2020-2021-2022 UConn Recruit and Target Thread

[BroadwayVa]

We all need to get beyond the total numbers of players recruited and focus on quality and fit. If UConn brings in 5 players in the 2020 class, based on history, there is a high probability that at least 2 will be gone by their sophomore season, not to mention the potential to also lose 2019 recruits and the impact such a large class has on 2021 recruiting.

Recruiting is a very delicate balance. If UConn could bring in one solid Big in the class of 2020, that would be good. I certainly don’t want to see another g/w commit until Azzi does for the Class of ‘21.

I agree with the QUALITY. numbers of un-trusted players offers Geno nothing. Even tall players without the ability to quickly learn the UConn and post position systems is of no value. (Luckily we have ONO who is intelligent, learns quickly and WANTS to be a great post, those are not a dime a dozen.
I'm not so sure the "size of the current class" has great impact on players who want an Nc or to become the best they may be. I'm not sure Geno is the only path to that but certainly he is the only one with so many FF's and NC's.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Edwards is likely a 3/4 hybrid eventually, I believe. A 3 because she can guard the perimeter, make shots, drive, and pass. A 4 because she can guard that spot and has a post game, and rebounds.

If we're lucky enough for her to come to Storrs, she'd probably play more 4 but some 3 too based on lineups.

Getting a decent recruit of any position isn't the same a picking out grapefruit--recruits have choices (not all good for them) and Geno see's the warts as well as the Quality. Is the Quality worth the warts? The BY can throw out 1000 names, Geno and company has reviewed them all. I would not presume to point Geno to any player anywhere---yet I think the Canadian young lady is worth a look. Since Kia I look fondly at all Canadian Players.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

The BY can throw out 1000 names, Geno and company has reviewed them all. I would not presume to point Geno to any player anywhere---yet I think the Canadian young lady is worth a look. Since Kia I look fondly at all Canadian Players.

Well, Edwards is not a random name. There has been interest for quite a while and Edwards and Jasmine Lister began following one another on social media the same day after the U19 championships ended. If she is a top target---which I believe---a campus visit next month is likely.

 

[eebmg]

Girls Jr. USA NBA finals at 3PM on Fox.

 

[connboy77]

I believe Edwards would mostly play the 4 at UCONN. Geno would switch her to the 3 when necessary. Edwards is extremely talented and the main target of all the players left on UCONN'S 2020 list. I have a very good feeling about Edwards coming to UCONN.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Premiere Basketball Report has put out list of stock risers and best players at positions based on this season's scouting.

*

First up: The 2020's

Who is the best 2020 lead guard in the country?

* J. Key’s Pick – Paige Bueckers

Bueckers (UCONN commit) has long been considered amongst the head of this year’s class and rightfully so. Bueckers has handled the pressure of being an anointed player as a very young prospect and has answered with nothing but production over the years.


Who is the best true big in the 2020 class?

* J. Key’s Pick – Kamilla Cardosa

Cardosa, who I have dubbed “The Unicorn” has a ton of potential - Sweet feet and soft hands at 6’6” with length. When Cardosa gets into a rhythm in the post, she is nearly impossible to stop.

Individual Matchups in a Team Setting

Premier Basketball is a basketball tournament, scouting, and recruiting service that helps connect youth boys and girls basketball players with college scouts from around the country. Our primary goal is to market players to colleges to help them achieve their dream of playing basketball at the...

premierbasketballreport.com

*

Jason Key's Stock Risers include:

National 2020 Stock Risers

Mir McLean | Team Takeover | Roland Park HS


National 2021 Stock Risers

Payton Verhulst | Next Level Eclipse | Bishop Miege
Olivia Miles | Philadelphia Belles | Blair Academy
Talia Von Oelhoffen | Northwest Blazers | Tri-Cities Prep
Aaliyah Moore | Cy-Fair | Moore HS
Raven Johnson | FBC United | Westlake HS
Sonia Citron | NY Hoopers | Ursuline HS
Jersey Wolfenbarger | Arkansas Banshees | Fort Smith Northside
Kayla McPherson | Team Elite | Madison City HS


National 2022 Stock Risers

Lauren Betts | Colorado Premier | Grandview HS
Janiah Barker | Essence | Tampa Bay Tech
Timea Gardiner | NWBA Elite | Fremont HS
KK Bransford | Cincinnati Angels | Mt Notre Dame
Kiki Rice | Fairfax Stars | Sidwell Friends
Carleigh Wenzel | SA Finest | O’Connor HS


*

Shane Laflin's stock risers include:

2020 Stock Risers

Mir McLean | Team Takeover | Roland Park HS


2021 Stock Risers

Talia Von Oelhoffen | NW Blazers | Tri-Cities Prep
Caroline Ducharme | Exodus | Noble and Greenough
Aaliyah Moore | Cy Fair | Moore HS
Raven Johnson | FBC United | Westlake HS
Jersey Wolfenbarger | Arkansas Banshees | Fort Smith Northside


