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.
Yep, but I doubt where much different in that respect from every other college basketball board.That list may be telling..........but this is the Boneyard and the norm here is unreasonable expectations for whoever we may bring in.
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.
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.
We are very different. We're concerning ourselves with how to get ready for a three peat. No other fan base is doing that.
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.
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?
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).
Depends on what you are looking for.
Exactly, the only freshman who was really ready from day 1 to be the starting point guard at UConn in the last 35+ years was El-Amin.
JC handed him the ball and said the team is yours. KEA was the real deal
Yep. There was a learning curve. It was amazing how quickly he adjusted to the college game. And how quickly he became a lock down defender.
Send in Andrea…
And Momma Castle.
