2019/20 UConn Recruiting

[DEpup]

If you're right about that, then everything's fine. Are you sure, though? She sounds like a 4 to me. Yes, I know that UConn plays positionless basketball, but the question is whether Ezi, ONO, and Brunelle could all play at the same time for most of the game. If so, then there's no problem.

They could totally be on the court together as 3,4,5 with Chrystin as the 2.

 

[CocoHusky]

No visits to see Samantha this basketball season.....no home visit scheduled....
I'll just leave this to everyone to draw their own conclusions. Here's what has (or hasn't transpired) in the recruitment of Samantha: Family made a second unofficial visit New Year's Eve. There were no visits by any of the staff to see Samantha at all either during the school year or during her basketball season. There has been no communication from any of the staff since their visit at the 1st of the year (and remember what I said in an earlier post, the assistant that Samantha spoke with had to go back to Geno to see if the offer was still in effect....still no response as of yet (to confirm offer still good according to the family). However, Samantha did receive a birthday card from the staff the other day and has received some communication via text but I'm sure this was only precipitated by a family member that contacted UConn to see if they were still interested in Samantha.....who knows....either way, it's all good....whatever the decision, it's a very positive time for all these recruits and the opportunities that they have either here (UConn) or elsewhere...
P.S. After the family's most recent visit, I believe UConn was Samantha's choice and then the communication stopped and everyone else on Samantha's final list has been working it constantly, staying in touch and trying to build a relationship at an important time when Samantha is hoping to make her decision within the next month. Maybe UConn doesn't operate like that and that's great and I don't personally don't care because I'm not invested in this like her family, but just so everyone on this board knows the situation instead of speculating....there you have it

Thanks for sharing and clarifying.

 

[UConnCat]

No visits to see Samantha this basketball season.....no home visit scheduled....



I'll just leave this to everyone to draw their own conclusions. Here's what has (or hasn't transpired) in the recruitment of Samantha: Family made a second unofficial visit New Year's Eve. There were no visits by any of the staff to see Samantha at all either during the school year or during her basketball season. There has been no communication from any of the staff since their visit at the 1st of the year (and remember what I said in an earlier post, the assistant that Samantha spoke with had to go back to Geno to see if the offer was still in effect....still no response as of yet (to confirm offer still good according to the family). However, Samantha did receive a birthday card from the staff the other day and has received some communication via text but I'm sure this was only precipitated by a family member that contacted UConn to see if they were still interested in Samantha.....who knows....either way, it's all good....whatever the decision, it's a very positive time for all these recruits and the opportunities that they have either here (UConn) or elsewhere...
P.S. After the family's most recent visit, I believe UConn was Samantha's choice and then the communication stopped and everyone else on Samantha's final list has been working it constantly, staying in touch and trying to build a relationship at an important time when Samantha is hoping to make her decision within the next month. Maybe UConn doesn't operate like that and that's great and I don't personally don't care because I'm not invested in this like her family, but just so everyone on this board knows the situation instead of speculating....there you have it

Does the Brunelle family know that you are taking information that clearly originates from them and posting it on a UConn message board?

 

[Charliebball]

OK then........................we'll wait and see how this plays out just as we always do with other prospective UConn recruits............lots of pieces to the UConn puzzle out there, I just hope Geno attracts the ones that fit................

 

[JustinesGuy]

Does the Brunelle family know that you are taking information that clearly originates from them and posting it on a UConn message board?

Who cares. Dolphan is the man! Solid reporting!!

 

[dolphan]

Does the Brunelle family know that you are taking information that clearly originates from them and posting it on a UConn message board?

with all due respect, it's really none of your business.....all you need to be concerned with is now you have facts instead of speculation....so with that, I'll be disappearing from this chatboard....but please continue to root for Samantha, wherever she may go, she is a bright light in our little community

 

[Bronx23]

I have been reading many of the posts about recruits for various years. For quite some time I continually see Brunelle's name. Obviously she is one of the top players of her class.
While I'm very curious about the whole recruiting process, I actually know very little about it.
I'm wondering what seemingly has lead to this cooling in U Conn's interest in her? Did she or her family somehow indicate greater interest elsewhere or has U Conn decided they have other preferences? Also does this cooling have any effect on their recruitment of Bueckers and Fuzz, whom they seemingly want a great deal. It appears that the three of them, Brunelle, Bueckers and Fuzz have become close and may want to play college ball together?
The other question that fascinates me is do you strongly go after multiple players with similar skill sets and take the one that commits first or do you wait it out trying to get the one(s) you want with the possibility of losing all or most of your strongly preferred options. Then from the recruits perspective at some point they might or might not want to have to either compete or share playing time with another similar player. Another issue to build into this equation is how if you're a top player and recruit and likely want to become the very best player you can, then U Conn must become a serious consideration. While clearly there are other very good choices for each individual recruit, there isn't a better one when just getting better in basketballis the primary focus. Of course there are other major considerations including: academics; distance or closeness to home, family, friends; plusses and minuses of how recruit views that specific campus location and what that brings; and many others I haven't ariculated.
I'm not quite sure where I am going with this, other than how darn complicated and multi-faceted it is for every party to the process. What's one of the most amazing parts of this for me, is how Geno, CD and the other coaches have figured it out, and are almost always right with who they bring in. Of course occasionally they lose a gem, maybe that is happening with Brunelle. Hopefully it will work out best for all!
Bronx23

