We should play faster

[JLW]

They have yet to play their A game in Big East play and only a few OOC games. IMO. Scary when they do and they will.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

We have too many explosive scorers to be initiating our offense so slowly and putting up 70
Our team needs to speed up- our motor hasn’t gone 40 minutes all year

Have you tried recording the game and watching at 1.25x speed?

 

[uh-no]

He has said this a few times, but I'm never quite sure why. His teams aren't some of the slowest in the country by accident year after year. It's because he asks them to run a deliberate offense with multiples actions.

I guess no one says "okay play slow guys." And the difference between a "fast" Hurley team and not is like being the 250th vs the 300th fastest team.

➕

The problem is we are not taking advantage of the things we could early enough in the shot clock. We're too tenuous. In the end we end up with "whatever we can get" 25s in rather than whatever we can get at any time in the clock. That's why he's upset about the team being too slow off screens, for instance, since we aren't using them to build towards anything...and in the end, we end up just running around for 15s before we have to do something.

He wants the team to play with that late shot clock urgency for the entire 30....not just the last 5.

 

[Scottobot]

. In the Providence game Jones did a 1 man fast break and scored or drew fouls everytime. We start a fastbreak then pull it out.

UConn doesn’t get those calls. In that same game Demary was taken out like a WR on a cross route when their big man blocked his shot on a fast break and absolutely lambasted him with his body and it
was a no call.

 

[Drame]

Making teams defend for 25-30 seconds every possession absolutely wears them out, particularly when they’re being run off of as many screens as we run.

Having depth and using it wears teams out more. We're also using energy running our offense. We have so many offensive weapons, it would be good to get our shooters more shots. Would probably shoot a better %.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

It's difficult to argue with the results from the past few years but it likely would help us overall if we pushed the pace a little on occasion. It doesn't need to be a new philosophy, merely slipping in a change up or curve ball every fourth or fifth pitch so to speak to give the opponent something else to worry about.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I do think we have a habit of passing up good shots for great shots often, Demary was doing this constantly earlier in the season when he refused to shoot. Guys gotta be confident in their ability to make shots if the first screen/set gets them space.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Our low-tempo offense is just so bad that in spite of it, we won two National Championships. Can’t wait until we fire Hurley and bring in Nate Oats. Now there’s a team with great tempo! I bet they would pulverize us if we played head-to head.

Let me go check their current record…

 

[uconnbill]

If UConn wasn't winning, I could see this comment, but they have lost one game this year, shorthanded.

 

[Scrappy3]

I know we are 16-1 but we have more to give. 10-15 % more fga

 

[Marat]

According to Hurley, the team needs to play harder .

 

[EBonz30]

Strange take. My first impulse is that you don’t watch this team enough & are not dialed in to the offense & or culture as a whole. With that said, I could be absolutely incorrect with this initial feeling.

I do believe a major part of the reason Hurley & UConn has won 2 titles over the last 3 seasons is because of their half court offensive sets- although they had great players in 2023 & 2024- they didn’t have the talent ala the 2004 team- going up & down & blowing teams out off pure talent (75 tempo per KP)- oh wait they did accomplish one of those two in blowing teams out- lol.

2023- 204 Tempo
2024- 330 Tempo
2026- 295 Tempo


PS this is no shot at Calhoun the legend.

 

[Woof]

According to Hurley, the team needs to play harder .

What does he know? I will trust in Hurley instead! Wait.....

 

[Woof]

Our low-tempo offense is just so bad that in spite of it, we won two National Championships. Can’t wait until we fire Hurley and bring in Nate Oats. Now there’s a team with great tempo! I bet they would pulverize us if we played head-to head.

Let me go check their current record…

They have the highest strength of schedule in the country. That might have had a tiny impact on their record.

 

[HW611]

I liken our team to an old school control TOP football team with a great defense.

In football, a team will run it over and over to wear out a defense and control time of possession. Keeps your defense rested and wears them out over the course of the game and in the end, your gashing a defense for long runs because they are so worn out. Need a great defense to do something like this of course.

Our offense runs teams through multiple screens and actions over and over. Like running the football, over the course of a game a team is going to be worn out. To the point by the end they're leaving us open for 3s or losing their man for easy layups.

I loved the run and gun teams we had of old too but we can't argue with the results.