Corey Evans on UConn Recruiting

[HooperScooper]

Calhoun had 11 McD's AA's in the course of his WHOLE UConn Career you facking idiot.

True. But I'd say UConn's success was built with these guys and a lot of recruits in the 25-75 range. UConn teams typically had at least 7-8 players ranked in the top 75 or so of their classes.

It would take a lot of time I don't feel like spending to go through every recruiting class (I'm sure someone has already done that) but guys like Chris Smith, Travis Knight, Scott Burrell, Ray Allen, Kevin Ollie, Kevin Freeman, Rashad Anderson, Denham Brown, Ben Gordon, Josh Boone, Ricky Moore, A.J. Price, Jeff Adrien, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, etc. fit that profile.

In fact if you went back to the Dream Season all the way through to 2014 and listed the top 6 or 7 players on each team I'd bet almost all of them were top 75 (or so) recruits. As we've discussed before the recruiting rankings aren't the be all end all but typically they are pretty good at predicting talent. And you need talent to win.

 

[superjohn]

Ollie brought in the #7 class in the country to the AAC last year.

And dont offer up your left nut. You would then be left with zero. Which matches the amount of sense you have.

#8 class, it's been amazing. Vital and Diarra have been dominant.

 

[jibsey]

I watched a few minutes of the Duke- Miami game last night and seeing players with that kind of physical dominance and ability as freshman was mind blowing. If we’re going back to final 4’s and National championships maybe we don’t need 4-6 on the team but we need one or two. We had bad luck with Gilbert granted but we need another 5 star for next year.

 

[uchusky32]

Ollie brought in the #7 class in the country to the AAC last year.

And dont offer up your left nut. You would then be left with zero. Which matches the amount of sense you have.

Now, now August. We don't need anymore eunuchs in the yard!

 

[August_West]

#8 class, it's been amazing. Vital and Diarra have been dominant.

But that's a different story isnt it?

That speaks to a different shortfall, not recruiting, right?

 

[superjohn]

But that's a different story isnt it?

That speaks to a different shortfall, not recruiting, right?

I never said Ollie hasn't brought in highly ranked kids. I said the notion that gets floated around here that Calhoun won with low ranked plucky kids is bogus.

 

[Horatio]

Left out Sid Wilson.

Yep. Hopefully he'll recruit Larrier and/ or
Jalen to stay along with Gilbert. For KO it's more about retaining kids after he's already landed them.

 

[August_West]

I never said Ollie hasn't brought in highly ranked kids. I said the notion that gets floated around here that Calhoun won with low ranked plucky kids is bogus.

He did very well on the 30-100 range. And above. Calhoun was excellent at developing talent. That is not KO's strength for sure at this time.

KO can do the same (maybe) but we are going to have give time for that to pan out.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Ollie brought in the #7 class in the country to the AAC last year.

And dont offer up your left nut. You would then be left with zero. Which matches the amount of sense you have.

The team recruiting rankings can be somewhat disingenuous though. A lot of them are based on the aggregate total of the rankings of the players coming into the program. Not saying it was a bad class, but it was #7 due to quantity not quality.

We're building from ground zero. A middle of the road AAC team can't waste all their time and resources chasing 5-stars that have 0% of coming here. The staff is signing building blocks to get the program back on its feet. They need momentum and a story to sell before they can land the big tuna. Unfortunately, rebuilding is a process but I feel they are going about it the right way. Find guys with chips on their shoulders who are willing to do what it takes, even if its 4 years on the roster, to build us back up. The alphas will come in time

Not sure I buy that we are building from ground zero. We won a title in 2014, have a brand new practice facility and are paying a coach $3M per season. Don't waste your time on 5*'s is fine and well. I tend to agree. But there's a middle ground between the 5* 1 and dones and then 100-150 borderline 3* players that we seem to be pulling in now.

 

[upstater]

But that's a different story isnt it?

That speaks to a different shortfall, not recruiting, right?

I wonder how it was the #8.

Alterique sure gives it a lot of credibility, but Durham and Jackson were not top gets.

 

[Kenny11]

I'm very happy with the 2018 class.

But we should be able to get a top 30-40 player for the 2019 class. Chili is getting paid very well to bring in talent and he (along with Ollie) needs to do that.

 

[tjc1888]

I wonder how it was the #8.

Alterique sure gives it a lot of credibility, but Durham and Jackson were not top gets.

Both were top 75 recruits.....throw in Diarra another top 100 recruit. That's quite a haul and pretty easy a top recruiting class.

