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This year sort of reminds me of the mid 90s, where after JC began to build success with local northeast recruits and some under the radar hard working talent, the program began to attract more talented and higher ranked recruits. With that said, it was usually certain types of recruits who came here understanding and embracing that they needed to work hard to earn playing time. Nothing was ever promised or handed to them.
Now JC had to take an unproven program and build things from scratch. Hurley comes into a program that has a national reputation, though has been struggling of late. Sort of like what JC did over a few years, he's trying to do with one recruiting class. He added a couple of what seem to be like under the radar and under ranked versatile guards, and is trying to add a few higher ranked frontcourt players, though most of them seem to be cut from the same hard-working mold that JC used to go after.
JC went Nationwide and even internationally to find talent that fit the program. Hurley seems to be focusing predominantly on the East Coast, especially the Northeast. I think that's a good approach starting out. I wonder if eventually he'll widen the net, but still recruit the type of player that fits the UConn culture of out-working and out-willing their opponent. It's actually this culture that really makes me proud to be a UConn fan.
Something about David slaying Goliath, at least the perception of it, like what happened when we beat Duke for our first championship in 1999. It's very satisfying seeing one of our teams that has maybe one or two hamburger all-americans defeat a team who's roster is full of them.
I really don't care as much about the rankings of our recruits as I do seeing the coaching staff land a few of the primary targets that they feel are talented and fit our program.
One last related observation: What will Hurley do as it gets closer to the fall signing period, which is just about upon us? JC didn't handle every situation the same way. In some cases he'd offer the scholarship to two to three recruits that play the same position and would take whichever committed first. Now usually those were ones that were at a very similar talent level. I'm sure in most cases he probably preferred one over the others, but knew it was important to land at least one of them. In some cases he ended up taking both with Denham Brown and Rashard Anderson. But in other cases he would hold out for certain recruits that he absolutely wanted to land such as Rudy Gay. I'm sure there's a list of some that he landed and some that he missed out on. When the latter took place, he would find some late diamond in the rough the following spring. One example was when he missed out on two bigs, hum... I think their names were David Frey and Isaiah Fox if my memory serves me, which usually fails me, and we had to settle for Emeka Okafor, in the spring, or late fall. That worked out quite well for us. As for the other two, well most people have forgotten their names.
If Hurley can add Akok and Kofi (or one of the other 5s he's recruiting) , and then add Precious in the spring, it would be similar to JC's first large recruiting class when JC pulled in a bunch of pretty good top 100 talent, but then put the icing on the cake by landing Donyell Marshall.
I don't know if that will happen, nor is that necessary for Hurley to move the program forward, but that would be an amazing start.
Now JC had to take an unproven program and build things from scratch. Hurley comes into a program that has a national reputation, though has been struggling of late. Sort of like what JC did over a few years, he's trying to do with one recruiting class. He added a couple of what seem to be like under the radar and under ranked versatile guards, and is trying to add a few higher ranked frontcourt players, though most of them seem to be cut from the same hard-working mold that JC used to go after.
JC went Nationwide and even internationally to find talent that fit the program. Hurley seems to be focusing predominantly on the East Coast, especially the Northeast. I think that's a good approach starting out. I wonder if eventually he'll widen the net, but still recruit the type of player that fits the UConn culture of out-working and out-willing their opponent. It's actually this culture that really makes me proud to be a UConn fan.
Something about David slaying Goliath, at least the perception of it, like what happened when we beat Duke for our first championship in 1999. It's very satisfying seeing one of our teams that has maybe one or two hamburger all-americans defeat a team who's roster is full of them.
I really don't care as much about the rankings of our recruits as I do seeing the coaching staff land a few of the primary targets that they feel are talented and fit our program.
One last related observation: What will Hurley do as it gets closer to the fall signing period, which is just about upon us? JC didn't handle every situation the same way. In some cases he'd offer the scholarship to two to three recruits that play the same position and would take whichever committed first. Now usually those were ones that were at a very similar talent level. I'm sure in most cases he probably preferred one over the others, but knew it was important to land at least one of them. In some cases he ended up taking both with Denham Brown and Rashard Anderson. But in other cases he would hold out for certain recruits that he absolutely wanted to land such as Rudy Gay. I'm sure there's a list of some that he landed and some that he missed out on. When the latter took place, he would find some late diamond in the rough the following spring. One example was when he missed out on two bigs, hum... I think their names were David Frey and Isaiah Fox if my memory serves me, which usually fails me, and we had to settle for Emeka Okafor, in the spring, or late fall. That worked out quite well for us. As for the other two, well most people have forgotten their names.
If Hurley can add Akok and Kofi (or one of the other 5s he's recruiting) , and then add Precious in the spring, it would be similar to JC's first large recruiting class when JC pulled in a bunch of pretty good top 100 talent, but then put the icing on the cake by landing Donyell Marshall.
I don't know if that will happen, nor is that necessary for Hurley to move the program forward, but that would be an amazing start.
) the two were Fox and Jamal Sampson. Over 17 years ago and I remember that recruiting saga like it was yesterday. I think we all flipped out when we missed on those 2 and then had to "settle" for Okafor in the spring.
