On to next year

[rip7774]

You have to at least give the guys a chance though. You can’t develop players if you bring in transfer guys over them. We should have 3 ball handlers in Gaffney, Floyd, and Diggins to for next year. Hawkins as a go to guy and maybe Jackson develops there. Then a very talented front court. It’s time for Hurley to coach the talent he’s recruited.

Transfers work - look at Baylor, tons of teams. Villanova took Daniels, he’s terrific for them. You can’t just be indiscriminate, they have to fit your culture. But it’s not like we have a monopoly on good culture. Our kid at Texas A&M loves it and has grown in that flourishing culture under Buzz - he was a transfer and prob their best player now! Coleman’s their best big - he’s a transfer too. They should supplement obv and not be the core way of building. But recruits don’t work out or players leave early, this is where they fit - to fill a hole.

We desperately need shooters and dynamic dribbler/creators. That is a huge hole for us.

Their are likely no “UConn guards“ on the roster, if guys couldnt force their way on to this group of worst guards we’ve basically ever had in decades (Cole was a stud esp w lack of athleticism - but one guard not enough) they either aren’t good enough to make a deep run types or Hurley’s stubbornness makes him….(fill in the blank)

Guards win games in March. No one should know this more than us. We don’t have guards that scare anyone. Except maybe our head coach, who seems to be afraid of a lot these days.

Hopefully Coach learns from his colossal mistakes of not taking another guard last off-season. Would have changed everything. I‘m hopeful but he’s definitely lost some luster with a portion of us that hope he’s more than just a rebuilder. Can he take that next step?

 

[HooperScooper]

We have been taking transfers though that’s the thing. It has not yielded us great results. I can’t remember our last team that wasn’t transfer led. Transfers should be a piece, not the star.

Cole and Tyrese for all the great things they did this year we’re extremely limited. A guy like Tyrese took away from the development of Jordan Hawkins for what? A 1st round upset?

That's a very simplistic/blinders on/strange way to look at things. Huskies had a pretty good regular season. Do you think they would have been as good without Martin and Cole? No way.

What about last season? Martin was huge after Bouknight went down. They might not even have made the NCAA Tournament without Martin.

Plus Hurley's job is to win. Martin and Cole were big pieces of winning the last 2 years. So if he didn't take either how would the last 2 years have looked? But that would have been worth giving Hawkins more experience this season so he could have done what next year (we have no idea)?

Your take is just really strange.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

We were literally one of 3 teams in the country to not take a transfer last offseason. Why you choose to use a sample size of 1 (UConn) over 356 (every other D1 team) is beyond me. But yes transfers are terrible, maybe the other 356 teams will catch on and stop taking them. This argument is bizarre, even for someone as detached from reality as you

Cole and Tyrese were both transfers and were our most relied on players besides Sanogo. Are you trying to be dense and too literally on purpose? Let me know when everyone else has 4 rings. I’m not sure how many transfers Villanova gets and they are consistently at the top of our conference and the country by developing their talent.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

None of our transfers took away from our freshmens developement. Hawkins played 15 minutes a game and if he played better there was more available for him. Diggins couldn’t even earn the backup pg job so it wasn’t Cole keeping him from getting minutes. Johnson had no opportunity because of guys we recruited out of high school ahead of him

Yeah I’m talking about Hawkins more than anything else. I guess I’m just disappointed with the year he had because we heard so much about how great he was in the off-season and he started off hot too. Especially seeing he was the one guy that could do things on this team nobody else could do.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

That's a very simplistic/blinders on/strange way to look at things. Huskies had a pretty good regular season. Do you think they would have been as good without Martin and Cole? No way.

What about last season? Martin was huge after Bouknight went down. They might not even have made the NCAA Tournament without Martin.

Plus Hurley's job is to win. Martin and Cole were big pieces of winning the last 2 years. So if he didn't take either how would the last 2 years have looked? But that would have been worth giving Hawkins more experience this season so he could have done what next year (we have no idea)?

Your take is just really strange.

I don’t know. Remember in the 2019-2020 season where a bunch of guys went down and we were forced to start Gaffney and Bouknight? The more talented but inexperienced guys and we started playing much better? Who’s to say that couldn’t be a thing this year. Sometimes guys just step up when there name is called. Martin didn’t play well until he was the go to. Same with Cole.

Hawkins was ready to go THIS year. He had 16 points in 16 minutes against 1 seed Auburn effortlessly. There’s no doubt in my mind that if you gave him Martin’s minutes he could’ve been better, especially long term and given the team exactly what we were missing. Every reporter was telling us how he looked like a future NBA player all off-season.

