SG Eli Wright (Mississippi State Commit)

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[CardiacAndre7]

We seem to have our eyes out for lots of wings of late

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

 

[Skies17]

Coming back from injury (hence the lower ratings) but had a big weekend. Holds offers from Pitt, DePaul, Southern California, USF, Miss State, and big interest from Clemson and Tennessee ... got scouted by a lot of coaches this weekend including our friends from Louisville (go figure) - should have a lot more interest going forward but once again Ollie on the kid early.

 

[Skies17]

http://www.scout.com/college/basketball/recruiting/story/1561978-adidas-uprising-eli-wright

Has an official to Wake Forest on August 1st weekend, said he was being recruited hardest by Tenn, Clemson, Oklahoma State, Indiana and Wake Forest (unclear if any of those have offered)

 

[Fishy]

"In the past, Wright has favored going left..."

That's the book on him.

The lack of interest in Bruce Brown grows more puzzling - they're looking for players like him, but not him?

 

[CardiacAndre7]

"In the past, Wright has favored going left..."

That's the book on him.

The lack of interest in Bruce Brown grows more puzzling - they're looking for players like him, but not him?

Exactly what ive been thinking. The kid is in our backyard, Jalen's cousin, and is higher rated than all of these guys. If we kept on him i bet he would've committed

 

[Skies17]

my two cents on Brown ... he's a slashing two-guard who wants to play point. He wants to be Russell Westbrook and he isn't. We run true point guards who can handle and pass and then slashers/good shooters on the wings. Brown can't shoot and his handle is not up to par of a true point guard. Especially having Adams and going after Gilbert, Brown didn't make sense. Just the way I see it.

 

[UConNick]

my two cents on Brown ... he's a slashing two-guard who wants to play point. He wants to be Russell Westbrook and he isn't. We run true point guards who can handle and pass and then slashers/good shooters on the wings. Brown can't shoot and his handle is not up to par of a true point guard. Especially having Adams and going after Gilbert, Brown didn't make sense. Just the way I see it.

I agree with all of this. The big, athletic score-first pg is the "in" thing to do in the NBA. Therefore, all these natural shooting guards want to be pgs at the next level. Think of guys like Malik Newman or Isaiah Briscoe, to name a few from the 2015 class. I have no idea if this is something relevant to Brown, but it could definitely explain why KO stopped recruiting him, as you hypothesized. It's no secret KO prefers true point guards, even if they are on the smaller side.

 

[Fishy]

What UConn (and every other program known to man) is looking for in a point guard is meaningless with regards to their pursuit of a shooting guard. ("He wants to be a point guard"? No s*** - they all want to be point guards. Here's another corker - centers want to be power forwards and power forwards want to be wings.)

Your two cents are both undermined by the very offer we're talking about in this thread. The idea that we're not recruiting Brown because he's a two-guard with an iffy handle and a streaky jumpshot and are instead recruiting a less well-regarded two-guard with an iffy handle and streaky jumpshot because he fits some mythical ideal you've attributed to Ollie doesn't make a lot of sense.

UConn is recruiting players like Brown...but not Brown.

 

[Skies17]

Brown has said publicly he wants to play PG. He doesn't fit the UConn point guard type. It's not that hard to read in between the lines. You don't recruit a guy who doesn't want to play what you want him to play, it's that simple. As for saying we're recruiting guys just like Brown and that Wright is a less well-regarded two guard with an iffy handle and streaky jump shot - he's gotten rave reviews lately and you must've watched a lot of his game to know how he plays. More power to you. Whatever you're fascination with Bruce Brown is, get over it. He's not a target and he isn't coming here.

 

[bmo22]

Maybe the staff knows something about Brown that we don't. He's a really good player so doubt they dropped off for no reason. Also unlikely that it was because he wants to play point. Every kid says that and no big program will play him there anyway.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Maybe the staff knows something about Brown that we don't. He's a really good player so doubt they dropped off for no reason.

Agree 100%. We were all over the kid...and now we're not. There's obviously a reason. It's not like Ollie just forgot that Bruce Brown exists.

And here we have people mining their brains trying to figure it out. A good rule of thumb is that none of us have any clue.

