The issue is many(read:most) have no idea what is necessary to be a good recruiter. Bringing up championships, coach is a NBA vet..etc...more than likely doesn't matter because if it did...our recruiting would look much different. What is hurting our recruiting is 2 things the first being our current conference situation, the second being a factor that honestly I'm not sure of. Until we figure it out the recruiting will continue to go as it has recently fairly average, although I'm confident our coaching staff will figure it out.
How do we fix recruiting?
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Ali de-committed before we got Adams. It is true that we were still pursuing a number of top guards at the time though.
But what really precipitated his de-commitment was having a monster tournament at some big AAU event. Seems like he decided he wanted a bigger spotlight than a commitment to UConn would give him. (This was the same event that Turtle Jackson had a horrible showing at and ultimately led to a mutual parting of ways and his commitment to Georgia -- probably a good outcome for both sides.)
We've got a lot of talent in Hamilton and Purvis.
Here's a controversial opinion. We need to recruit a real point guard. We haven't actually had one since Price. The NC teams couldn't even score that well (although last year's was better than most years.) What we've had was tiny shooting guards running the point. You want to score..you need a floor general and someone who can run an offense. We've got to get out of this midget shooting guard pattern. I know it worked with Shabazz and Kemba..but that's because they were great. In most cases it won't..and that experiment will never produce a lot of points.
Here's a controversial opinion. We need to recruit a real point guard. We haven't actually had one since Price. The NC teams couldn't even score that well (although last year's was better than most years.) What we've had was tiny shooting guards running the point. You want to score..you need a floor general and someone who can run an offense. We've got to get out of this midget shooting guard pattern. I know it worked with Shabazz and Kemba..but that's because they were great. In most cases it won't..and that experiment will never produce a lot of points.
That's an interesting thought but I disagree a bit because Napier his Junior and Senior year was a true PG in every sense of the word. He could also score. The issue that may fit better is that UConn hasn't had a tallish PG since AJ.
I love Walker, Napier and Boat but I do think the lack of height/length did affect their abilities to some extent as passers.
Adams is a bit of a scoring guard but he looks a legit 6 foot 2 or 6 foot 3 and he's got an incredibly long wingspan.
Next year will be the first year Ollie will have a team he has recruited which includes (it appears) taller PGs like he was.
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Samuel and Omar are bench guys. Wings are being scared off by Purvis and Hamilton, PGs by Adams, centers by Brimah. By that, I mean the top guys who want starting jobs or big minutes as freshmen. PF's should not be scared off, but we have a ton already - Lubin, Facey, Enoch, Nolan - and can't afford to take anything but a top 25 guy who can step in and take the job on day 1.
I think Adams can succeed with this roster as a pass first PG who penetrates and shoots well enough to knock down open 3's. They need a rebounding monster of a 4 who can pass from the high post and hit a 15-17 ft jumper to let D Ham play outside against zones. It's not that he isn't good at the FT line taking that entry pass. It's just that he's not an offensive rebounder and neither is AB. They could also use John Gwynn.
Two guys that aren't here yet and a guy that has no clue what to do with the ball when it is in his hands. Good lord that is scary.
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You really think diamond stone was scared off by AB? If any center was scared off by AB I don't want him. AB is an adequate center who can't play against real strong tall big guys. Maybe he will be a lot better next year with a full offseason but right now he is decent but far from scaring off real recruits at that position.
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Are real problem is that we can't recruit even adequate big man rebounders. Are small point guards have done fine but we have been lacking too much upfront physically that we get overmatched there. Calhoun's teams were always good rebounding teams. Hopefully we can find an Adrien, rod sellers, Marcus white, josh Boone, edmund Saunders, Kirk King or jake voskul guy too toughen us up inside.
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The idea that recruits are scared off by our incumbent players is by far the weakest excuse with regards to our lack of recruiting success.
Yes, an NIT team that losses it's best player can't recruit due to its core being so strong.
Yes, an NIT team that losses it's best player can't recruit due to its core being so strong.
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The people in here who were smart enough not to bicker about whether conference affiliation has any major impact on recruiting (not really) and who pointed out the talent development issue are correct. For Purvis to have arguably regressed from his freshman year in a P5 conference is really concerning. I don't buy into the transfer year being the sole/main reason, because he was definitely getting a lot of court time in with a national title team in practice.
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How many NC State games did you watch 2 seasons ago? I'm going to guess less than 3.
Purvis was up and down but we get blown out of the building if not for Purvis yesterday.
If there is one guys stock who I am buying next season it's his.
Can't understate how much taking a year off from in game competition hurts you. He's got two more to prove me right.
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This is going to be real important year in the KO reign. There are no more JC players left in the fold. Everyone on the club are KO's recruits. We will see how next years team stacks up.