Who’s to say guys like Gaffney, Hawkins, Akok, etc aren’t having the same problems Cole and Martin did when Bouknight was here.

 

[navery12]

Cole and Tyrese were both transfers and were our most relied on players besides Sanogo. Are you trying to be dense and too literally on purpose? Let me know when everyone else has 4 rings. I’m not sure how many transfers Villanova gets and they are consistently at the top of our conference and the country by developing their talent.

Yes Martin and Cole were both transfers and the major reason we were so good this year. You keep bringing up 4 championships, 2 of those were well before the transfer wave (99 and 04), and 11 and 14 were even before the modern transfer wave. It's time to move out of the past, the idea that transfers can't win is incredibly outdated.

But let's go with your logic. Kentucky has 8 championships, they have 5 transfers on their roster this year. UNC has 6 championships, they have 2 transfers this year. Duke has 5 championships, they have 1 transfer on their roster. Everyone is taking transfers because they help win

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Yes Martin and Cole were both transfers and the major reason we were so good this year. You keep bringing up 4 championships, 2 of those were well before the transfer wave (99 and 04), and 11 and 14 were even before the modern transfer wave. It's time to move out of the past, the idea that transfers can't win is incredibly outdated.

But let's go with your logic. Kentucky has 8 championships, they have 5 transfers on their roster this year. UNC has 6 championships, they have 2 transfers this year. Duke has 5 championships, they have 1 transfer on their roster. Everyone is taking transfers because they help win

Kentucky that just got bounced in the first round this year too? None of those programs are as good as they used to be. UNC is a damn 8 seed this year. Lol

Cole and Martin are high floor low ceiling kind of guys. Our floor may have been lower with guys like Gaffney and Hawkins, but if our coach is a good coach like he’s suppose to be, their ceilings are much higher to do the same thing they did if not more. Gaffney was our best or 2nd best player against Maryland last year. I feel like if the starting job was confidently his, we’d see more of that consistently.

Put it like this, if we take a transfer let it be an NBA talent with a high ceiling if their job is going to be to lead the team. If it’s not a glue piece then develop our very talented recruits and live through the growing pains. That will help us go deep in the tournament and possibly start winning our conference again.

 

[alphasigko]

I’m genuinely concerned for the first time.

Ok so he gets better players. And they fit his scheme better. Great.

But at some point you will need to win games when your team is not playing their best. He is just too stubborn currently to adjust and adapt.

It’s a Greek tragedy. His biggest strength leads to his biggest failure.

Is he "stubborn" or is versatility in making strategic offensive and defensive changes during a game just not in his management skill set?

 

[HooperScooper]

I don’t know. Remember in the 2019-2020 season where a bunch of guys went down and we were forced to start Gaffney and Bouknight? The more talented but inexperienced guys and we started playing much better? Who’s to say that couldn’t be a thing this year. Sometimes guys just step up when there name is called. Martin didn’t play well until he was the go to. Same with Cole.

Hawkins was ready to go THIS year. He had 16 points in 16 minutes against 1 seed Auburn effortlessly. There’s no doubt in my mind that if you gave him Martin’s minutes he could’ve been better, especially long term and given the team exactly what we were missing. Every reporter was telling us how he looked like a future NBA player all off-season.

Who’s to say guys like Gaffney, Hawkins, Akok, etc aren’t having the same problems Cole and Martin did when Bouknight was here.

You're wishing for things that might have happened. You could speculate like that with everything in life. It's not healthy though.

I have a hard time believing Hawkins overall this year would have been better than Martin. Would Hawkins be better next year if he had played more this year? Probably. But at what cost to this year? And how much better would he be next year as opposed to what he will be next year? But if you want to speculate then I guess that's your right to dream. I'm not responding to this any more because it's kind of crazy.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

You're wishing for things that might have happened. You could speculate like that with everything in life. It's not healthy though.

I have a hard time believing Hawkins overall this year would have been better than Martin. Would Hawkins be better next year if he had played more this year? Probably. But at what cost to this year? And how much better would he be next year as opposed to what he will be next year? But if you want to speculate then I guess that's your right to dream. I'm not responding to this any more because it's kind of crazy.

I mean it is what it is I’m just saying. Hawkins was the much better scorer. Tyrese is just tough, consistent, and a good defender. Exactly what Hurley likes.

I’m not as worried about next year as most though. I really like the recruits that we have as long as we actually give them a chance to have it be there team. One of our main problems this year was that we had TOO much talent. Don’t need to bring in a transfer imo to cause that again. Want to see Gaffney finally run the show with Hawkins as a go to, an improved Jackson, Akok as an actual stretch 4, and Sanogo in the paint. If Hurley is the coach he’s suppose to be that’s more than enough.

