Did not expect McNeeley to be this good this soon! | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Did not expect McNeeley to be this good this soon!

superjohn said:
McNeeley and Castle on the same team? Yeah, we would kick Auburn's butt along with everyone else in the country.
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Maybe - this Auburn team is awful good. I mean, watching them, I feel like they’d give last years team a run. Would be an amazing title game. Not like the blowouts of the past two years.
 
Scottzer said:
Maybe - this Auburn team is awful good. I mean, watching them, I feel like they’d give last years team a run. Would be an amazing title game. Not like the blowouts of the past two years.
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They are good and can probably hang with our 24 team for a half but will get worn down the stretch. We will not see a college team with TNewt-Cam-Castle-Karaban-Clingan and no team will beat that roster for a long while.
 
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Baller.
 
I think the combo of Karaban and McNeeley is going to develop into unstoppable, and fairly soon.
 
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Both Flagg & McNeeley have lived up to the hype. I thought we were in trouble when Flagg chose Duke over us. But, McNeeley has kept the 3peat alive.
 
After watching some their games last year, McNeeley would have been my second pick for sure coming out of that school. Flagg has lived up to every bit of the hype he came with. McNeeley is just going to keep getting better and better.
 
If Alex can get his outside shooting figured out and I think he will this is going to be tough team to beat as Ball, Stew, Ross and Mahaney are going to get better at producing from their roles. If Nowell can be productive look out.
 
jibsey said:
Good news, we don’t have to choose. I’m trying to think of a more talented freshman on all levels of basketball for UConn and I can’t. Scoring Liam had it on Castle but Castle had it on defense so maybe I guess.
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Liam got here born ready. It took Castle until February to see his potential realized.
 
HailUConn said:
They are good and can probably hang with our 24 team for a half but will get worn down the stretch. We will not see a college team with TNewt-Cam-Castle-Karaban-Clingan and no team will beat that roster for a long while.
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Last year’s team was one for the ages and I do mean all time. We went 37-3 and our only real defeat was at Creighton where any team would have lost that night.
 
jdb50 said:
If Alex can get his outside shooting figured out and I think he will this is going to be tough team to beat as Ball, Stew, Ross and Mahaney are going to get better at producing from their roles. If Nowell can be productive look out.
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I'm not sure what you are expecting from Karaban but he's shooting 42% from three for the season, which would be a career high if he keeps that up (shot 40% freshman year and 38% sophomore year). What would you like him to get to? I hope he gets better but 42% is still very good.
 
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I'm really happy where this team sits right now. Maui was a shocker and I was legit worried about just righting the ship quickly and positioning ourselves to just get into the tournament. To go 5-0 over Baylor, Texas, Zags, Xavier, and Butler is big time and I would've happily signed up for 4-1 or 3-2 over that stretch after what we saw in Maui. The two headed center monster is still a real thing in Storrs, I wouldn't trade our forward duo of McNeeley and Karaban over any duo in the country and Hass is better this year as a point guard than any of us should've expected. We won pretty over Zags and Texas and we won close games over Baylor, Xavier, and Butler.

We've positioned ourselves well for the rest of the season and our best basketball is ahead of us. A lot to be thankful for as a fan.
 
temery said:
Is he expected to be one and done?
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One thing you have to know about McNeeley is that he is hungry to win a national championship and be a part of raising another banner. He doesn't have a one-and-done mentality or see UConn as merely a gateway to the NBA. That's not his make up. For that reason there's a chance he comes back for a sophomore season.
 
ctbro1999 said:
Seems very plausible this year's Indiana team would have been far from a title contender even with McNeeley.
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Woody is still their coach. He has recruited great classes, and underperformed every year

I think Woody's lack of success is the reason why Liam reopened his recruiting
 
SwingDog said:
One thing you have to know about McNeeley is that he is hungry to win a national championship and be a part of raising another banner. He doesn't have a one-and-done mentality or see UConn as merely a gateway to the NBA. That's not his make up. For that reason there's a chance he comes back for a sophomore season.
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And so it begins…. Enjoy McNeeley now. He’s gone at the end of the season.
 
HuskyFich said:
Castle could have got 20 points any night he wanted.

I will die on this hill.
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Yes, but UConn would have lost several of those games if Castle wanted 20.

He was really good but was streaky at best from the outside as a frosh in college. He was used masterfully last year.
 
