What is your take on Hurley and the Refs?

[Zonepress]

Any objective to look at his behavior during the game yesterday shows that he reverted to past behavior he exhibited during the beginning of the 2023 season
From where I sit, he seems like a front runner

 

[Scorpio1]

Solo gets an elbow to the face and there’s no call but Hurley is the bNo connection

 

[CL82]

The T at the end was totally avoidable. Ref walked away. Kimani had Hurley behind him and seemed like it was over, then Dan went back after the ref. Just can’t happen

This. Working the refs needs to be tactical. It is done with the goal in mind of pointing out inconsistencies. With practically no time left on the clock, there's nothing to gain. So, at that point, it's just a temper tantrum and then needs to be better.

That said, you have to look at people in totality. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses, our good characteristics and our flaws. In totality I want Dan Hurley on my side 10 times out of 10.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Any objective to look at his behavior during the game yesterday shows that he reverted to past behavior he exhibited during the beginning of the 2023 season
From where I sit, he seems like a front runner

Wait, you’re saying Dan Hurley is a front runner? The guy who navigated us to back-to-back titles. I swear the BY is not real.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I think it was the early fouls that set him off.

It was not as you described. Players had arms up, not bodying the driver at all, feet moving.

The driver initiated contact and got the foul call. This is why we had so many starters on the bench so early in the game.

On the other side of the court, Memphis was hacking, using hands, 2 hands to push, everything we've been told needs to be called.

You can adjust and play the game the Memphis way and then you won't get called for fouls, but it's such a bad kind of basketball. No idea why the refs prefer to give the advantage to teams that isolate and drive over teams that want to run offensive plays.

That's how it as last night.

You know, I kind of go back to the fact that he doesn't call any fouls during practice in order to toughen guys up for the Big East. And some of our guys certainly need that.

But the flip side is we're also not used to the (often soft) calls that go against us. I wonder if we'd be better off having one of these hair-trigger refs calling our practices.

 

[tuvent08]

I posted this in the other long thread, but it's probably a better fit here.

Every human being's strengths, when taken to extremes, are our weaknesses. That's just how we work. It's impossible to calibrate it perfectly. What makes Hurley the best coach in the sport also, when taken too far, leads to this nonsense. He can continue to improve on it, but it will always be there at times when he loses his head.

cc everyone who's ever been married

 

[KemBuckets21]

He's not the first coach to get P'Oed at the officials. I'm generally fine with it, but we never seemed to get any "makeup" calls during the game, which I would expect is the whole point of working the refs. I admittedly have a hard time separating my UConn bias from objective viewership, it seemed like Haggerty had multiple drives to the basket that were bailed out by questionable fouls. Then theres the Tarris and Liam calls. IDK, considering how poorly Samson played and how suspect AM's defense is, we were able to overcome some glaring weaknesses. So sky isn't falling, but I think the refs are an ok thing to point out in this one.

 

[Kolumbo]

I wish Coach Hurley would be a little more forthcoming

 

[Kolumbo]

 

[Jumpman62114]

I’m all for working the refs but Hurley needs to be more strategic about it and pick and choose his battles.

 

[freescooter]

We have a great coach — nothing in this discussion changes that. Having said that, there is no strategy in getting T’d up in the last minute of the game. You’re not giving yourself time to motivate your players or influence future calls. It simply is a weakness in Hurley’s game. Period. But it’s akin to criticizing something in Lebron’s game — criticism may be fair but it doesn’t mean Lebron isn’t great.

To me he needs to know better than that. You don’t put you team in that position with time running out. No excuse for those kinds of histrionics. You want throw a fit in the first half, have at it. This is a return to 2022 Hurley who cost his team games with his nonsense. He seemed to have it under control. Now it’s back.

I see shades of Bob Knight in some of his actions which would be kind of sad. Great coach remembered as much for throwing chairs and physically attacking players as his 3 National Championships. For a long time he got away with stuff until he didn’t. It would be very sad to see Hurley go down that path.

 

[BGesus4]

I mean if you want to guy to think about winning to an insane degree all waking hours and never be cool about not winning absolutely everything, it’s probably going to not always look super pretty when winning doesn’t happen or is in jeopardy. Well worth it imo

 

[Kitaman]

Coach ain't changing, just saying.

