Current Talent and Incoming Talent

[polycom]

No. I’m not saying it happened with all of the top guys. There were plenty of guys like Hilton and Thabeet who went from non contributors to stars their final years but to say we’re spoiled because we expect a freshman to make an impact is ridiculous. Top programs have some freshmen who make a big impact, we’ll need some of that too to get back to what we were accustomed to.

Before doing the research... I didn't agree with you but honestly the data says you're more correct than not correct.

Freshman year numbers...
Ray Allen - 12ppg on 51%
Rudy Gay - 11ppg on 46%
Ben Gordon - 12ppg on 43%
Kemba Walker 9ppg on 47%
Shabazz Napier 7ppg on 37%
Rip Hamilton 15 ppg on 38%
Emeka - 8 ppg and 6 boards
Ryan Boatright 10ppg on 42%
Jeremy Lamb - 10ppg on 48%

 

[tzznandrew]

Before doing the research... I didn't agree with you but honestly the data says you're more correct than not correct.

Freshman year numbers...
Ray Allen - 12ppg on 51%
Rudy Gay - 11ppg on 46%
Ben Gordon - 12ppg on 43%
Kemba Walker 9ppg on 47%
Shabazz Napier 7ppg on 37%
Rip Hamilton 15 ppg on 38%
Emeka - 8 ppg and 6 boards
Ryan Boatright 10ppg on 42%
Jeremy Lamb - 10ppg on 48%

Of that list, though, Allen, Gay, Gordon, Walker, and Hamilton were all McAAs or Top 30, so they don't disprove Auror's point.

Emeka and Lamb both are clearly the exceptions auror was talking about.

Bazz and Boat...well you can tell from the shooting percentages they struggled, and if you gave Adams the amount of time these guys got (Adams is the 5th guard, behind Gilbert, Jalen, CV, and Tarin rather than the 3rd in each of their cases) he might put up something like those numbers with something like their efficiency. Tarin puts up 10ppg as our 4th guard.

Also consider he's behind two Top 30 prospects (Adams and Gilbert) who are 4 and 3 years out of high school, a grad senior and a junior. Where's he seeing the floor this year?

It's a guard-rich team; it's no surprise that a freshman guard doesn't get a ton of burn.

 

[CL82]

I do not give Ollie any credit for his success with Calhoun's guys

I do. His first two years first keeping the team together and second motivating and driving them to a natty, was excellent coaching in my opinion. Think about the guys he coached against in 2014. It was impressive. That said, the wheels fell off the bus and he had to go.

 

[polycom]

Of that list, though, Allen, Gay, Gordon, Walker, and Hamilton were all McAAs or Top 30, so they don't disprove Auror's point.

Emeka and Lamb both are clearly the exceptions auror was talking about.

Bazz and Boat...well you can tell from the shooting percentages they struggled, and if you gave Adams the amount of time these guys got (Adams is the 5th guard, behind Gilbert, Jalen, CV, and Tarin rather than the 3rd in each of their cases) he might put up something like those numbers with something like their efficiency. Tarin puts up 10ppg as our 4th guard.

Also consider he's behind two Top 30 prospects (Adams and Gilbert) who are 4 and 3 years out of high school, a grad senior and a junior. Where's he seeing the floor this year?

It's a guard-rich team; it's no surprise that a freshman guard doesn't get a ton of burn.

Fair point I didn't read the original aurors's post just the post I quoted.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don't know what team you guys watched for the last 30 years, but I recall only a few true impact freshmen. KEA and Rudy stand out, probably Caron too. I'm not saying several others didn't play important roles, but that was usually due to lack of experienced depth in front of them.

Calhoun never, ever recruited anything like Calipari and Coach K do now, rolling out whole teams of 5 stars top 15 guys and hitting refresh the next year. What he did was find guys who were better than their ranking and who fit what he wanted to do. That is exactly the model Hurley is following. It's also what Mark Few and most coaches with consistent success do. Hell, even Self brings in 3 star kids at KU. Lagerald Vick was a 3 star and so was Frank Mason.

Brendan Adams will be a hell of a basketball player by Junior year. You can count on it. The new guys coming in are all quality players, with both guards being better than their rankings suggest, and Akok being a borderline 5 star (as is Kofi if we get him). The future looks bright.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Completely false. There are plenty of key contributors who were non factors their freshman year over the past 25 years

And plenty who were key players as freshmen. To say that you should never expect a freshman to contribute from Day 1 ignores not only the trend in college basketball at all levels across the country, but the history of this very program.

 

[crazyUCfan23]

Yeah I kind of discussed this in another thread, but the reality is this year was to kind of hope we could keep the players we had here, and replace the exits with real, bonafide talent.

Right now we have 2-3 guys who have the talent levels to either start or make a real impact over four years. The rest are kind of one tool guys we need more than one tool from and reality is we're just not gonna get that from them. and entire half of the roster are kind of lucky to have scholarships. It's hard to really even see growth with that.

