Don Amore: UConn no longer recruiting Devin Robinson

[upstater]

Sorry to say it but I am somewhat disaqppointed in the way this recruiting class has turned out.

We started out with so much momentum and promise and we have really fizzled out at the end.
We were in on SO MANY TOP LEVEL RECRUITS and MISSED OUT ON EACH & EVERY ONE OF THEM (after Hamilton). We settled for an OK PF in Cassel (there were so many other much better ones that we recruited HARD) and ended up getting some guy in Georgia by way of Alabama that harldly anyone knows about and nobody in the south (SEC) even pursued. We desperately needed a PG/C and we recruited heavily and again got some guy who seems to be much more developmental than all the other guys that we wanted much more.

Stopping recruiting Devin Robinson is just crazy. The guy is a massive talent that fits what we are doing and we stop recruiting him? Another poor choice by the staff. Same thing with Kasongo. If Kasongo is good for other schools why not UConn. You recruit him until the absolute very end.

In the end I'll rate the Class a B-. It could have been an A+ with a key recruit or 2. Better luck next year.

A lot of factual errors here.

1. Lubin is rated well below where UConn typically recruits, but to say the SEC wasn't interested is wrong. Look it up. Auburn in particular was after him. Now, weighing anything and anyone by Auburn's standards is not compelling, but to say he had no SEC interest? Not true.

2. Cassell is more developmental than guys like Perkins and McGlaughlin? First, let's come out and say it. Perkins, McGlaughlin and Snider never visited. But Cassell is more well developed than all these kids. He's older for one, and has had top training. What he lacks in athleticism he'll bring in maturity.

 

[DogMania]

Abu is the big miss of the class. Stick him in there and it's a fantastic class.

Cassell looks very good to me, but those point guards that went away from Ollie & Hobbs (Perkins, McGlaughlin, Snider) are absolutely out of their minds.

I have a feeling this might turn out similar to the year UConn swung and missed on (Selby, Irving, Knight, & Joseph...who happen to be ranked according to one of the sites 1, 2, 3 & 4 rated PGs in 2010) and we had to settle for Bazz (ranked 25th). Well all of those except Joseph left after one season. I think Joseph either left after 2 or 3, while we still have our PG who helped lead us to a National Championship and might also lead UConn to a deep run this March.

I haven't watched much video or followed recruiting as closely as I did in the past, but I wouldn't be surprised if McGlaughlin and Snider end up as short timers. I'm not sure about Perkins. I think he needs some time to develop his PG skills, but maybe his combo skills will be good enough to propel him to the league in short order as well.

As for Cassell, I think he's going to need his 3 years of eligibility to develop his PG skills. I've only watched one video clip and he has a very nice handle and some impressive scoring skills, but in the one clip I watched, I saw him pass the ball once. I have no idea how well he is capable of running a team. I hope he develops into a Marcus Williams type PG who learns to have a plan-A game of setting up his teammates, but a plan-B game of turning on the scoring when needed. Points who reverse these tend not to win. Their teammates do too much standing around and watching the scorer and not get into the flow of the offense. Now I'm sure if SCJr doesn't adjust to what KO wants, someone else will get more PG PT than him. But I think he'll listen and learn from KO if he wants to improve his NBA stock. His best shot at maximizing his earning potential and longevity in the League is at the 1 and not the 2. To be an NBA 2 you need some combination of the following: Creating your own offense, athleticism, size, strength, ball handling and defend the opposing 2s. If you're too small, not quite athletic enough or can't defend your position, you're stay in the League will be brief or you'll hold on as a career bench player. I would think that SCJr wants to play at the next level.

With all that said, if SCJr lacks lead guard instincts...as I noted above, I don't know if that's the case or not...not all guards develop these critical lead guard skills: Discipline, Seeing the floor (delivering the ball to the right teammates at the right time) and having a calm and confident demeanor. If Sam doesn't have that already, I hope he learns them quickly. Bazz is a lead guard whose discipline improved quickly (granted he still takes those deep Nooooooo...Yeeeees Bombs, some at the right time and some not so much), he sees the floor well though I wouldn't say he's exceptional in that area and he's always oozed with confidence and for the most part has been a good vocal leader (has struggled at times to be more positive when teammates have made mistakes, but showed improvement last season). One a side note, the jury is still out on Boatright. He's a scorer who needs to show improvement with his decision making and floor vision. I have a feeling we'll see a lot of growth in those two areas this season.

