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Pyramid Tribute: Alertness, Bobby Hurley (Asst. Coach - Wagner)
A standout at St. Anthony High School (Jersey City, NJ),
Hurley was selected to the 1989 McDonald’s All
American game. From there, he'd take his game to Duke where
he authored a legendary college career.
During his four years in Durham, Hurley experienced
both tremendous individual and team success. He
holds the NCAA career assist record with 1,076, made three visits
to the Final Four and helped lead the Blue Devils to back-to-back
national championships in 1991 and 1992. He
was also named the Most Outstanding Player of the 1992 Final
Four. The Sacramento Kings would eventually
select Hurley with the seventh pick in the 1993 NBA
Draft.
In 2002, Hurley was named as one of the 50 greatest players in the
history of the ACC. This past April, Bobby was
hired - by brother and head coach Danny - as an assistant
coach at Wagner College.
________________
I had the pleasure of meeting Coach Wooden when I played in
the 1989 McDonalds All-American Game. It was one of the
highlights of my basketball career. I was very impressed with
the way Coach Wooden carried himself and won at the highest level,
as no one had done before, with tremendous integrity. I am
honored to have an opportunity to discuss the term "Alertness" and
what it means to me.
As a player, I played the point guard position and I considered
myself an extension of my coach on the floor. Alertness was a
big part of what I had to be in a lot of the mental areas of the
game. I tried to be alert while managing the flow of the game
as much as I could. Knowing that I was going to have the ball
in my hands for a good part of the game, I tried to dictate the
tempo and pace of the game to make it favorable for our team.
For example, in the 1991 NCAA Final Four game versus UNLV, it was
critical to our victory that we needed to be selective about when
we would take transition opportunities. It was not in our
best interest to be in a wide open type of game with UNLV. So
being alert for the pace of the game and trying to make each
possession productive was critical in that upset win.
Another example of alertness on the offensive end is being
aware of shot distribution during a game. I obviously always
wanted to get the ball into the hands of our best players but also
needed to be able to read my teammates to know who might need a
good shot to get them going so our team would be successful.
In the 1992 National Championship game versus Michigan, Christian
Laettner had a poor first half offensively by his standards.
We were down one at halftime. I was alert to the fact that we
needed him to be the outstanding player that he was for us to win a
National Championship against Michigan. I was aware that I
needed to get him a great shot early in the second half. I
was able to find him in transition for an easy basket which began
to build his confidence and from that point Christian had a high
scoring second half and helped lead us to our second NCAA
Championship.
From a coaching standpoint, I feel it is important to be alert
to the strengths and weaknesses of our opponent. We want to
do a great job scouting and preparing our team to take away or
limit the strengths of the opposing team. We also want to
capitalize in the areas of the game that our opponents are
deficient. Being alert is paying attention to details.
When I say that I mean things such as clock management, end of game
situations, managing time outs well, and all the little things that
contribute to winning basketball games.
- Bobby Hurley
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