Biggest recruiting losses | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Biggest recruiting losses

I always thought this was a no-brainer, it's Billy Curley. People forget what a force he was. He made BCU good and they went to the Elite 8 beating UNC with Curley and 4 guards. Dean Smith was crying that they were too physical. He would have fit those teams that lost to FL and UCLA like a glove. Our starting lineup would have been Curley, Marshall, Marshall, Ollie and Ray Allen. Who's beating that?
 
Waquoit said:
I always thought this was a no-brainer, it's Billy Curley. People forget what a force he was. He made BCU good and they went to the Elite 8 beating UNC with Curley and 4 guards. Dean Smith was crying that they were too physical. He would have fit those teams that lost to FL and UCLA like a glove. Our starting lineup would have been Curley, Marshall, Marshall, Ollie and Ray Allen. Who's beating that?
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I think Curley played on the last team to ever win a basketball game at BC :)
 
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tcf15 said:
View attachment 68160
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this would be a good opportunity to encourage the audience to re-immerse their daily language in the use of the highly underrated term 'bet.' it's utility is both wide and deep. in schooldaze, it was so common that some marms would yell at us to 'find another word!,' bringing whispers from us that 'miss wormwood is mad!' followed by 'bet!'
mebbe william safire can pull a lazurus.
next up -'you got served.' bet.

ch921125.gif



back on topic. john bagley (bc retired his number) and kris dunn. gminski would have been nice, too. all poy's in their conferences. and don't forget charles smith cuz, yeah, he was a conference poy, too. that's a lot of poy's.
 
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I never believed Diallo was coming here, and it was probably for the best. He would have been anointed by our fanbase and then killed for an underwhelming single season in Storrs.
 
Ocho88 said:
Looking back, what are some of the biggest “what ifs” you can think of when it comes to recruits choosing another school over the good guys?
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In the "what if" category, I would have to say Aju Aju Deng or Ater Majok. "What if" they were even half as good as expected?
 
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tcf15 said:
Yeah, it was between UConn, UNC and Texas at the end of his recruitment. He took an official to all three.
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We really didn’t have much of a chance. He took an unofficial here with Ty Lawson, I think, but it was going to be Texas.

Curtis Kelly was the Plan B there.
 
Psolo12 said:
Did we have a legit shot at Durant? I was like 11 when he was getting recruited so I have no knowledge on the subject at all.
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I've posted this here before, but I was told from a source very close to the situation that he actually told the staff on his visit that he was committing to UConn. Of course this person also said Durant told the UNC staff that he was committing to them too, and then spurned both of them when he committed to Texas. So maybe he just didn't like to say no to anyone.
 
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Fishy said:
We really didn’t have much of a chance. He took an unofficial here with Ty Lawson, I think, but it was going to be Texas.

Curtis Kelly was the Plan B there.
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I played golf with his agent back when he first went to the league. He said that KD wanted to come to UConn but was steered to TX (pardon the pun). For whatever that's worth.
 
Zionn said:
Garnett

Honestly - there was a center back in the day that chose FSU over us back in the Calhoun days. That one stung.
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Yep. Randell Jackson. That one stung. I think he was from Boston
 
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Horatio said:
Yep. Randell Jackson. That one stung. I think he was from Boston
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He was a lock to go to UConn until he wasn’t - it was one of those situations that UConn just was his leader for so long that it almost got stale. His mom did not want him at UConn - she wanted him at UNC. Kid kinda split the difference and went somewhere else.

UConn played at FSU in his freshman season and beat FSU senseless - lost to them later that season in the NIT though.

But like with Turner, losing Jackson brought the players who won the first title here.
 
I remember us being in Ty Lawson final 3 and him having heavy interest in us. Also do y’all remember Ramar Smith from Detroit? I know he was committed to us at one point but I liked him at Tennessee and didn’t know what happened with that recruitment. I also remember us having a lead in the recruitment of Rico Pickett who I thought was a very good college player. I also feel like Ronnie Brewer being a legacy recruit for Arkansas was the reason for him not picking UCONN. KD gotta but up here as well as we were in his final 3
 
Courtney Alexander was transferring from Virginia to UConn but UConn rejected him. Not that UConn needed him because they won the whole thing but he was a big time player and it would've been interesting to see how he would've fit in on the '99 team.
 
SportsFan88 said:
I remember us being in Ty Lawson final 3 and him having heavy interest in us. Also do y’all remember Ramar Smith from Detroit? I know he was committed to us at one point but I liked him at Tennessee and didn’t know what happened with that recruitment. I also remember us having a lead in the recruitment of Rico Pickett who I thought was a very good college player. I also feel like Ronnie Brewer being a legacy recruit for Arkansas was the reason for him not picking UCONN. KD gotta but up here as well as we were in his final 3
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He committed to UConn and they had to pull the offer for academics.

Three seconds after that, Doug Wiggins decided to decommit from St. John’s…
 
Fishy said:
He was a lock to go to UConn until he wasn’t - it was one of those situations that UConn just was his leader for so long that it almost got stale. His mom did not want him at UConn - she wanted him at UNC. Kid kinda split the difference and went somewhere else.

UConn played at FSU in his freshman season and beat FSU senseless - lost to them later that season in the NIT though.

But like with Turner, losing Jackson brought the players who won the first title here.
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Other good “misses”:
*Lost out on Kelvin Torbert, got Gordon instead
*Lost out on Isaiah Fox, got Emeka
*Got the second best Lamb

Just a few big ones off the top of my head
 
nomar said:
Other good “misses”:
*Lost out on Kelvin Torbert, got Gordon instead
*Lost out on Isaiah Fox, got Emeka
*Got the second best Lamb

Just a few big ones off the top of my head
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Brandon Jennings got Kemba instead
Brandon Knight, Josh Selby, Cory Joseph got Shabazz instead
Jabarie Hinds spurned UConn and chose West Virginia a day after Boatright committed to West Virginia. Boat then chose UConn.
 
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superjohn said:
Courtney Alexander was transferring from Virginia to UConn but UConn rejected him. Not that UConn needed him because they won the whole thing but he was a big time player and it would've been interesting to see how he would've fit in on the '99 team.
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I think Courtney and Lamar Odom we’re both looking to transfer to UConn but KEA and RIP got in trouble in Hartford to squash that.
 
superjohn said:
Brandon Jennings got Kemba instead
Brandon Knight, Josh Selby, Cory Joseph got Shabazz instead
Jabarie Hinds spurned UConn and chose West Virginia a day after Boatright committed to West Virginia. Boat then chose UConn.
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I remember after that disappointing 2010 season, we were all begging Brandon Knight, Josh Selby, Cory Joseph, Doron Lamb, or CJ Leslie to commit. Neither of them did, and as you pointed out, that eventually led to us getting Shabazz, Niels Giffey, and that turned out OK.
 
Diamond Stone.

Losing him was a key reason the program started to slip.

Cockburn

We bounce back faster if he comes to Storrs.
 
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