From a moneyball perspective you would look at two types of players. the smart athletes with skill upside, and system fit advantage creators with the right mental makeup.
This year they are targeting more HS stars and guys with more exposure, because the program clout is elite. but these guys tend to be expensive, and more of a fit for non-development focused bag schools as well. So it seems like they are in a lot of elite recruitments but closing the deal gets a bit more difficult. It's important to identify what exactly the star scorer brings that generates value for the program, and what attributes can be replaced.
The smart athlete with skill upside is an obvious fit and they've targeted this type a lot. These guys benefit greatly from UConn's development, more than they would get from any other program. With a year of practice, they can play in the system and be versatile positionless two way players. the only snag is the shooting may not be guaranteed, but shooting is something that can be developed. The other benefit is them being less exposed (lower usage) on offense, and thus are not as expensive. The skill development bit is a roll of the dice, but upside is big.
The more ambitious and high upside play is elite advantage creators with passing capability. Elite high school scorers come in many different forms. Some scale better than others, but more importantly, some are more universally valuable to all kinds of programs. This is typically the ball dominant iso bucket getter. This type of player is valuable to the bag schools, so they will be more expensive.
Advantage creation to generate scoring, and mental makeup is to scale it in a team context. The mental makeup is seen as a prerequisite by this program, stuff like processing speed, awareness and willingness to pass to the best shot etc. The core problem is figuring out the most cost effective form of advantage creation for the system. Personally I think it's a combination of elite shooting and the athleticism to attack open lanes, individual iso creation i.e. beating a stationary, in stance defender is not as important. This skill is highly valued by the NBA and is self sufficient, so it tends to be on the ball dominant star types, pretty expensive. Ditching this and maybe also "tough shotmaking" can open choices up a lot.
Shooting is a special skill that is about cashing in the advantage created, and having more of it can synergize and scale. Just in terms of cashing in the advantage created, It can be obtained from the portal with smart offball movement shooters. poverty moneyball is basically some uber advantage creators who can't shoot too well surrounded by elite shooters who can't score. This is not good enough right now though. UConn is pretty magical at generating cuts to the rim for guys who can't shoot and utilizing vertical gravity, but ideally you still want to maximize shooting. A bunch of dangerous shooters who can also attack open lanes running around waiting to pounce with their high feel is the ideal form.
iso scoring is still important as a floor raising skillset, especially in close and late situations. but you can avoid this situation by blowing people out.
