2024 Recruiting: Liam McNeeley

[dennismenace]

Sure. But if an outside the top 30 freshman PG earns the starting spot in the era of COVID 5th years, the likelihood is that your team isn't in a great spot and likely mismanaged the offseason (or as happens occasionally the recruiting analysts were way off). That's my point.

Also that people need to manage their expectations about how good Nowell will be in year 1. Castle was a top 10 guy with NBA draft projections before the season. Here are the PGs/CGs in Nowell's range (composite 30s) last 2 seasons:

Jeremy Fears - Got hurt, but before that was backing up an average upperclassman.
Simeon Wilcher - Barely got minutes on a bubble team.
Layden Blocker - Barely played on a bad Arkansas team.
Garwey Dual - Had draft buzz, and ended up just a rotation guy on a mediocre Providence team even despite injuries.
Taison Chatman - Barely played on a mediocre Ohio State team.
Dedan Thomas - Started at the mid-major level for a mediocre UNLV team, but was overall pretty good.
Miro Little - Barely played for a good Baylor team.
Skyy Clark - Started out of the gate for an Illinois team, wasn't especially good, quit the team halfway through.
Collin Chandler - Went on a Mormon mission.
Seth Trimble - Played less than 10 mpg for struggling under expectations Carolina team.
Freddy Dillone - Redshirted, then barely played as a freshman this year.
Dior Johnson - Arrested and played JuCo.

Not a single one was a high major full season starter.

I think you have demonstrated your point pretty well. All that glitters isn't always gold; at least as a freshman. Once again good research.

 

[dennismenace]

Get some sleeve tats, dye his hair and grow a goatee. Worth a shot.

From Transylvania U.

https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZTM0NHRlNXJtMGcyaGNmeXBwaWd6M29rZXoyM2o3b3FqYjM1Y2l6YyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/VqFah6oFx64BW/giphy.gif

 

[dennismenace]

Would ABSOLUTELY crush in UConn's offense. Too perfect a basketball fit to ever happen.. Some $hing will get in the way.

Doooooooomed.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Sure. But if an outside the top 30 freshman PG earns the starting spot in the era of COVID 5th years, the likelihood is that your team isn't in a great spot and likely mismanaged the offseason (or as happens occasionally the recruiting analysts were way off). That's my point.

Also that people need to manage their expectations about how good Nowell will be in year 1. Castle was a top 10 guy with NBA draft projections before the season. Here are the PGs/CGs in Nowell's range (composite 30s) last 2 seasons:

Jeremy Fears - Got hurt, but before that was backing up an average upperclassman.
Simeon Wilcher - Barely got minutes on a bubble team.
Layden Blocker - Barely played on a bad Arkansas team.
Garwey Dual - Had draft buzz, and ended up just a rotation guy on a mediocre Providence team even despite injuries.
Taison Chatman - Barely played on a mediocre Ohio State team.
Dedan Thomas - Started at the mid-major level for a mediocre UNLV team, but was overall pretty good.
Miro Little - Barely played for a good Baylor team.
Skyy Clark - Started out of the gate for an Illinois team, wasn't especially good, quit the team halfway through.
Collin Chandler - Went on a Mormon mission.
Seth Trimble - Played less than 10 mpg for struggling under expectations Carolina team.
Freddy Dillone - Redshirted, then barely played as a freshman this year.
Dior Johnson - Arrested and played JuCo.

Not a single one was a high major full season starter. Reed Sheppard was in the 40s, so I'm not ruling out Nowell coming in and being awesome. It could happen. It's just not likely. That and as pointed out in a couple posts before mine, Diarra was pretty good last season. I doubt Nowell could beat him out, and if he does, it's more likely that Diarra's shooting really regressed or something. But if Diarra leaves, we should absolutely look to get an experienced guard to start over Nowell.

I’d love to see a response to this that isn’t just gut feelings.

 

[UCFan1513]

Collin Chandler - Went on a Mormon mission.

