Flagg to Duke. Official

[KembaStepback]

I’ll be rooting for the kid I like him . On to A.J. Dybantsa

I will not be. I hope he loses every game with Scheyer and falls into the 2nd round

 

[REB1094]

Kid was a Duke lock his entire life, and we pitched him well enough to make it maybe 80-20 or 70-30. Obviously would have loved for him to come here, and I think it’d be better for his skill development if he did, but I’m not at all surprised or betrayed that he chose Duke

We lost and we got a silver medal. Sucks to lose and silver medals mean nothing. But in this case, UConn’s name was in the headlines with the #1 recruit for a long time. If Castle truly is a 1 and done high lottery pick, we will be in the mix for top guys in the long term. I trust the staff to figure out the short term issues in the meantime. And given our track record, the top guys are more nice-to-have instead of required for winning anyway

Best of luck to Cooper. Hope he averages 25 a game and then promptly loses in the second round of the tournament. Looking forward to seeing him in the NBA

 

[navery12]

UConn Visit​

The visit to Connecticut went about as well as it could’ve. In any other situation, with any other recruit, UConn would’ve sealed the deal with the attention to detail they put into this visit.

Hurley and his staff leaned into Flagg’s family ties with the Clingans. Kelly Flagg and Stacey Clingan played basketball together at the University of Maine in the 1990s. In a touching tribute to Clingan’s late mother, UConn set up a photoshoot with Cooper and Donovan wearing their mother’s jerseys.

In addition to the viral photos, UConn had plenty of things working for them. They just won the national title and sent multiple players to the NBA. Dan Hurley is one of the top coaches in the sport and his focus and tenacity mirrors Flagg’s style of play on the court. On top of that, while it wasn’t exactly home, it was close enough that friends and family could reasonably see most of his games during his one year in college. Many people we spoke to following the visit said UConn turned some heads and put themselves in position to close the gap on Duke.

 

[UConn77]

No surprise. Duke usually gets who they want. He’s now a non-entity and I won’t think about him unless we play Duke.

 

[mainejeff]

Well guys...sorry it didn't go your way. I was really rooting for him to become a Husky. I will never be a Duke fan, but I hope he does well while he is there.

 

[CL82]

I’ll be rooting for the kid I like him . On to A.J. Dybantsa

I like the kid as well and wish him well in his pro career, but you won't see me complaining if his college career is a fizzle.

 

[NowInStorrs]

Boring.

But when you get a chance to play for a coach who has won 1 NCAA tournament game in his career, you have to take it.

 

[Dooch]

The worst part is seeing all the Dook fans online acting like this was some big coup for them and they pulled one over on us.....

 

[k-walk]

Cam Spencer says hello.

This would work if we weren’t rejected by our first option before cam committed

 

[CL82]

Well guys...sorry it didn't go your way. I was really rooting for him to become a Husky. I will never be a Duke fan, but I hope he does well while he is there.

If he wasn't coming to Connecticut, I was rooting for him to go to Maine.

Good luck this season!

 

[CL82]

This would work if we weren’t rejected by our first option before cam committed

Spencer wasn't in the portal then, if I recall correctly. I'm happy with the guy we got.

 

[UofCT]

Next!

 

[mainejeff]

On a side note.....I believe that Duke will play at BC next season.....I assume that they would switch that game to TD Garden?

 

[k-walk]

Spencer wasn't in the portal then, if I recall correctly. I'm happy with the guy we got.

Doesn’t matter if we had the pick of the portal we would’ve gotten timberlake. I still rather have spencer though

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

So what are you suggesting? That we don't go after the top prospects? Better to swing and miss, rather than get called out looking

It’s swinging and missing while other dudes we should be going for sit on the bench.

Who else would we have gone for?

We should have not treated instate dream school recruit Tyler Betsey as an afterthought.

 

[CL82]

Doesn’t matter if we had the pick of the portal we would’ve gotten timberlake. I still rather have spencer though

In the real world, you're not going to get every kid. We're doing fine right now. Flagg was always a longshot given the kids history as a Duke fan. Tough to draw many conclusions from that, other than the fact that the program has now become a choice for top kids.

 

[navery12]

We should have not treated instate dream school recruit Tyler Betsey as an afterthought.

If it wasn't obvious from all your other posts on this board, it's very obvious now. You have no clue what you're talking about

 

[k-walk]

In the real world, you're not going to get every kid. We're doing fine right now. Flagg was always a longshot given the kids history as a Duke fan. Tough to draw many conclusions from that, other than the fact that the program has now become a choice for top kids.

We do a great job winning championships without getting the pick of the litter. I don’t think we’ll ever be that level of program that gets whoever they want

 

[KingAG]

It’s swinging and missing while other dudes we should be going for sit on the bench.

We should have not treated instate dream school recruit Tyler Betsey as an afterthought.

Why would you assume we did?

 

[HooperScooper]

Want to gag? The Brotherhood? Yuck.

“I think after I got on campus at Duke, I really started to feel it, to be honest,” he says. “That’s something the coaches definitely stressed to me, that once you get to campus, it’s something you have to feel. And [I knew then] I wanted to go to Duke and that’s where I wanted to play college basketball. What went into the decision, I mean, I was just looking for a coaching staff I was really comfortable with, but [also] a coach and staff that was really going to hold me accountable. Being on the visit, I got to see them in practice, and see how they were holding their guys accountable, and really pushing them to be better. For me, ever since I was a little kid, I always had dreams of playing Division I basketball at the highest level. Especially with a place like Duke, once we got to campus, we felt it.

