What did Calhoun teach that Hurley isn't teaching (re: fouls)? | The Boneyard

What did Calhoun teach that Hurley isn't teaching (re: fouls)?

lonsharkin51

lonsharkin51

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Calhoun's teams were so good at playing D without fouling. This year's team may be the worst I've ever seen when it comes to that. The fouls are ridiculous and make the games almost unbearable. What was Calhoun's secret, and why can't Danny figure it out?
 
Know your role.

Know what you can and can't do reliably and act that way.

Give it to the star and don't do anything stupid.

Follow the gameplan, there always was one.
 
Is there actual evidence this was true for Calhoun's teams compared to other teams of the time? I remember a lot of fouls some games. Especially those years when I was young and they were pressing so much.

Putting Carlton/Adama in the high PnR leads to a lot of fouls by guard and the bigs... too much catch-up ball.

Not ever playing a zone.

I think we've also got a lot of pieces that either aren't athletic enough, or are new to learning how to play really intense pressure defense... new skills take time to develop.

Hand-check rules have changed. Packline-type defenses are popular for a reason. Seems like ICE based defenses are middle-ground to avoid fouling a lot of coaches are using these days. Texas Tech and Baylor and Illinois come to mind.
 
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Pushing the ball. That's probably the most obvious. In particular with Bouk out. A Calhoun team with limited scoring options would of pushed, pushed, pushed.

I'm loving Hurley. Team is steadily getting better. Not sure what else we'd want as fans
 
In the 2000s we just had way better athletes than everyone else. Playing field is a lot more level on that front these days (everyone has access to better strength and conditioning, etc.)

The high hedge if your opponent figures it out can lead to some disadvantageous situations which are more prone to fouling. I still think it sets the right tone and takes other teams out of their primary actions, so I like it.

It's going to be a lot better in the tournament in the 2nd round or whatever when teams have had very little time to prepare for it.
 

NCAA Basketball Stats - NCAA BB Team Personal Fouls per Game | TeamRankings.com

NCAA Basketball personal fouls per game, by team.
www.teamrankings.com www.teamrankings.com

The 2010 team was 4 fouls a game better than this team 2004 team was also 4 fouls better than this team. So certainly better but we also play a completely different style of defense and refs likely called games differently than v. now. I'd def want to look stats for other teams.
 
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husky429 said:
Putting Carlton/Adama in the high PnR leads to a lot of fouls by guard and the bigs... too much catch-up ball.
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I still don't understand what that strategy accomplishes. Can someone explain that to me? If it's supposed to get the other team to turn the ball over, then well it doesn't work. If I see Sanogo or Carlton 30 feet from the basket again double teaming and a guy wide open hit a shot I'm going to jump through the TV.
 
auror said:
In the 2000s we just had way better athletes than everyone else. Playing field is a lot more level on that front these days (everyone has access to better strength and conditioning, etc.)

The high hedge if your opponent figures it out can lead to some disadvantageous situations which are more prone to fouling. I still think it sets the right tone and takes other teams out of their primary actions, so I like it.

It's going to be a lot better in the tournament in the 2nd round or whatever when teams have had very little time to prepare for it.
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I think the Dr. Kramer/Jerry Martin with Calhoun made a very formidable combination of teamwork to get the best out of our athletes. Looking forward to our new S + C coach work with this team and the incoming recruits. Keep in mind what it used to be like to play against Cincy. I haven't felt this good watching them in so long that I feel at times like I am back in the days of the old Big East with the brightest of futures ahead of us. Great win today.
 
HooperScooper said:
I still don't understand what that strategy accomplishes. Can someone explain that to me? If it's supposed to get the other team to turn the ball over, then well it doesn't work. If I see Sanogo or Carlton 30 feet from the basket again double teaming and a guy wide open hit a shot I'm going to jump through the TV.
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It's suppose to be a hard hedge it's supposed to stop the ball handler from getting downhill off the pick and roll and force the play to be "strung out" Issue is that carlton and sanogo aren't athletic enough to stop the over the top pass or the reverse dribble.
 
polycom said:
It's suppose to be a hard hedge it's supposed to stop the ball handler from getting downhill off the pick and roll and force the play to be "strung out" Issue is that carlton and sanogo aren't athletic enough to stop the over the top pass or the reverse dribble.
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Yeah Sanogo will often wall well, but then he leaves the ball handler to return to his man before the primary defender has returned, so the guy can throw a pass to his man, which while our D has rotated in position usually and Sanogo is coming to double, is still a mismatch (think Jackson on their center).
 
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JC worked the refs like no other. He put the fear of God in any referee that thought about calling a borderline foul against his men. We were spoiled then.
Stop expecting the Hurley era to be the same as the JC era.
 
ucawn said:
Some people can never be satisfied...

