UConn Basketball HC Dan Hurley talks offseason, recaps first practice and more
UConn Basketball held an open practice for the media on Tuesday afternoon and the Huskies Head Coach Dan Hurley spoke to break down the offseason.
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Full Dan Hurley Transcript….
I’ve got to wear this hat today because I’m getting a haircut in a while. I don’t stop laughing. Just a buzz, you know, a quick buzz cut.
One, no, I asked you not to. I think I use like a one on the sides and a one and a half up top, so I keep the sideburns. Try to distract people from balding.
Grow a beard. My wife won’t let me. I want to, I want to, because I think it would match good.
She won’t let me do it at best. Health-wise, everyone was in today, so I know you guys probably saw that up top. I really like having the 15-player roster.
I think it’s just going to give us an ability to practice to the max, but then keep the team fresh. Hopefully that’ll be a big advantage, especially for the way that we practice. It was good to get that first one under the belt.
For the players, got like over 100 more of those at that intensity level. Just told them that, so they got that to look forward to. Does it feel like it’s number one? Or is it just a continuation of what you’ve been doing? Not for us.
I think the best programs, I think the best programs in the country are the practice. Obviously, there’s a different level of intensity. There’s more of a defensive focus.
The practice is longer. You just have a better opportunity to develop habits. And then it’s still a toughness in the team, because you’ve got to be able to take what you’re doing for an hour, or an hour and ten, and then stretch that out to two hours and ten minutes.
I think it ended up being like 2.15 today. But the best, you can’t accomplish anything in our sport, unless you’re grinding throughout the summer, throughout the preseason, if you want to have a chance to win anything in the world that we’re in. So what keeps one year from bleeding into the next, right? Where do you give yourself those checks and balances to reset or regroup where you need to? I just think this offseason, we just had a lot more time.
Just because we didn’t have as many responsibilities like we’ve had the last two offseasons. So I think from a coaching standpoint, it just gives you more time to focus on your craft, I think. And then I think in terms of the group, it changes your pursuit.
I think our pursuit of being championship caliber, our pursuit with absolutely everything we have, is at a different level of urgency coming off of last season. You talked about your defense not playing well last year as a team. With all this offseason is out, is it at this point in a better spot than it was last year? Yeah, I think it’s better.
I think we’ve got better individual defensive players. We struggled mightily on the perimeter last year. Literally at all three spots on the perimeter.
With the exception of a healthy Hassan. We didn’t get what we needed from anyone defensively on the perimeter. That’s including guys who were really productive on offense.
We’ve got a lot of work to do at that end of the court. You’re not playing through mistakes on defense this year the way you were able to last year. How about as far as room protection? You don’t have the down of him, you’re even with Sampson.
I know Eric tends to be a little more of a perimeter guy. Do you want him to improve upon that and be a little more of a protector? Yeah, I think guarding the ball better. I think we were number one in the country last year in blocked shots.
But the ball is at the front of the ring a lot. Because we were not good defending on the perimeter. You’re going to get driven some, but our problem last year was straight line drives.
There’s no help for straight line drives. Being able to force somebody off their move a little bit laterally. Help can help you there.
Rim protectors can get there then consistently. But yeah, I think we just got a better chance. A point of attack defense starting at point guard with Silas.
Who’s taller. A taller point guard. Malachi’s got the ability to pressure the ball.
And then obviously the guys that are returning. I think Braylon’s got a chance to be a good defensive player because he’s a serious guy. Physically strong enough.
And obviously Solow and Jalen and Jaden. These guys, they’ve got to play good to very good to great defense. How’s Malachi looked coming up? You know, he’s up to seven, but injured for a lot of years.
Yeah, we’re excited about Malachi. I think he’s got some of what Hassan brought to the 2014. Some of that.
I think he’s an attacking player. He’s a guy that makes plays. I think the fans will love him.
I think he’s a real critical key piece to the team. He’s going to have a huge role. You have a lot of veterans like Solow and Alex help you through the grind of this season.
