AK: The Most Talent He’s Seen Here

[superjohn]

Paper Tiger. That team is full of me-first players. They'll win some... but they won't win it all.

They don't scare me at all. UConn should be preseason #1.

 

[superjohn]

I could be wrong but I believe payers 10, 11 & 12 have more upside than any prior squads 10, 11 & 12.

From six through nine we may be as good as we've ever been and this will be one of the three or four most talented starting fives ever. Those statements are said not know who of Diarra & Nowell, who of Ball & Mahaney and who of Stewart and McNeeley will be starting.

I think Mahaney, McNeeley, and Karaban are locks to start. Reed is close to a lock. I see the other guard starter as the only question between Ball and Diarra.

I'm going with Mahaney, Ball, McNeeley, AK, and Reed as the starters. Diarra, Stewart, and Samson will play a ton and Ross, Nowell, and Abraham will get a lot of chances early. I think this team is too talented to go with an 8 man rotation and we no longer have that eraser in Clingan. I expect the team will play faster and with more bodies. Ross doesn't get talked about much, he's my sleeper.

 

[Kolumbo]

Clingan was without a doubt one of the best players in the country and being 7'2" was a big factor, so to speak. Another player could certainly be more talented yet not as effective. Talent is just one ingredient and if DC were more talented, he wouldn't have consistently missed so many bunnies for much of the year. Okafor was much more talented, in my opion. That said, DC improved tremendously throughout the year.

 

[IndyLives]

AK disrespecting last years team, who IMO, was the best team in the "modern" era (since the 64-team Tourney started in mid 80s).

 

[3rdbass]

I think Mahaney, McNeeley, and Karaban are locks to start. Reed is close to a lock. I see the other guard starter as the only question between Ball and Diarra.

I'm going with Mahaney, Ball, McNeeley, AK, and Reed as the starters. Diarra, Stewart, and Samson will play a ton and Ross, Nowell, and Abraham will get a lot of chances early. I think this team is too talented to go with an 8 man rotation and we no longer have that eraser in Clingan. I expect the team will play faster and with more bodies. Ross doesn't get talked about much, he's my sleeper.

I think it will be Diarra at PG, Mahaney SG, C Johnson, PF Karaban and SF Stewart. First guy of the bench is McNeeley. The only question I have is Maybe McNeeley starts over Stewart then Stewie will be sixth man. Ball is a good player but doesn't have much of a handle and I prefer Diara and Mahaney sharing the ball duties as they both can create kind of like Newton and Stewart this year.

 

[alphasigko]

I find that hard to believe, but you got to take him at his word.

All those good teams, Hawkins, Sanogo, Clingan, and others. Wow, that's saying a lot.

I wonder what the Vegas odds will be for a final 4.

Gonna be a great season if AK is right.

Before "The Weekend" Huskies were +1000....

During "The Weekend" it went to +1400

Not sure where it is today.

 

[Austin316]

Idk we’ll see how they do!

I think we will miss Newton the most. He was our floor general. Excited to see how Hass steps up though!

 

[UC0NN]

This team has loads of offensive potential, scoring, shooting, etc.

It is all going to come down to defense. It won't get near last years level of defense but there is nobody better at teaching it than Hurley.

 

[jibsey]

Idk we’ll see how they do!

I think we will miss Newton the most. He was our floor general. Excited to see how Hass steps up though!

I know we all appreciated what Newton brought but damn it was immense. And we can never have a cooler customer than him. His bp probably never exceeded 120/80.

 

[UC0NN]

I know we all appreciated what Newton brought but damn it was immense. And we can never have a cooler customer than him. His bp probably never exceeded 120/80.

And if you asked yourself if you needed 1 player for 1 game, he would be the guy one would pick, bc hes been the biggest light on the brightest stage twice. Of course few have ever been in his position to begin with.

 

[bendm]

We have great depth, but Kansas is terrifying: they added guards Riley Kugel, Rylan Griffen, AJ Storr and Zeke Mayo to Dajuan Harris. And Hunter Dickinson is back at center. So Kansas and Alabama will be a challenge.

They had a better roster last year. Furphy and McCullar were both much better than any of Storr Griffen or Mayo.

I think Bama / Houston / UConn are the tier 1 teams. KU / Zags / ISU / Duke are tier 2

 

[Tenspro2002]

they should be preseason #1 ahead of KU. they have 7 guys that could start and will go at least 10 deep. not to mention the #2 ranked recruiting class.