Horrible officiating
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I don't think its that. I'm sure everybody is very happy with a convincing win against a team that just handled North Carolina (not that they're a juggernaut but you get my point). That doesn't mean there aren't some yellow flags. The fouling has been an issue pretty much all season and I don't expect it to change at this point. I sure wouldn't want them to dial back the aggression but if they could just make better decisions about when to risk fouling. I want to see Whaley and Sanogo use their fouls challenging shots near the rim not reaching in on a 6' guard 40 feet from the basket. Chance of success, almost zero. Chance of getting a ticky-tack foul? High. So many of the fouls seem to be outside the 3-point line and away from the ball. Maybe that's an inaccurate perception but I find myself gritting my teeth about it most games.

To close on a positive note, they chalked up 5 turnovers in the first five minutes. Not good. Hurley pulled Cole to let him gather his thoughts and they only turned it over 2 times over the final 35 minutes. That is exemplary.
 
This has nothing to do with Calhoun vs Hurley. The refs are determined to call ticky tack fouls that ruin the pace of the game these days. We were hit with way more of them than Marquette was today. Their bigs were bumping us all game but those did not count. Sanogo has a bad habit getting his arms on players he is defending.
 
I loved how Jackson fell down the second time Garcia tried to back him down drawing the offensive foul after playing great defense and not getting the call the first time that happened. That was awesome. And showed he's a quick learner. Wish they had done that against Gillespie last week.
 
lonsharkin51 said:
Calhoun's teams were so good at playing D without fouling. This year's team may be the worst I've ever seen when it comes to that. The fouls are ridiculous and make the games almost unbearable. What was Calhoun's secret, and why can't Danny figure it out?
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Calhoun taught fear. Fear that you would be benched if you didn’t do what he told you to do.
 
Peacefrog said:
I don't think its that. I'm sure everybody is very happy with a convincing win against a team that just handled North Carolina (not that they're a juggernaut but you get my point). That doesn't mean there aren't some yellow flags. The fouling has been an issue pretty much all season and I don't expect it to change at this point. I sure wouldn't want them to dial back the aggression but if they could just make better decisions about when to risk fouling. I want to see Whaley and Sanogo use their fouls challenging shots near the rim not reaching in on a 6' guard 40 feet from the basket. Chance of success, almost zero. Chance of getting a ticky-tack foul? High. So many of the fouls seem to be outside the 3-point line and away from the ball. Maybe that's an inaccurate perception but I find myself gritting my teeth about it most games.

To close on a positive note, they chalked up 5 turnovers in the first five minutes. Not good. Hurley pulled Cole to let him gather his thoughts and they only turned it over 2 times over the final 35 minutes. That is exemplary.
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Good thing air balls don’t count as turnovers.
 
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You can guarantee by the 12 minute mark in both halves the opposing team will be in the bonus +/- 1 foul. That’s an issue that needs to be addressed if we want to beat the better teams and make a run. A lot of the fouls are reaching in by the almost all the players or away from the basket by the bigs. A lot are iffy calls but the refs seem to be calling them rather than letting them play. I don’t mind fouls when rebounding or going for a block
 
Calhoun didn't make the dance in his 3rd year at UConn even though he had 3 NBA draft picks on the roster. And they should have.
 
Lol.
Basketball has changed. The nba went with a freedom of movement rule to get more scoring (think James harden and trae young flopping) and that style has filtered down to colleges.

You have to play with your feet now. You can bump anymore or use your hands as leverage.
 
Look, I'm feeling good about today's win and even better about the rest of the season, including the Big East Tournament and NCAA Tournament. I think we were hurt by questionable calls today. Still, I think we foul a little too much. This team has the potential to reach the Sweet 16, and I'd hate to see us lose a game because a key player commits a dumb foul. Overall, our defense is awesome, though. I can't really complain.

That being said, I went to KenPom.com and looked up our historical FTA/FGA rate. It's not a perfect measure, but ratio of free throw attempts to field goal attempts (shown as a percent) seems like a great way to compare. The national rank is useful because it takes into account changes in the way the games are called. I'm not focused on our relative struggles of late. I just wanted us all to remember how elite our best teams with Calhoun were. Our ability to defend without sending teams to the line was truly outstanding.

OffenseDefense
YearFTA/FGARankFTA/FGARank
19973620135.594
19983816132.350
199941.18128.212
200034.122629.530
200140.413634.774
200239.112930.743
200335.817832.370
200434.523324.85
200541.36025.69
200641.93524.89
200745.5153160
200848.1423.55
200946.4619.51
201044.14826.69
201133.826826.810
201234.621525.35
201336.91443162
201438.323335.779
201532.329532.679
201629.633235.4135
201734.51993293
201832.420733.9196
201932.718939.2312
202034.612534.6234
202129.124138.4301
 
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