How have they helped you? Alex, at this point, it’s like… He’s literally like another coach. My relationship with him is kind of strange. You know, we’ve been around each other so much.
It’s like I got on him a little bit huddled. And I almost felt like apologizing after. But we’ve been through so much together.
You know, the incredible highs. And then the disappointing last year. And then you go through these decision-making processes that he’s had to deal with.
And we just bonded so closely through everything together. So I just cherish this last year with Alex in particular. But that trio of guys, Solow, Alex, Tarras.
I mean, he’s got to be leading men. They’ve got to be like the hawk, Andre, Padama. You know, big three that we had that were just productive.
They led. They controlled the locker room. You know, I think we do have a great locker room again this year.
So, yeah. Solow established himself as one of the best shooters in the country coming into the year. You can make an argument that he’s the best returning shooter.
You know, obviously the volume and the efficiency. The room for him where he’s got to grow is obviously when he gets in the paint. You know, his overall guard play as a passer.
You know, his rim finishing. And then obviously the defensive end. I mean, for your team to be championship caliber, he’s obviously got to make a big jump offensively in particular.
You know, he had an awesome sophomore year. I don’t think he’s got to change a whole lot offensively to his approach. Besides those things I talked about.
You know, maybe a slicker passer and better rim finisher. And then he’s got to commit defensively. You know, like perimeter defense last year.
I think that he’s got such a superpower with the shooting. But if you like Solow’s evolution is like a little more remarkable things. Because he kind of came in here as like an Andre Jackson type of athlete.
And then now he’s evolved into like a Jordan Vulcanist type shooter. But he still has that athletic ability that we want to see him. You know, cutting for lobs, getting on the offensive glass.
We want him hanging on the rim more. You have a lot of internationals coming in. Is that a big part of recruiting now? You kind of have to look beyond just this region.
Yeah, I think it’s, you know, maybe the thing for us is, you know, we’re looking for players that want to be coached. I think, you know, an advantage with maybe some of the international kids is like they’re getting coached harder overseas when they’re younger. The coaches overseas aren’t afraid that their kid’s going to change high schools or AAU teams or what have you.
So I just think that there’s a culture, you know, over there where they could acclimate to hard practices and demanding coaches and the type of structure we put around them. So that’s appealing. You know, and then obviously I would say that’s the most appealing.
I don’t know if it was a conscious effort. I think today’s game now you’re just, you know, you’ve got an NIL budget and you’re looking for value and you’re looking for players with certain profiles and, you know, maybe, I’m not going to say this. Maybe an American player priced himself out or, you know what I mean? But I don’t know if we necessarily went in looking for international players so much as, you know, people that are going to fit to how we do things.
You mentioned getting back to championship caliber. How much of the way last season and in the tournament, maybe you or the group used as getting back to that level? Yeah, you know, I mean, once you, you know, get to the mountaintop and experience that, you know, any season that doesn’t end like that, you know, for the rest of your career, even though it’s probably not realistic every single year, but, you know, the year doesn’t end like that. You know, you’ve got a kind of bitter taste in the offseason.
And, you know, so yeah, I mean, I don’t know, you know, that we’re necessarily going to coach harder or practice harder. I just think that last year’s team, there was just this feeling that the group had that just because everyone had signed on to come play for us at UConn that there was some type of magic dust or something that we’re going to sprinkle in their Powerade or is that what we use here, Powerade? We’re Powerade school? Sure. Yeah, we’re Powerade.
In our Dunkin Donuts, in the players Dunkin Donuts? Powerade. Oh, sure. We’ll approve.
Yeah, so I just think the last year’s team, it was like maybe we thought we could do it with absolutely anyone. And I think what made those teams special was, you know, just the commitments, the efforts, the efforts on defense, how hard we play. And, you know, I think that this group is, our pursuit is going to be much different.
