2025 Transfer Portal - UConn Interest Only

[SubbaBub]

If Stewart can average 10/5 playing plus defense we don't need to worry about the position. He showed a marked improvement in the minutes he had at the end of the season. He just need to progress to the next level, but the talent is there. He's a reliable shooter and an active defender already.

Everyone needs to up the defensive/rebounding game if we want to think championships. We scored plenty and had the general talent to match everyone we played.

 

[Scrutineer]

Kind of indicative of his year where he got stuck in his own head for the better part of the BE season.

Oh how complicated life has become for Alex.......and for UConn.

I'm with you on Alex needing to make a decision soon. It's not like he's a novice at this and his procrastination could well harm the school he loves if we lose a great portal player to another school.

Now, for the "having said that part", there are a myriad of variables and he just may be too much into the weeds on all the pros and cons of leaving versus staying. He just may need someone to simplify it for him by pointing out one or two issues he should be focused on.

One big issue is his poor shooting after the concussion. I still believe there's a correlation and if he's also thinking that then that might be what he's focused on: "can I be the shooter I was before the concussion and improve my draft stock by staying one more year?"

I don't think anyone believes he can be a first round pick unless he comes back and not only has a monster year shooting, but improves his ball handling and moves to the basket, and shows he can defend quicker players.

But he has to believe he can do that and Dan Hurley is not going to tell him to leave if he doesn't believe it's the best move for him.

 

[husky429]

If Stewart can average 10/5 playing plus defense we don't need to worry about the position. He showed a marked improvement in the minutes he had at the end of the season. He just need to progress to the next level, but the talent is there. He's a reliable shooter and an active defender already.

Everyone needs to up the defensive/rebounding game if we want to think championships. We scored plenty and had the general talent to match everyone we played.

The "playing plus defense" part of this is the big question more than the scoring IMO. He was an all-world defensive disaster for all but about 25 mins spread across two games this season.

Like... horrendously bad. Worst in all of P6 ball and on the short list of worst in UConn memory bad.

Asking him to be a plus defender in most matchups seems like a stretch. Just don't be a liability.

 

[bendm]

You love the highly premature minutes allocations. I remember this exercise last preseason and none of it was close to accurate.

I don’t believe you went looking for my predictions from last summer to check but the only things I was off on were Mahaney and Ball splitting time at SG and Nowell, just like everyone else. This was my final prediction and it’s pretty close otherwise. 23 and 24 were easy to predict.

Diarra 25 / Nowell 15
Aidan 22 / Ball 18
Liam 25 / Stew 10 / Ross 5
Alex 30 / Stew 10
Reed 22 / Samson 18

 

[3rdbass]

The "playing plus defense" part of this is the big question more than the scoring IMO. He was an all-world defensive disaster for all but about 25 mins spread across two games this season.

Like... horrendously bad. Worst in all of P6 ball and on the short list of worst in UConn memory bad.

Asking him to be a plus defender in most matchups seems like a stretch. Just don't be a liability.

Where did you get that as his defensive metrics ended up alright. He was covering the best offensive players at the end of the season. So that is quite a bad take. Maybe you were getting confused with McNeeley who couldn't keep anyone in front of him. If he was so bad why was Hurley playing him and not Ross as a defensive stopper at the end of the year? He was bad early on in the season but something clicked with him in the last 10-15 games and he really stepped up his D and was getting more minutes because of it.

 

[husky429]

Where did you get that as his defensive metrics ended up alright. He was covering the best offensive players at the end of the season. So that is quite a bad take. Maybe you were getting confused with McNeeley who couldn't keep anyone in front of him. If he was so bad why was Hurley playing him and not Ross as a defensive stopper at the end of the year?

Liam's defensive rating was better (but still not good), and was much better than Jaylin's pre-injury. You have opinions that aren't based in reality. It shouldn't surprise me.

 

[3rdbass]

Liam's defensive rating was better (but still not good), and was much better than Jaylin's pre-injury. You have opinions that aren't based in reality. It shouldn't surprise me.

Let's look at the rating last 15 games. Also, you never answered why they were normally putting Jaylin on the opponents best offensive player at the end of the year if was a bigger guard that Diarra couldn't handle? I see you aren't as big of a fan of Jaylin but I did see his defense improve a lot at the end of the year and was a direct correlation to him getting more minutes.

 

[husky429]

Let's look at the rating last 15 games. Also, you never answered why they were normally putting Jaylin on the opponents best offensive player at the end of the year if was a bigger guard that Diarra couldn't handle? I see you aren't as big of a fan of Jaylin but I did see his defense improve a lot at the end of the year and was a direct correlation to him getting more minutes.

