Diamond Stone (Committed to Maryland)

[Jose Gee]

maybe loosing Stone to Maryland is karma coming back around to kick us in the nuts! (Gay/Majok)

 

[Paesano]

We need to pay recruits. There, I said it. You CAN recruit out of this conference. You just need to do what Pastner has done and what the squid did before him. Pay off the people involved and make sure you have a fire wall to enable plausible deniability. Screw family. Bring in a snake who knows how to cover his tracks. Enough is enough. I don't care if Ollie is the best coach in the world at every other aspect of the job. YOU CAN NOT WIN WITHOUT TALENT!!!! And, right now, we don't have enough nor will we next year. Not acceptable for the defending champion with the most championships in these kids' lifetimes and a young NBA connected coach. Period!

 

[huskymagic]

Hey let's be honest here. You can't come off of a NC and have kids interested, still knowing the recruiters from the other teams, are saying yeah but look at that conference it blows, and have a year like this.

Once we looked like a pretty crappy team they then had huge legs to stand on . Sorry I also wanted to win some other recruiting wars but Fishy and others are right, we don't have solid closers and it's unfair for us to expect KO to do it all.

Mauconn Ollie cannot recruit or close deals like we need. UNLV, VCU, Marquette, Villanova, etc are recruiting better than us so I don't want to hear the excuses about the American conference, which sucks nonetheless. Kevin Ollie's preacher routine won't cut it with recruits looking for flash not substance. We cannot continue to be competitive without top notch talent.

 

[huskymagic]

By mess you mean that 18-3 team that's ranked 15th in the country and plays in the ACC? A lot of people around that program think most of those losses were addition by subtraction.

This is where Superjohn calls me deranged for disagreeing with him. It amazes me that some of you actually think that recruits would be excited to join a team getting bent over by the likes of Tulsa, Temple and Cincinnati while playing - for the foreseeable future - in the damn AAC.

You do know Maryland is in the B1G now not ACC.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Mauconn Ollie cannot recruit or close deals like we need. UNLV, VCU, Marquette, Villanova, etc are recruiting better than us so I don't want to hear the excuses about the American conference, which sucks nonetheless. Kevin Ollie's preacher routine won't cut it with recruits looking for flash not substance. We cannot continue to be competitive without top notch talent.

he got hamilton for this year, adams and enoch for next year... still waiting to hear if we land any others we offered

 

[Husky Dad]

Stone is a stretch get. You can't fault out coach or conference for this. Coach k didn't get him either. Chill on stone.

 

[Huskyforlife]

We need to pay recruits. There, I said it. You CAN recruit out of this conference. You just need to do what Pastner has done and what the squid did before him. Pay off the people involved and make sure you have a fire wall to enable plausible deniability. Screw family. Bring in a snake who knows how to cover his tracks. Enough is enough. I don't care if Ollie is the best coach in the world at every other aspect of the job. YOU CAN NOT WIN WITHOUT TALENT!!!! And, right now, we don't have enough nor will we next year. Not acceptable for the defending champion with the most championships in these kids' lifetimes and a young NBA connected coach. Period!

He's right, as much as I hate to admit it. Ollie can still get good kids that fit the program, but we need someone who gets these kids to sign on the dotted line, wether for money or not.

 

[Gringo]

He's right, as much as I hate to admit it. Ollie can still get good kids that fit the program, but we need someone who gets these kids to sign on the dotted line, wether for money or not.

Just when I think this board can't get any dumber you geniuses post that we should pay recruits. What a great idea. Let's start paying recruits, eventually get caught and then kicked out of the NCAA tourney for multiple years. Don't worry it won't completely destroy the program and everything we've done for the past 25 years. It will just make us permanently irrelevant and ensure we never get into a p5 conference.

 

[tcf15]

Just when I think this board can't get any dumber you geniuses post that we should pay recruits. What a great idea. Let's start paying recruits, eventually get caught and then kicked out of the NCAA tourney for multiple years. Don't worry it won't completely destroy the program and everything we've done for the past 25 years. It will just make us permanently irrelevant and ensure we never get into a p5 conference.

But if we pay them in Trident layers...

 

[Huskyforlife]

Just when I think this board can't get any dumber you geniuses post that we should pay recruits(I never said we have too, only if it gets down to it, if Memphis didn't they would still be in conference USA, if that's still a thing) . What a great idea. Let's start paying recruits, eventually get caught and then kicked out of the NCAA tourney for multiple years(we won't be making it in the future if we can't get enough talent). Don't worry it won't completely destroy the program and everything we've done for the past 25 years(you don't know that, every program in the sec cheats and so far most of them have gotten away with it). It will just make us permanently irrelevant and ensure we never get into a p5 conference(were prob never getting into one, as hard as that also is to admit, but we can at least still shove basketball down peoples throats, but not if we don't have good players, no matter how good Ollie is).

 

[sawxfan23]

After winning a National Championship, opening the doors on a multi-million dollar practice facility, and extending Ollie to a new contract UConn was able to land basically two "in state kids". If that is the best they can do following such an amazing year what are they going to be able to do recruiting wise following a sub par season like the current one? The pathetic poor excuse of a conference known as the AAC is without a doubt the main reason why kids do not want to come here!