You know, our pursuit of this championship and get back on top is going to be different. Was there a pleasant surprise through the whole preseason or offseason for you? Somebody stand out or something about the teams really stand out? Oh, I would say just, you know, what Alex looks like. I mean, Alex has put on 10 pounds of muscle.
He’s, you know, he’s like two, you know, he’s like two thirties plus. He just looks real sharp, looks like he’s grown up. I just think you get a lot of confidence when you start your team with what solos look like all summer.
Taris has looked like all summer. Alex has looked like all summer. And again, I think, and I said this with this team, it’s like, yeah, it’s like how we’re pursuing getting back to where we want to be with everything that we have.
You know, because when you get there, it’s absolutely worth everything that you get. You’re on top. But this is a group that’s going to have, you’ve got to earn your role.
I know I said it last year, but it’s like now these guys that maybe, you know, that were sophomores or weren’t ready are now juniors. And if you really, it’s a numbers game, I think it’s like, it’s hard to play 10 players, you know? And I think that there’s like legitimately, you know, probably 12 that think they got a chance to play. And so like, you’ve got to earn, you’re going to have to earn your role.
I think one of the mistakes I made early last year was I had a vision of how I wanted the team to look. And I probably should have sent a different team out there to start the year. I think that the group that I’m going to send out there to start the year is going to be a group that earns it three weeks from yesterday, three weeks from yesterday.
Like, you know, these guys are going to either be announced as a starter. You’re going to be the sixth man. You’re going to be the fourth guy in that’s going to get limited minutes.
Or you’re going to get deep spaced and you’re going to play late late. And you’re going to earn wherever you are in that whole, you know, that whole role allocation. So, you know, the 15 man roster you talked about, you kind of have that layer of developmental players.
And then, of course, you have young guys who’ve retained, veterans that we bring in, guys coming in from overseas. Is that in line with that vision that you expressed about a year ago that you wanted to be known as one of the best basketball operations in the world? Yeah. Is that kind of coming together the way you envisioned? Or have any of those changes changed that vision or whatever? Do you see all those things kind of coming together? Yeah, I think.
I mean, we obviously have the evidence. We’re championship success. We’ve got the evidence with the people that we’re producing that are not just in the NBA.
When you look across the board, you know, just the guys in the last several teams we’ve had. They’re all flourishing overseas or in the NBA or in some cases the G League. So, I think the 15 player thing, you’re experimenting with.
You know, the trade-off there is like, you know, you’ve got a chance to develop some players. You’ve got a chance to practice harder but keep maybe some of your veterans fresher. But let the young players get the reps that they need as you get later in the season.
Because that becomes a problem as a coach. You’ll have like Alex late in the year that doesn’t need reps. But then last year, you know, Jayden Ross needed reps as a sophomore.
So, you’ll be able to be more like a la carte, go practice that way. I guess the only thing we’ll find out is having 15 people is too many pains in the ass to deal with during the year, I guess. Like, do I really want to deal with 15 human beings? You know, plus Tom, Luke, and Kamani.
So, what is the guy who’s running the pro team in Slovakia or Turkey? What do you think he’s saying about a guy? Hey, we have a chance to need a guy for UConn. What do you think he’s thinking immediately with the UConn brand on that? Yeah, I mean UConn, I think, you know, whether you’re NBA or international team, I think, you know, somebody that’s been in a demanding program. You know, somebody that is going to be able to function really well in structure.
You know, in a system that prioritizes like discipline. You know, being about the right things, being competitive, working hard, being coachable. Coaches can coach our players hard when they leave here.
We get a lot of complaints, especially in the NBA. Like, they want their teams to give them more difficult training. They want their coaches to give them more difficult training.
They want the coach, you know, so I think, you know, somebody who knows how to be a good team mate and win. You know, he has played for the jersey. I know that Fibs came here in different summers.
Some other coach, GM, whoever, if you can share, let’s get to know each other and see what you do. We have international people for a year and now I think, at this time of the year, other NBA players also start coming here. But, you know, I think, our high school coaches come here.
