2025 Recruiting: Meleek Thomas Watch

[navery12]

He’s had some successes and some failures that is true. Do you think Hurley has done more with less in a manner of speaking?

Of course, which is completely irrelevant to any discussion happening. I think Hurley is the best coach in college basketball. That doesn't mean every other coach sucks

 

[awy]

cal does suck as a coach. but he's a recruiter.

 

[TheHorde]

Of course, which is completely irrelevant to any discussion happening. I think Hurley is the best coach in college basketball. That doesn't mean every other coach sucks

I think he’s a great recruiter. Not nearly as good of an in game coach. But we agree on Hurley.

 

[KemBuckets21]

Hurley and staff are unequivocally the best HC and Staff in the country in terms of preparation, creative scheming and maximizing player potential/development.

Cal is a good recruiter and his pitch of making a player and his family generationally wealthy is easy, but effective. Combine that with what seems to be the biggest NIL budget in the country, he'll continue to pull talent into Arkansas and get guys to the league.

 

[bendm]

Hurley and staff are unequivocally the best HC and Staff in the country in terms of preparation, creative scheming and maximizing player potential/development.

Cal is a good recruiter and his pitch of making a player and his family generationally wealthy is easy, but effective. Combine that with what seems to be the biggest NIL budget in the country, he'll continue to pull talent into Arkansas and get guys to the league.

I thought that Cal leaving UK meant one less program to compete with for 5*s but Pope still has UK in contention for these guys and now we have to deal with Ark as well. Whoops.

 

[KemBuckets21]

Yeah, wonder why the chicken man didn't give musselman the same budget he gave Cal. I don't think Cal's recruiting model is hard to replicate.

 

[awy]

it's a power law situation, success breeds success because he has the reputation and connections. it's like how schools attract undergrads, not necessarily by teaching quality.

 

[QuickDraw]

Buddy, if you think college sports were ever pure and good...

I know it was corrupted before but at least there was a semblance of amateurism, now that it's done there will never be a way to shove that crap back in the horse. It will be the demise of college athletics imo.

 

[TheHorde]

So you’re saying you would point to Bouknight on what your future would look like from playing at UConn?

(My bad back to Meleek after this post)

Do you think that’s more on Bouknight and what’s between his ears, or on Hurley and how he was developed here? And no I’d say Clingan, Andre, Spencer, Sanogo, Hawkins, and Castle are more representative.

 

[NJHoops]

Kind of. Heard for months it was a done deal. Now a wait and see.

Any talk of a “done deal” was not accurate.

 

[navery12]

I know it was corrupted before but at least there was a semblance of amateurism, now that it's done there will never be a way to shove that crap back in the horse. It will be the demise of college athletics imo.

Why should I care that now kids are getting their $2M paycheck above the table instead of under the table?

 

[RuffRuff]

We Still needed castle to win it all last year tho, against Bama in particular. And Liam might be our most talented player this year. So we still need high profile recruits but only those willing to take the “Hurley discount.” Seeming like Meleek is not one of those guys but hopefully Mullins is, and Ament and Cenac…

But did we? We were slaughtering teams. I could argue a seasoned up Solo would have kept us a favorite. We certainly wouldn’t have been as good, but even 4-8 points less good still may take it.

 

[HooperScooper]

Why should I care that now kids are getting their $2M paycheck above the table instead of under the table?

I don't think any recruits were getting $2 million before NIL.

 

[bendm]

But did we? We were slaughtering teams. I could argue a seasoned up Solo would have kept us a favorite. We certainly wouldn’t have been as good, but even 4-8 points less good still may take it.

Impossible to say for sure but I’m certainly glad we did. We were only up 4 at half. Castle was our leading scorer with 21 in that game and he was our best perimeter defender as usual.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Better to know he's following the $$$ sooner than later. No interested in getting Dialloed.

 

[navery12]

I don't think any recruits were getting $2 million before NIL.

Then use a different arbitrary number that floats your boat. The point is these kids were getting paid before NIL, the only difference is now the numbers are public

 

[AntG168]

HOT TAKE!!

Disclaimer: I'd be super excited if we got a Meleek Thomas commitment.

Hot Take: I like Acaden Lewis the basketball player a lot more for our Huskies

 

[EBonz30]

I understand this kid is a Uber talent & that a lot of you are in love with his game- with that said- I don’t think his offensive game is a great fit for Hurley & the Huskies- to me he’s much more of a creator & scorer & guy who breaks you down off the dribble- a guy who needs to ball in his hands- that style of offense is typically not conducive to what we run here. His game aligns much more with Ala Eric Mussleman’s offense. Of course I would be happy to see him as a Husky, but won’t be upset or down if he goes somewhere else.

 

[gsmooth]

Any talk of a “done deal” was not accurate.

This is 100% on the money. It's why I was not overjoyed when lots of people here were celebrating Meleek was a done deal. It's not a done deal until it's actually done-I don't care what Crystal Ball predictions say. These same predictions had Adama Sanogo going to Seton Hall at 90%. We know where he ended up and are thankful to the Basketball Gods it turned out the way it did. Kevin Willard, Seton Hall's coach at the time, was very upset and so were Seton Hall fans.

 

[Drame]

I understand this kid is a Uber talent & that a lot of you are in love with his game- with that said- I don’t think his offensive game is a great fit for Hurley & the Huskies- to me he’s much more of a creator & scorer & guy who breaks you down off the dribble- a guy who needs to ball in his hands- that style of offense is typically not conducive to what we run here. His game aligns much more with Ala Eric Mussleman’s offense. Of course I would be happy to see him as a Husky, but won’t be upset or down if he goes somewhere else.

No but I think Hurley would love to have the option of a guy being able to break his man down and get his own shot in certain situations. Makes us less predictable. It's another tool and weapon to utilize.

 

[Mr. French]

HOT TAKE!!

Disclaimer: I'd be super excited if we got a Meleek Thomas commitment.

Hot Take: I like Acaden Lewis the basketball player a lot more for our Huskies

I'm not going to say better or worse, but I am very, very high on Acaden Lewis as a college player.

 

[HooperScooper]

Then use a different arbitrary number that floats your boat. The point is these kids were getting paid before NIL, the only difference is now the numbers are public

The point of the number is that the higher the numbers the bigger the difference between what schools offer. Before we were probably talking illegal offers in the low hundreds of thousands. So maybe the difference between 1 school or another was $50,000 or $100,000. Maybe enough of an incentive but not a huge deal.

Now with $2 million and $3 million offers the difference between one school and another could be $1 million to $2 million. That's a much bigger incentive to pick a school. Especially a kid from a low income family that's never had much in his life. Hurley can point to development, getting drafted higher, getting bigger contracts in the NBA, etc., but to a 17 or 18 year old that's a lot of money right in front of you with no risk. I really don't blame any of these kids for taking these higher offers.

How much do you think UConn is offering high school recruits and transfers? I doubt UConn is matching the NIL money that places like Arkansas are offering. And I'm not sure I even want UConn throwing around that kind of money to an 18 year old. Let Hurley get the kids with the attitude and work ethic that he wants without having to match the NIL money some of these schools offer. It has seemed to work so far. We'll see if that can continue.

 

[uconnbill]

I hope Thomas ends up at UConn, but if not it won't be the collapse of the program

 

[Huskyforlife]

I hope Thomas ends up at UConn, but if not it won't be the collapse of the program

So brave.

 

[Drame]

I'm not going to say better or worse, but I am very, very high on Acaden Lewis as a college player.

He's good and he'd stick around for at least two years or longer. He does some things similar things to Meleek.