a “success,” but they only had 1 good win all season and got destroyed in the first round by a team that then lost by 30 to their next opponent....

 

[Leebo]

4 years is plenty to win 1 NCAA tournament game

One of those years didn't even have NCAA tournament games for anyone to win.