UConn Basketball HC Dan Hurley previews Michigan State exhibition
UConn Basketball Head Coach Dan Hurley met with the media to preview his program’s upcoming exhibition game against Michigan State on Tuesday afternoon inside of the PeoplesBank Arena.
FULL DAN HURLEY TRANSCRIPT
DAN HURLEY: “Going against of the best programs, you know, the last 30 years in college basketball and it’s just it’s going to be very beneficial. They’re going to expose some things. I’m obviously a little worried about the freshman center versus that frontcourt, just and what that’s going to look like, but great, it’s going to be a great experience for for Eric and the group.”
Is Tarris tracking and will he be ready for the opener?
DAN HURLEY: “He looks good. I mean, you know, we’ve kind of been down this road with him. You know, we hit a, we got to this point, then we hit a setback again, I mean we need him obviously healthy, you know, for the long season, but also you need him healthy. Just don’t want the hamstring to linger, but yeah, I should be able to get him back on the court soon.”
In terms of guys trying to earn minutes, what has Furphy shown you?
DAN HURLEY: “Good offensive player, just good size, good really, you know, a guy that can make threes, a guy that can pass the ball, he’s got to take better care of the ball, you know, he’s turned it over some, but yeah, I think the questions are about the, you know, just can he guard well enough as a freshman with his experience level, you just guard well enough, you know, that we can play him, because we want to play him, and he’ll take care of the ball, don’t turn it over, and just guard well enough. I think Silas being back in there is going to help the defense, obviously Tarris being back in there eventually is going to really help the defense.”
Coach, how are you handling the adversity so this early in the season with the injuries and so forth?
DAN HURLEY: “We just look back to 24, and I think we dealt with losing Donovan during the year, we dealt with losing Steph in a very similar kind of timeline to Braylon in a lot of ways, so, you know, we dealt with it before and it worked out good.”
Do you try to script anything as far as line-up combos and trying to run certain offenses at certain times?
DAN HURLEY: “I would just try to make sure that you get enough players, enough minutes, and get players in early enough so they have a chance to show you that they deserve to play, so I just think it’s more about getting enough guys early minutes, especially with Braylon out, you know who’s going to start, and then who deserves, you know, real bench minutes. Braylon just landed awkwardly, that kind of thing? Yeah, I mean, you know, the guy’s got some of that, like Indiana, Midwest, I don’t know, it’s like the air or dairy or whatever because he was fortunate, we were fortunate and we were very nervous that it could have been, you know, far worse for him, so, you know, we count our blessings and we thank God, you know, we thank God that he and we, you know, that the injury is what it is.”
Is it like a high ankle thing?
DAN HURLEY: “No, no Different than Liam. Yeah, different than Liam, but still, you know, it’s like he’s a tough kid, and, you know, according to his dad, he’s a fast healer. Just a little off the beat path, but do you come into this, do you scout Michigan State as if it was like a regular season game, or is tomorrow really more about you? Yeah, I don’t think there’s much of that type of mentality preparation-wise.
I think we do, like, a little bit, we did a little bit with BC, because you are trying to get your players to be able to absorb more information the way you’re gonna have to with New Haven and in the regular season games, but I think you’re still, anytime you go out there, you want to try to win. You’re coaching, you know, you’re coaching your guys hard because, you know, you want to win the next possession, you want to win the exhibition, but I think that your mindset right now is, like, learn as much as you can about your team, and just try to figure out, like, what your rotation is going to look like, and just hope that you could try to, you know, learn about some vulnerabilities and weaknesses that get exposed when you play Michigan State.”
You guys recruited Carr pretty heavily, right?
DAN HURLEY: “Yeah, I mean Kohler and Carr and you know fears make up a veteran team or at least veteran players after watching them last year. I mean, if they made some shots in that, you know, was that Elite 8 game? Was that the Elite 8, or was that the Sweet 16? I think it was. I think it was the Sweet 16. I mean, they, you know, they rebound so well, and I mean, if they made any shots, a reasonable amount of open shots last year, they would have been in the Elite 8 or in the Final Four. I know that Auburn game, I mean, they had so many good opportunities.
So, you know, their, the offensive rebounding, their transition offense, the physicality, you know, like a lot of the stuff that we’re, we’ve got to answer questions about our team toughness is why it was such a, it was a great scrimmage for us, or exhibition, sorry.”
What have Jalen and Jaden shown you in terms of progress?
DAN HURLEY: “I think this is what we’re, you know, I think we see the flies on you now. We’ve been trying to get this fly. Paul, the fly is now in here. We’re trying to get this fly in this building. I think it was from the renovations. The place looks good, though. They did a nice job. They cleaned up the, it looks so much nicer in the arena.
I think people are going to really enjoy it that haven’t been in here. Right, Paul? Yes. With, you know, with a lot of the players, I think, anymore, I think, I think, you know, as juniors, we want to see these guys just go out and be assertive, you know, and I want to see assertive men out there, just men that are assertive with their actions and the way they carry themselves and, you know, assertive like UConn men should be assertive.”