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SwingDog said:
One thing you have to know about McNeeley is that he is hungry to win a national championship and be a part of raising another banner. He doesn't have a one-and-done mentality or see UConn as merely a gateway to the NBA. That's not his make up. For that reason there's a chance he comes back for a sophomore season.
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Please. But I don’t think so. Can anyone imagine what that would look like next year if he stayed?
 
jibsey said:
Please. But I don’t think so. Can anyone imagine what that would look like next year if he stayed?
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Time will tell. He wouldn't be the first potential or projected lottery pick who decided to stay another year.
 
FearThePups said:
Liam got here born ready. It took Castle until February to see his potential realized.
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I disagree Castle wasn’t ready from the jump, he just had a different role then had an injury. His offensive role wasn’t as big as Liam’s, and making big shots wasn’t a part of his resume.

I guess I’m just nitpicking, forgive me. But Castle is about as “born ready” as I’ve seen a frosh, I don’t care what his numbers were in November.
 
Chin Diesel said:
Yes, but UConn would have lost several of those games if Castle wanted 20.

He was really good but was streaky at best from the outside as a frosh in college. He was used masterfully last year.
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I mean sure, I agree with this on its premise.

But just to play devils advocate here, McNeeley’s numbers wouldn’t be the same if he was on last years team also…

Both guys are probably top 5 frosh UConn has ever had, so not trying to say anything here other than they are both dominant.

I just personally believe Stephon Castle willingly took a secondary role for the team and could have easily averaged 4-5 more ppg on almost any other team in the country.
 
Mr. French said:
I disagree Castle wasn’t ready from the jump, he just had a different role then had an injury. His offensive role wasn’t as big as Liam’s, and making big shots wasn’t a part of his resume.

I guess I’m just nitpicking, forgive me. But Castle is about as “born ready” as I’ve seen a frosh, I don’t care what his numbers were in November.
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You're 100% right. Castle was ready from the start. Great defender, good ball handler and could score right away He did improve as the year went on, but he improved from really good to phenomenal.

The reason Liam scores more is because of what's around him. Castle was surrounded by legit stars at every position.
 
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HuskyFich said:
I mean sure, I agree with this on its premise.

But just to play devils advocate here, McNeeley’s numbers wouldn’t be the same if he was on last years team also…

Both guys are probably top 5 frosh UConn has ever had, so not trying to say anything here other than they are both dominant.

I just personally believe Stephon Castle willingly took a secondary role for the team and could have easily averaged 4-5 more ppg on almost any other team in the country.
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Yes, Castle absolutely took a lesser role offensively to be part of an exceptional team. The role any given player has is very dependent on the talent surrounding him. I thought I was clear in how I specified my comment but evidently I wasn't and now I wish I hadn't made that comment.

I stated scorer instead of offensive player as there are more things to offense than being the guy who put the ball in the basket (although that is a major part of it). KEA as a freshman facilitating the offense would be a great argument even with Liam being as skilled a shooter as he has shown so far.

I believe that if Ray was a freshman on many other UConn teams he would easily have exceeded what any freshman here did as a scorer. I also believe that if all freshman were the age Caron was his freshman year (he turned 21 before the season ended) there would have been a few who could claim an overall impact at a level similar to Caron.

Yes, Castle was an alltime great player here even with only one season's worth of contributions and his on ball defense as a true freshman was impressive beyond anything I could have ever expected any true freshman being capable of. He also scored very well, when needed at the basket and often inside the arc. I'm confident that more volume would have also improved his three point shooting.

One thing I don't want is for this to end up as a pi$$ing contest over who was better than who.
 
Mr. French said:
I disagree Castle wasn’t ready from the jump, he just had a different role then had an injury. His offensive role wasn’t as big as Liam’s, and making big shots wasn’t a part of his resume.

I guess I’m just nitpicking, forgive me. But Castle is about as “born ready” as I’ve seen a frosh, I don’t care what his numbers were in November.
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I guess our definition of a 5* recruit is different. Castle did not have an immediate impact as Liam is showing. We can agree that they had different roles but Castle came onto the team with established players. Liam is doing a lot more with lesser talent around him as we don’t have the weapons and opponents are focusing more on him than they had to do with Castle.
 
WhereistheDove? said:
And so it begins…. Enjoy McNeeley now. He’s gone at the end of the season.
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Reminds me of the crazy Castle/Clingan need another year takes here last offseason. Liam is dynamic, absolutely a first round pick in 2025 barring injury, and will absolutely go pro.
 
cp176 said:
Castle's defense is what set him apart from the day he stepped foot on the floor for UCONN.
I love Liam. My guess is that we have him for 2 years.
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How can we have him for 2 years if he’s a top 15 draft pick and maybe top 10?
 
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