2022 Stock Risers

Timea Gardiner | NWBA | Fremont HS
KK Bransford | Cinci Angels | Mt Notre Dame
Alexia Mobley | Cinci Angels | Reynoldsburg HS
Carleigh Wenzel | SA Finest | O’Connor HS

Evaluation Methods and Stock Risers

Premier Basketball is a basketball tournament, scouting, and recruiting service that helps connect youth boys and girls basketball players with college scouts from around the country. Our primary goal is to market players to colleges to help them achieve their dream of playing basketball at the...

premierbasketballreport.com

 

[DaBball]

With Aaliyah at the 4, do you see Mir at the 3?

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Girls Jr. USA NBA finals at 3PM on Fox.

That will be Jada Williams vs Judea Watkins and Breya Cunningham. The latter two already played today and...oh..my..goodness.

Cunningham: 36 points (16/18 FG), 22 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks

Watkins: 13 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks

https://jrgirls.global.nba.com/boxscore/#!/1841900011

 

[Alydar]

I believe Edwards would mostly play the 4 at UCONN. Geno would switch her to the 3 when necessary. Edwards is extremely talented and the main target of all the players left on UCONN'S 2020 list. I have a very good feeling about Edwards coming to UCONN.

As long as we are speculating I would say 4 because there's going to be a logjam at the 123. And this logjam "will" include two of the best players in college. UConn is on the verge of putting together an historic roster In 2022. There could be a couple/three future AA's coming off the bench that year and more than 1 NPOY.

 

[BobbyJ]

I like Edwards a lot, she’ll be a very versatile 4. And because of the possible makeup of UConn’s roster with so many 2s and 3s, I’d be putting a ton of work into Iriafen ‘21 and Betts ‘22 whether or not they get Cardoso. They will be a tremendous pair of defenders and glass cleaners.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

A woman among girls:

 

[DaBball]

I’ve been really impressed with Chloe Clardy in this Jr. NBA final.

Here she is sporting UConn gear the this years Final Four. From Arkansas, so likely a Christyn fan.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

I’ve been really impressed with Chloe Clardy in this Jr. NBA final.

Agree that Clardy is impressive, and she strikes me as a UConn-type player: skilled, versatile, high BB IQ. She was ranked 8th by ASGR as of last year.

Jada Williams and the Central team won the global title today. Williams had 11 points and 4 assists. She has a real flair to her game and is highly competitive and emotionally demonstrative.

Clardy had 9 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. I'm betting that type of line is common for her as she appears able to do many things.

The West team won their consolation game behind 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 blocks from Breya Cunningham who is an absolute force. Cunningham has a calm demeanor, good hands, and quality finishing skills near the paint, plus good timing on blocks. Didn't see her take anything resembling a jumper that I can remember. Her foul shot is painful to watch and will need to be fixed. She shot 35% for the tourney. But when you average 22 points, 12.5 rebounds, and almost 4 blocks in 25 minutes, you can be forgiven for the FT issues.

Judea (JuJu) Watkins is very talented and is going to put up points everywhere she plays. She can also rebound and is very physical. She loves to drive and get contact. Her jumper has a chance to be elite. She was very aggressive and played a lot of 1-on-1, more than I'm comfortable with, but then she's just starting high school. I see a lot of Megan Walker in her game but Watkins has much better form on her shot at this stage.

 

[kat0189]

Cunningham will play her HS ball at La Jolla Country Day School alongside Oregon PG commit Te-Hina Pao Pao. Candice Wiggins and Kelsey Plum also went there.

Per her Twitter, Cunningham was offered by Texas already. Seems to have a humble attitude.

 

[TheFarmFan]

National 2022 Stock Risers

Lauren Betts | Colorado Premier | Grandview HS
Timea Gardiner | NWBA Elite | Fremont HS

I have no idea how they know this, but an insider on the Stanford board seems to think Gardiner is Stanford-bound and will be announcing in the near future. Can't confirm this, not sure how they know, but they've been right about enough recruits in the past that I take it with at least a few grains of salt. It was also interesting because someone else pointed out in response to that that of all of Gardiner's tweets announcing her offers, Betts retweeted only the Stanford one and said this:



I know Stanford is also recruiting Betts hard, and she'd be the fourth recruit from Colorado to commit to Stanford in the past year (Fran Belibi, Ashten Prechtel, and Jana Van Gytenbeek are the others). So interesting developments.