Do the renovations mean anything to the team?
DAN HURLEY: “I mean, is there just a different mindset coming in or? How about the locker room? Well, I mean, I don’t know what the, I mean, it’s a better space. It’s like Rocky III. You know, when he moved into the nice house, it fucking went and turned to shit. So, you know, and then he went to, I guess that was Detroit.
You know, when he started training with Apollo, you know, he got knocked out by Clever Lang. He was in the big house and he got soft and weak and then he went out to LA and then he got, he got grimy and he, you know, he got back to his roots. And then, yeah, so I try not to think about it.”
Aside from the win, are there other metrics or other things that you want to see at the end of this game?
DAN HURLEY: “Yeah, I think you’re mostly looking for like individual players to, you know, to, you know, to do certain things, you know, like you’re looking for certain guys to step up. You’re looking for even beyond like analytics for the result. You’re looking for some physicality.
You know, you’re, you’re looking to see what some combinations of players are going to look like. And then you’re making final decisions on like the, you know, game one, like who’s going to, you know, grant the terraces back. And, you know, now you’re like who’s going to be in that eight or nine guys that’s actually going to play, even with Braylon out, it’s still competitive to get on the court.”
Do your players still feel that it’s a big deal to actually start or are they more concerned with finishing under you?
DAN HURLEY: “I think most guys, I think they, you know, I think most players, you know, want to start, you know, but for us, you know, for a player like UConn, if you play like starter minutes, if you’re the sixth starter or you’re, you know, in the rotation at UConn, that’s, you know, it’s a pretty big deal.
I’m sorry if you’ve commented on this elsewhere, but you said with Louisville getting a player from Julian, do you see yourself going into that market, that becoming a thing for you or is it something where maybe you want to draw the line somewhere and say this is not where we’re going to go?
DAN HURLEY: “Yeah, I mean, you know, the trolls came after me when I, obviously, I love what coaches have said, I love what, you know, Coach Painter said, relative to the issues that involve college basketball, they know a lot more about this subject matter than I do, they’ve been coaching college for a long time. I spent a majority of my career as a high school coach, right, so, at least before I became a head coach, so, you know, I love what they both said, you know, the, it was not a criticism of Louisville too, I mean, you know, we all want to win, we have a sense of responsibility to our university and our fan base and everyone involved with, whether it’s Louisville or UConn, to put the absolute best team you could put on the court relative to what the rules can say you can do, the problem with our sport is that we’re not just, we’re not very aware of what the rules are in certain instances like that, you know, I don’t think you can make the connection between, you know, international players and the high school player, a high school player that chose to forego college as an option and go to the G League, and then circling back to it when you passed on that option in high school is different than just an international college player, there is no college basketball in Europe or in South America, there’s not a version of this for them to aspire to play at, so for them they’re in a system where as young players you join these pro club teams and it’s not really, so that’s not, comparing to foreign players that are now, you know, if there’s a foreign player that goes to the G League and then tries to go play college basketball, obviously, you know, that would make it an apples to apples comparison, but to compare foreign players to G League players I think is not the same thing, so I just think, you know, what are the rules, you know, I think a lot of us didn’t have no idea that that was even a possibility, you never say never because we do have a responsibility to the university and to a lot of people to put, and with the climate of coaching now in college sports, the way they’re getting coaches, you know, where it’s become more like professional sports, the way coaches are being let go, in season now with a lot of money and a lot of years, so that’s a whole other thing.
It doesn’t just mean that if somebody goes into the draft, doesn’t get the money he’s looking for, he can then come back, right, because he ends up in the G League and says, yeah, I’m gonna come back. Yeah, I mean, I guess I’ll let coaches know, you know, that, I don’t know, like, talk, you know, I don’t, it does, I just, it’s a great sport, you know, it’s, you know, college basketball’s awesome, it’s just, I think, I just, my biggest concern is like the product in college, it’s the front of the jersey, March Madness, and it’s having the fans in college basketball, like, that is the, that’s the product, like, that’s what really matters, March Madness is what drives college basketball, it’s the front of the jersey, the way our fans, fans love the team in college, you know, there’s a lot of NBA fans that love an individual player and become an amateur individual player, fans love the front of the jersey in college, they almost forget who was on the team, two, three, they’re so engrossed in their team, they just love their team, the characters change, but they love their team, I just don’t want to do anything that’s gonna, we’re gonna start losing our fans, our fans are gonna start feeling like the jersey doesn’t matter, the front of the jersey doesn’t matter, you know.
Some would say the coaches do, but what do the fans like about the program, just continuity, more so?
DAN HURLEY: “Well, the only people that like me are UConn fans, so, and I’m glad to have it that way, I wish more people liked it, but the important people.”
💬 Wondering what other UConn fans are saying?
Head to The Husky House forum and jump into the discussion →
