Glad you started this discussion, as I've been meaning to offer some comments about Kisunas. I've watched videos of all three players and saw Kisunas play last month at the tournament at Albertus Magnus. I am no expert, and only see some of what many of the rest of you see when you watch a game or player, but I'm only hoping for the best with Kisunas and liking what I've seen on videos of Matthews and Akinjo.
Of the three, Akinjo has to have something special going for him to have been named the MVP of the Peach Jam. That tournament seems to be the one that has virtually all the best players in one place each year and he was a star. If he was a Duke or Kentucky or other ESPN favored teams' recruit he'd be listed a lot higher in the rankings based on how he performed against the best of the best. And, it wasn't one game so it's hard to say it was a fluke (like Dan Cyrulik's performance against St. John's in the opening game of Gampel Pavilion in 1990). I was wrong about what I thought the rest of Dan's career would be like and hope I'm not wrong about my extrapolation about Akinjo. And, so what if he's not a big guard. We seemed to do pretty well with motivated 6 footers in the past and he seems motivated. Let's hope he honors his commitment if this year doesn't end well. Akinjo may well be the first example of a recruit somewhat overlooked by others but who Chillious and Ollie thought could be special for UConn.
Matthews looks to be pretty versatile and seems to have all the shots you want to see from a big guard/small forward. And he doesn't seem reluctant to take shots when his team needs a big basket. Tyler Polley needs the confidence Matthews shows. Still, it's only high school and the videos aren't showing him against the top level competition Akinjo faced at the Peach Jam, but he sure looks like he could be the kind of scorer UConn needs.
Kisunas is another story and looks like a "reach" to me. He is nowhere near 6 feet 10 inches and has no offensive skills in the one game I saw him in and in the two videos I saw. He moves his feet fast and holds onto the ball if he gets to it, but showed zero touch on his shots (even close to the basket). Opposing players scored over him time and again and he spent a lot of time on the bench because he fouled a lot. Hopefully he'll turn out to be our next Rod Sellers who, according to ancient lore, scored zero points and had zero rebounds when Calhoun and Dickenman went to see him play in high school. They liked his footwork (Kisunas too) and hands (Kisunas maybe) and he turned out to be a good center who did all the dirty work that helped UConn reach its first national prominence.
My wife says I'm an insufferable optimist about the Huskies, but here's hoping all these players turn out to be real diamonds in the rough.