 

[DaBball]

I have no idea how they know this, but an insider on the Stanford board seems to think Gardiner is Stanford-bound and will be announcing in the near future. Can't confirm this, not sure how they know, but they've been right about enough recruits in the past that I take it with at least a few grains of salt. It was also interesting because someone else pointed out in response to that that of all of Gardiner's tweets announcing her offers, Betts retweeted only the Stanford one and said this:



I know Stanford is also recruiting Betts hard, and she'd be the fourth recruit from Colorado to commit to Stanford in the past year (Fran Belibi, Ashten Prechtel, and Jana Van Gytenbeek are the others). So interesting developments.

Not hard to see why for Gardiner:

“Is a valedictorian at her school; a member of the National Junior Honor Society; earned High Honors and a math excellence awards.”

from USAB

 

[RockyMTblue2]

So 2020's Nika Muhl is in the fold. I found a tid bit this AM I had not seen before that is evidence of Nika's elite status. You may recall that she attended a BWB tournament/clinic built around the NBA finals last February.

Well, she went home to Croatia and talked about it a little. That little had some news about the BWB event I had not heard. Her she is:

"- 24 players from 21 countries participated in the camp, 6 of them from Europe. Each day we were in the ballroom for five hours, practicing the various defensive and offensive situations that await us during the game. The training sessions are very creative, so I didn't feel at all that we spent so much time in the gym. After training in the gym, we each had Life Coaching seminars where we learned from WNBA and NBA players about their experiences and what it takes to have a successful basketball career. What impressed me was that team energy was always at its maximum. Americans pay a lot of attention to the mental work of training (concentration and motivation). I think I learned a lot, especially through some details in the game that are often overlooked. I really liked America, it's a whole different world, it's much more organized, and the people who worked with us are really really open and approachable. The first goal of this camp was to really just enjoy me. I take this call as a kind of reward for all the work I put in through the season and I think I put it to good use. I met a lot of new people, made a lot of acquaintances, and it was really an honor to train and study with the best girls of my generation and top coaches. Also at the end of the tournament I was selected to the All Star Team (Top 7) at the camp and I can say that I am satisfied. The big sugar at the end of each day was to watch all the events on the NBA All Star live, to see all these famous players playing live, and this is truly a wonderful experience that I cannot describe in words, it just needs to be experienced. "

I'd say we got ourselves a good one. Ženska Košarka – Nika Mühl za ŽK: Bila mi je čast trenirati i učiti uz najbolje

She is on record elsewhere as saying she treated the camp as a reward and just tried to enjoy herself.

 

[DaBball]

 

[Sluconn Husky]

So everyone knows, the above dunk is by Latasha Lattimore ('21).

 

[pvdoggy]

So everyone knows, the above dunk is by Latasha Lattimore ('21).

I would not call that a dunk.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I would not call that a dunk.

I'd say just barely, but it was 2 handed, which makes your reach shrink a little bit.

 

[TheFarmFan]

I would not call that a dunk.

Fran Belibi has spoiled me for dunks.

 

[soxfan23]

It will certainly be interesting to see how these recruiting classes eventually play out. I have a hunch that Coach Auriemma feels UConn is in pretty good shape for Fudd, Edwards, and DeBerry. I think Geno knows that if things break right this UConn team has a chance to be historically good over the next 5 years.

 

[soxfan23]

As long as we are speculating I would say 4 because there's going to be a logjam at the 123. And this logjam "will" include two of the best players in college. UConn is on the verge of putting together an historic roster In 2022. There could be a couple/three future AA's coming off the bench that year and more than 1 NPOY.

If things break right in recruiting there is ZERO doubt that this will be the MOST talented team EVER at UConn!

In 2022 the roster could very easily look like this

Bueckers/Makurat
Fudd/ Westbrook/ Muhl
Williams/Griffin/ McClean/Poffenbarger
Edwards/Deberry
ONO/Lattimore

I mean, are you joking?

 

[TheFarmFan]

If things break right in recruiting there is ZERO doubt that this will be the MOST talented team EVER at UConn!

In 2022 the roster could very easily look like this

Bueckers/Makurat
Fudd/ Westbrook/ Muhl
Williams/Griffin/ McClean
Edwards/Deberry
ONO/Lattimore

I mean, are you joking?

Not to pour beer in the hometown(/board) Kool-Aid, but there is probably close to zero chance given Geno's short-bench, 7-(wo)man rotation tendencies and UConn's very high historical rate of transfers out that all those extremely high-quality players would ever remain on one roster at once when half of them would just be warming the bench. The good news? Y'all don't need even two thirds of them to sport a national championship-caliber team. Here's hoping we get to see a Tara-Geno face off for all the marbles plus the all-time coaching wins record (because Stanford is looking to be about as loaded as it ever has been by 2022 too). That'd be something mighty special.

Also, maybe I'm too much of a Stewwie booster, but come back at me with the "MOST talented team EVER" stuff when those kids have four-in-four. Until then, I'll stick with Stewwie, Mo, Tuck and their crew.