 

[mdkhusky]

 

[FartMan69]

After winning a National Championship, opening the doors on a multi-million dollar practice facility, and extending Ollie to a new contract UConn was able to land basically two "in state kids". If that is the best they can do following such an amazing year what are they going to be able to do recruiting wise following a sub par season like the current one? The pathetic poor excuse of a conference known as the AAC is without a doubt the main reason why kids do not want to come here!

The AAC plays a huge part no doubt but having a recruiting specialist on the staff could help ease that burden. Right now we're losing some recruits to the VCU's and UNLV's of the world who aren't in power conferences.

 

[Stainmaster]

After winning a National Championship, opening the doors on a multi-million dollar practice facility, and extending Ollie to a new contract UConn was able to land basically two "in state kids". If that is the best they can do following such an amazing year what are they going to be able to do recruiting wise following a sub par season like the current one? The pathetic poor excuse of a conference known as the AAC is without a doubt the main reason why kids do not want to come here!

You act like landing two top-100 kids is disappointing just because they're from closer to UCONN than most?

 

[mauconnfan]

You act like landing two top-100 kids is disappointing just because they're from closer to UCONN than most?

Yeah huh. We used to bitch because we couldn't keep kids here close to home. Now we're bitching we got them

 

[pj]

It was late in the 2015 recruiting cycle when we won the national championship. 2016 will be a better test. But look, if you can get 2 players the quality of Adams and Enoch per year, you've got 8 of them on your team at any one time, which is enough to field an outstanding team. That's about what Jim Calhoun did on the recruiting side for 20 years. If KO is as good a coach as we think, then it will be enough to keep us in the national picture.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Yeah huh. We used to bitch because we couldn't keep kids here close to home. Now we're bitching we got them

Well that's what can be so annoying about this place. Anyone can join, which means any miserable dope with nothing better to do will find a way to complain about anything because they are addicted to certain emotions.

 

[SubbaBub]

I think a lot of people are underestimating this year's record and the fact that nearly everyone (except the best player) is coming back. Not exactly an attractive situation for a guy potentially looking to be one and done. Regardless if he would have been the best player or starting center (you have no idea), Brimah's not going to the NBA if he can't stay on the floor against kids smaller than he is. Hamilton isn't going anywhere, neither are Calhoun, Purvis, Samuel, or Facey. So, his minutes will be down compared to any number of other programs and barring a huge turnaround next season, he isn't coming to a title contender unless the new guys (also demanding minutes if they are as good as advertised) are one and done lottery picks, which I doubt they are.

If Brimah was tearing it up and a lock to go top 5, then we might be having a different conversation.

 

[junglehusky]

maybe loosing Stone to Maryland is karma coming back around to kick us in the nuts! (Gay/Majok)

No. It isn't.

But thanks for posting, low post count person.

 

[CTBasketball]

I bet if you poll the ESPN Top 100 recruits and ask them, "Who won the National Championship last year?" I would bet over 50% would not say Connecticut. You would be surprised how quickly a national championship can be spoiled by a horrid season, let alone two down years. Not spoiled for the fans, the program, but spoiled in the minds of recruits.

Recruits think in the now - they really don't care what happened in 2011. And come 2016, they won't care about what happened last March/April.

 

[Stainmaster]

Fun fact: this is Ollie's first class with multiple Top-100 recruits. So much for a lack of uptick.

 

[Matrim55]

Fun fact: this is Ollie's first class with multiple Top-100 recruits. So much for a lack of uptick.

Gah- I've been saving that nugget for when he lands a third.

2013: 1 top 100 recruit (Facey)
2014: 2 top 100 recruits (Hamilton & Purvis)
2015: 2 top 100 recruits (Adams & Enoch)

I count Purvis for the obvious reasons - he was definitely one of the 100 most sought-after recruits in the country after transferring. Arguably top 50.

Point is, if we land one of Papagiannis, Stone, Dorsey or a reclassifying Brown, then this is (by the numbers) KO's best ever recruiting class. For the third straight year.

And the classes are only going to get better as KO's network gets better. We're onto the kids we want earlier than we have been in the past (think about how early we were on Waters, Samuels, SJM, Zach Brown, Ishmael El-Amin and a few others from 2017), which should mean more consistency going forward.

The '00s are going to return to Storrs by 2018 or so. Everybody just needs to be patient for a bit.

 

[husky99]

43pts, 27 rebounds, 5 blocks, 9 dunks-@Diamond_Stone33 was BEAST amongst boys last night!

 

[tzznandrew]

Unless we still have a legitimate shot, I'd rather this thread fade into oblivion. Why torture ourselves.

Unless you're saying there's a chance?

 

[kansashusky]

Unless we still have a legitimate shot, I'd rather this thread fade into oblivion. Why torture ourselves.

Unless you're saying there's a chance?

We have no chance. This thread should disappear. It was fun while it lasted though