Next year the freshman/inexperienced guys we have this year will probably be real contributers and be more starter-ish. And we'll have another wave of guys as talented, maybe a little more talented who instead of being leaned on all the time - will come off the bench and rotate through more like they should. And we'll be able to better leverage some one-tool guys. Bad players who see the court this year, won't next year. But in that mix, you'll see major bumps and likely the end result is a record similar to this year's squad, but with actual growth from your key guys.

It's that next year where you've got bonafide talented starters and then ANOTHER good wave of talent to fill out your bench with some one tool guys who really should be pretty good. Then - well you'll see a tournament caliber team.

I'm going to be really interested in this year's roster turnover. It'll be interested to see if Cobb cooks off. I don't think Whaley has a home here. Those are two spots that open up and who knows - maybe a late commit but more likely a transfer that can be used to fill a hole. But they could be really important slots to fit that you MIGHT be able to upgrade a bit. I think that's where you have a chance to add depth.

cobb is a senior, so he won't be here next year.

 

[Tex-Lager93]

This post has to win for most glaring factual inaccuracy of the season so far.

Glad I could help. I'm in the beer biz...sober thought isn't always in the cards.

 

[methodology]

And plenty who were key players as freshmen. To say that you should never expect a freshman to contribute from Day 1 ignores not only the trend in college basketball at all levels across the country, but the history of this very program.

I didn't say that no freshman should ever be expected to be a contributor. Tentoes was responding to a post about Brendan Adams and it was off base what he was saying.

 

[LambChops]

B. Adams brings size and has a decent 3. He seems like he genuinely cares and wants to win. Something that I can't say for many on this team.

Best Adams on the team IMO

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Best Adams on the team IMO

Okay I'll revise my prior observation.

 

[Stainmaster]

And plenty who were key players as freshmen. To say that you should never expect a freshman to contribute from Day 1 ignores not only the trend in college basketball at all levels across the country, but the history of this very program.

Expecting things to happen just because they happened historically is exactly what I said it is: spoiled.

 

[Stainmaster]

This sounds a lot like your the program couldn’t do better than Ollie rhetoric Stain. This program was used to excellence and recruits who either performed at a high level their first year or showed exciting promise. Being okay with no impact from freshmen is a loser mentality.

We were coming off of two losing seasons that did great harm to the program PR-wise. We had a new coach coming in for the late period, when the pickings are already extremely slim. He had to jettison three signees whom he had no connection with, whose style of play didn't fit his, and with the exception of Akinjo would have certainly failed your test for immediate impact had they stayed on. Given what Hurley had to work with? Yeah, anyone expecting a killer incoming class at that point is spoiled.

People need to learn to adjust their expectations to the circumstances, and not irrationally think they're entitled to the same recruiting to success we had during the literal GOAT's heyday.

 

[tzznandrew]

We were coming off of two losing seasons that did great harm to the program PR-wise. We had a new coach coming in for the late period, when the pickings are already extremely slim. He had to jettison three signees whom he had no connection with, whose style of play didn't fit his, and with the exception of Akinjo would have certainly failed your test for immediate impact had they stayed on. Given what Hurley had to work with? Yeah, anyone expecting a killer incoming class at that point is spoiled.

People need to learn to adjust their expectations to the circumstances, and not irrationally think they're entitled to the same recruiting to success we had during the literal GOAT's heyday.

This is also not saying they can't be/won't be a national power again. Hurley's first year records haven't been good, but he already has much better recruits than he ever got at URI/Wagner...and he hasn't even won anything yet.

 

[ucp990411]

Brendan Adams is not good enough for UCONN. However, he isn't the real problem on the team. Our talent isn't anywhere close to the Jim Calhoun era, but that doesn't excuse the loss to South Florida.

Hurley needs to do better as well. Kevin Ollie creating a losing mentality and atmosphere is true, but South Florida has been pure garbage for most years. They are better this year, but the quotes from coaches from Kelvin Sampson to Brian Gregory is concerning.

We can't be out toughed and outhustled, and outsmarted by mediocre teams like this.

PS: Dan Hurley needs to get his players in here, which is true, but he also needs to discipline players that aren't playing up to par.

Where was B Adams ranked as a recruit?

 

[Huskymagic]

Where was B Adams ranked as a recruit?

Rivals had him at 148. Every other service had him below that.

The eye test doesn’t show you much either with him.

He’s an energy guy, a frenetic type of player.

PS: He’s fine as a role player, but that’s it. We wouldn’t care about a player like him if our main players were actually playing up to par and or were playing like high level players.

 

[HooperScooper]

Where was B Adams ranked as a recruit?

148 on Rivals.

Brendan Adams, 2018 Shooting guard - Rivals.com

179 on 247Sports Composite Ranking and 231 on 247Sports ranking.

Brendan Adams, Connecticut, Point Guard