2/3rds through A10 Season - Hurley's Coaching Approach

[ramster]

Currently 17-6 and 9-3 in A10 tied for 1st place
Last Year finished 14-18 and only 5-11 in A10 and tied for 10th place

From the ESPN article:
"Honestly, we expected to struggle in a league that tends to devour freshmen and sophomores,'' Hurley said. "We've got the right guys, obviously. They're about winning, not rookie of the week awards or anything individual.''
Just love this comment from Hurley.

Love that Hurley is preaching team and not individual. Much like SanAntonio Spurs under Greg Popovich and now the Atlanta Hawks under Mike Budenholzer (worked under Popovich for many years) the Hawks are in the midst of an amazing turnaround with a 43-11 record second only to Golden State at 42-9. Focus is on team - it is not a team with any superstars. They got 4 guys all on the All Star Team with none of the 4 starting. They play very unselfish basketball. Hurley's focus on team makes me think so much of Red Auerbach and how he pushed the team concept and players having roles.

I went back over the 12 A10 Conference Games played to date this year:
High Scorer:
EC Mathews - 5
Jared Terrell - 4
Hassan Martin - 2
Gilvidas Biruta - 1
High Rebounder (there have been several ties):
Hassan Martin - 10
Gividas Biruta - 2
TJ Buchanan - 2
EC Mathews - 1
Jared Terrell - 1

4 different players have led the team in scoring
5 different players have led the team in rebounding (or shared the lead)

On this year's team any one of several players is capable of scoring the most points in a game
Seeing the extra pass much more this year than in the past
Unselfish play
Minnis, Butler, Reischel, Watson and TJ all coming off the bench with positive attitudes, no sulking
Players who come out of the game leaving with positive attitudes and no sulking
Coaches don't have to worry about managing drama on the bench because there is no drama to manage
Players rooting for one another
Players bought into Hurley and staff system
Got to love what is happening here

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... -questions

[ramster]

2/3rds through and URI A10 Team Statistics
#2 Scoring Defense 60.2 ppg
#3 FG% Defense 41.4%
#3 3FG% Defense 28.9%
#1 Blocked Shots 7.0 per game
#3 Steals 7.0 per game

Statistics by person - there are many players represented in the top performers:
Scoring #9 EC Mathews 15.4 ppg
Scoring #20 Hassan Martin 12.4 ppg
Rebounding #4 Hassan Martin 8.8 rpg
FG% #1 Hassan Martin 59.2%
FT% #3 Jared Terrell 84.8%
Assists #15 TJ Buchanan 2.9 apg
Steals #3 Jarred Terrell 1.8 spg
Steals #7 Jarvis Garrett 1.6 spg
Steals #7 TJ Buchanan 1.6 spg
Blocked Shots #1 Hassan Martin 4.3 bpg

[TruePoint]

Good stuff ramster. No question things are moving in the right direction, and fast.

[Blue Man]

Such a likable team. Just top to bottom, that's a reflection of the coach as well.

It seems like Iverson is coming in here with the intent of being a model citizen, too - almost belicheckian how Dan has got guys who couldn't produce or behave under others to either shape up or ship out.

Everyone top to bottom has bought into Dan's philosophy in the athletic department and it's certainly a change to a "winning culture."

Dan talked about that in his first interview with Vin Parise - he said the most important thing to him and his staff was getting everyone to be "culture guys." Great to see what that looks like. What a difference 3 years makes...

[ATPTourFan]

Here's that video from Day 1 with Hurley officially as Rhode Island head coach.