Laughed out loud

 

[mets1090]

I’d love to see a response to this that isn’t just gut feelings.

The truth is that in general, freshmen get overrated by their team's fans before ever stepping on campus in most cases. Sometimes you get a Karaban or Clingan that give you more than you could hope for, but the majority of the time they take a year or two to really come into their own. All you have to do is look at every freshmen in the Big East this year that wasn't Steph Castle.

 

[Scrutiner]

Sure. But if an outside the top 30 freshman PG earns the starting spot in the era of COVID 5th years, the likelihood is that your team isn't in a great spot and likely mismanaged the offseason (or as happens occasionally the recruiting analysts were way off). That's my point.

Also that people need to manage their expectations about how good Nowell will be in year 1. Castle was a top 10 guy with NBA draft projections before the season. Here are the PGs/CGs in Nowell's range (composite 30s) last 2 seasons:

Jeremy Fears - Got hurt, but before that was backing up an average upperclassman.
Simeon Wilcher - Barely got minutes on a bubble team.
Layden Blocker - Barely played on a bad Arkansas team.
Garwey Dual - Had draft buzz, and ended up just a rotation guy on a mediocre Providence team even despite injuries.
Taison Chatman - Barely played on a mediocre Ohio State team.
Dedan Thomas - Started at the mid-major level for a mediocre UNLV team, but was overall pretty good.
Miro Little - Barely played for a good Baylor team.
Skyy Clark - Started out of the gate for an Illinois team, wasn't especially good, quit the team halfway through.
Collin Chandler - Went on a Mormon mission.
Seth Trimble - Played less than 10 mpg for struggling under expectations Carolina team.
Freddy Dillone - Redshirted, then barely played as a freshman this year.
Dior Johnson - Arrested and played JuCo.

Not a single one was a high major full season starter. Reed Sheppard was in the 40s, so I'm not ruling out Nowell coming in and being awesome. It could happen. It's just not likely. That and as pointed out in a couple posts before mine, Diarra was pretty good last season. I doubt Nowell could beat him out, and if he does, it's more likely that Diarra's shooting really regressed or something. But if Diarra leaves, we should absolutely look to get an experienced guard to start over Nowell.

That list may be telling..........but this is the Boneyard and the norm here is unreasonable expectations for whoever we may bring in.

 

[CL82]

That list may be telling..........but this is the Boneyard and the norm here is unreasonable expectations for whoever we may bring in.

Yep, but I doubt where much different in that respect from every other college basketball board.

 

[KemBuckets21]

States McNeeley is expected to visit next week per his sources at rivals, scroll to about 8:50

 

[auror]

The truth is that in general, freshmen get overrated by their team's fans before ever stepping on campus in most cases. Sometimes you get a Karaban or Clingan that give you more than you could hope for, but the majority of the time they take a year or two to really come into their own. All you have to do is look at every freshmen in the Big East this year that wasn't Steph Castle.

I will say, to bring this topic back to McNeeley, that he's on a whole other tier as a recruit than Nowell AND plays an easier position to contribute day 1. PG is a tough transition. A lot goes into it, especially this Hurley offense. The mental aspect of it can be overwhelming. Also, college players are tall and smaller players need to adjust their finishing and such to account for the speed and size.

McNeeley is big and shooting is shooting. He's also high skilled and high BBIQ. Hopefully he'd closer to the Karaban transition.

 

[superjohn]

I will say, to bring this topic back to McNeeley, that he's on a whole other tier as a recruit than Nowell AND plays an easier position to contribute day 1. PG is a tough transition. A lot goes into it, especially this Hurley offense. The mental aspect of it can be overwhelming. Also, college players are tall and smaller players need to adjust their finishing and such to account for the speed and size.

McNeeley is big and shooting is shooting. He's also high skilled and high BBIQ. Hopefully he'd closer to the Karaban transition.