We have coaches of Division 2, Division 3. I think, I get the best ideas. Umm, you know, as a coach, from Europe, Division 2, Division 3. Yes, you mentioned Big 33 team and booking it. What kind of similarity was there in making the roster? I think you are looking at it from this perspective that who are your core players.
With Terrence Yu, obviously, Adam Adama has physical similarities. How did they use it? With Jordan Solocomp, Alex is now possibly three years better than his version. I think.
The point guard’s position, I think you are feeling more self-confidence or you are very confident. There is depth in it, there is quality in it. There is a flamethrower from Berlin.
And then you have the real depth. There are only such people who are like the tenth man. The player who has the possibility of coming to 9th and 10th number, they are really very good players.
You know, there are really very good players who can help other big teams this year. That’s why I think the strength of this team is its depth. While outside the bench were Nahim, Joy, Donovan, Hassan.
You know, we got off with 9 players and this is what makes that group special. You are playing an exhibition match and are live against the opponents of Division 1. What are the benefits and disadvantages of doing this? I mean, the biggest benefit is that I think we are playing an exhibition match with a lot of hard work this year, which makes me think that we will be more ready at the beginning of the year than last year. We were not ready for Mao and we showed our performance there.
I think one reason for this was that we did not schedule such games properly, so that we would have been more prepared for whatever we saw when we shared the field with Memphis. That’s why we know that we have learned from it clearly. Its negative side is that you have actually gone through everything from yesterday.
You know that this is going to be a mess. You know that until it starts in reality, we are not going to be what we are going to be. You know, I look back 24 years when we did scrimmage in Virginia and you know, we were 3 points behind that Virginia team.
I don’t think they had reached the tournament or if they had reached the tournament, they had not reached and Cam Spencer made 3 points so that we do not lose directly in that close scrimmage. So it didn’t happen and then obviously we had a stock. So you know, this is just, you know, so this can be a little nonsense show.
But I think playing with only good opponents tells you where you have to get better. And then when you are in front of two big environments, which I think is going to help you with anxiety in the early night. Rick has heard Rick Patino say that the point guard’s situation is no longer present in reality.
I must be a little surprised. But are you able to understand what he is saying? And keeping this in mind, does it change the role of Silas or Malachi for you a little? No, I mean, I think, um, I mean, you have a primary handler. I think we all have a primary.
You know, we, oh, you know, Tristan was our primary handler. You know, he had the ball. You know, the way we play aggressively, maybe 50% of the time for him.
You know, and then Cam had maybe 20% of the time. And by the end of the year, Stave had this. You know, 20% of the time.
And maybe AK had this. You know, and 5 times. I don’t know where we are with the math right now.
We lost. But you know, I mean, you are looking for a lot of players. I mean, you are looking for a guard, a striker, and a lot of handlers.
Because for us, the way we play aggressively, you know, it is irreplaceable. You should be able to play on the ball and without the ball. So for us, yes, I mean, if you see what we are doing on the ground, then we are looking for a big guard.
I think the place where we keep our guard aggressively, especially in the case of length, what they do on the backboard of the defensive player, forget about it. You know, I think how aggressive we were with those teams. With those big guards, the ability to throw the lob, the ability to spread it to three points, the ability to finish on the rim or foul, you know, when they are not 6 feet 4 inches, 6 feet 5 inches, oh, 66, then it becomes more problematic.
You know, congratulations to the coach. I mean, wonderful work, oh, you know, hall of fame type resume and it is obvious that he has worked in many places and um, you know, I just think, oh, you know, the coach will be remembered. It is obvious that recently many coaches, you know, they are resigning.
I don’t know if it is uncertain that you still don’t know whether people will get the fifth year because October is coming and there is a lack of structure and leadership in some games. I don’t believe that this is the reason, but the coach was such a person whom I used to praise. Whatever he made, I used to praise his work and I also give good wishes to his son.
I was very happy to see the coach’s son.
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