I am a fan of Jaylin--I think he's our starting 3 and not Mullins. I also think we're lying to ourselves like homers if we think he was a good defender last season. He just wasn't.

 

[3rdbass]

I am a fan of Jaylin--I think he's our starting 3 and not Mullins. I also think we're lying to ourselves like homers if we think he was a good defender last season. He just wasn't.

He was at the end of the year and that is why Hurley trusted him with more minutes and be a key defensive stopper at the that time. Maybe you need to re-watch some of the games at the end of year with him and see how he improved and was keeping men in front of him unlike earlier in the year. He definitely wasn't the worst defender in the P6 like you mentioned before.

 

[Fatroony5]

I am a fan of Jaylin--I think he's our starting 3 and not Mullins. I also think we're lying to ourselves like homers if we think he was a good defender last season. He just wasn't.

He wasn’t a great defender but he definitely wasn’t one of the worst in high major conference. The defensive metrics just don’t back that up. Against top 50 opponents, he was 1.5 DPBM, there were multiple players on last years team with numbers worse than that. Tons of high major players with worse metrics than that. He’s not going to be Andre or Steph, lock down the best offensive player at 1-4. But he’s got some decent potential to be a plus defender.

 

[Scrutineer]

I like when people predict point totals and it shows that we’re going to average 117 points a game.

I like it when people say we'll score 117 per game but, sadly, Denham Brown isn't walking through that door..........

 

[Scrutineer]

I will say this again-if Stewart is starting, we are not winning the whole thing. He's a sixth man, not a starter, on a title team.

Thanks for the heads up. Now that I know we have no chance to win I can relax and look forward to the women getting number 13...................

 

[Mike Honcho]

Indeed. And we shot the ball horribly in that game, no less.

For all the talk about prioritizing shooting, we finished the year very middle of the road. 129th 3P% at 34.8%. 21st on 2 point field goal percentage but we were 283rd in attempts.

 

[Huskyforlife]

He was at the end of the year and that is why Hurley trusted him with more minutes and be a key defensive stopper at the that time. Maybe you need to re-watch some of the games at the end of year with him and see how he improved and was keeping men in front of him unlike earlier in the year. He definitely wasn't the worst defender in the P6 like you mentioned before.

He wasn’t a great defender but he definitely wasn’t one of the worst in high major conference. The defensive metrics just don’t back that up. Against top 50 opponents, he was 1.5 DPBM, there were multiple players on last years team with numbers worse than that. Tons of high major players with worse metrics than that. He’s not going to be Andre or Steph, lock down the best offensive player at 1-4. But he’s got some decent potential to be a plus defender.

Stewart has the body of a plus defender, there's no reason he can't grow into it. He wasn't a plus defender last year.

 

[Scrutineer]

6'9", 221 pound, 20 year old former 5 star recruit out of Worcester Academy, TJ Power, is in the portal again. He's transferring to Penn as he continues his slide down the hierarchy of D1 teams:
Duke (year 1): 2.1 points, 0.7 rebounds in 6.7 minutes
VA (year 2): 1.3 points, 1.0 rebounds in 9.3 minutes

Pretty sad case. Started the first five games of this year at VA and ended up only appearing in 24 total games. He's the poster boy for major mistakes by the ratings systems.

I prefer three star guys like LeJuan Watts...........

 

[HooperScooper]

6'9", 221 pound, 20 year old former 5 star recruit out of Worcester Academy, TJ Power, is in the portal again. He's transferring to Penn as he continues his slide down the hierarchy of D1 teams:
Duke (year 1): 2.1 points, 0.7 rebounds in 6.7 minutes
VA (year 2): 1.3 points, 1.0 rebounds in 9.3 minutes

Pretty sad case. Started the first five games of this year at VA and ended up only appearing in 24 total games. He's the poster boy for major mistakes by the ratings systems.

I prefer three star guys like LeJuan Watts...........

I called this one when UConn offered him. I saw him play a bunch of times in high school and never got all the hype. When he ultimately moved up the rankings and was rated a 5 star and committed to Duke I said to myself that I guess my evaluation skills are terrible. Now I feel somewhat vindicated. Hopefully he does better at Penn and graduates with a degree from there.

 

[david]

I prefer three star guys like LeJuan Watts...........

Same. My dream has shifted to AK coming back and adding Darrion Williams. I wonder how a Silas/Solo/Williams/AK/Reed lineup with Mullins/Stew first off the bench would do.

