4 star recruits

[CTFAN4LIFE]

I’ve made the decision to withhold thoughts on recruiting classes till after Sophomore season

And I think that's about the appropriate time for most recruits. The deeper our roster gets, the more difficult it will be for freshman to make an impact. And there is nothing wrong with that. Take a look at most skilled offensive players coming out of high school and you'll find that most are lost on the defensive end until the end of their freshman years in college (and if some don't commit to it, then may never "get there" regardless of how athletic they are). Even highly skilled defensive players coming out of high school take a good 10 or more college games to get acclimated defensively. It's just the way it is in high major college basketball.

 

[cohenzone]

Anyone want to volunteer and go through the average playing time of all recruits ranked between 40 and 60? That's around where Hawkins, Diggins and Johnson were all ranked. Someone must be in Covid quarantine who wants to waste some time! Lol. Would be really interested to see that. I don't think our freshmen are much different than the average 40-60 recruit. We also have a relatively experienced team. Although I'm not getting into the argument of whether some of them should play over those experienced players!

Using the 247Sports.com composite ranking (2021 Top Basketball Recruits) I'll even start it:

40. Jonas Aidoo - Tennessee: 2.6 minutes per game in 5 games, 0.8 points per game.
41. Langston Love - Baylor: Out for the season after an ACL tear suffered in October.
42. Kowacie Reeves - Florida: 11.0 mpg in 7 games, 3.4 ppg.
43. Jalen Warley - Florida St: 18.1 mpg in 10 games, 3.5 ppg.
44. Trey Kaufman - Purdue: Redshirting due to Purdue's frontcourt depth.
45. Josh Minott - Memphis: 9.1 mpg in 10 games, 3.9 ppg.

51. Hawkins: 16.6 mpg in 11 games, 6.5 ppg.
56. Johnson: 7.4 mpg in 7 games, 2.6 ppg.
59: Diggins: 7.6 mpg in 5 games, 1.4 ppg.

What’s happened in the last two years with the change in transfer rules certainly requires little used freshmen to have a degree of maturity and patience that the next year is okay to bide your time for. The kids who have had their ears filled since they were 9 on how great they are and were heavily recruited sometimes dance to a different tune. Obviously in UConn’s case.the staff sees Hawkins differently from the others, because they either think he fills a current need that they don’t need the other freshmen to be pushed into play for or they think Hawkins is a cut above in terms of readiness.