 

[Husky68]

Assuming all of your recruits are underrated is fools gold.

The bottom line is that UConn is being outcoached and out-recruited. With the on-court product being so poor, it will be difficult to change either of those things.

Sid Wilson is a beast, though. He will easily be the best freshman on the team next year. He was putting up better numbers than most of the 5* talent in his brief Under Armour Association stint this spring for New Heights. 20 PPG on great shooting%. A healthy Gilbert and him would be a great foundation for any coach.

Paragraph 2 and 3 seem to be a bit contradictory. If UConn is being out recruited then why would current players on team be a great foundation for any coach? One injured and other being held up from playing by NCAA, bad recruiting is one thing, recruited players not being eligible is something else.

You may think UConn is being out coached, but in the one game I saw in person this year the best coached team was not the ex-NBA coach's team but the ex-NBA player's team.

If fans expect UConn to compete in recruiting with Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, UNCheat - good luck. The SEC (and other P5) money advantage that filters down to MBB recruiting is real.

2017 recruiting site 24/7 sports has following 5 star: Calamari 6, rat face 4; Arizona, Missouri, UCLA all 2; Texas, Louserville, Alabama, Miami, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kansas, Michigan State, Western Kentucky, UNLV all 1. So out of 26 there are 2 not in P5 conferences and not sure what special circumstances if any on those 2. Note UNCheat had none this year. Entire AAC had no 5's and ONE 4. BE had no 5's and 12 4's.

2018 recruiting seems to have less 5 stars at 17 and all are P5 (UNCheat back on track with 2). AAC has no 5 star and 3 players 4 star with WS with 2 and UConn with 1 (UConn also gets Wilson next year who was a 4 also). BE had no 5 star and 13 with 4 stars.

Not sure how much separation in "potential" based on ratings but seems need .99 score to be 5 star and closer you are to that as 4 star the better you must be perceived. Example this year are Young of Oklahoma at .9915 as a 5 and Waters of LSU .9843 as a 4. Recent UConn guys, all 4's except Kemba and JA who were 5 are: Akinjo .9627, Gilbert .9882, JA .9911, Boat .9684, Bazz .9683, Kemba .9953.

24/7 has UConn recruiting at #33, with Wilson probably top 25.

My take on all of above, not peachy/creamy but far from the s*thole many portray.

Just to point out that UConn fans were not "so happy" with coaching/play of the 2011 and 2014 teams note that these "well recruited and coached (at least early in their careers for 2014 team before Ollie got a hold of them) were #19 and #21 in final pre-NCAA polls. The 2014 team was so poorly coached and had such weak talent that Mr. Toughness (ol' Jay Bilas) picked UConn to lose 6 times in a row in the NCAA's.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

I think they just cant trust putting all of their eggs in one basket. So you put everything in our a few 5 star recruits and it doesnt happen, your left scrambling. Meanwhile other teams are getting the kids in the 30 - 100 range that your team could have used!

Another point is just because you land a top 35 kid, its possible he's overrated (as far as rankings are concerned)... So its hit and miss when you just look at rankings. I like recruiting kids that fit what we want to do, as long as they get better over time and we dont recruit these kids and stop recruiting the 5 star kids. I think ultimately the best for us is to have a group of very solid players and land that 1 5 star recruit occasionally.

 

[HuskyHawk]

#8 class, it's been amazing. Vital and Diarra have been dominant.

They shouldn't even be playing meaningful minutes yet. The bench was empty. Half our team should be on the bench. But they are learning and as we bring in bench players, eventually we won't be playing freshmen.

No...high three star, and mid level four star kids do not usually win games for you as freshmen. They sure as hell do as juniors and seniors. 5 star kids don't go play for .500 teams. We need to win games and get in the tournament again before we are back in play for those kids. The way to do that is to bring in good, solid players and let them develop and become an experienced team. That Wichita State's model. Marshall recognizes that in the one and done era, the Kentucky like teams are WAY too reliant on freshmen. Even then, our best teams were experienced teams of mostly 4 and some 3 star guys (think Ricky Moore, Taliek Brown, Tyler freaking Olander), supplemented by the occasional star.

 

[August_West]

They shouldn't even be playing meaningful minutes yet. The bench was empty. Half our team should be on the bench. But they are learning and as we bring in bench players, eventually we won't be playing freshmen.

