1st recruit Hurley calls?

[Mooch82]

Has Diarra indicated he'll come back? I know he was celebrated on senior day, but that doesn't mean everything.

I feel like Headband Hass could make some decent NIL money after what he just pulled in the tournament though.

Was celebrated on senior day but DH and him barely embraced. He knew he was coming back. Plus, he talked about threepeating next year. All indications are he's back.

 

[UconnFanDC]

Has Diarra indicated he'll come back? I know he was celebrated on senior day, but that doesn't mean everything.

I feel like Headband Hass could make some decent NIL money after what he just pulled in the tournament though.

He needs to for the 3 peat

 

[CardiacAndre7]

As a backup 4, sure. That dude is not very good.

Wrong, and not a 4.

 

[uconnfan68]

Nova's center

He's 45!

 

[BIIIG]

I wouldn't read too much into Solo's situation this year. These UConn rosters have been stacked and Hurley has clearly valued guys that have experience and have paid their dues. The improvement we saw in Hawkins and Bouknight from their Freshman year to Sophomore years should be a big part of these Freshman staying the course and sticking around for year 2.

Solo Ball Freshman year - 10 games started, 447 minutes played
Jordan Hawkins Freshman year - 4 games started 398 minutes played

 

[August_West]

He's generally blah against good teams with size and or strength, though he had a big game here and there. He's fine against average competition. We can do much better than him in our starting lineup.

Honest question, do you watch much college basketball besides UConn?

Dude averaged 17/7/2 this year.

Dixon is a matchup nightmare that in the scheme of UConn's offense would be a swiss army knife.

He is comfortable playing the back to the basket, bruising Nova backdown style. He's a good finisher. He has nice range from 3. He is a capable passer and willing (but was called on to be more selfish this year because of Novas shortcomings). He's a good rebounder. Who is a better fit at the 5? Ballo? Goldin? Both have some upside, but I could see Dixon flourishing in this system. Especially if we kept Samson and had those platoon style difference to confound opponents.

 

[Stinger92860]

7 schools in 7 years. He's a culture nightmare. Hard pass.

Maybe he is writing a book on the state of education in the US.

 

[NJHusky]

Winning back to back championships should entice more 5 star interest and top portal players. UConn has shown these past two years that a mix of the two is a winning formula. Time will tell.

My guess is it’s probably more about getting drafted and $$ for portal guys. Playing on a top team gets you exposure. We have Nil

 

[Tenspro2002]

His body language has been bad. Even when cutting the nets.
My wife has said the last month or so he just takes shots anytime he has the ball when in during garbage time.

I don’t think he is happy nor over riding the pine after starting but once Castle was back he was shelved.

I truly hope Dan retains him

Castle and Diarra rightfully took his minutes. How he responds to that is up to him. He has the opportunity to compete for a spot a backcourt that is losing about 60-65 minutes.

I agree his body language and conduct on the court when he did get there was terrible for the last 2 months.

Hurley will pitch him on a chance for a role, but he doesn't need to beg with the options that are available.

 

[SoFloDawg]

Honest question, do you watch much college basketball besides UConn?

Dude averaged 17/7/2 this year.

Dixon is a matchup nightmare that in the scheme of UConn's offense would be a swiss army knife.

He is comfortable playing the back to the basket, bruising Nova backdown style. He's a good finisher. He has nice range from 3. He is a capable passer and willing (but was called on to be more selfish this year because of Novas shortcomings). He's a good rebounder. Who is a better fit at the 5? Ballo? Goldin? Both have some upside, but I could see Dixon flourishing in this system. Especially if we kept Samson and had those platoon style difference to confound opponents.

Dixon would be an outstanding fit for us. He would give us the bruiser we missed at times this year. He would play the Sanago role with more range to open up the lane. Culturally he fits perfectly. Big East old school game. He’s a total history buff, book worm with supportive parents. He’s a man at 23. He would beat up 5 star freshman.

