Don Amore: UConn no longer recruiting Devin Robinson

[UCONNfan1]

This is what's perplexing. They have close ties to his AAU team, they had his last visit, they are going against Indiana and Indiana has 3 or 4 players ahead of him at the 3. Long shot? This was not a long shot. It seems to be a difference of needs and fit. This was a recruitment that was coming down to the wire.

What I should have said is that maybe now the kid changed his mind and is no longer interested in UCONN and now it's looking like a long shot. I do agree it's perplexing, and fans trying to read between the lines from AAU coach comments along with horde reporters and others probably will never put together the whole story... But point well taken...

 

[BUHusky]

You do realize that prior to last year, Uconn always had "two lane-clogging F/C's" on the court at the same time, right?

+100

I'm not sure people (or maybe just Tenspro...) realize that Daniels was put at the stretch 4 last year because of absolute necessity and not because that was the look KO necessarily wanted his front-court to have going forward in his career. As Ace rightly pointed out in his last post, when UConn has been it's most successful they've had two traditional big men at the 4 and 5. This idea that the front-court is in trouble because they might not have a 3 playing out of position at the 4 is a bit absurd.

Also, people seem to forget how awful UConn was at rebounding last year. At least some of that had to do with Daniels playing the 4. I'm completely ok with a front-court going forward of Facey, Nolan, Brimah, and Lubin assuming those guys will bang and grab boards.

 

[UCONNfan1]

We've been recruiting Robinson forever...stopping now is wasting all that time and effort we already put into him. Don't buy this.

To me, he'd be the perfect player to fill this class. Hamilton is a 2/3 while Robinson is a 3/4...I don't see an issue there. We also recruited Larrier to the end who overlaps with Hamilton more than Robinson would have. This baffles me. Would love to get a true explanation on this from someone in the know rather than just speculation.

Good points! I didn't consider that in my post...

 

[I Bleed Blue]

This sucks, but at the same time I think DeAndre may stay for his senior year. Unless he goes absolutely nuts on the court this year he is going to have a hard time being a lottery pick in 2014 with the likes of Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Jabari Parker, Dante Exum, Aaron Gordon, Andrew Harrison, Marcus Smart, Mitch McGary, Joel Embiid, Gary Harris, Isaiah Austin, etc. If he stays and polishes his game for one extra year he will be making it rain as a sure-fire Top 10 pick in 2015.

 

[James]

Deandre's leaving next year and facey can hit mid range jump shots. That's his game. Lubin his backup, and two 7 footers at the 5. Not bad, especially since our strength is 1-3

 

[FriarJ]

We stopped recruiting Robinson because he only wanted to play the 3. I'm bummed because for the longest time I thought he was UConn bound. Hate to break it to Robinson but wherever he chooses to go he will quickly find out he doesn't have the handle to only play the 3, a lesson a lot of tall college recruits find out. I thought he would have been perfect playing Deandre's role but oh well. Players today get way too hung up on positions, back in the day there were 2 guards, 2 forwards and a center.

I honestly thought you guys were going to get this kid, but I do have one question after reading all the things about 3 versus 4. How the heck is a 6'8" 170lb kid a 4 on a high level college team, never mind the NBA? Unless he has no 3 skills whatsoever then I doubt he would be rated this high because a 170lb kid is going to be pushed all over the place. Your new PF can lift one of him in each arm for pete's sake.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

This sucks, but at the same time I think DeAndre may stay for his senior year. Unless he goes absolutely nuts on the court this year he is going to have a hard time being a lottery pick in 2014 with the likes of Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Jabari Parker, Dante Exum, Aaron Gordon, Andrew Harrison, Marcus Smart, Mitch McGary, Joel Embiid, Gary Harris, Isaiah Austin, etc. If he stays and polishes his game for one extra year he will be making it rain as a sure-fire Top 10 pick in 2015.

DD is a possible lottery, definite number 1 pick this year barring injury. Absolute the best prospect on the team. I love SN .but the compitition at point and 2 is brutal.
No way he comes back.

 

[I Bleed Blue]

Deandre's leaving next year and facey can hit mid range jump shots. That's his game. Lubin his backup, and two 7 footers at the 5. Not bad, especially since our strength is 1-3

I don't see DeAndre leaving as a given. Although scouts have said he is the most intriguing NBA prospect we have, I don't see him being a lottery pick in 2014. If being a lottery pick is important to him, he should stay.

edit: AZ, no doubt he's a first rounder in 2014. I'm just saying, its possible he stays.