 

[auror]

I don’t know. Remember in the 2019-2020 season where a bunch of guys went down and we were forced to start Gaffney and Bouknight? The more talented but inexperienced guys and we started playing much better? Who’s to say that couldn’t be a thing this year. Sometimes guys just step up when there name is called. Martin didn’t play well until he was the go to. Same with Cole.

Hawkins was ready to go THIS year. He had 16 points in 16 minutes against 1 seed Auburn effortlessly. There’s no doubt in my mind that if you gave him Martin’s minutes he could’ve been better, especially long term and given the team exactly what we were missing. Every reporter was telling us how he looked like a future NBA player all off-season.

Who’s to say guys like Gaffney, Hawkins, Akok, etc aren’t having the same problems Cole and Martin did when Bouknight was here.

You're forgetting the 4 game stretch that Martin was injured and Hawkins started.

He was okay against a cupcake, good against a cupcake, absolutely horrible @WVU, and okay against Bonnies.

He had the chance to fight for more minutes with Martin coming back and was dreadful against Providence in the next game.

 

[navery12]

Kentucky that just got bounced in the first round this year too? None of those programs are as good as they used to be. UNC is a damn 8 seed this year. Lol

Cole and Martin are high floor low ceiling kind of guys. Our floor may have been lower with guys like Gaffney and Hawkins, but if our coach is a good coach like he’s suppose to be, their ceilings are much higher to do the same thing they did if not more. Gaffney was our best or 2nd best player against Maryland last year. I feel like if the starting job was confidently his, we’d see more of that consistently.

Put it like this, if we take a transfer let it be an NBA talent with a high ceiling if their job is going to be to lead the team. If it’s not a glue piece then develop our very talented recruits and live through the growing pains. That will help us go deep in the tournament and possibly start winning our conference again.

Yeah I'm done, you're stuck in 1995 with these takes. Should have taken my own advice from the start and never bothered taking you off ignore to try and reason with you. These takes are just so unbelievably stupid, you just non-ironically suggested that benching Cole for Gaffney in the starting lineup raises our ceiling

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Transfers work - look at Baylor, tons of teams. Villanova took Daniels, he’s terrific for them. You can’t just be indiscriminate, they have to fit your culture. But it’s not like we have a monopoly on good culture. Our kid at Texas A&M loves it and has grown in that flourishing culture under Buzz - he was a transfer and prob their best player now! Coleman’s their best big - he’s a transfer too. They should supplement obv and not be the core way of building. But recruits don’t work out or players leave early, this is where they fit - to fill a hole.

We desperately need shooters and dynamic dribbler/creators. That is a huge hole for us.

Their are likely no “UConn guards“ on the roster, if guys couldnt force their way on to this group of worst guards we’ve basically ever had in decades (Cole was a stud esp w lack of athleticism - but one guard not enough) they either aren’t good enough to make a deep run types or Hurley’s stubbornness makes him….(fill in the blank)

Guards win games in March. No one should know this more than us. We don’t have guards that scare anyone. Except maybe our head coach, who seems to be afraid of a lot these days.

Hopefully Coach learns from his colossal mistakes of not taking another guard last off-season. Would have changed everything. I‘m hopeful but he’s definitely lost some luster with a portion of us that hope he’s more than just a rebuilder. Can he take that next step?

I can agree with all of this. There is for sure not a Jalen, Kemba, Boatright, none of that on the roster right now. I’m honestly not sure if guys weren’t good enough at guards this year or if they just weren’t given the proper chance. We were so big dominated having to find minutes for Martin, Jackson, Polley, Whaley, Sanogo, etc. We almost had no where for guards to fit outside of fighting Gaffney for time and then Hawkins was the defacto backup two guard. It was hard for Diggins to carve out time unless he was special. Next year a lot of pt will be up for grabs and I’m curious to see what guys do with it. Which is why I’m worried about going the transfer route. I don’t want another Gaffney situation where a guy is promising but we never give him the keys and they end up having an average career here.

Sidenote, I was upset that Brown left for A&M but we are very deep there. He looked like he could’ve been great for us though.

 

[UConnSwag11]

O/U 65 ppg next year?

 

[UConnSwag11]

We have been taking transfers though that’s the thing. It has not yielded us great results. I can’t remember our last team that wasn’t transfer led. Transfers should be a piece, not the star.

