Recruits Impressed by UConn’s Title Win
Recruiting has its up and down swings, and UConn is currently on an extreme upswing. Nobody expected this years team to do too much after losing by 30+ to Louisville in the team’s regular season finale. However, things turned around some in the AAC Tournament when they made it to the championship game, which resulted in once again losing to Louisville. After that many college basketball “experts” said UConn’s ceiling was the Sweet Sixteen.
And boy were they wrong. UConn went on another amazing run at the end of March into April to win the programs unprecedented forth national championship in the last fifteen years. No other program can say they have dominated college basketball in that time like UConn can.
With that championship many positive things come. New hardware to open the state of the art practice facility this summer, positive press for UConn and coach Ollie, and the players getting the recognition they deserve are some of the positives. However, almost all of that factors into one thing, recruiting. Recruiting is what gets you championships. You have to have the right mix of talent in each class to culminate to a championship team.
There’s no doubt that recruits we watching the game and saw the outpouring of love towards Kevin Ollie and UConn from everyone. In the following days after UConn won the championship I caught up with many of UConn’s recruits to get their reactions. Here they are:
Daniel Hamilton on how this changes things for him: “It’s a lot of expectations coming in especially coming off a national championship. I mean it doesn’t get any better than that. My first reaction was to text coach Ollie lol. I was too happy for him.”
Sam Cassell Jr.: “Go Husky Nation! I chose to attend the best school in the country!”
Prince Ali: “It’s a good feeling especially knowing that I was there before anybody. I even thought UConn would win a national championship. I guess you can call me a day 1 fan haha.”
His immediate reaction: “I just sat on my couch with my hands above my head and with a big smile on my face. Then I got up and gave my parents hugs and called my brother.”
Chase Jeter: “I was rooting for UConn and I’m glad coach Ollie got that win under his belt especially so early in his head coaching career at UConn.”
Bryant Crawford: “It definitely shows that coach Ollie is a great coach and knows how to win no matter who their opponent is. And the championship is special because that is one of my goals when I get to college. With UConn winning it opens up my eyes to see that I could be in that position one day.”
D’Marcus Simonds: “It really boosted UConn up in my recruiting! I like what coach Ollie’s doing. Got them a championship in only 2 years.”
Donovan Mitchell: “It shows how great of a coach that coach Ollie is and how great of a program they have at UConn. That one thing jumped out at me.”
Bennie Boatwright: “It doesn’t change too much for me. I’ve always known Coach KO was a great coach and UConn has amazing culture.”
Jessie Govan: “It was a great tournament run, they really played like a team and shocked the world. Congrats to Coach Ollie and UConn!”
Vance Jackson: “It means a lot. Coach Ollie is a magnificent coach and I’m happy to see him win.”
It’s safe to say that recruits took notice and they all liked what they saw. Now we just wait and see if coach Ollie and his staff can turn this momentum into commitments.
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