 

[SeattleHoop]

We are in play for Melvin Swift who is more of a true 4 although he is thin too. But I think maybe we go after him a little tougher since he does plan on visiting.

 

[B1GEast]

all I can say right now is in KO we trust.

 

[ColoradoUCFan]

I worried about Hamilton de-committing had we gotten Robinson.

Let's look at who will be starting in a year:

Calhoun is going to start.
Two of these three will start (Cassell, Samuel, Purvis)
Either Hamilton or Robinson had a starting spot had Robinson committed (unless you're sitting Purvis or Cassell). But both Robinson and Hamilton can start as freshman in college

One position is still in flux: Center. That's it! We can't take a top recruit at another position without another already committed recruit feeling like they should de-commit.

 

[upstater]

I honestly thought you guys were going to get this kid, but I do have one question after reading all the things about 3 versus 4. How the heck is a 6'8" 170lb kid a 4 on a high level college team, never mind the NBA? Unless he has no 3 skills whatsoever then I doubt he would be rated this high because a 170lb kid is going to be pushed all over the place. Your new PF can lift one of him in each arm for pete's sake.

Because UConn plays fast and NBA style. Deandre Daniels is the same height and came in at 180 pounds. 170 pounds is this kid's junior weight. Daniels is at the 4 now for UConn.

 

[SirHypeAlot]

i really don't think deandre is going pro after this year. i loved how he played at the end of last year and hope he continues playing at that level but it was such a small sample size for everyone to think he's going pro.

 

[ctchamps]

Why do you have to have someone like DeAndre at the PF spot? I like him there, but its not necessary to have someone with his skillset at PF in order to win. We won a title with KFree, an athletic big who could finish inside, get garbage baskets and hit an occasional jumper. We won another title with Josh Boone starting at PF, who had no offensive game outside of garbage baskets and putbacks around the rim. We went to a FF with Jeff, who had a nice back to the basket game and could hit a jumper out to 15 ft. We won another title with Roscoe playing the bulk of the minutes at PF, Roscoe's offensive game was severely limited, he basically floated around on the perimeter on O shooting an occasional deep jumper. None of these guys were anything alike, so I'm not sure why you think going forward for hopefully the next 20 years of KO's coaching career he's going to feature the same type of player as DeAndre at PF.

Also, once again you're making baseless assumptions on players you've never seen play, as long as the NCAA doesn't strip Facey of all of his eligibility he will have a very good career here.

Of course this season will be the aberration to that formula for NC's.

It was obvious from the way the staff went after Abu and the various pg's what the priorities were after DHam committed. DHam was probably a surprise get. They wanted Robinson but he became expendable with the DHam commitment.

After the commitment of DHam and Purvis the staff wanted a PG and a PF and the primary targets for that were Abu and Perkins. They kept going down the line to get a PG and PF. I'm guessing the Swift thing was an overlap because the staff was not expecting Lubin to commit so quickly.

 

[tcf15]

Of course this season will be the aberration to that formula for NC's.

It was obvious from the way the staff went after Abu and the various pg's what the priorities were after DHam committed. DHam was probably a surprise get. They wanted Robinson but he became expendable with the DHam commitment.

After the commitment of DHam and Purvis the staff wanted a PG and a PF and the primary targets for that were Abu and Perkins. They kept going down the line to get a PG and PF. I'm guessing the Swift thing was an overlap because the staff was not expecting Lubin to commit so quickly.

Was just about to type up the same thing. The staff probably expected to be in a few down to the wire races for some wings, but the DHam commitment allowed them to focus elsewhere.

 

[PomonaHusky]

Amore needs to edit his title!
http://courantblogs.com/uconn-men/k...n-magazine-and-other-huskies-notes-and-links/
Ollie is an Overachiever not an underachiever.

 

[Tenspro2002]

+100

I'm not sure people (or maybe just Tenspro...) realize that Daniels was put at the stretch 4 last year because of absolute necessity and not because that was the look KO necessarily wanted his front-court to have going forward in his career. As Ace rightly pointed out in his last post, when UConn has been it's most successful they've had two traditional big men at the 4 and 5. This idea that the front-court is in trouble because they might not have a 3 playing out of position at the 4 is a bit absurd.

Also, people seem to forget how awful UConn was at rebounding last year. At least some of that had to do with Daniels playing the 4. I'm completely ok with a front-court going forward of Facey, Nolan, Brimah, and Lubin assuming those guys will bang and grab boards.