Some of our fans are talking about Nowell like he's the second coming of Jason Kidd and he's going to be an awesome starting point guard from day 1. Thanks for bringing some reality into to the conversation.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Nowell has a man's body already, so that's a big plus, but so did Solo and he didn't have a huge freshmen year, but they're different type players. I'm convinced Nowell will have a great year, but we need HD. Can't have only one true ball handler.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Yep, but I doubt where much different in that respect from every other college basketball board.

We are very different. We're concerning ourselves with how to get ready for a three peat. No other fan base is doing that.

 

[CL82]

We are very different. We're concerning ourselves with how to get ready for a three peat. No other fan base is doing that.

Functional phrase "in that respect".

 

[Drame]

Karaban started a whole half year before everyone else too.

 

[husky429]

Some of our fans are talking about Nowell like he's the second coming of Jason Kidd and he's going to be an awesome starting point guard from day 1. Thanks for bringing some reality into to the conversation.

And I'm sure the usual suspects will overreact as soon as he makes a normal freshman mistake. Ahmad is good. He's going to have a learning curve like every other freshman not named Steph Castle we've had under Hurley.

 

[nashusky109]

And I'm sure the usual suspects will overreact as soon as he makes a normal freshman mistake. Ahmad is good. He's going to have a learning curve like every other freshman not named Steph Castle we've had under Hurley.

To be fair even Steph had a bit of a learning curve especially after the knee injury earlier in the season. It just was overshadowed by how good the rest of the team was.

 

[Lynyrd]

I’d love to see a response to this that isn’t just gut feelings.

What if you go back to pre-portal/Covid? I would gather that Top 30 guards got much more run. I’m sure there’s other factors (like G League or Overtime Elite) but coaches comfort level with upper classmen has to play into it. Are you going to trust your career to a freshman if you don’t have to?

 

[SoFloDawg]

I would be thrilled to get a Kemba Walker type freshman year out of Nowell. 25 mins 9 points, 3.5 boards, 3 assists. All Big East freshman team.

The KEA, Karaban, Butler, Donovan type years are an awfully high bar.

A Napier or Chris Smith type year is optimistically realistic.

It’s interesting that we haven’t been linked to a third point guard or even a true combo guard. I’m thinking the staff is incredibly high on the Philly kid.

 

[Umami Zen]

Dude from Locked On podcast says Liam in next week for a visit to Storrs per his sources.

Edit:His sources 247 Sports

 

[UConnSwag11]

 

[AntG168]

Just show them the final 4 game.

Join the winnners not the losers

 

[NJHusky]

States McNeeley is expected to visit next week per his sources at rivals, scroll to about 8:50

Makes sense, he's at Jordan Brand in Brooklyn

 

[mets1090]

I will say, to bring this topic back to McNeeley, that he's on a whole other tier as a recruit than Nowell AND plays an easier position to contribute day 1. PG is a tough transition. A lot goes into it, especially this Hurley offense. The mental aspect of it can be overwhelming. Also, college players are tall and smaller players need to adjust their finishing and such to account for the speed and size.

McNeeley is big and shooting is shooting. He's also high skilled and high BBIQ. Hopefully he'd closer to the Karaban transition.

As with most things the difference between the top 0.1% and the top 1% can be huge, which is to say the difference between the 15th ranked recruit and the 30th ranked recruit could be comparable to the difference between 30th and 100th. Any 5 star can and should be expected to be good enough to start or heavily contribute even on a great team (see: Castle).

Also agree PG would generally be the hardest position to be great at from day one. And to clarify, I don't mean to say Nowell can't be a starting caliber PG as a freshman, I just think it's less likely than a lot of people want to believe. Would be ecstatic to eat crow on that one though.

 

[August_West]

Some of our fans are talking about Nowell like he's the second coming of Jason Kidd and he's going to be an awesome starting point guard from day 1. Thanks for bringing some reality into to the conversation.

Depends on what you are looking for.