“I’m honored that I have the opportunity to join The Brotherhood, and hopefully I’ll be one of the players that recruits are looking at some day and someone they can see themselves being. Especially from all the love I saw this last weekend when I was there, it made me really excited, all the [Cameron] Crazies and the fans. I think it’s going to be a really exciting year and [fans] should just get ready because I know that I’m all about winning, so I’m trying to keep that winning culture that Duke has.”

No. 1 HS Recruit Cooper Flagg Announces He’s Headed to Duke on the Cover of SLAM 247

Newport, Maine. Population…roughly 3,000. It is here where the epicenter of the biggest story in high school basketball originates. It is here where one of the most highly touted high school...

www.slamonline.com

 

[husky429]

Why would you assume we did?

From what I heard it was more than Betsey treated us an an afterthought. NJHoops has been saying that for months.

 

[CL82]

Want to gag? The Brotherhood? Yuck.

“I think after I got on campus at Duke, I really started to feel it, to be honest,” he says. “That’s something the coaches definitely stressed to me, that once you get to campus, it’s something you have to feel. And [I knew then] I wanted to go to Duke and that’s where I wanted to play college basketball. What went into the decision, I mean, I was just looking for a coaching staff I was really comfortable with, but [also] a coach and staff that was really going to hold me accountable. Being on the visit, I got to see them in practice, and see how they were holding their guys accountable, and really pushing them to be better. For me, ever since I was a little kid, I always had dreams of playing Division I basketball at the highest level. Especially with a place like Duke, once we got to campus, we felt it.

“I’m honored that I have the opportunity to join The Brotherhood, and hopefully I’ll be one of the players that recruits are looking at some day and someone they can see themselves being. Especially from all the love I saw this last weekend when I was there, it made me really excited, all the [Cameron] Crazies and the fans. I think it’s going to be a really exciting year and [fans] should just get ready because I know that I’m all about winning, so I’m trying to keep that winning culture that Duke has.”

No. 1 HS Recruit Cooper Flagg Announces He’s Headed to Duke on the Cover of SLAM 247

Newport, Maine. Population…roughly 3,000. It is here where the epicenter of the biggest story in high school basketball originates. It is here where one of the most highly touted high school...

www.slamonline.com

 

[Tampahusky]

I will not be. I hope he loses every game with Scheyer and falls into the 2nd round

Then you really never liked Flagg. Rooting for Flagg and Duke are totally different.

 

[HooperScooper]

One door closes another could open up. I wonder how TJ Power (5 star 2023 recruit from Shrewsbury, MA) is going to feel sitting on the bench for 2 straight seasons? Depending how this season goes he may think about coming home.

 

[RayRay19]

I remember losing out on Josh Selby and Brandon Knight and thinking we were absolutely doomed.

Then we landed Shabazz.

Keep Calm, we have the best staff in the nation.

 

[UConn Dan]

That’s fine. We’ll just continue to beat Duke when it matters most.

 

[k-walk]

One door closes another could open up. I wonder how TJ Power (5 star 2023 recruit from Shrewsbury, MA) is going to feel sitting on the bench for 2 straight seasons? Depending how this season goes he may think about coming home.

After alex goes first round in the draft we’ll have an opening

 

[DogMania]

Pouring all of our resources into Ngongba and Flagg and getting neither

I had similar concerns leading up to this outcome. With that said, it made sense to go hard after Flagg since he's from New England, showed interest in us and would have been a good program fit. As for Ngongba, we were on him for quite a while, got a commitment from his cousin, was a good fit for a big need.

With that said, you play with fire when all of your eggs are in the same basket with the top blue blood programs. UConn's success has been built on the backs of under-ranked recruits who end up better than where they were ranked coming out of high school.

It seems to make sense for Hurley and the staff to have kept some irons in the fire with players ranked between 25 and 75, though that may be a challenge when those type of recruits see the program also going after players at the same position who would likely take their playing time or that program dropping them once they secured a commitment from the higher rank player.

One would think that after coming off a national championship we'd have a lot more top 100 interested recruits. Is where we stand right now the result of the staff not pursuing those type of recruits or a lack of Interest or recruits not seeing a path with top 20 competition being pursued a lot harder than them.

My inclination is Hurley and his staff might want to work a little harder recruiting the middle of the top 100 in addition to going after one or two top recruits that they have a shot at. Maybe this is lesson learned. We did land one of the top guards (Nowell #30) already, but landing multiple top third players in the same class is not something that has happened often or ever at uconn. Note that we did not secure any fall official visits except for Flagg and Ngongba. Maybe casting a wider net next time around is a lesson learned.

There's still the transfer portal, international pool and recruits that are either uncommitted or shake loose next spring to fill whatever needs they might have.

 

[shakes65]

OK with me. I prefer to win with four stars and guys who grind it out.

 

[thedude0416]

One door closes another could open up. I wonder how TJ Power (5 star 2023 recruit from Shrewsbury, MA) is going to feel sitting on the bench for 2 straight seasons? Depending how this season goes he may think about coming home.

They're actually 2 very different players in terms of style, so they both could be on the court at the same time. But Duke is bringing in a truckload of talent at the wings, so we'll have to see how it effects him.