 

[JustinesGuy]

with all due respect, it's really none of your business.....all you need to be concerned with is now you have facts instead of speculation....so with that, I'll be disappearing from this chatboard....but please continue to root for Samantha, wherever she may go, she is a bright light in our little community

I root for her. She's a wonderful player, and humanitarian. I will wish her the best where ever she goes.

My one question is when she visited she was very quiet while watching the game, even seemed disinterested. Do u read anything into that or is that just her style?

 

[UConnCat]

with all due respect, it's really none of your business.....all you need to be concerned with is now you have facts instead of speculation....so with that, I'll be disappearing from this chatboard....but please continue to root for Samantha, wherever she may go, she is a bright light in our little community

You're right, I suppose. But the information you shared in your (now deleted) post seemed private enough to make me wonder whether it was the business of the readers of this board. That's why I asked the question. Deleting the post is probably for the best.

 

[JB123]

I don't think so.. totally different skill sets

Yes, I know: Ezi is a traditional 5, and Sam is a 4 who can play outside. Here was my thought process. As of two months ago, we had ONO but not Ezi or Sam. So it made sense to recruit Sam to play the 4 alongside ONO, who would play the 5 in that scenario. Then when we got Ezi -- if that's what happened -- the plan changed such that Ezi would play the 5 and ONO the 4. That would take away space for Sam.

But I realized from the beginning that there were huge holes in that story, and now I'm convinced by what you, Coco, Milford, and others have been saying.

 

[JB123]

They could totally be on the court together as 3,4,5 with Chrystin as the 2.

Don't forget Megan (for two years). I think it's fine, though. Megan could play the 2 and Christyn the 1, or else we could have more than 5 "starters," like we do now.

 

[JB123]

With regard to Brunelle, we don’t really know. If the physical contact has lessened, is it because Sam is a lock to UConn or because she has lost interest? We’ll know more in time.

Milford, thanks very much for your posts. You and others have totally convinced me that my Ezi/Brunelle speculation was wrong -- which is great!

Unfortunately, the other explanations are ruled out by Dolphan's claims. As you say, it would make sense for UConn not to visit Sam this year if either (a) she were a lock to come or (b) she had lost interest in UConn. Dolphan says that neither of those things is true.

If Dolphan is mistaken, then this entire line of discussion was a waste of time, and I apologize for having contributed to it. But if Dolphan is correct, then we have a puzzle with no solution. According to him, UConn lost interest. That makes no sense, so it's very tempting to conclude that he's mistaken. I hope so. If he's right, though, it would be nice to have any guess as to why UConn didn't visit, and I don't think we have one.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

 

[Sluconn Husky]

 

[Sluconn Husky]

 

[Alydar]

No visits to see Samantha this basketball season.....no home visit scheduled....
I'll just leave this to everyone to draw their own conclusions. Here's what has (or hasn't transpired) in the recruitment of Samantha: Family made a second unofficial visit New Year's Eve. There were no visits by any of the staff to see Samantha at all either during the school year or during her basketball season. There has been no communication from any of the staff since their visit at the 1st of the year (and remember what I said in an earlier post, the assistant that Samantha spoke with had to go back to Geno to see if the offer was still in effect....still no response as of yet (to confirm offer still good according to the family). However, Samantha did receive a birthday card from the staff the other day and has received some communication via text but I'm sure this was only precipitated by a family member that contacted UConn to see if they were still interested in Samantha.....who knows....either way, it's all good....whatever the decision, it's a very positive time for all these recruits and the opportunities that they have either here (UConn) or elsewhere...
P.S. After the family's most recent visit, I believe UConn was Samantha's choice and then the communication stopped and everyone else on Samantha's final list has been working it constantly, staying in touch and trying to build a relationship at an important time when Samantha is hoping to make her decision within the next month. Maybe UConn doesn't operate like that and that's great and I don't personally don't care because I'm not invested in this like her family, but just so everyone on this board knows the situation instead of speculating....there you have it

I'm sorry but unless someone is going to identify themselves I can't take their word for anything. And Dolphan seems to have a direct line to the family who are sharing SB's inner thoughts on her recruitment. I don't buy that someone that close to them would run to a public message board to tell all. And furthermore Dolphan states as fact that there was "no communication from any of the staff" and yet also says there WAS communication because "the assistant that Samantha spoke with had to go back to Geno". Either she had contact or she didn't. My suspicion is that Dolphan is or knows someone on Brunelle's team and is getting their information 3rd or 4th hand. I worked in the gambling industry for a long time and was regularly told of "sure things" based on insider information. Now if someone gives me 3 or 4 winners in a row I start to listen but out of thousands of these tips I got over about 35 years I've run across that once.

