He didn’t do it before we hired Pike. He went 9-9 that year. You’re warping time and space here.
NCAA Tourney Saturday Night Games Thread
- Thread starter Knight Shift
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Danny Hurley does not have a recruiting advantage over Duke, Alabama, and a bunch of other top programs. But he is absolutely destroying everyone. He is a great coach, and a very strong case can be made that he is the best coach in college basketball right now.
I mean I think they clearly have the most talented team currently. Obviously credit to him for putting it together.
Wagner was 5-26 the year before Hurley got there. 2 years later they were 25-6.
Rhode Island 7-24. Hurley arrives and 3 years later 23-10.
UConn 14-18. 2 years later 19-12 4 years later 23-10.
Guy wins everywhere because he’s an amazing coach and people could always see it.
I would argue there was no pressure at Wagner and Rhode Island. And while UConn dipped, the infrastructure was in place to succeed. Rutgers would have been a different animal. The lack of institutional support and his combustible personality could have resulted in a pretty bad outcome. I think he would be much better suited coming in now after Pike brought us back to respectability and we have BIG 10 resources, though obviously that won’t be happening.
Not sure what to say not sure if it’s true or not, not being familiar with those programs.
But I think any college basketball fan of a team other Rutgers would say there’s no pressure to win at RU and certainly that there is way more pressure to win at UConn than most places.
he would have recruited strongly so that would have helped...why would you say lack of insitutional support when Pike was given the institutional support
Pike got hired and we had a commitment for state of the art basketball facility within a year AND Hobbs effectively gave him the 7 year contract length (that no one wanted to give up front) via an extension after pikes year 1 3-15 conf record.
Riddle me this, Batman.
If this was always so obvious, how is it that you thought, a mere 15 months ago, that Rutgers was the best program on the east coast?
I think there is lots of institutional support now. I don’t think there was much when Pike was hired. This fan base has always wanted to be a power in the Northeast, but the resources and commitment for doing so are only arriving now.
the issue with Hurley is Im not sure what would have been the tipping point...8-9 years? thats absurd for a guy who hadnt been to the tourney....$3 million? I mean I know our program was in the shitter but Danny was a NJ guy, did he really want the job is a question to ask....
i think Pike got immediate support so why would pike handle it differently than danny even if there was no institutional support
That’s why I still think characterizing it as us “passing on Hurley” is a pretty creative way to describe what happened.
This is what I asked.
“Is there a better legally supported basketball program in the North East/Big Ten?”
This is what I stated to start the conversation.
“Doesn’t seem like there is a single program situated definitively better on an infrastructure level within a few hundred miles of Rutgers Basketball.”
Importantly, I didn’t say what you are saying.
yeah I mean its hard to fault Hobbs without knowing what was the threshold for Danny, I know RU was a in a really tough spot but Danny still hadnt been to the tourney at Uri despite their improvement
thats fair enough, I dont think we passed. I think Hobbs really really really wanted Danny but it was just likely not to happen. Yeah I dont agree with Sojo saying Hobbs passed
You implied the answer to be “no”. But whatever. At the time Rutgers hired Steve Pikiell he was a more accomplished college basketball coach than Danny Hurley was. And this arguably remained true until last year.
That is largely because he is much older. Danny has accomplished much more than Pike once you equalize for age.
It’s easy to forget what a shitshow rutgers has been for 30+ years basically. The hurleys saw that up close and personal.
The situation was the A10 just produced Shaka, and then soon to come *Archie Miller, and Will Wade. Danny was clearly in that group/in the line to get paid like that. He already won 23 games in the conference before those guys got their deals.
He had a great roster and every reason to believe he would be a 20 win coach again after the 17 win season that followed the 23 win season. Rutgers was the worst job in the country and Hobbs and didn’t want to pay before the inevitable happened.
Could’ve gotten him at a real discount even if we met his number.
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He has now (age equalized or not) but this wasn’t really true in 2016.
I think that is directionally true, but you have a fan base with outsize expectations, in a new conference where we are sitting at the bottom with a massive hill to climb. For a local up and coming guy like Hurley, I can see why you would have a lot of concern coming into that situation. Easier for an up and comer from the outside who isn’t as influenced by our history (like Pike), or an experienced high major coach with a history of success who wouldn’t be intimated (which we didn’t want to pay for).
Outsize expectations? At that point we would’ve given our collective left nut for an NIT appearance
That’s false! Danny had success at multiple schools and has more NCAA tournament appearances than Pike ! Prior to Pike going RU and Hurley joining UCONN! Let’s stop w Pike excuses
so isn’t that a knock on us ? The ‘accountability’ deficit ? Pike just doesn’t have it in him. Soft on refs, soft on selfish play, soft soft soft.
You think Hurley would let Simpson miss shot after shot after shot game after game after game at Rutgers or UConn or URI ?
We have a fan base that doesn’t understand why we aren’t a tournament team every year, and trashes Pike because he has only won one game in the Tournament.
@fluoxetine is correct though in how important it is to understand how our timeline for hiring in 16-17 intersects with hard (record, etc) accomplishments of those guys at that time.
What are you talking about?
As of the conclusion of the 2016 season (i.e. when Rutgers hired Steve Pikiell):
Steve Pikiell
192-156 (109-71)
4 regular season conference championships
1 NCAA appearance
3 NIT appearances
Danny Hurley
100-87 (54-50)
0 conference championships
0 NCAA appearances
1 NIT appearance
He hadn’t accomplished much of anything by 2016, see my response to RUDivision.
Lots of people here want Pike on the hot seat if next year doesn’t work out the way we hope.
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