Cole and Tyrese for all the great things they did this year we’re extremely limited. A guy like Tyrese took away from the development of Jordan Hawkins for what? A 1st round upset?

I don’t think Cole and Martin stunted Hawkins development. I think Hurley not playing him more in general hurt him. Probably the biggest probably was Hurley severely overrating Gaffney and not making any changes halfway through the season.

 

[kemba]

I mean it is what it is I’m just saying. Hawkins was the much better scorer. Tyrese is just tough, consistent, and a good defender. Exactly what Hurley likes.

I’m not as worried about next year as most though. I really like the recruits that we have as long as we actually give them a chance to have it be there team. One of our main problems this year was that we had TOO much talent. Don’t need to bring in a transfer imo to cause that again. Want to see Gaffney finally run the show with Hawkins as a go to, an improved Jackson, Akok as an actual stretch 4, and Sanogo in the paint. If Hurley is the coach he’s suppose to be that’s more than enough.

-Hawkins was not the much better scorer. Martin was more efficient at a higher volume from both 2 and 3. Maybe Hawkins will get there but to say he was better isn’t even close to true.

-we certainly did not have too much talent.

-there is always going to be competition for playing time whether it’s transfers or other recruits. You don’t just anoint every recruit into a specific role when they step on campus. And if a guy fails at a small role the solution is not to hand them a bigger role and hope it works. That’s not how it works, here or anywhere

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I don’t think Cole and Martin stunted Hawkins development. I think Hurley not playing him more in general hurt him. Probably the biggest probably was Hurley severely overrating Gaffney and not making any changes halfway through the season.

i agree Hurley was the main issue with Hawkins. He played him less because he leaned on Tyrese.

I don’t want to give up on Gaffney yet. His issues seem very mental.

I guess my hope is that the roster for next year will help Hurley get out of his own way lineup wise. There’s a lot of offensive talent that he can teach defense too instead a bunch of defensive talent he can’t teach offense too.

 

[AntG168]

O/U 65 ppg next year?

Gun to my head…over. I think Hurley delivers on the transfer market

 

[gtcam]

Cole and Tyrese were both transfers and were our most relied on players besides Sanogo. Are you trying to be dense and too literally on purpose? Let me know when everyone else has 4 rings. I’m not sure how many transfers Villanova gets and they are consistently at the top of our conference and the country by developing their talent.

Nova has three 4* coming in and currently ranked #13 in recruiting class - the are ok

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

-Hawkins was not the much better scorer. Martin was more efficient at a higher volume from both 2 and 3. Maybe Hawkins will get there but to say he was better isn’t even close to true.

-we certainly did not have too much talent.

-there is always going to be competition for playing time whether it’s transfers or other recruits. You don’t just anoint every recruit into a specific role when they step on campus. And if a guy fails at a small role the solution is not to hand them a bigger role and hope it works. That’s not how it works, here or anywhere

Skill wise I don’t agree. Martin is just more consistent because he got consistent minutes.

If you asked most at the beginning of the season they would’ve said we had the deepest team in the Big East.

Nova has three 4* coming in and currently ranked #13 in recruiting class - the are ok

That is literally us last year. Hawkins, Diggins, Johnson. Now people are calling for us to recruit over Diggins because he couldn’t get playing time on a team with 4 seniors on it. Hawkins had a hard time getting on the floor himself.

 

[NCHusky91]

I despise coach k, but he said one great thing “the tournament is cruel”. I mean St Peters(!) just made the sweet 16.

 

[uconnfan68]

He gets his handle together and becomes the go to guy on our team I could see that. Handles has to be one of the easiest things to improve IMO. Look at Jaylen Brown.

If it was that easy, why doesn’t he have a good one now? In my opinion? Bad hands. He has a hard time catching passes too.

 

[uconnfan68]

We have been taking transfers though that’s the thing. It has not yielded us great results. I can’t remember our last team that wasn’t transfer led. Transfers should be a piece, not the star.

Cole and Tyrese for all the great things they did this year we’re extremely limited. A guy like Tyrese took away from the development of Jordan Hawkins for what? A 1st round upset?

So, you’d turn away a star? Not many coaches would.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

If it was that easy, why doesn’t he have a good one now? In my opinion? Bad hands. He has a hard time catching passes too.

He’s played one year at this level and never really had to. Now that he realizes it’s a legit weakness it’s a hope that he spends the summer working on it. The rest of his offensive game is there, jumper, athleticism, can find guys, etc. just have to get his handle together.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

So, you’d turn away a star? Not many coaches would.

Not many stars hit the transfer market. Even Purvis who was a 5* recruit.