I’ve defended Hurley thus far

[Improviser]

I’m just saying they can cover up coaching warts and we are talking about coaching competency

And speaking of covering up warts, good players can win in spite of the coach, not because of him.

 

[UConnSwag11]

For what it's worth, UConn's winning % has gone up each year under Hurley. He deserves credit for that.

Absolutely. As well as the recruiting and national spotlight.

 

[Heritage]

And speaking of covering up warts, good players can win in spite of the coach, not because of him.

Hurley has done little or nothing to develop players and is clueless on how to run an offense. Jackson is a very talented and athletic, but he isn't developing as a player. His up and down play is the same as since he came to UCONN. He has improved defense significantly, but is clueless on match ups, e.g., Hawkins of Creighton. His team has no composure under pressure which is usually a team taking its lead from its coach. There is major difference between Calhoun and his emotions, which were always with a purpose. This team, I am afraid will only win when they outclass the opponent. In game coaching is extremely poor.

 

[jchusky]

when you see a player like Josh Carlton who was mediocre here and go to Houston and have success it just makes you livid. Alterique Gilbert another player that had the talent and is doing well at Wichita.

 

[freescooter]

Absolutely. As well as the recruiting and national spotlight.

We really need to revisit this great recruiter thing. I’ll give him Booknight and Sonogo, but this year’s supposed great class is glued to the bench. Great recruiters typically bring in a guy or two who see a fair amount of playing time. Of the freshmen, only Hawkins has played enough that you’d notice, and even that has been pretty limited. It’s one thing to get the guys you want. Getting really good players who can step in and even star at this level is a different thing entirely. Recruiting and evaluating talent go hand in hand. As does balancing need with who is available. It might be nice to bring in another center, but if you already have 3 you Might want to look for a point guard instead. I get that with the portal, and guys leaving early and all that, many things are unpredictable. But you can also fill holes through the portal. You just need to be willing to do it.

The other thing which I sense is that Hurley falls in love with certain guys. I mean, how else do you explain his infatuation with Jackson? The guy just isn’t that good. Martin too. He misses bunny after bunny and stays on the floor. Maybe we have no other option, which kinda goes back to recruiting. He brought in a bus load of guys and not a single one is capable of stepping in to fill a weakness.

 

[polycom]

Hurley has done little or nothing to develop players and is clueless on how to run an offense. Jackson is a very talented and athletic, but he isn't developing as a player. His up and down play is the same as since he came to UCONN. He has improved defense significantly, but is clueless on match ups, e.g., Hawkins of Creighton. His team has no composure under pressure which is usually a team taking its lead from its coach. There is major difference between Calhoun and his emotions, which were always with a purpose. This team, I am afraid will only win when they outclass the opponent. In game coaching is extremely poor.

So you are just blind? As in you can't see anything. How did you type this post? How about you go watch some Sophomore IW and then watch him from last year and this year. Let me guess you think that happened all on his own. Then when you are done with that watch AJ last year and compare him to this year. Sure Hurley runs a weird offense but saying he has done little/nothing to develop players but why am I not shocked.

 

[Get a Job]

We really need to revisit this great recruiter thing. I’ll give him Booknight and Sonogo, but this year’s supposed great class is glued to the bench. Great recruiters typically bring in a guy or two who see a fair amount of playing time. Of the freshmen, only Hawkins has played enough that you’d notice, and even that has been pretty limited. It’s one thing to get the guys you want. Getting really good players who can step in and even star at this level is a different thing entirely. Recruiting and evaluating talent go hand in hand. As does balancing need with who is available. It might be nice to bring in another center, but if you already have 3 you Might want to look for a point guard instead. I get that with the portal, and guys leaving early and all that, many things are unpredictable. But you can also fill holes through the portal. You just need to be willing to do it.

The other thing which I sense is that Hurley falls in love with certain guys. I mean, how else do you explain his infatuation with Jackson? The guy just isn’t that good. Martin too. He misses bunny after bunny and stays on the floor. Maybe we have no other option, which kinda goes back to recruiting. He brought in a bus load of guys and not a single one is capable of stepping in to fill a weakness.

I don't have anything to say about your recruiting point, because I think the jury is still out. However, regarding Hurley's distribution of playing time: Polley is getting huge minutes and Gaffney plays a good amount, and you are criticizing the playing time given to Martin and Jackson?! I am shaking my darn head, as the kids say.

