Hurley made priority No. 1 to re-recruit everyone on the roster, making sure there were no transfers. And to that end he was 100% successful.
The two biggest priorities were Jalen – who I'm still surprised didn't at least test the waters for feedback – and Josh Carlton. I and others have heard through the grapevine that Carlton is almost certainly expected to be the starter next season despite having had one foot out the door when this past season ended. He's the one Dan Hurley had to work hardest to re-recruit.
We mutually agreed to split with all three of the incoming commits (we'd have taken Akinjo had he wanted to come, but he was always a KO recruit; the other two we passed on). We replaced them with Brendan Adams, a big (6-foot-3ish) freshman PG (3-star recruit) and two postgrad transfers. One is Tarin Smith, a big combo guard who was the A-10 6th man of the year this past season, and one is Kassoum Yakwe, a one-time top-75 recruit who went to St. John's and stagnated.
Hurley specifically told Yakwe that he was recruiting him because we don't have enough rim protection. Yakwe is 6-foot-7 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan who can guard on the perimeter and in the paint, but doesn't do much on offense.
Larrier declared for the draft and stayed in it. He's gone. CV declared and came back.
Anecdotally – through whispers and "read between the lines" reporting – Hurley & Co. are/were appalled at the lack of strength and fitness amongst our guys. I suspect they've been getting their rear ends kicked for the past month, and that will continue.
There have been many cryptic tweets and posts on various social media amongst the team, all to the effect of "It's nice to have a coach who doesn't lie to you." The fact that none of them transferred is indeed a tell that things were as bad as/worse than they seemed under the previous regime.
Alterique says he's finally 100% healthy and confident in his shoulder after this winter's surgery, but at the same time he's taking it slow and won't really start full-on basketball drills until September or October.
A number of former Huskies, including Ray, have been on campus playing pick-up with the guys.
Best guess at next year's lineup & depth chart:
PG: Jalen, Alterique, Brendan
SG: Vital, Tarin
SF: Sid, Polley
PF: Yakwe, Kwintin, Whaley
C: Carlton, Diarra, Cobb
Expect a lot of three-guard lineups.
We will have at least four open scholarships (Jalen, Tarin, Yakwe, Cobb all graduate) for 2019's class, and possibly five if Kwintin graduates and decides to do a postgrad year somewhere else. We have not landed any 2019 recruits as of yet – a lot of us thought we were going to maybe steal Jalen Lecque, a 5-star combo guard from NYC with an early commit in April, but that never materialized. He's almost certainly UK-bound.
Our top targets:
• Jaden Delaire: long (6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan) SF from Connecticut who's a pure shooter. Not a great athlete, but he tore up AAU this spring. Consensus is he's ours as long as Duke doesn't get involved. 4-star, top 100 player
• Lester Quinones: 6-foot-3 SG from New Jersey who's a pure shooter (though I think he has funky, slow release). Played at St. Benedict's, which is Hurley's old school. We're on him very hard and a couple of our board insiders think we've got a great shot at getting him. 4-star, top 100 player
• Precious Achiuwa: 6-foot-8 SF/PF from NYC who's a jump-out-of-the-gym athlete with lottery pick upside. Plays at St. Benedict's. We're on him hard and have gotten a crystal ball pick from one of the most reliable journos out there. 5-star, top 10 player
• Kofi Cockburn: massive center (6-foot-11, 250 lbs with a 7-foot-3 wingspan) from NYC via Jamaica. Our staff have ties & history with his advisors. Still raw and learning the game but he's got a great foundation. We've gotten a crystal ball pick. high 4-star, top 40 player
• Rocket Watts: under-the-radar, undersized combo guard (6-foot-2, 180) from Detroit who absolutely blew up this spring on the circuit. Great first step and unlimited range – think Ben Gordon. We're on him hard but so's the whole Big 10. 4-star, top 60 player
Other guys we're on to one degree or another:
• James Bouknight: thin, long, Jeremy Lamb-esque SG. 4-star, top 100 player.
• Tre Mitchell: big, thick, earthbound C who plays high school ball in Connecticut. Back-up plan for Cockburn. 4-star, top 120 player
• Tyrese Samuel: thin, springy SF/PF from Canada who plays HS ball in Utah. Back-up plan for Precious. 4-star, top 70 player
• Kira Lewis: under-the-radar, athletic PG who is a typical southern PG (push the ball and use athleticism). We might be recruiting him hard enough to push him up into the top tier. 4-star, top 100 player
• Max Lorca-Lloyd: springy but raw C who defends, blocks shots, rebounds and rim-runs. From NYC, plays ball in New England. I love him and think he'll develop into a really good college player, but not sure we're that interested. 3-star, top 150 player
• Akok Akok: thin, long PF with a sweet jumper who blocks shots. Can't dribble, pass or rebound. Plays HS ball in Connecticut. I've heard that we backed off (as did Providence), but last week there was an article with the kid saying those are the two schools recruiting him hardest. 4-star, top 100 player
Here's the VerbalCommits list of our offers:
Verbal Commits
Yes, it's weird Precious isn't on there. We're
definitely recruiting him, and he would be our first unanimous five-star since Andre if we get him.
I'll admit I find it weird that we're not going all-out for a true PG in the 2019 class as of yet. To me this means that Hurley must be supremely confident of both Alterique's long-term health as well as Brendan's ability to develop into a true college PG. Also worth noting that he had a very egalitarian offense at URI with multiple ball-handlers, so the writing's probably on the wall in that regard (not a bad thing).
In all you missed a month of what felt like program stabilization. No huge news per se, but solid progress if you look at the pieces on the chess board.