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Regressed from what? He was an up and down player at ng state also! I'm actually thinking RP has turned the corner but he needs an adequate point guard to be effective. Hopefully Adams is as advertised.
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Some guys take more then a year 2 progress. As much as I've had my doubts about Purvis, he's only spent i'll say 1.5 years developing at UConn. Yea he was here practicing with the NC team, but you gotta get court time to really develop in our system. He showed flashes this year which I didn't even think that would happen. He just needs to workout over the summer and get more consistent. Little things like hesitating and traveling on a catch because he hesitates to make a decision, fixing things like that will go along way. I look for more consistency from him next year.
Dham should have all of us excited. He's shown a lot of promise straight out of the game. He needs to work on free throw shootings, stopping with the pump fakes all the times and better decision making in the open court, but he does so many things so well I'm excited. Again consistency on the offensive side for him will take him and us to the next level.
Amida, foul trouble and offense. I expect him to improve getting a full healthy off season to come back and produce much better than this year. He needs to work on getting into position in the post and boxing out for boards.
Those are our stars. I still expect improvement for others. I'd like to see Calhoun start to regain some of his old flair. I think Facey can take another step forward. I think Lubin has showed a little something that he can improve on. Tsam can work on shooting and finishing through contact in the paint. And lets not for get our incoming players. I think we all unfairly expect too much from Jalen, but I think he's going to be a special player eventually for us. Enoch, I really don't know what to expect but I like the potential I see and read about.
I think we are good on recruiting. Its just a cycle of guys coming in and maturing and getting better. Boat just matured at the wrong time, he didn't have another pieces around him this year. Had Daniels come back things might have been a bit different for us. Either way I still think the future is bright, we have good players in place and players with the potential to become very good and I trust the UConn staff to motivate and unlock that potential especially after a year like this one.
Another things to take note on is that look at what happened yesterday when Boat when down with that shoulder injury. Purvis really really stepped up. Even Dham seemed a bit more aggressive. These guys may become completely different players knowing that we cant sit back and wait for Boat to get us a win, we have to go out and do it ourselves. These kids have a lot riding on them stepping up so the effort is going to be there. losing boat hurts but it could help these guys become the players they've had the potential to be all along as well.
Dham should have all of us excited. He's shown a lot of promise straight out of the game. He needs to work on free throw shootings, stopping with the pump fakes all the times and better decision making in the open court, but he does so many things so well I'm excited. Again consistency on the offensive side for him will take him and us to the next level.
Amida, foul trouble and offense. I expect him to improve getting a full healthy off season to come back and produce much better than this year. He needs to work on getting into position in the post and boxing out for boards.
Those are our stars. I still expect improvement for others. I'd like to see Calhoun start to regain some of his old flair. I think Facey can take another step forward. I think Lubin has showed a little something that he can improve on. Tsam can work on shooting and finishing through contact in the paint. And lets not for get our incoming players. I think we all unfairly expect too much from Jalen, but I think he's going to be a special player eventually for us. Enoch, I really don't know what to expect but I like the potential I see and read about.
I think we are good on recruiting. Its just a cycle of guys coming in and maturing and getting better. Boat just matured at the wrong time, he didn't have another pieces around him this year. Had Daniels come back things might have been a bit different for us. Either way I still think the future is bright, we have good players in place and players with the potential to become very good and I trust the UConn staff to motivate and unlock that potential especially after a year like this one.
Another things to take note on is that look at what happened yesterday when Boat when down with that shoulder injury. Purvis really really stepped up. Even Dham seemed a bit more aggressive. These guys may become completely different players knowing that we cant sit back and wait for Boat to get us a win, we have to go out and do it ourselves. These kids have a lot riding on them stepping up so the effort is going to be there. losing boat hurts but it could help these guys become the players they've had the potential to be all along as well.
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As opposed to your closely watching every game and knowing ahead of time he was going to transfer here?
And he sure did have a great game yesterday, doesn't change the fact that he went from a true P5 conference to the AAC and in 2 years of physical development/college experience did not manage to get any better/smarter/more consistent. People like you are what make these forums as worthless as the conference we're in, everyone would agree that Purvis vastly underperformed compared to what we thought he'd be heading into the season, yet I point that out and how that reflects on the coaching staff and their ability to develop players and immediately get some idiot arguing otherwise.
Purvis and Hamilton should be expecting to be the two scoring leaders, consistently. They both put up about 10-11 per game and with some additional practice/reps I think both could get up to 14-15 pretty easily. Would love to see both around 37.5% and 75% from three and FTs respectively.
In addition to that Brimah has averaged nearly 10 (and vastly improved without being able to fully practice this past summer). I wouldn't be shocked if he was more consistent and stronger next year. His jumper from 12-15 looks pretty legit and should be better utilized. I think 12 PPG is a minimum to expect from him.