I have no contacts and only read these posts but I have been doing so for a lot of years and I have run across a lot of posters like Dolphan, who claim inside knowledge, and on several message boards of several teams. About a year age there was poster on the Tenn board who claims to be close to the Vol program. They posted that it was a certainty that ONO was staying in the south. Another claim a few years ago was that Joyner Holmes was a 90% certainty for the Vols.

Just claiming inside knowledge doesn't translate into credibility. Dolphan may indeed have family information about Brunelle but if so they aren't a very good friend or else they wouldn't be repeating what in all likelihood was told to them in confidence.

One more point. Every year I read about how players X & Y walk on water. Invariably there is a workout video of them dribbling 5 basketballs while standing on their heads. When they sign their LOI's many here have them making an immediate impact. Then, sometime in November, when they aren't playing much I read that they are just not that good and now it's recruits A&B that will be carrying the torch. It isn't the same posters but it's the same story, year after year after year. Inferences based on speculation and rumor. I have been guilty of this to a degree for a year now with regard to Bueckers. I've seen her play in USA ball and a handful of games. But my enthusiasm ends with the hope that she ends up in Storrs. I am not panicked if she is photographed with an Irish shirt on.

The only thing about Dolphan I'd make book on is that if Brunelle signs with a school other than UConn, they'll be back here and if not we will never hear from them again.

 

[Alydar]

No visits to see Samantha this basketball season.....no home visit scheduled....
I'll just leave this to everyone to draw their own conclusions. Here's what has (or hasn't transpired) in the recruitment of Samantha: Family made a second unofficial visit New Year's Eve. There were no visits by any of the staff to see Samantha at all either during the school year or during her basketball season. There has been no communication from any of the staff since their visit at the 1st of the year (and remember what I said in an earlier post, the assistant that Samantha spoke with had to go back to Geno to see if the offer was still in effect....still no response as of yet (to confirm offer still good according to the family). However, Samantha did receive a birthday card from the staff the other day and has received some communication via text but I'm sure this was only precipitated by a family member that contacted UConn to see if they were still interested in Samantha.....who knows....either way, it's all good....whatever the decision, it's a very positive time for all these recruits and the opportunities that they have either here (UConn) or elsewhere...
P.S. After the family's most recent visit, I believe UConn was Samantha's choice and then the communication stopped and everyone else on Samantha's final list has been working it constantly, staying in touch and trying to build a relationship at an important time when Samantha is hoping to make her decision within the next month. Maybe UConn doesn't operate like that and that's great and I don't personally don't care because I'm not invested in this like her family, but just so everyone on this board knows the situation instead of speculating....there you have it

I'm sorry but unless someone is going to identify themselves I can't take their word for anything. And Dolphan seems to have a direct line to the family who are sharing SB's inner thoughts on her recruitment. I don't buy that someone that close to them would run to a public message board to tell all. And furthermore Dolphan states as fact that there was "no communication from any of the staff" and yet also says there WAS communication because "the assistant that Samantha spoke with had to go back to Geno". Either she had contact or she didn't. My suspicion is that Dolphan is or knows someone on Brunelle's team and is getting their information 3rd or 4th hand. I worked in the gambling industry for a long time and was regularly told of "sure things" based on insider information. Now if someone gives me 3 or 4 winners in a row I start to listen but out of thousands of these tips I got over about 35 years I've run across that once.

I have no contacts and only read these posts but I have been doing so for a lot of years and I have run across a lot of posters like Dolphan, who claim inside knowledge, and on several message boards of several teams. About a year age there was poster on the Tenn board who claims to be close to the Vol program. They posted that it was a certainty that ONO was staying in the south. Another claim a few years ago was that Joyner Holmes was a 90% certainty for the Vols.

Just claiming inside knowledge doesn't translate into credibility. Dolphan may indeed have family information about Brunelle but if so they aren't a very good friend or else they wouldn't be repeating what in all likelihood was told to them in confidence.