I agree that DD was put at the 4 because of necessity, but I also think it's our best look going forward. The premier college 4's are guys like Terrence Jones, Otto Porter, our very own Deandre Daniels, who have an array of skills and will be a prototypical 3 in the NBA (LeBron, Carmelo, Durant -- though even those guys have started to play the 4 more often). Those guys aren't 3's playing out of position at the 4. Those guys are what the 4 position looks like in today's college basketball.

We've succeeded in the past with two traditional bigs, but those bigs have been All-American or NBA caliber: Okafor, Villanueva, Boone, Armstrong, Thabeet. Obviously I have no idea how our bigs will develop over the next year, and how the class of 2013 and 2014 will perform, but we're counting on hitting home runs with 2 out of 4 unheralded guys. It's happened in the past, it's not impossible, but I think we're asking for a lot out of them. Getting a guy like Robinson or Larrier would have negated those concerns.

 

[Woodson]

Bennie Boatwright

 

[B1GEast]

i really don't think deandre is going pro after this year. i loved how he played at the end of last year and hope he continues playing at that level but it was such a small sample size for everyone to think he's going pro.

No one knows how good DD will be, if he blows up and gets a lot of media attention, you can be sure that he'll think about it.

 

[SeattleHoop]

Amore needs to edit his title!
http://courantblogs.com/uconn-men/k...n-magazine-and-other-huskies-notes-and-links/
Ollie is an Overachiever not an underachiever.

Yeah that makes no sense. Some chubby old guy who writes crappy articles for a newspaper calling Kevin Ollie whom has had great success in college, the NBA and now a head coach for one of the best basketball programs in the country is an underachiever. And dont forget about his servitude and emphasis on the importance of family. Underachiever my a**.

 

[Stinger92860]

UConn is in on a lot of bigs for 2015. Some will be coming for First Night. That being said, it is always very difficult to land a top 50 center. There are only a handful of those.

Hope they can land one of Cheick Diallo, Carlton Bragg, Ivan Rabb, Doral Moore, Moustapha Diagnem, Jesse Govan, Chance Comanche.

I'll bite. There are 50 top 50 centers in a given year..... We have a winner!

 

[Gurleyman]

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.

 

[champs99and04]

Apologies to D$, as I had previously questioned him on this.

Aside from that, I continue to believe people are jumping the gun on DeAndre bolting after this season. He's not a first round pick on any mock board from what I can tell, so it just doesn't quite add up to me. There are a ridiculous supply of wings who are going to be declaring after this season, and Napier, Boat, and Omar are all going to be taking as many shots as him, or close to it. If he puts up 14 and 7 - which seems realistic - he could come back the following season and blow up.

But, we'll find out about that seven months from now. For now - while I'm disappointed in the Devin news - I'm almost relieved in a sense that all the recruiting hysteria for 2014 is over with. Now we can focus on actual basketball, and we figure to be pretty damn good for the next two seasons.

13/14:
Bazz/T-Sam
Boat/Kromah
Omar/Giff
DD/Facey/Tolk
Phil/Tyler/Brimah

14/15, worse case scenario:
Purvis/T-Sam
Omar/Cassell
D-Ham/Tolk
Facey/Lubin
Nolan/Brimah

We're fine.

 

[D$]

Just recd the following text from my source who heard this straight from DRob's coach.

Lack of connection, logjam at position , not feelin them as much AAC as a conference

Should be taken with a grain of salt since they might be embarrassed that uconn stopped recruiting him

 

[UCweCONN]

Apologies to D$, as I had previously questioned him on this.

Aside from that, I continue to believe people are jumping the gun on DeAndre bolting after this season. He's not a first round pick on any mock board from what I can tell, so it just doesn't quite add up to me. There are a ridiculous supply of wings who are going to be declaring after this season, and Napier, Boat, and Omar are all going to be taking as many shots as him, or close to it. If he puts up 14 and 7 - which seems realistic - he could come back the following season and blow up.

But, we'll find out about that seven months from now. For now - while I'm disappointed in the Devin news - I'm almost relieved in a sense that all the recruiting hysteria for 2014 is over with. Now we can focus on actual basketball, and we figure to be pretty damn good for the next two seasons.

13/14:
Bazz/T-Sam
Boat/Kromah
Omar/Giff
DD/Facey/Tolk
Phil/Tyler/Brimah

14/15, worse case scenario:
Purvis/T-Sam
Omar/Cassell
D-Ham/Tolk
Facey/Lubin
Nolan/Brimah

We're fine.

I was with you until you got to center.