How UConn will navigate critical offseason as it chases second straight NCAA Tournament title, dynasty status | The Boneyard

How UConn will navigate critical offseason as it chases second straight NCAA Tournament title, dynasty status

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It's really OK not to compete for the national championship every year.

It's OK to let players like Stewart, Ball and Ross develop on the court with playing time. Sanogo, Andre Jackson and Hawkins got that chance. We don't have to load up every year.

Sure, I'd love to grab that Ohio State kid in the portal, and maybe one more big.

But this sort of lineup will be plenty entertaining for me:

Samson/Singare
Stewart/Abraham
Ball/Roumouglou
Diarra/Ross
Nowell

Add a portal player who can shoot/pass at wing/guard and a big, and you're more than fine. 8 deep with Roumouglou and Abraham fighting for playing time and going potentially 10 deep.
 
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It's really OK not to compete for the national championship every year.

It's OK to let players like Stewart, Ball and Ross develop on the court with playing time. Sanogo, Andre Jackson and Hawkins got that chance. We don't have to load up every year.

Sure, I'd love to grab that Ohio State kid in the portal, and maybe one more big.

But this sort of lineup will be plenty entertaining for me:

Samson/Singare
Stewart/Abraham
Ball/Roumouglou
Diarra/Ross
Nowell

Add a portal player who can shoot/pass at wing/guard and a big, and you're more than fine. 8 deep with Roumouglou and Abraham fighting for playing time and going potentially 10 deep.
Don't worry we will be getting at least 2 transfers this upcoming year. Dan Hurley isn't going to rest on his Merits. He wants to win as much as possible.
 

UConnSwag11

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It's really OK not to compete for the national championship every year.

It's OK to let players like Stewart, Ball and Ross develop on the court with playing time. Sanogo, Andre Jackson and Hawkins got that chance. We don't have to load up every year.

Sure, I'd love to grab that Ohio State kid in the portal, and maybe one more big.

But this sort of lineup will be plenty entertaining for me:

Samson/Singare
Stewart/Abraham
Ball/Roumouglou
Diarra/Ross
Nowell

Add a portal player who can shoot/pass at wing/guard and a big, and you're more than fine. 8 deep with Roumouglou and Abraham fighting for playing time and going potentially 10 deep.


We need more players
 
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It's really OK not to compete for the national championship every year.

It's OK to let players like Stewart, Ball and Ross develop on the court with playing time. Sanogo, Andre Jackson and Hawkins got that chance. We don't have to load up every year.

Sure, I'd love to grab that Ohio State kid in the portal, and maybe one more big.

But this sort of lineup will be plenty entertaining for me:

Samson/Singare
Stewart/Abraham
Ball/Roumouglou
Diarra/Ross
Nowell

Add a portal player who can shoot/pass at wing/guard and a big, and you're more than fine. 8 deep with Roumouglou and Abraham fighting for playing time and going potentially 10 deep.
Your two deep lineup would lead to a very bad record.
 
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It's really OK not to compete for the national championship every year.

It's OK to let players like Stewart, Ball and Ross develop on the court with playing time. Sanogo, Andre Jackson and Hawkins got that chance. We don't have to load up every year.
That used to be true but will modern "free agency" the three-year re-build no longer exists. Teams now re-load every year and hope for the best. There are no guarantees the players you mentioned stay at UConn, they have to be the first players to re-recruit next week.
 
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I expect the staff to reload with top tier transfers, but to think there’s another Cam or TN out there would be wishful thinking. Those guys are uncommon.
 
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That used to be true but will modern "free agency" the three-year re-build no longer exists. Teams now re-load every year and hope for the best. There are no guarantees the players you mentioned stay at UConn, they have to be the first players to re-recruit next week.
It's not a matter of a rebuild. It's giving your talented recruits a chance to develop. That's what this team the last 2 years has been built on.
 
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Don't worry we will be getting at least 2 transfers this upcoming year. Dan Hurley isn't going to rest on his Merits. He wants to win as much as possible.
I agree. I just hope the Team can find the right fit and that the player(s) are Juniors or underclassmen. Would really like two years out of these transfers. 1st world problems.
 
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It's not a matter of a rebuild. It's giving your talented recruits a chance to develop. That's what this team the last 2 years has been built on.

except we aren't winning anything the last two years without the current portal transfers on the team. The portal has given the roster a huge boost two years in a row, are you suggesting we stop doing that?
 
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It's not a matter of a rebuild. It's giving your talented recruits a chance to develop. That's what this team the last 2 years has been built on.
I think you need to strike a balance between continuing to develop players, and setting high goals for the season. Maybe winning a NC isn't realistic every year, but the lineup you posted probably wouldn't even make the tournament. I don't think that's acceptable either. We need probably 2 transfer starters, and there's nothing wrong with that. Guys from the Calhoun era talk all the time about their fear of being recruited over. That's the game and always has been. You want the best players you can get every year.
 
