Hurley taps into Geno’s practice formula
First-year UConn men’s coach has tremendous resource on campus
Storrs — Basketball coaches regularly flock to watch Geno Auriemma's practices. Makes perfect sense. Auriemma has guided the UConn women's basketball team to a record 11 national championships, so it's a smart idea to try to learn from the best.
But it is uncommon for the men's coach sharing the same practice facility at UConn to stop by to observe Auriemma and his staff at work.
Men's coach Dan Hurley and a few members of his staff did just that last week for a couple of hours.
"I've seen Geno in clinics, but that was the first chance to watch his team," Hurley said. "Just to see the professionalism, the understanding of how they want to play, the maturity. Obviously, the championship culture just oozes at you as you're watching.
"It's like watching a well-oiled organization operate. Coaches are always trying to steal ideas, trying to find new drills, trying to find new concepts at either end of the court that you might be able to implement based on what you have that year."
Entering his 34th season, Auriemma already has established a championship culture while Hurley, in his first year at UConn, is attempting to build one.
Auriemma joked that Hurley had been threatening to come to a women's basketball practice. He welcomes Hurley's presence, as well as other basketball coaches from all levels. A men's college coach recently spent the day with Auriemma, who's done his share of observing other teams' practices.
Good coaches possess a constant feeling of always wanting to know more, according to Auriemma.
David Pastrnak scored three times, giving him 101 goals in his career, and Patrice Bergeron had three assists as the Boston Bruins kept Detroit winless with an 8-2 victory over the Red Wings on Saturday. It was the second career hat trick for Pastrnak, who has scored seven times in five games this season. Jake DeBrusk scored twice and David Krejci had a pair of assists for the Bruins, who also got goals from Charlie McAvoy, Anders Bjork and Sean Kuraly. Tuukka Rask had 32 saves to help Boston win its fourth straight while outscoring opponents 20-6 since getting shut out by Washington 7-0 in the season opener. Filip Hronek and Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings, who fell to 0-5 for the first time since 1980. Jonathan Bernier had 31 saves. Detroit has lost its last 10 against Boston.
Connor McDavid scored the go-ahead goal on the power play and added an assist, lifting Edmonton to its first win of the season. McDavid scored his second of the season at 6:23 of the third period, redirecting the puck past goaltender Henrik Lundqvist with Rangers forward Vladislav Namesnikov in the penalty box for holding. Cam Talbot made 23 saves against his former team for the Oilers. The 21-year-old McDavid, who has led the league in points each of the past two seasons, has points on all five Oilers goals in three games this season. Mika Zibanejad opened the scoring for the Rangers at 12:49 of the first period. Nugent-Hopkins tied the contest at 14:17, tapping a rebound past Lundqvist for his first this season.
Cody Eakin scored with 1:25 left and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 shots to lead Vegas. Eakin ended the scoreless tie with a sensational sequence for the winner. He made a dive for the puck to keep it away from Flyers center Sean Couturier in Philly’s end of the ice. Ryan Carpenter snared the puck and passed it back to Eakin, who fired it from the circle past Brian Elliott for the winner. Elliott was pulled to give the Flyers the man-advantage and they still couldn’t solve Fleury. Fleury earned his first shutout and second win of the season for the Western Conference champions.
As a player, Hurley learned under terrific coaches — his father, Bob, a Hall of Famer; P.J. Carlesimo and George Blaney at Seton Hall.
Auriemma offered another point of view.
"There's a lot of different ways to do things," Auriemma said. "He's been exposed to a lot of really, really good coaches, growing up and as a player. The thing that I want people to notice when they come to watch us practice is how consistent we are with our effort and how that never varies. I don't care what year.
"... You come to practice every day for 15 years, it's going to look the same and it's going to sound the same. It's going to have the same feel. The pace is going to be a certain way and it's going to be like that all the time.
"You want coaches to take away that there is a pace that your kids can play at, but you've got to make them do it. You say, well, some kids don't want to do it. Right. But kids that play on winning teams in a culture of winning, they want to do it."
It's Hurley's habit to observe and learn from other programs — college and pros. Every year, he watches the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics work out.
Earlier last week, Hurley attended Celtics practice and visited with coach Brad Stevens.
Another opportunity to learn from a top-notch, championship-driven coach.
So what did Hurley learn from watching the Celtics?
"That they don't have any bad players," Hurley said. "They don't turn the ball over. They always get a good shot. The closer they get to the basket, the more they slow down so that they can read the defense. They understand how to use screens. They talk on defense like professionals.
"It's obviously a well-structured practice in terms of the evolution of what they're trying to build up to. It always is like a little bit of a kick-in-the-stomach when you see them and we come back and we can't do that three-man weave drill."
Once the season kicks into high gear, Hurley likely won't have time to watch Auriemma or any other coach run a practice. And that's too bad. "It's unfortunate that we practice at the exact same time," Auriemma said. "I mean, it's great for the kids. But it's unfortunate for us coaches because we don't get to see each other practice." g.keefe@theday.com