One more point. Every year I read about how players X & Y walk on water. Invariably there is a workout video of them dribbling 5 basketballs while standing on their heads. When they sign their LOI's many here have them making an immediate impact. Then, sometime in November, when they aren't playing much I read that they are just not that good and now it's recruits A&B that will be carrying the torch. It isn't the same posters but it's the same story, year after year after year. Inferences based on speculation and rumor. I have been guilty of this to a degree for a year now with regard to Bueckers. I've seen her play in USA ball and a handful of games. But my enthusiasm ends with the hope that she ends up in Storrs. I am not panicked if she is photographed with an Irish shirt on.

The only thing about Dolphan I'd make book on is that if Brunelle signs with a school other than UConn, they'll be back here and if not we will never hear from them again.

 

[JB123]

I'm sorry but unless someone is going to identify themselves I can't take their word for anything. And Dolphan seems to have a direct line to the family who are sharing SB's inner thoughts on her recruitment. I don't buy that someone that close to them would run to a public message board to tell all. And furthermore Dolphan states as fact that there was "no communication from any of the staff" and yet also says there WAS communication because "the assistant that Samantha spoke with had to go back to Geno". Either she had contact or she didn't. My suspicion is that Dolphan is or knows someone on Brunelle's team and is getting their information 3rd or 4th hand. I worked in the gambling industry for a long time and was regularly told of "sure things" based on insider information. Now if someone gives me 3 or 4 winners in a row I start to listen but out of thousands of these tips I got over about 35 years I've run across that once.

I have no contacts and only read these posts but I have been doing so for a lot of years and I have run across a lot of posters like Dolphan, who claim inside knowledge, and on several message boards of several teams. About a year age there was poster on the Tenn board who claims to be close to the Vol program. They posted that it was a certainty that ONO was staying in the south. Another claim a few years ago was that Joyner Holmes was a 90% certainty for the Vols.

Just claiming inside knowledge doesn't translate into credibility. Dolphan may indeed have family information about Brunelle but if so they aren't a very good friend or else they wouldn't be repeating what in all likelihood was told to them in confidence.

One more point. Every year I read about how players X & Y walk on water. Invariably there is a workout video of them dribbling 5 basketballs while standing on their heads. When they sign their LOI's many here have them making an immediate impact. Then, sometime in November, when they aren't playing much I read that they are just not that good and now it's recruits A&B that will be carrying the torch. It isn't the same posters but it's the same story, year after year after year. Inferences based on speculation and rumor. I have been guilty of this to a degree for a year now with regard to Bueckers. I've seen her play in USA ball and a handful of games. But my enthusiasm ends with the hope that she ends up in Storrs. I am not panicked if she is photographed with an Irish shirt on.

The only thing about Dolphan I'd make book on is that if Brunelle signs with a school other than UConn, they'll be back here and if not we will never hear from them again.

What a great post! Thanks, Alydar.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Haley Jones' and Archbishop Mitty's loss to Pinewood last Saturday. Jones is #30 in White.

 

[Bronx23]

Let me start by saying many here know a lot more about U Conns recruiting history and about Brunelle's play and skills and what they've seen and heard from her regarding her interest in U Conn.
What I don't buy is that right after her parents spent the time and money to visit U Conn, all contact stopped, and at that point Brunelle favored U Conn, so maybe this person knows something and maybe nada.
What does seem to be pretty clear is whether on Brunelle's part or U Conn's or both, they have not spent any public time recruiting her. Unless people are reading too much into what they saw when she was last here, she certainly was either very stoic or already somewhat disinterested or upset with something. Then why even come? The only guess I have there is her two buds, Bueckers and Fuzz were trying to get her more interested.
All the speculation about other players coming on board Ono, Ezi or whomever really began to concretize after the coolness began.
So we are all left to speculate but it seems pretty darn clear she's not coming to U Conn, unless something drastic changes that. I surely don't get it, along with most of you here.
We probably will never know, but it's time to move on and focus elsewhere.
Bronx23

 

[CocoHusky]

Haley Jones' and Archbishop Mitty's loss to Pinewood last Saturday. Jones is #30 in White.

Love the constant movement of Haley Jones. She is just going to be so dynamic in the UCONN offense.

 

[Charliebball]

Gotta love that 30 second clock in CA high school ball.........really keeps the game moving..............if anything Jones has to be a bit more selfish with the ball as her team mates didn't always get it to her in the right place.......somebody is getting a good one..............

 

[UConnCat]

Love the constant movement of Haley Jones. She is just going to be so dynamic in the UCONN offense.

I love your optimism.

 

[UConnCat]

Another tall, highly ranked kid from upstate NY did pretty well at UConn.

I'll be on the lookout for her in Albany. It's about a 4-hour drive from the Buffalo area.

 

[Charliebball]