 

[HuskyCLT]

Obviously he's got to be strategic about when he's working the refs - I agree that the last 40 seconds was absolutely not the time for that and it likely cost the game.

In the grand scheme of things, I'll ride with Hurley 100%. Most of the time he's strategic about how he works the refs, and I'll take that over the KO days where he didn't work the refs at all - and guess what, we never got any calls and officiating always felt like a problem.

Let's be honest - Memphis looked like a really good team AND that game was reffed horribly, and inconsistently. If the refs had talked to the coaches early on about how they're calling the game and then followed through and been consistent on their calls I doubt we get half the theatrics we did as last night.

 

[Mr. French]

The T at the end was totally avoidable. Ref walked away. Kimani had Hurley behind him and seemed like it was over, then Dan went back after the ref. Just can’t happen.

The call was questionable. Definitely contact but McNeeley was just taller than the guy and got the rebound. Not the worst call of the game and you just gotta move on.

The worst call was the combination of the call where Reed turns around and the guy who is a half a foot shorter is crawling into his jersey and it was his fifth foul and a tech. Elbow wasn’t even extended. Literally just turned around and if it wasn’t a guard who got stuck in a terrible mismatch that’s an elbow to the chest and it’s probably an and1. Turn to end of game and Solo gets an elbow swung into his face and it’s a foul on him. Just can’t have two different interpretations of the same rule like that.

This is my takeaway too, especially the actual calls.

Reed didn’t even swing the elbow, he flat out just turned and the guy was shorter than him.

Solo, meanwhile, is in legal guarding position and the kid actively swung his elbow into Ball.

Not only were those 2 plays called differently, they were both against UConn. Not sure how that happens. The Hurley snap is based on accumulating calls.

I’ve been there, just a slightly lesser level of ball.

 

[Scoe]

Is it possible they're both in the wrong? I'm not gonna pick a side here.

It's like someone gets into an argument then talks behind that persons back, usually most people will nod and agree or at least pretend to agree with that person to avoid any conflict. There's 2 sides to a story and there's a good chance both are in the wrong.

 

[homunculus]

I think it was the early fouls that set him off.

It was not as you described. Players had arms up, not bodying the driver at all, feet moving.

The driver initiated contact and got the foul call. This is why we had so many starters on the bench so early in the game.

On the other side of the court, Memphis was hacking, using hands, 2 hands to push, everything we've been told needs to be called.

You can adjust and play the game the Memphis way and then you won't get called for fouls, but it's such a bad kind of basketball. No idea why the refs prefer to give the advantage to teams that isolate and drive over teams that want to run offensive plays.

That's how it as last night.

This is exactly correct.

Then they are forced to play softer defense because the fouls are piling up, which is then what people pick up on and blame the loss on.

 

[Excalibur]

Valid reasons to be upset at the refs, no possible valid reason to pick up a T with 40 seconds left in a tie game in OT

The officials timed the T for maximum impact.

 

[Excalibur]

I don't mind the nastiness with refs. I do mind when the timing loses games for the team.

I mind the timing as well, but not in the sense you mean.

 

[Excalibur]

I am surprised by the number of hothouse flowers we have on this board.

I stand with Coach. Period.

When losing hurts more than winning feels good, you have guys that are wired differently. Michael Jordan punched his own teammates in practice. Calhoun had one of the shortest fuses in the history of the sport. Larry Bird had a temper.

Truth is, if the team showed half the fire that Hurley showed we wouldn't have been in that predicament to begin with. We played like crap in the last cupcake warm up and we played sloppy on both ends of the floor yesterday and he won't accept it and neither will I. Keep doing exactly what you're doing, Coach.

I'm 95% with this. I only object to the second part of his postgame quote about deserving a better whistle (yes it's 100% correct but needs to remain unsaid) and what appear to be jawing at the officials after Ball's tying basket.

 

[businesslawyer]

To me he needs to know better than that. You don’t put you team in that position with time running out. No excuse for those kinds of histrionics. You want throw a fit in the first half, have at it. This is a return to 2022 Hurley who cost his team games with his nonsense. He seemed to have it under control. Now it’s back.

I see shades of Bob Knight in some of his actions which would be kind of sad. Great coach remembered as much for throwing chairs and physically attacking players as his 3 National Championships. For a long time he got away with stuff until he didn’t. It would be very sad to see Hurley go down that path.