 

[Scrutineer]

I am a fan of Jaylin--I think he's our starting 3 and not Mullins. I also think we're lying to ourselves like homers if we think he was a good defender last season. He just wasn't.

I'm a fan of JS too but after reading all the pros and cons about him here, and how he finished the year strong, I checked his stats for three of the biggest games of the year, the BE semi-final (Creighton), the first round NCAA game with OK and the second round game with FL, and compared them with AK.

Details below.

Not good on points and rebounds but JS took very few FG attempts (8 at 62.5%) compared to AK (8 at 38.2%).

JS played more minutes than usual but not as many as AK so I calculated their points, rebounds and field goal % per 40 for a more fair comparison:
Points per 40: JS 9.1 and AK 13.1
Rebounds per 40: JS 3.5 and AK 5.1

I added AK's stats as a comparison and all that did was make me want a guy like Lejuan Watts for next season!

Against Creighton JS:
-24 minutes
-1 for 1 from the field for 2 points
-3 rebounds.
AK:
-27 minutes
- 3 for 10 from the field for 6 points
-1 rebound.

Oklahoma JS:
-18 minutes
-2 for 3 from the field for 5 points
-1 rebound
AK:
-38 minutes
-5 for 11 from the field for 13 points
-7 rebounds

Florida JS:
-15 minutes
-2 for 4 from the field for 6 points
-1 rebound
-AK:
-36 minutes
-5 for 13 from the field for 14 points
-5 rebounds

 

[husky429]

I called this one when UConn offered him. I saw him play a bunch of times in high school and never got all the hype. When he ultimately moved up the rankings and was rated a 5 star and committed to Duke I said to myself that I guess my evaluation skills are terrible. Now I feel somewhat vindicated. Hopefully he does better at Penn and graduates with a degree from there.

People see size and get too excited. Same thing happened with Abraham. He was worse than a bunch of mid-major guys on his HS team.

 

[bigknight3]

I don’t believe you went looking for my predictions from last summer to check but the only things I was off on were Mahaney and Ball splitting time at SG and Nowell, just like everyone else. This was my final prediction and it’s pretty close otherwise. 23 and 24 were easy to predict.

Diarra 25 / Nowell 15
Aidan 22 / Ball 18
Liam 25 / Stew 10 / Ross 5
Alex 30 / Stew 10
Reed 22 / Samson 18

You were off about Nowell. Off about Aidan starting and his minutes. Off on the starting center. What make this close? Why not wait till we've finish building the roster before making 100 predictions, just so that you can point to 1 a year later and say, see guys I was close...

 

[Scrutineer]

People see size and get too excited. Same thing happened with Abraham. He was worse than a bunch of mid-major guys on his HS team.

Isaiah Abraham? Really?
I thought I remember you saying he was a great defender and rebounder but needed work on offense? That's what had me trying to figure out why he wasn't being given a chance to show what he could do in meaningful games.
What did I miss?

 

[husky429]

Isaiah Abraham? Really?
I thought I remember you saying he was a great defender and rebounder but needed work on offense? That's what had me trying to figure out why he wasn't being given a chance to show what he could do in meaningful games.
What did I miss?

This is what I wrote about him:

• Overall, basically invisible on offense. No skill sticks out as high enough level for the Big East right now, other than the o-boards.
• Reminds me of Gaffeny at UConn. Makes the easy play with low risk, not the best play.

So, yeah, pretty much. He can defend and rebound, just not much else. I could see him making a splash with Hurley as an upperclassmen. The physical tools are there.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

Tyler Betsey, former Windsor star and UConn player of interest, has jumped into the portal after a year at Cincinnati. 6'8", 225 lb, forward.

 

[bendm]

You were off about Nowell. Off about Aidan starting and his minutes. Off on the starting center. What make this close? Why not wait till we've finish building the roster before making 100 predictions, just so that you can point to 1 a year later and say, see guys I was close...

lol. I said I was off about the SG split and Nowell. I was pretty close on the split at center minutes. Still think Reed shoulda been the starter. So I had 4/5 starters right and was pretty close on PT for 7/10 guys. You’re a tough grader. If you don’t wanna read em then put me on ignore.

 

[M.S.G.]

Tyler Betsey, former Windsor star and UConn player of interest, has jumped into the portal after a year at Cincinnati. 6'8", 225 lb, forward.

I was curious about how his season turned out, checked a box score during The Crown and he was hardly getting any run even then, this is no surprise.