 

[Lefty2one]

Wrong, and not a 4.

He's listed as a forward literally everywhere. I know he played the 5 for Nova but if that dude is your starting center you are putting a ceiling on your team.

Honest question, do you watch much college basketball besides UConn?

Dude averaged 17/7/2 this year.

Dixon is a matchup nightmare that in the scheme of UConn's offense would be a swiss army knife.

He is comfortable playing the back to the basket, bruising Nova backdown style. He's a good finisher. He has nice range from 3. He is a capable passer and willing (but was called on to be more selfish this year because of Novas shortcomings). He's a good rebounder. Who is a better fit at the 5? Ballo? Goldin? Both have some upside, but I could see Dixon flourishing in this system. Especially if we kept Samson and had those platoon style difference to confound opponents.

He has a solid, well-rounded skill set but he just isn't that great. He put up pretty good numbers for an 18-16 Nova team. I don't see us going with an undersized center with average defensive ability. Sanogo was a beast and on a completely different level from Dixon. This is like going back to Tyrese Martin/RJ Cole types. I don't see us doing it but who knows if we strike out with the top big men targets. At least he compliments Samson well.

 

[444JR]

Didn’t know he was in the portal. Not sure of the fit I mean he’s a nice player but always felt he was a 4. We have Alex and Stew there. I know he can play a smallish 5 but I’m not a fan of 6’7 C with hardly any ability to block a shot. But he’s a nice player tough call.

No way do we want Dixon.. or any other undersized players for that matter with our two lead guards being 6’2(Hass) and 6’0(Nowell).

I shutter at the thought of relying on a 6’7 center not named Adama Sanogo after 2 seasons of Clingkong protecting the rim.

Vlad Golin, Oumar Ballo, Cliff Omoruyi, or even Maxime Raynuad, Danny Wolf although I’m hoping for someone with the toughness/athleticism of the first three mentioned.

 

[MrSec224]

Brendan Hausen is the Nova name that has people talking UConn. 38% shooter in Neptunes mundane offense. Would be mid to high 40s here

 

[Lefty2one]

They need to move on from Neptune with a quickness.

 

[navery12]

He's listed as a forward literally everywhere. I know he played the 5 for Nova but if that dude is your starting center you are putting a ceiling on your team.

So was Adama Sanogo and he's a center. Everything about Dixon makes him a perfect 5 in Hurley's system

 

[August_West]

Castle and Diarra rightfully took his minutes. How he responds to that is up to him. He has the opportunity to compete for a spot a backcourt that is losing about 60-65 minutes.

I agree his body language and conduct on the court when he did get there was terrible for the last 2 months.

Hurley will pitch him on a chance for a role, but he doesn't need to beg with the options that are available.

Solo really stepped up when Steph went down, and after Steph came back Coach did still give him good minutes off the bench, they kind of petered out as the season wore on, but it was more about just how great Hass and Steph were playing than Solo really taking a dive. He did make some Frosh mistakes that Hurley didn't feel we could afford to let him play through as much as you might see in a normal season as we were always focused on the next goal. The BigEast regular season was a huge goal this year but we never really truly had it locked up until like the last couple games of the season.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Solo really stepped up when Steph went down, and after Steph came back Coach did still give him good minutes off the bench, they kind of petered out as the season wore on, but it was more about just how great Hass and Steph were playing than Solo really taking a dive. He did make some Frosh mistakes that Hurley didn't feel we could afford to let him play through as much as you might see in a normal season as we were always focused on the next goal. The BigEast regular season was a huge goal this year but we never really truly had it locked up until like the last couple games of the season.

I completely agree that Ball was simply outclassed by the excellent play of Castle and Diarra and that he didn't "play himself out of the rotation" like a Brendan Adams or Omar Calhoun did.

That said, the way he appeared to respond to the situation was pretty bad. We'll see what happens.