Calhoun had an inconsistent year but still is at 5.5 per game. I think he should be able to average 6-7 next year at a minimum.
That's 46-49 ppg. That's the core scorers for next year from the returnees. I don't think any of those estimates are absurd to consider, 4-5 extra PPG for Purvis and Hamilton and 2 for Brimah/Calhoun.
Consistency is the key for all four of Purvis/Hamilton/Brimah and Calhoun next year.
It will also be interesting to see if Ollie implements and new aspects to the offense or defense with a more veteran team than this years team (Adams aside) and no more small guards. In two years UConn will go from a backcourt of 5-10, 6-0 to 6-3, 6-4. That should theoretically allow UConn to be able to play a zone better and a press better, with better height and length.
In addition to that Brimah has averaged nearly 10 (and vastly improved without being able to fully practice this past summer). I wouldn't be shocked if he was more consistent and stronger next year. His jumper from 12-15 looks pretty legit and should be better utilized. I think 12 PPG is a minimum to expect from him.
Calhoun had an inconsistent year but still is at 5.5 per game. I think he should be able to average 6-7 next year at a minimum.
That's 46-49 ppg. That's the core scorers for next year from the returnees. I don't think any of those estimates are absurd to consider, 4-5 extra PPG for Purvis and Hamilton and 2 for Brimah/Calhoun.
Consistency is the key for all four of Purvis/Hamilton/Brimah and Calhoun next year.
It will also be interesting to see if Ollie implements and new aspects to the offense or defense with a more veteran team than this years team (Adams aside) and no more small guards. In two years UConn will go from a backcourt of 5-10, 6-0 to 6-3, 6-4. That should theoretically allow UConn to be able to play a zone better and a press better, with better height and length.
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I'd say posting the same numbers as a true freshman in a P5 conference as what he put up in what would be his junior year in a non-P5 counts as regression. But you and the other guy who quoted me have essentially done so saying he's the same player as he was 2 years ago, how is that a good thing? More importantly, how does that prove me or anyone else who pointed out talent development as an issue wrong?
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You're talking about Purvis like he's some African prospect who didn't touch a basketball until he was 16. "1.5" out of 4 years of eligibility is more than enough time to have seen some improvement. Unfortunately at this point the fault either lies with the coaching staff for failing to develop properly or with the player himself for just not having it.
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Not at all I have strong doubts about Pruvis. However I was one saying at that beginning of the season that he was just incompetent. As the season has progressed he's showed me that he isn't and i'm man enough to admit that. I still think he is wildly inconsistent but I have to give credit where credit is due he's willing to step up and take shots when nobody else (outside of Boatright) was willing too, and he has showed a bit of progress. I'm hoping that continues.
On me talking about him like he just touched a basketball for the first time at 16, nah. I'm just saying, the jump from high school to college is a huge one. He didn't come straight to UConn. I cant talk to NC's ability to grow players, so as far as i'm concerned he didn't start getting better under UConn until he came here. Then I only half credit last season because he couldn't play. I think playing in games and playing in practice are 2 completely different things. I think playing in games this year has also helped him to grow and get better. I still hold out hope that he can improve by next season because of all the factors mentioned above. Just my personal opinion. Weather he'll do it or not, that's on him. But I think the UConn staff will squeeze and get the most of out of him that he'll allow them to get out of him.
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I'm not making a rash claim that he underperformed based on his freshman year at NC State.
Considering his True shooting percentaged increased and he averaged more points per game, I'm not sure how you're saying he regressed.
Not to mention he played his best ball by far at the end of the season.
So let's see, year off from the game, increases scoring, plays best ball in march but he didn't meet your expectations because as a high school kid he may have been a tad overrated.
Good call making it clear who is the actual idiot here.
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None of what you said is dealing with the fact that he was arguably better 2 years ago than he was this year. You realize he's 21 right? I would buy that playing in real games is that much more important if he weren't a kid who's been playing ball all his life and if he had shown any improvement at all from practicing with a NC team with 2 of the best guards this school has ever had while physically maturing and having a year to grasp game plans. Even yesterday during the game that's making you fawn all over him he still managed to get called for traveling multiple times on the perimeter and some idiotic reaching plays defensively while still showcasing a wildly inconsistent jumper. I'll tell you this, UCONN would not have won 4 titles if the program were being ran by someone like you who honestly doesn't seem to mind that a player has made zero development in 2 years.
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His FG% and 3P% were down from 2 years ago. Every other stat either stayed virtually the same or worse besides PPG, which based on having a worse FG% is just due to higher usage. He also averaged less PPG in conference play than he did OoC, and outside of the 2 SMU games regularly played his worst ball vs better opposition.
Good call neglecting to mention any of that though. Certainly what we were all expecting from the 21 year old former 5 star who had that extra year to train with a guard dominant NC team.
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