All in all, I'm good with SCJr. Would I have liked to land one of the elite ones? Yes. Though I was very concerned with Snider, who I think might not qualify. I don't know much about him, but I wonder if he's got a little Selby in him, who had some eligibility issues and when he did finally play was not a good teammate and caused his coach much angst.

 

[aceboon]

Joseph also left after 1 year, and your assesment of McLaughlin/Snider/Perkins is a lil off. Perkins is a true PG and looks like Marcus Williams with his vision, he's the truest PG out of the guys we recruited. I'm not sure how many years he stays in school due to his lack of athleticism but he's not a combo guard. McLaughlin is like a slightly taller Boat. Not quite as good an athlete but he can get up there, not sure how long he stays in college due to his size though, but he has NBA athleticism. Snider looks like a 4 year player to me, not great size, not a great athlete, and I didn't see great vision in his vids. Also, with the comment on his eligibility I think you are getting Snider mixed up with Lyle, who doesn't have a qualifying SAT score yet. McLaughlin and Perkins were my top 2 but I'm very happy with Cassell Jr, I like him much more than Snider and due to his age and experience he might be able to contribute right off the bat more than all of the other guys we missed at PG.

I have a feeling this might turn out similar to the year UConn swung and missed on (Selby, Irving, Knight, & Joseph...who happen to be ranked according to one of the sites 1, 2, 3 & 4 rated PGs in 2010) and we had to settle for Bazz (ranked 25th). Well all of those except Joseph left after one season. I think Joseph either left after 2 or 3, while we still have our PG who helped lead us to a National Championship and might also lead UConn to a deep run this March.

I haven't watched much video or followed recruiting as closely as I did in the past, but I wouldn't be surprised if McGlaughlin and Snider end up as short timers. I'm not sure about Perkins. I think he needs some time to develop his PG skills, but maybe his combo skills will be good enough to propel him to the league in short order as well.

As for Cassell, I think he's going to need his 3 years of eligibility to develop his PG skills. I've only watched one video clip and he has a very nice handle and some impressive scoring skills, but in the one clip I watched, I saw him pass the ball once. I have no idea how well he is capable of running a team. I hope he develops into a Marcus Williams type PG who learns to have a plan-A game of setting up his teammates, but a plan-B game of turning on the scoring when needed. Points who reverse these tend not to win. Their teammates do too much standing around and watching the scorer and not get into the flow of the offense. Now I'm sure if SCJr doesn't adjust to what KO wants, someone else will get more PG PT than him. But I think he'll listen and learn from KO if he wants to improve his NBA stock. He's best shot at maximizing his earning potential and longevity in the League is at the 1 and not the 2. To be an NBA 2 you need some combination of the following: Creating your own offense, athleticism, size, strength, ball handling and defend the opposing 2s. If you're too small, not quite athletic enough or can't defend your position, you're stay in the League will be brief or you'll hold on as a career bench player. I would think that SCJr wants to play at the next level.

With all that said, if SCJr lacks lead guard instincts...as I noted above, I don't know if that's the case or not...not all guards develop these critical lead guard skills: Discipline, Seeing the floor (delivering the ball to the right teammates at the right time) and having a calm and confident demeanor. If Sam doesn't have that already, I hope he learns them quickly. Bazz is a lead guard whose discipline improved quickly (granted he still takes those deep Nooooooo...Yeeeees Bombs, some at the right time and some not so much), he seems the floor well though I wouldn't say he's exceptional in that area and he's always oozed with confidence and for the most part has been a good vocal leader (has struggled at times to be more positive when teammates have made mistakes, but showed improvement last season).