 

[Lefty2one]

It may just be a 19-year-old kid's immaturity and struggling with not getting PT for the first time in their life, especially having some nice moments early on. I'm not counting him out and certainly hope he stays.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

So was Adama Sanogo and he's a center. Everything about Dixon makes him a perfect 5 in Hurley's system

I think DC is the perfect 5 in Hurley’s system, but trees like him don’t grow on trees.

Dixon would be tremendous here though.

 

[August_West]

He's listed as a forward literally everywhere. I know he played the 5 for Nova but if that dude is your starting center you are putting a ceiling on your team.



He has a solid, well-rounded skill set but he just isn't that great. He put up pretty good numbers for an 18-16 Nova team. I don't see us going with an undersized center with average defensive ability. Sanogo was a beast and on a completely different level from Dixon. This is like going back to Tyrese Martin/RJ Cole types. I don't see us doing it but who knows if we strike out with the top big men targets. At least he compliments Samson well.

I don't know who you think is actually available in the portal at the 5? You said Dixon he only performed against mediocre teams but yet he put up 34 with 10 boards to pretty much single handedly beat future one seed UNC in the Bahamas. Dixon was the only one on that team who actually DID step up.

I'm sure the staff is kicking the tires on Goldin. We will see if they do with Ballo. Fit and culture is a part of this too and Eric Dixon is intimately familiar with BigEast basketball.

Dixon isnt even in the Portal officially but it looks like its heading there.

Replacing players isn't a 1 to 1 plug in type deal. We mold players to our system and our system gets molded to our players. In the last 2 years we've won a natty with a 6'7" center and a 7'3" Center. There is more than one way to skin a cat around here.

 

[444JR]

this kid reminds me of Andre Drummond. I think he’s still 16 right now. Was a standout performer in the McDonald’s All American game and could play an even split with Samson.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Honest question, do you watch much college basketball besides UConn?

Dude averaged 17/7/2 this year.

Dixon is a matchup nightmare that in the scheme of UConn's offense would be a swiss army knife.

He is comfortable playing the back to the basket, bruising Nova backdown style. He's a good finisher. He has nice range from 3. He is a capable passer and willing (but was called on to be more selfish this year because of Novas shortcomings). He's a good rebounder. Who is a better fit at the 5? Ballo? Goldin? Both have some upside, but I could see Dixon flourishing in this system. Especially if we kept Samson and had those platoon style difference to confound opponents.

Honestly, I don’t want Dixon and he isn’t in the portal. But for everyone saying we need a 7’ shot blocker, nah, not really. Hurley made it work and then some, but his preference is a mobile big who can hedge and hit 3s. They are hard to find but I expect that to be our prototype at center. Somebody more like Dixon with a little better rim protection would be great.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Solomon Ball, Jayden Ross, Jaylin Stewart, Youssef Singare, Solomon Johnson

 

[businesslawyer]

Ollie had a top 5 recruiting class right after the title. It was the Vance Jackson, Durham class. Just turned out he wasn’t a very good coach.

And/or that the players he and everyone wanted turned out not to be all that good.

I completely agree that Ball was simply outclassed by the excellent play of Castle and Diarra and that he didn't "play himself out of the rotation" like a Brendan Adams or Omar Calhoun did.

That said, the way he appeared to respond to the situation was pretty bad. We'll see what happens.

Like the comparisons, but I wouldn't read too much into body language from a kid when he gets into a game only during garbage time. As long as he wasn't causing dissension within the ranks, and there is no indication he was, who wants a kid who performs adequately when given a chance and then loses all his playing time without being unhappy about it.

 

[KembaRunner]

I’m shocked that everyone’s saying Ball’s body language and attitude weren’t good. I’ve had conversations with friends saying the opposite. He always seems dialed in to the game from the bench, is quick out to high five after a time-out, etc.

As for the quick trigger (and trying to yam on people) in garbage time, I don’t blame him one bit. He’s a guy who started and is now sharing the court with the coach’s son. They’re not the same. Let the man eat.