2026 Recruiting: Abdou Toure gets visits from UConn, Arkansas and Providence

[RuffRuff]

I'd imagine this is going to be an issue with every school during recruiting. How much money do you give an unproven high school kid? It's why a lot of highly ranked recruits may wait as long as possible before committing. They're going to leverage schools against each other.

Also may behoove schools to not want to commit to too many freshmen. In a year to year market, unless you darned well know that kid can contribute at a high level year one, or is in it for long haul development, why even bother? Right now the portal is where you get the large majority of your upcoming year winning players. I don't necessarily know who benefits more by an early commit - the program or the player. My guess is the program, because they can stock their talent as needed, see how their current batch of players make out, then decide to stick with frosh or recruit over in portal.

 

[Husky68]

Also may behoove schools to not want to commit to too many freshmen. In a year to year market, unless you darned well know that kid can contribute at a high level year one, or is in it for long haul development, why even bother? Right now the portal is where you get the large majority of your upcoming year winning players. I don't necessarily know who benefits more by an early commit - the program or the player. My guess is the program, because they can stock their talent as needed, see how their current batch of players make out, then decide to stick with frosh or recruit over in portal.

Part of what I'm not sure how works is, so you pay up to get freshman and he does well, do you still have to out bid other schools for his sophomore season? Then why pay up freshman year if doesn't give you advantage keeping him for next year, think it was advantage for Ball and Stewart (Ross also but he wasn't as hot a commodity), even for 3rd year. Coaches need to judge players and themselves, freshman who left after last year were in bad place vs. playing time so combination of good guys staying/coming in and them not seeing playing time/development for this year (and maybe coaches seeing same thing).
Will be interesting to see how Stewart and Ross fair this year (assuming don't go pro) and how they handle portal or not next year (even Ball if he doesn't go pro). Also, any of the freshman would don't go pro and show out some this year. Really is interesting dynamics.

 

[RuffRuff]

Part of what I'm not sure how works is, so you pay up to get freshman and he does well, do you still have to out bid other schools for his sophomore season? Then why pay up freshman year if doesn't give you advantage keeping him for next year, think it was advantage for Ball and Stewart (Ross also but he wasn't as hot a commodity), even for 3rd year. Coaches need to judge players and themselves, freshman who left after last year were in bad place vs. playing time so combination of good guys staying/coming in and them not seeing playing time/development for this year (and maybe coaches seeing same thing).
Will be interesting to see how Stewart and Ross fair this year (assuming don't go pro) and how they handle portal or not next year (even Ball if he doesn't go pro). Also, any of the freshman would don't go pro and show out some this year. Really is interesting dynamics.

Pretty sure NIL is year to year. Net net, you pay a frosh year one with not much ROI, he can then also blow out year 2. Lose lose. You don't get any value or development return. We got nothing out of Abraham & Nowell as an example, not sure what we paid them. Whatever we did pay them was likely better suited for portal depth at the guard.

It's why many are arguing for multi year contracts.

I think the fact Stew & Ross came back this year means they're wed to the program. Stew would be silly to leave as he has a starting role sitting right there for his to take. Ross could as well if he shows a leap.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Whatever happens, I want Toure to go outside the Big East if he doesn't go to UConn. He's going to be a monster, and I don't want us facing another CT kid with something to prove to the winningest program in the past 25 years.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I'm not about to question anyone's character if I don't know the person. If he ends up here great, if not, so be it. We will be well positioned to make a run either way.

If he's looking for the best payout, no money at all or anything between, that's entirely up to him and his family.

I won't knock Dybansta for the path he chose (I defy anyone to say they wouldn't have considered the same if they had the opportunity) and I won't knock this kid if he places a priority in what he'll get out of the school outside of coaching.

 

[ec33]

I'm not about to question anyone's character if I don't know the person. If he ends up here great, if not, so be it. We will be well positioned to make a run either way.

If he's looking for the best payout, no money at all or anything between, that's entirely up to him and his family.

I won't knock Dybansta for the path he chose (I defy anyone to say they wouldn't have considered the same if they had the opportunity) and I won't knock this kid if he places a priority in what he'll get out of the school outside of coaching.

And I am not all that sure how high a priority he feels he is to UConn. Plenty of wings coming to Storrs soon and the entire staff just went to see another one today. You might be able to squint and see more than one coming in next year, but there are only so many minutes for players that aren't centers or point guards.

 

[Drame]

The market has been different each of the past 4 years. Now that NIL is stabilizing and transfers values have gone up it may be better to get top 40 players and keep them and theyll get paid an appropriate amount and youll have better continuity and chemistry.

 

[ec33]

The market has been different each of the past 4 years. Now that NIL is stabilizing and transfers values have gone up it may be better to get top 40 players and keep them and theyll get paid an appropriate amount and youll have better continuity and chemistry.

You have to convince the prospects of that. UConn didn't kick Adams out of the program, he left for immediate PT.

 

[husky429]

The market has been different each of the past 4 years. Now that NIL is stabilizing and transfers values have gone up it may be better to get top 40 players and keep them and theyll get paid an appropriate amount and youll have better continuity and chemistry.

It takes a very special player these days to agree to ride the bench for a year or two, even if they are getting decent NIL money. Ballers want to ball.

And frankly, it's probably a better value to save that $$$ for transfers than pay for 40-ranked guys. That's why every indication is we are dialing in on transfers and being exceptionally selective about HS recruits. Get some international or low-ranked guys as practice bodies and use the extra funds to get top transfers like Silas.

I also think that for some coaches, NIL and the value of transfers could really extend their careers. High school recruiting is a brutal time and energy commitment over the course of years. Transfer recruiting is a month.