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It's not a matter of a rebuild. It's giving your talented recruits a chance to develop. That's what this team the last 2 years has been built on.
They develop in a bench role. Our starters need to be high impact players (which they all have been for the last 2 years). We aren’t taking seasons off for the sake of developing players for 2 years from now. That’s not how the world works anymore with the transfer portal being available. It’s win now, every single season.
 
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except we aren't winning anything the last two years without the current portal transfers on the team. The portal has given the roster a huge boost two years in a row, are you suggesting we stop doing that?
Are they the core? Or was it Sanogo, Hawkins, Andre, Karaban, Clingan?

By my post, it should be obvious that I'm not against bringing in people in the portal. Especially to cover deficiencies in shooting / big men.

What I'm not in favor of is bringing in guys to play over Solomon or Ross or Nowell for that matter.
 
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They develop in a bench role. Our starters need to be high impact players (which they all have been for the last 2 years). We aren’t taking seasons off for the sake of developing players for 2 years from now. That’s not how the world works anymore with the transfer portal being available. It’s win now, every single season.
I disagree. I'd say what you're describing is the route Kansas is taking.

I think there's value in developing your own recruits. Sanogo, Andre, Hawkins, Karaban and Clingan all had a chance to develop.

The portal adds were key to winning it all. But our own recruits have been at the core.
 
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I think you need to strike a balance between continuing to develop players, and setting high goals for the season. Maybe winning a NC isn't realistic every year, but the lineup you posted probably wouldn't even make the tournament. I don't think that's acceptable either. We need probably 2 transfer starters, and there's nothing wrong with that. Guys from the Calhoun era talk all the time about their fear of being recruited over. That's the game and always has been. You want the best players you can get every year.
The lineup I posted has a bunch of guys who are very talented and just need to develop.

Think of Castle and where he was in December and where he is now.
 
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The lineup I posted has a bunch of guys who are very talented and just need to develop.

Think of Castle and where he was in December and where he is now.
They are very talented and do need to develop. But several of those guys need more time to develop to have a starting minutes type of role. They will get there, but next year probably isn't the time to have that level of expectation for that many players to make such a big leap over one more offseason.
 
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It's really OK not to compete for the national championship every year.

It's OK to let players like Stewart, Ball and Ross develop on the court with playing time. Sanogo, Andre Jackson and Hawkins got that chance. We don't have to load up every year.

Sure, I'd love to grab that Ohio State kid in the portal, and maybe one more big.

But this sort of lineup will be plenty entertaining for me:

Samson/Singare
Stewart/Abraham
Ball/Roumouglou
Diarra/Ross
Nowell

Add a portal player who can shoot/pass at wing/guard and a big, and you're more than fine. 8 deep with Roumouglou and Abraham fighting for playing time and going potentially 10 deep.
That's a very Providence thing to say
 
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They are very talented and do need to develop. But several of those guys need more time to develop to have a starting minutes type of role. They will get there, but next year probably isn't the time to have that level of expectation for that many players to make such a big leap over one more offseason.
It's really only 2 players, Solo and Stewart.

Again, we played guys like them early in the past.
 
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I am not necessarily in the "need starters" camp, but we need guys that should play at the same level as the bullish estimates for Ball, Stewart, and Johnson. A competition for minutes that allows for something closer to the "hockey shift" substitution patterns of 2023.

But mostly, I trust that Hurley and company (who see these guys in practice every day) will have a solid line on how to best construct this roster for the near future.
 
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I know the staff is already working on this, but, like, can we get through this weekend before worrying about how we're going to maintain a dynasty?
I am fully capable of worrying about the men's and women's teams over the next five days plus the transfer portal to build a dynasty and Sarah Strong to rebuild a dynasty.
 
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Last year's team returned a core of Sanogo/Hawkins/Jackson.

They got huge play from Clingan and Karaban as freshman.

They also needed transfer Tristan Newton to step into a key role as a PG, and added in Joey Calcaterra as a clutch shooter.

This year's team needed to replace 3 NBA players to their core of Newton/Karaban/Clingan. They added a key freshman in Castle and a key transfer in Cam.

Next year's team will be lighter on the "core" that stays - you have to hope Karaban stays, Diarra and Johnson take huge leaps forward...but you're still going to need transfers to help out a Solo Ball, Stewart, etc.

About 40% of all of basketball transfers now. The fact that UConn hasn't seen a lot of guys going out except to go pro or graduate is a nod to Dan Hurley, but you still need those transfers.
 
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Coach and players are there to win, if you can use the transfer portal to your advantage, do it
 

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