No. Absolutely not. Getting T‘d up for opening your mouth is a coaching flaw. Physically attacking players is a personal flaw. Not a comparison that it’s fair to make.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

You get foul calls when you attack the basket. Memphis was attacking the basket at will because our perimeter guys can’t stop penetration. Whether they were warranted or not, calls come that way. We really didn’t attack the paint much because we don’t really have players that can break down their guy 1v1.

 

[FearThePups]

When you teach excellence you demand excellence in return. We can talk all we want about “knowing the situation”, etc but that’s not how people like Danny, Steve Jobs, etc are wired. Liam did an excellent job of high-pointing the rebound exactly how you’d teach it, the ref’s blew the call. Where it will always be a journey for Danny (and us as fans) is expecting perfection.

The refs were horrible.

 

[FearThePups]

Refs are incompetent showboating egomaniacs. If Hurley's antics cost us a game or two, I can live with it. If it gets the players fired up, even better.

Agreed

 

[cellocgg]

The reffing was quite egregious. It's obvious his heart is in the right place; he's very passionate which is great but Hurley needs to learn to control himself. It's not entirely his fault we lost but he played a part, he doesn't get to use refs as an excuse and shouldn't complain about them the way he did to the media.

I'd imagine he'll mellow out after this for a while

A lot of neutral observers are painting Hurley to be some classless monster which is equally ridiculous and just bitter jealousy. Hurley isn't the first coach to get into it with the refs

 

[Iluvsuebird]

I can't believe people are taking the side of the referee over Dan Hurley. You don't get to make a terrible call and then double down on it by T'ing up the coach in the THAT situation. If you let Hurley mouth off all game long, you don't pick that moment to T him up either. Where is the accountability for referees in this sport?

College basketball needs a challenge option because these refs are consistently terrible. Hurley is not even asking for a favorable whistle, he is asking for a FAIR whistle. We don't even get a fair whistle. Does anyone remember last year when Goodman reported that numerous refs told him that they have a personal animus against Dan Hurley? Yeah. And we're supposed to expect them to be unbiased? This is something that borders on match fixing and I cannot believe that it wasn't investigated to find out which refs told Goodman that.

are you serious? He was riding those refs since minute #1. I get that the refs were one sided. I get that a bunch of those calls were ticky tacky calls. But damn, dude is 52. Gotta show some restraint. I bet you in March he will acknowledge it when he is getting interviewed at the Final 4.

 

[Zonepress]

You get foul calls when you attack the basket. Memphis was attacking the basket at will because our perimeter guys can’t stop penetration. Whether they were warranted or not, calls come that way. We really didn’t attack the paint much because we don’t really have players that can break down their guy 1v1.

Excellent post
You actually watch the game thank you

 

[Excalibur]

You get foul calls when you attack the basket. Memphis was attacking the basket at will because our perimeter guys can’t stop penetration. Whether they were warranted or not, calls come that way. We really didn’t attack the paint much because we don’t really have players that can break down their guy 1v1.

Reed was mugged underneath on multiple occasions. We were feeding the post and not getting calls.

 

[Zonepress]

Wait, you’re saying Dan Hurley is a front runner? The guy who navigated us to back-to-back titles. I swear the BY is not real.

He’s a front runner because he didn’t abuse officials when he was winning games by easy margins
He obviously doesn’t have the team he had the last two years so he goes back to abusing officials
That’s exactly what the front runners
He’s on good behavior when things are going well and as soon as it doesn’t, he isn’t

 

[BlueandOG]

I am surprised by the number of hothouse flowers we have on this board.

I stand with Coach. Period.

When losing hurts more than winning feels good, you have guys that are wired differently. Michael Jordan punched his own teammates in practice. Calhoun had one of the shortest fuses in the history of the sport. Larry Bird had a temper.

Truth is, if the team showed half the fire that Hurley showed we wouldn't have been in that predicament to begin with. We played like crap in the last cupcake warm up and we played sloppy on both ends of the floor yesterday and he won't accept it and neither will I. Keep doing exactly what you're doing, Coach.

It has nothing to do with being a hot house flower. It has everything to do with winning. Coach cost us the game. Period. He needs to do better.