I think we had a couple tough ones (we played the top 4 teams in the BE 4 games in a row, 3 on the road), got exposed on some of our sets, Jackson had to adjust to some defensive looks/machups, and then we let it get to our head a bit in the John's/Hall games. The easier part of the schedule let us get some confidence and figure some schematic stuff out, and we're back baby.
Yup.
College teams have ups and downs, and almost no game will be flawless basketball (particularly in this era of parity). But when we are “on,” we are arguably the best team in the nation (and that’s not an accident that Hurley fell into). We have shown that repeatedly now, and we have also shown now that the January slump was just that. The only remaining question is whether we’ll be “on” when it counts - which would always be a question even if we had only 2-3 losses right now.
In my opinion Hurley’s biggest failure this season was allowing an emotional letdown against St Johns after our brutal 4 game stretch.
Also missing the Seton Hall game was just awful timing. Say whatever you want about our coaching, having your head and assistant coaches present for a road game against a tough defensive team is worth at least the 1 point we lost by.
Those two losses changed the perception of the entire season. But they didn’t actually change the reality. Which is exactly why the computer rankings don’t match up with that perception.
These are similar posts stated differently that capture the season really well.
This forum does a very good job discussing skills, athleticism, bb IQ. There is next to no discussion about stoicism, composure, mental fortitude, not getting caught up in the moment, being driven or laid back. These attributes are more difficult to identify and understand but they are just as important in outcomes as those first three aspects of the game.
Those first losses after that 14-0 start resulted in a collective gut punch to the psyche of the team. It's a reaction that is not out of the realm of normality if you observe how the overwhelming majority of people in this forum react during and after games. It's not easy for the vast majority of us to sublimate our emotions. Add that teams began setting up schemes to exploit our strengths and weaknesses, it takes time to evaluate if our players can adjust to those counters without needing for us to change, and then additional time if we are unable to accomplish that to work on our own counters and reach a level of perfection with them. After all there are limits on how much time the team is allowed to collectively practice.
The one point in the above quotes that I disagree with is categorizing the emotional letdown in the St. Johns game as a failure on the part of Hurley or any coach for that matter. We would consider it unreasonable to blame a coach to not make Alex Karaban into a leaping savant like Andre because there are inherent physical differences between those two players. Same with asking players to be able to shoot like Jordan who needs just an instant to make a 3pt shot. That's an alignment of eye, cerebellum wiring and hand coordination that very few basketball player are inherently gifted with. There is a limit to how much a coach can get a player such as Donovan to not let a failed interior shot impact his free throws afterwards. Adama on the other hand rarely lets the events in the game affect his composure and now that he's attained the skill to make free throws it's imperative he should be on the court at the end of close game.
It is not a failure for a coach to get a team to respond when there is adversity. Just ask Cooley when we deflated the collective PC team on that second half run. Or Carter after chasing Jordan three times around the half court through all our screens and he made that left handed layup. The body language he expressed afterwards was revealing.