 

[Mooch82]

My only concern seeing a couple of these latest offers (McGusty and Wright) is that maybe we aren't as much of a lock with Diallo as perceived. Not sure if we would need another wing in this class since we have Larrier coming in as well, but maybe (hopefully) the staff thinks differently and they are looking to add another wing even if Diallo officially commits.

 

[tcf15]

My only concern seeing a couple of these latest offers (McGusty and Wright) is that maybe we aren't as much of a lock with Diallo as perceived. Not sure if we would need another wing in this class since we have Larrier coming in as well, but maybe (hopefully) the staff thinks differently and they are looking to add another wing even if Diallo officially commits.

Diallo is still 2017 - probably more of an indication that he will be staying in 2017 than us losing ground with him.

 

[aceboon]

My only concern seeing a couple of these latest offers (McGusty and Wright) is that maybe we aren't as much of a lock with Diallo as perceived. Not sure if we would need another wing in this class since we have Larrier coming in as well, but maybe (hopefully) the staff thinks differently and they are looking to add another wing even if Diallo officially commits.

We could potentially lose 3 guys who can play the 3 this year, Omar for sure, DHam, and then Purvis(plays the 3 when in a 2pg set) based on his comments from last month or so, we definitely need at least one if not 2 wings.

 

[Mooch82]

Diallo is still 2017 - probably more of an indication that he will be staying in 2017 than us losing ground with him.

Right...I keep forgetting that as it has seemed like a foregone conclusion for a while he would reclassify, but maybe that's not going to be the case.

 

[Mooch82]

We could potentially lose 3 guys who can play the 3 this year, Omar for sure, DHam, and then Purvis(plays the 3 when in a 2pg set) based on his comments from last month or so, we definitely need at least one if not 2 wings.

Agreed...but we already have one coming in (Larrier) and Diallo (if he reclassifies and commits) would be #2. So, you're right, maybe we could potentially use a third, my point was just that I hope these latest offers have nothing to do with Diallo - I could be overthinking it. Just think he's a guy we need to get.

 

[aceboon]

Agreed...but we already have one coming in (Larrier) and Diallo (if he reclassifies and commits) would be #2. So, you're right, maybe we could potentially use a third, my point was just that I hope these latest offers have nothing to do with Diallo - I could be overthinking it. Just think he's a guy we need to get.

My preference would be getting versatile players who can play multiple spots, so when I say wings that could mean guys that can play the 2/3 ala a Jerome Dyson, or a 3/4 ala Niels Giffey. With the possible departures after this year there's room for 2 of those players.

 

[Skies17]

My preference would be getting versatile players who can play multiple spots, so when I say wings that could mean guys that can play the 2/3 ala a Jerome Dyson, or a 3/4 ala Niels Giffey. With the possible departures after this year there's room for 2 of those players.

McGusty and Wright are 2/3, Hunter is more a 3 but supposedly he can play either forward spot. 3 most recent offers for 2016 right there

 

[Mooch82]

My preference would be getting versatile players who can play multiple spots, so when I say wings that could mean guys that can play the 2/3 ala a Jerome Dyson, or a 3/4 ala Niels Giffey. With the possible departures after this year there's room for 2 of those players.

Yeah...I think Larrier is more of a 3/4 type in our system - Brendan Bailey would be the same. Diallo/Wright/McGusty are more the 2/3 types, so maybe there's a good chance we're looking to add two of those guys in addition to Gilbert, Diarra, and Larrier (and maybe another big...i.e. Gabriel, Durham)

 

[RipCity]

Eli Wright is no slouch anyway. He reminds me of a Derrick Jones lite. He's shown he can take over games, where McGusty is more of a guy who stays within the flow of a game with a pass first mentality. Neither is that much worse than Bruce Brown, who clearly raised a red flag of some kind with Ollie. I'm fine with moving on from Brown, so be it.

 

[Matrim55]

Maybe the staff knows something about Brown that we don't.

That's the only reasonable take on all of this.

I will add that we seem to have stopped recruiting all three Vermont Academy kids, and did so right at the same time for each. This after being on two of them (Brown & SJM) really hard, and showing serious interest in a third (Jones).

 

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