No...high three star, and mid level four star kids do not usually win games for you as freshmen. They sure as hell do as juniors and seniors. 5 star kids don't go play for .500 teams. We need to win games and get in the tournament again before we are back in play for those kids. The way to do that is to bring in good, solid players and let them develop and become an experienced team. That Wichita State's model. Marshall recognizes that in the one and done era, the Kentucky like teams are WAY too reliant on freshmen. Even then, our best teams were experienced teams of mostly 4 and some 3 star guys (think Ricky Moore, Taliek Brown, Tyler freaking Olander), supplemented by the occasional star.

I agree with your post just want to point out Taliek was a McD AA top 25 recruit

 

[AdamaNation]

Delaire isn't coming here, don't think we're too involved with Akok either.

Big like akok would change everything

 

[Wordbomar]

If one of Jalen or Larrier stay, we have a pretty solid team for next season to be excited about

 

[superjohn]

If one of Jalen or Larrier stay, we have a pretty solid team for next season to be excited about

It would be surprising if Terry comes back. If Jalen comes back expectations should be high, if he leaves though it's kind of hard seeing it be anything but a rough season.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I agree with your post just want to point out Taliek was a McD AA top 25 recruit

So was Scott Hazelton. But fair point, I had forgotten.

 

[ElmCity40th]

I'm off the fire KO bandwagon officially thanks and I personally don't give a damn about rankings just find me some ballers to root for and develop them ... I agree that it is something good about the offseason when we're waiting to see the debut game of a much hyped player but we're uconn fans we hype our own JC style Pause

 

[alexd]

Yep.....

Calhoun built an empire with big time high school players, this revisionist history that he won with plucky kids with chips on their shoulder is nonsense.

We had 2 McD's all Americans on each of JC 's title teams....but we also had guys like Moore, okafor, Gordon and Lamb and Napier.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Big like akok would change everything

That usually is a game changer. Just ask John Holmes.

 

[upstater]

Both were top 75 recruits.....throw in Diarra another top 100 recruit. That's quite a haul and pretty easy a top recruiting class.

So that's ESPN's ranking? (Diarra was only in ESPN's top 100).
When you realize Durham had few suitors coming off an ACL, and that Vance plummeted in the rankings from being a top 20 in his Soph. and Junior years, it is much less impressive. I think we liked the class a lot here but this isn't even a criticism in retrospect. We were sky high about Alterique, but there were negative evaluations of Vance before he stepped foot on the court. Durham was more intriguing, but it was hard to know what we were getting from a recovering player.

 

[HuskyHawk]

It would be surprising if Terry comes back. If Jalen comes back expectations should be high, if he leaves though it's kind of hard seeing it be anything but a rough season.

The real blow to the program from the Gilbert injuries will show up next year. He should be a McDAA PG with junior level experience. Maybe on the Cousy list pre-season. Instead he's a guy who still hasn't played any meaningful minutes.

 

[Huskyforlife]

The question that needs to be asked is, is akinjo a jalen type scorer/playmaker? If Jalen leaves after this season, who leads this team?

 

[upstater]

Just looked at 247s rankings for the AAC.

Jeez, a real nightmare.

No one in the top 95 in the entire conference.

1 from UConn and 1 from Houston in the top 100.

2 players 100-150, both at Wichita St.

3 players 150-200, 2 UConn, 1 Cincy, 1 SMU.

This is unbelievable.

0-95: ZERO players
95-200: 7 players

For 12 teams!!!

 

[champs99and04]

I can't believe nobody mentioned the greatest part of the article:

Do not forget, Shabazz Napier didn’t come to UConn as a top-50 prospect; neither did Hasheem Thabeet nor Jeremy Lamb nor Amidah Brimah.

 

[olehead]

I wonder how it was the #8.

Alterique sure gives it a lot of credibility, but Durham and Jackson were not top gets.

Upon Durham's commitment, 247 Sports had him ranked at 50 and Vance at 77. Both received Big time offers. Durham chose UConn over Miami and Jackson received offers from most of the West Coast Basketball Powers, including UCLA, Cal-Berkeley, San Diego State and Utah.

 

[upstater]

Upon Durham's commitment, 247 Sports had him ranked at 50 and Vance at 77. Both received Big time offers. Durham chose UConn over Miami and Jackson received offers from most of the West Coast Basketball Powers, including UCLA, Cal-Berkeley, San Diego State and Utah.

Vance had a lot of offers early on; he was one of the top players in the country. But his play as a senior dropped off so badly that people began pulling away.

Was Durham's Miami offer (does that qualify as "big time"?) still good after the ACL? Because there were articles here about how UConn stuck with him afterward, while other schools did not.