 

[Huskybass]

when you see a player like Josh Carlton who was mediocre here and go to Houston and have success it just makes you livid. Alterique Gilbert another player that had the talent and is doing well at Wichita.

Josh Carlton would have been buried on our bench and Alterique Gilbert entered the transfer portal after one year at Wichita State where he shot under 35% from the field and 28.9% from 3 point range. Apparently, no school picked him up as he is no longer playing college basketball.

Josh and Alterique are certainly not the answers to what ails us.

 

[NJHusky]

J wright beats his nova team with our roster.

This pretty much says it all

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

People forgetting this is not the AAC anymore. Big east is a grind, whether you go against Villanova or DePaul or creighton, every game is tough.

 

[JohnFSilver]

But forbearance time is officially over.

He needs to have his seat turned up to blast furnace levels of hot. I can deal with losses but the sheer number of times his teams are simply unprepared in ALL PHASES is too much to continue to overlook.

If we miss the tournament this season I’d not be opposed to moving on. Because right now the program is going nowhere.

Another thing - he’s shown zero professional growth from his URI days. Zero. Doesn’t seem to understand he’s dealing with a whole other level of talent and competitive drive in the high major ranks.

OK. Just gotta chime in here...you cant lose basketball games as a coach against a team that is better than you on the road?

 

[husky429]

Hurley has done little or nothing to develop players and is clueless on how to run an offense. Jackson is a very talented and athletic, but he isn't developing as a player. His up and down play is the same as since he came to UCONN. He has improved defense significantly, but is clueless on match ups, e.g., Hawkins of Creighton. His team has no composure under pressure which is usually a team taking its lead from its coach. There is major difference between Calhoun and his emotions, which were always with a purpose. This team, I am afraid will only win when they outclass the opponent. In game coaching is extremely poor.

You don't think Jackson has developed as a player? Have you seen his stats?

Did you ever watch Tyrese Martin at URI?

How about Whaley?

Sanogo?

The idea that players aren't developing is ludicrous. Gaffney hasn't improved--clearly a miscalculation by our staff. Everyone else playing decent minutes basically has.

Akok with his injury is another exception.

 

[husky429]

One of my biggest concerns right now is our inability to just flow on offense. We're running set plays or nothing. When you see well-coached teams like Nova, they have players with the confidence and skills

Are we recruiting the wrong guys? Is our coach not teaching our players what to do in the spaces between sets, or during broken plays? I'm not confident enough to say what it is, but it's a coaching issue either way.

It seems like Karaban, Floyd, Castle, (and even someone like Griffiths) all fit the bill of more flexible players. It makes me wonder if the staff has realized their error and adjusting the recruits we're targeting. Seemingly getting off the Taylor Bowen train might be another indication of that.

 

[Rakkasan]

I'm not as offended by not playing freshman lots of minutes. With few talented exceptions I think the Big East season is too much of a grind for most freshman. Obviously there are exceptions but the RULE is freshman play limited minutes and learn.

The bigger concern is upper classmen not getting it done in crunch time. I continue to think Hurley being a lunatic on the sideline is not the example of 'steady hand on the wheel' that players look to for confidence and calm from their coach.

 

[NJHusky]

Are we recruiting the wrong guys? Is our coach not teaching our players what to do in the spaces between sets, or during broken plays? I'm not confident enough to say what it is, but it's a coaching issue either way.

Or is the coach such a controlaholic that he can’t let the guys just play?

 

[tentoes4rings]

Hurley has done little or nothing to develop players and is clueless on how to run an offense. Jackson is a very talented and athletic, but he isn't developing as a player. His up and down play is the same as since he came to UCONN. He has improved defense significantly, but is clueless on match ups, e.g., Hawkins of Creighton. His team has no composure under pressure which is usually a team taking its lead from its coach. There is major difference between Calhoun and his emotions, which were always with a purpose. This team, I am afraid will only win when they outclass the opponent. In game coaching is extremely poor.

I think the main reason the team has little control under pressure is due to only having one capable ball handler. Our best teams usually featured two point guards playing together, this team has one total on the entire roster.

 

[Blue Idiaco]

So you are just blind? As in you can't see anything. How did you type this post? How about you go watch some Sophomore IW and then watch him from last year and this year. Let me guess you think that happened all on his own. Then when you are done with that watch AJ last year and compare him to this year. Sure Hurley runs a weird offense but saying he has done little/nothing to develop players but why am I not shocked.