Starters
Sears (SEC 1st team)
Holloway (Auburn transfer / SEC all frosh team)
Youngblood (USF transfer)
Grant Nelson (12ppg 6 rpg 1.5 bpg)
Omoruyi (Rutgers transfer / BIG all defense team)

Bench
Labaron Philon ( top 30 4*)
Latrell Wrightsell (6th man)
Derrion Reed (5*)
Jarin Stevenson (withdrew from NBA draft)
Aiden Sherrell ( top 30 4*)

If we had to pass the torch to anyone this year, I could live with it being Bama. And I'd certainly root for them in the SEC over Auburn, Arkansas, and Kentucky.

 

[Waquoit]

We have great depth, but Kansas is terrifying

Terrifying?

 

[Bboy Lace]

I think Mahaney, McNeeley, and Karaban are locks to start. Reed is close to a lock. I see the other guard starter as the only question between Ball and Diarra.

I'm going with Mahaney, Ball, McNeeley, AK, and Reed as the starters. Diarra, Stewart, and Samson will play a ton and Ross, Nowell, and Abraham will get a lot of chances early. I think this team is too talented to go with an 8 man rotation and we no longer have that eraser in Clingan. I expect the team will play faster and with more bodies. Ross doesn't get talked about much, he's my sleeper.

Diarra starts, not Ball. There's no PG in your starting lineup. And I don't think Reed starts over Samson. Samson knows our offense and he put on 20 pounds of muscle this summer. He'll start over Reed (imo).

 

[jibsey]

If McNeeley is as smart and talented as advertised how does he not start? How he adjusts to this level and defends may mean it’s later in the season he starts .

 

[Umami Zen]

I really think we'll be ok to defend our NCs. This team has talent.

 

[HuskyHawk]

More talent, less experience. I expect a wider range of outcomes this year.

 

[AllHusky]

How fast can Reed get close to his potential? I think he is a big talent, not a matter of if, but when. He has alot to do, but he can do it.

Samson going to bring it, my question is how much can he bring? I think we’ve seen his limitations(and I love SJ!!)

 

[TheChamps990411]

I would argue for this ranking:

Starters
2024
2023
2025

Key bench guys
2025
2023
2024

Deep bench guys
2025
2023
2024

Interesting. I like this. Well done.

 

[Mooch82]

We have great depth, but Kansas is terrifying: they added guards Riley Kugel, Rylan Griffen, AJ Storr and Zeke Mayo to Dajuan Harris. And Hunter Dickinson is back at center. So Kansas and Alabama will be a challenge.

Kugel ended up going somewhere else. I think Harris is overrated. Will be a big step up in competition for Mayo. Griffin sort of a one dimensional shooter. Agreed they have a lot of talent but I wouldn’t say terrifying.

 

[aceboon]

AK disrespecting last years team, who IMO, was the best team in the "modern" era (since the 64-team Tourney started in mid 80s).

Gotta be a dedicated troll job at this point

 

[auror]

They had a better roster last year. Furphy and McCullar were both much better than any of Storr Griffen or Mayo.

I think Bama / Houston / UConn are the tier 1 teams. KU / Zags / ISU / Duke are tier 2

Their freshman this year are better than last year's, everybody is a year older and their last year freshman are now sophomores (minus injury to Jackson), and you're overrating Furphy (who is a better NBA prospect than he was a player in the last 15 games of their year)

 

[bendm]

Their freshman this year are better than last year's, everybody is a year older and their last year freshman are now sophomores (minus injury to Jackson), and you're overrating Furphy (who is a better NBA prospect than he was a player in the last 15 games of their year)

How so? They had the 9th ranked recruiting class last year and 26th this year. Flory is 5* but I don’t see him playing much with Adams and Dickinson both averaging 35mpg. And id take Furphy over the other guy they have coming in

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

AK disrespecting last years team, who IMO, was the best team in the "modern" era (since the 64-team Tourney started in mid 80s).

Does Karaban hate UConn? It’s a fair question.

 

[auror]

How so? They had the 9th ranked recruiting class last year and 26th this year. Flory is 5* but I don’t see him playing much with Adams and Dickinson both averaging 35mpg. And id take Furphy over the other guy they have coming in

If you're getting those numbers from 247, they have Adams in that recruiting class and he never went to Kansas. And we have the benefit of knowing that Jackson was not nearly as good as his ranking. Bidunga is the best player from either class and I like Passmore. Furphy shot 9/29 in their 3 postseason games.