All in all, I'm good with SCJr. Would I have liked to land one of the elite ones? Yes. Though I was very concerned with Snider, who I think might not qualify. I don't know much about him, but I wonder if he's got a little Selby in him, who had some eligibility issues and when he did finally play was not a good teammate and caused his coach much angst.

 

[James]

Cassell at nd prep played against serious comp and produced, that's all that matters really. I almost favor him over McLaughlin . Not perkins since they're the same height and Perkins is a better passer

 

[tcf15]

I thought I read that Ollie saw Lubin play in the spring. That's what his commit article said.

There was something written somewhere that Ollie saw him whenever, but I believe that was inaccurate.

I believe this is where it came from:
Justin Young ‏@JustinDYoung 29 Sep
Interesting note about Rakim Lubin and UConn. The last time Kevin Ollie saw his new commit play was in the spring live eval period in April.
Justin Young ‏@JustinDYoung 29 Sep
Rakim Lubin is an interesting one though. Really raw. Really strong. Could be a bully on the blocks. That's the real intrigue.

 

[DogMania]

Joseph also left after 1 year, and your assesment of McLaughlin/Snider/Perkins is a lil off. Perkins is a true PG and looks like Marcus Williams with his vision, he's the truest PG out of the guys we recruited. I'm not sure how many years he stays in school due to his lack of athleticism but he's not a combo guard. McLaughlin is like a slightly taller Boat. Not quite as good an athlete but he can get up there, not sure how long he stays in college due to his size though, but he has NBA athleticism. Snider looks like a 4 year player to me, not great size, not a great athlete, and I didn't see great vision in his vids. Also, with the comment on his eligibility I think you are getting Snider mixed up with Lyle, who doesn't have a qualifying SAT score yet. McLaughlin and Perkins were my top 2 but I'm very happy with Cassell Jr, I like him much more than Snider and due to his age and experience he might be able to contribute right off the bat more than all of the other guys we missed at PG.

Thanks for the insights, aceboon. Like I said, I haven't watched much video this year nor read a lot of articles. My assessments were based on very small samples. I had thought I read that many saw Perkins as more a Combo Guard. What's interesting about him, is that reports seem to differ on him as they did with Marcus. Until I got to watch MW play for a few years, I didn't understand why the wide array of assessments of his high school game. Some listed him with excellent PG skills but lacked scoring, while some listed him as as scorer but not much lead guard skills. Well it turned out that he might have been the best all-around PG we've ever had as far as his offensive game. He wasn't very athletic and struggled to defend his position, which turned out to be the reason his stay in the NBA was short and mainly on the bench. What we saw when he played for UConn is he looked to set up his teammates most of the time, but when the team struggled and needed scoring, he'd turn on a switch and score from all over the floor. Depending on what mode he was in when the recruiting guru saw him, they'd come away with a completely different report. Maybe it's the same case with Perkins.

I might have gotten Perkins and Oubre mixed up. I know we recruited both. Was Oubre the one that seemed high on us early who wanted UK or was that Perkins?

And I might have also confused Snider with Jaquan Lyle. Lyle is the one who's really big for a PG who might attract a lot of early NBA interest. It's coming back to me now, Snider is very thin, but he has good height, listed 6-1, so he's probably at least 6 foot which is plenty big for college, but needs to excel in some areas of his game if he wants to get to the next level.

Bottom line, I think we'll be fine at the point for 2014 even if Boatshow takes him game to the league a year early. If he sticks around for his senior year, we'll be all the better for it. Between Cassell, Purvis and Samuel. we'll have the PG position covered.

 

[CTBasketball]

Staff probably intends Hamilton to play the 3.

 

[Gurleyman]

Sorry to say it but I am somewhat disaqppointed in the way this recruiting class has turned out.

We started out with so much momentum and promise and we have really fizzled out at the end.
We were in on SO MANY TOP LEVEL RECRUITS and MISSED OUT ON EACH & EVERY ONE OF THEM (after Hamilton). We settled for an OK PF in Cassel (there were so many other much better ones that we recruited HARD) and ended up getting some guy in Georgia by way of Alabama that harldly anyone knows about and nobody in the south (SEC) even pursued. We desperately needed a PG/C and we recruited heavily and again got some guy who seems to be much more developmental than all the other guys that we wanted much more.