Well, there should be a natural progression in terms of basketballs skills and basketball IQ as one goes from freshman year to senior year. I think it is debatable if the UConn players move through the program and advance their skills at or above a normal curve. I don't think anyone can look at this team full of fifth year seniors and think there has been any improvement in basketball IQ. That might be because collectively they are all not particularly quick to pick up the game, but it is much more likely that their coach is not particularly smart and/or good at teaching it.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I'm not even going to bother reading through 7 pages of this nonsense, based on recruiting alone he should have until 2023-2024 (Sanogo senior year -- I assume he'll be a 4-year player b/c he won't sniff the NBA sadly due to how they play). Next year we should be a Sweet 16 team. And then that 23/24 team we'll actually know what type of program he can run because we should be a Top 10 program given the nature of the recruits. These things take time. We're consistently ranked now even despite not winning big games. I don't think this current team is very good (and certainly not better than last year) but the Auburn win in theory should get us into the Tournament which is all that matters, granted if we don't suffer any bad losses and at least hold form at home, even at XL. I don't see us winning a game in March at the current rate, but things can change.

You all forget oh so quickly where the program was when he took this job.

Final Rankings:
2018: 179th (last Ollie year)
2019: 98
2020: 52 (and on fire, could have easily cracked into the 30s with no COVID)
2021: 21
2022: 18

I'm not a math guy but taking something from a big number to a little number in under 4 years is pretty damn good. Look at the teams around us then and now:

View attachment 73066 View attachment 73067

If the team absolutely nose-dives and misses the tournament this year or next, then by all means you can have the conversation. Until that happens, people in here need to quiet down about Hurley's job. Should be criticized? Absolutely. Are things going well? No. Should his job be in jeopardy? How can you say that? Would I classify it as a disaster? Absolutely not. Disaster would be Feb 7, 2018 when we moved to 13-13 with a 68-65 win over KenPom 279 USF. Look at where we are 4 years later. The sky is not falling people. Frustration is justified but calling for his job is not.

We're clearly on the right trajectory.

The final piece will be winning a higher percentage of our close/big games so that our perception/ranking/seeding matches our fairly strong computer numbers.

If Hurley can take the next step, bring in a more complementary group of players and win 60-70% of the big games instead of 30-40%, and get consistent buzz for being around the top 10, that will be it.

If he levels off as a guy who can field a #20-30 caliber roster, but loses most of the high-profile matchups and can't get back to national relevance, then it's fair to ask questions. But that's at least 2-3 years off.

 

[freescooter]

I don't have anything to say about your recruiting point, because I think the jury is still out. However, regarding Hurley's distribution of playing time: Polley is getting huge minutes and Gaffney plays a good amount, and you are criticizing the playing time given to Martin and Jackson?! I am shaking my darn head, as the kids say.

I used those 2 because I think they play lots of minutes and rarely produce much for it. The other guys are subs. They play minutes a game for specific purposes. That is a totally different role from a starter who plays 30 plus. Jackson averages 31 Martin 32. Gaffney 10, Polley 20. I agree that Polley is often in too long. Gaffney is a role player. His job is not to screw up While Cole gets a breather.

 

[UofCT]

But forbearance time is officially over.

He needs to have his seat turned up to blast furnace levels of hot. I can deal with losses but the sheer number of times his teams are simply unprepared in ALL PHASES is too much to continue to overlook.

If we miss the tournament this season I’d not be opposed to moving on. Because right now the program is going nowhere.

Another thing - he’s shown zero professional growth from his URI days. Zero. Doesn’t seem to understand he’s dealing with a whole other level of talent and competitive drive in the high major ranks.

This didn’t age well

 

[Pudge]

a bunch of shameless whiny entitled know-nothings

 

[UConnSwag11]

This didn’t age well

Great game tonight. Superb first half didn’t even need to really coach as the team was rolling. But it’s one game and our first win against a +.500 in conference. Let’s win the next two and then we can talk about potential. After that first half performance and winning in the “XL” there’s no reason why we can’t replicate it.

 

[Palatine]

Hurley had a great game tonight. His team was prepared. His game plan got us (Sanogo) off to a great start. His rotations were productive. His use of TOs was timely and effective. His team was resilient when challenged. Credit where credit is due.

 

[Chasm64]

a bunch of shameless whiny entitled know-nothings

Big yup

 

[uc1990]

Just the fact that he recruited Sanago and has him vastly improved in his sophomore season should be enough to quiet the nonsense about Hurley. But the guy wants to be a better coach and has a plan for his players to work to get better. I hope to enjoy improvements everywhere for years to come.