My mind is blown. This is some miracle Dookie dang
I've said this many times about how Duke and Coach K, as good a coach that he was, was so overrated. He did so much less with more, while JC did more with less, in reference to the overwhelming number of highly ranked recruits and Burger AAs they've had compared to UConn. The same still seems to be the case with Hurley vs Scheyer.
Hurley is bringing in the right combination of HS and portal transfers, but boy does he and his staff coach them up and instill a winning culture. Now he's not perfect, misreading the tea leafs with not adding the type of #1 PG needed last season, though they came up a bucket short of beating UF last year...boy did they miss a ton of open uncontested 3s that game, but I digress.
I would never want a team predominantly built on one-year wonders. I'm fine if we add one or two, but I love rooting for a team that has a bunch of multi-year players the staff develops into tough minded winners. That's what UConn is all about.
I know the portal is a reality and is here to stay. It will be interesting to see what roster construction will prevail this year:
Zona is built on a combination of uber-talented freshman where likely 2 of them will enter this upcoming draft, some transfers who are in at least their second season and some multi-year homegrown HS recruits.
UM is led primarily by highly payed Transfers.
Illini has 1 lowly ranked HS recruit who turned out to be the B10 Freshman of the year, plus a bunch of 1 and 2 year transfers.
UConn is made up of a bunch of homegrown multi-year HS recruits (AK, Ross, Stewart, Reibe) , 1 possible 1-and-done highly ranked freshman (Mullins), likely 2 year Transfers (Reed & Demary) and 1 one-year backup, but very important, Transfer (Smith). I like our roster construction.
Getting ahead of myself here: Next season, depending on who leaves and who returns, they'll likely look in the Portal for 1 or 2 talented and physical front-court players to replace Reed & AK, add a backup and possible future physical PG with good positional size, and maybe a 2/3 combo wing who can hit the 3 and attack the rim. This also, depending on what they can afford and who fits that are out there and interested in coming to UConn that aren't looking for the highest bidder. Based on what they have and hopefully will accomplish this pre-tournament and tournament seasons, I think there will be some solid viable options in addition to a solid number of core returning players.