Stopping recruiting Devin Robinson is just crazy. The guy is a massive talent that fits what we are doing and we stop recruiting him? Another poor choice by the staff. Same thing with Kasongo. If Kasongo is good for other schools why not UConn. You recruit him until the absolute very end.

In the end I'll rate the Class a B-. It could have been an A+ with a key recruit or 2. Better luck next year.

If you don't include Purvis with this group, you are not being intellectually honest. With Purvis and Hamilton aboard early, we closed off all of our 2 and 3 options - and affected some of our 1 options too.

As of right now, we're setting up for a nice two-year run with Cassell-Purvis-Calhoun-Hamilton-Facey and whoever else we develop around them for support (or add in 2015). Perhaps Lubin on paper is relatively unheralded, but he was ranked in the top 50 once by someone pre-injury - Austrie and Gavin Edwards were nowhere near that and both were rotation guys on a Final Four team (and both ended up starters as seniors). Edwards' own high school coach (who benched him as a senior) said he would never play at UConn, and he ended up starting. What Lubin provides, if nothing else, is a different defensive look with his physicality - Facey, Brimah, Nolan are all long and lean. Now we have a physical defender to rotate in on a big body if we're getting pushed around (plus another thing big bodies typically do better than skinny ones is set screens for your scorers). On paper, sure, Abu was our top choice for that role but we have a long, long, long history of having things work out when we don't get our top target at a position.

 

[Gurleyman]

He wasn't very athletic and struggled to defend his position, which turned out to be the reason his stay in the NBA was short and mainly on the bench..

Believe it or not, MW morphed into a chucker in his brief NBA career - putting up a shot every two minutes or so at low percentages and having a relatively poor A:TO ratio for a backup PG. I remember a Nets beat writer complaining about false advertising ("who the heck claimed this guy was a pure point guard?").

 

[FASTEDDY]

Clueless, and it doesn't even require the effort to explain why you've earned that label.

First off, screw you you big wise-ass.

whats so wrong with my assessment?

alright, almost all the SEC schools, with the exception of Auburn, completely ignored Lubin. Yet, some posters on this board seem to think he's THE ANSWER at the 4. For crying out loud, WE'RE UCONN and we are getting a low ranked RAW guy at a spot we are in huge need for. Can't be happy with this when you conider all the others that we recruited at this spot.

Cassell? Hoping he turns out well but the guy was ranked around #150 by ESPN out of high school. We couldn;t do any better than that when we recruited seemingly every top notch PG out there? Somewhat disappointed but hopeful on this one.

What else ACEBOOB do you have a problem with?

 

[CTBasketball]

It seems like we went with Plan D or F on our recruits, except for Hamilton.

 

[Gurleyman]

First off, screw you you big wise-ass.

whats so wrong with my assessment?

alright, almost all the SEC schools, with the exception of Auburn, completely ignored Lubin. Yet, some posters on this board seem to think he's THE ANSWER at the 4. For crying out loud, WE'RE UCONN and we are getting a low ranked RAW guy at a spot we are in huge need for. Can't be happy with this when you conider all the others that we recruited at this spot.

Cassell? Hoping he turns out well but the guy was ranked around #150 by ESPN out of high school. We couldn;t do any better than that when we recruited seemingly every top notch PG out there? Somewhat disappointed but hopeful on this one.

What else ACEBOOB do you have a problem with?

We have Facey as a perfectly viable option at the 4 for at least three years. Hopefully four.

When recruiting PGs we had to try to convince them that they had a role on a team that might include both Boat and Purvis playing minutes there (and Samuel too). We didn't get far along the process with either Perkins or Snider - c'est la vie - but Cassell ended up a pretty good fit. If we want to go three guards - we can be 6-3, 6-4, 6-5 and switch any perimeter screen and not worry about matchups. Don't really care about two-year-old high school rankings any more than I do about Kromah's ranking from 2008.

 

[Dynasty]

Didn't want to make a new thread for this but apparently UConn is still recruiting Lyle.

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-ba...ng-2014-cliff-alexander-kansas-memphis-visits

 

[tzznandrew]

Rudy would have been an ideal stretch 4. Strong, athletic, can rebound and block shots, no college 4 could guard him around the perimeter. But he never played a minute there. Sticks even more so - I think he saw a few minutes at the 4 his senior year (backing up Gavin) when we tinkered trying to find the right personnel, but he was exclusively a 3 on the Adrien-Thabeet teams.

We should have had a pretty good spread offense with floor spacing last year and guards who can drive, but it was still flawed, since our 5s didn't occupy defenders at all. We could spread the floor with four shooters, and find open driving lanes, but the other team's 5 was always waiting as a one-man zone, so getting to the rim was a challenge. It's more important to have the bigs be guys that can finish (lobs, or quick catches and finishes, little 5-10 footers, etc.) so defenders have to worry about them and be indecisive - maybe be a step or two later sliding over to help. Ben got to the rim a lot with Emeka/Boone - neither of whom stretched the defense much.

Totally agree on Rudy. He was matched up against players like Allan Ray/Randy Foye at the 3 against a number of teams, and it meant he couldn't use his wide range of skills (we couldn't post him with the paint clogged [Boone/Armstrong], he couldn't get past guards off the dribble). Playing him at the 4, with either Boone or Armstrong in the post, is something that never crossed Calhoun's mind. Nor did it really cross anyone's. The NBA game changed that much in the last 7-8 years...

 

[caw]

Didn't want to make a new thread for this but apparently UConn is still recruiting Lyle.

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-ba...ng-2014-cliff-alexander-kansas-memphis-visits

I gave up in recruiting this year. After my AAU sources downright lied to me about Robjnson, and have admitted as such. I'd take everything written as speculation until a kid signs.

 

[DogMania]

Didn't want to make a new thread for this but apparently UConn is still recruiting Lyle.

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-ba...ng-2014-cliff-alexander-kansas-memphis-visits

Hum...even though it's a new article, I wonder if the news is a tad outdated. I can't imagine SCJr being too excited that they're still pursuing another PG. But maybe KO told him he might not be the only one he'll bring in and Jr was okay with that.

I do like depth at the PG position as well at the 5...you can never have too many bigs...hum, I think I've posted that once or twice before.

The only concern I have with adding more to the 2014 class is it will cut into number of ships we'll have for the talented 2015 class that KO and the staff have been all over lately.

My guess is we've moved on just as we did with the_one_who_is_to_remain_nameless.

 

[caw]

Hum...even though it's a new article, I wonder if the news is a tad outdated. I can't imagine SCJr being too excited that they're still pursuing another PG. But maybe KO told him he might not be the only one he'll bring in and Jr was okay with that.

I do like depth at the PG position as well at the 5...you can never have too many bigs...hum, I think I've posted that once or twice before.

The only concern I have with adding more to the 2014 class is it will cut into number of ships we'll have for the talented 2015 class that KO and the staff have been all over lately.

My guess is we've moved on just as we did with the_one_who_is_to_remain_nameless.

Lyle is another 1/2 so if Boat/Daniels leave that would mean it would be something like:

PG: Cassell, Samuel
SG: Purvis, Lyle
SF: Calhoun, Hamilton
PF: Facey, Lubin, Tolksdorf
C: Nolan, Brimah

If PT/depth wasn't the reason Lyle decommitted to UL, I guess it's possible, and that would be a pretty deep 1-3 with a ton of talent. Just idle speculation. I'm done talking to AAU guys about 2014 recruits.

 

[Mooch82]

Lyle is another 1/2 so if Boat/Daniels leave that would mean it would be something like:

PG: Cassell, Samuel
SG: Purvis, Lyle
SF: Calhoun, Hamilton
PF: Facey, Lubin, Tolksdorf
C: Nolan, Brimah

If PT/depth wasn't the reason Lyle decommitted to UL, I guess it's possible, and that would be a pretty deep 1-3 with a ton of talent. Just idle speculation. I'm done talking to AAU guys about 2014 recruits.

Caw - what did your AAU sources tell you exactly about Robinson?