How confident are you

[GemParty]

Ollie starts making serious recruiting headway? Now that his contract is solid, can the team score some A or B targets? Will the conference affiliation still harm us, or are we ready to Stock the Shelves?

 

[OkaForPrez]

8.

 

[caw]

Ollie starts making serious recruiting headway? Now that his contract is solid, can the team score some A or B targets? Will the conference affiliation still harm us, or are we ready to Stock the Shelves?

Top notch for 2013, pretty low, there just isn't much left that is an A target.

For 2014, pretty high, maybe an 8.

 

[TheChamps990411]

No worries. i think 2013 is thin but 14` and beyond i believe he will pull in some serious talent. make no mistakes we`re going to have some bumps in the road but this program will be back among the elite in the next few years.

 

[ctchamps]

No worries. i think 2013 is thin but 14` and beyond i believe he will pull in some serious talent. make no mistakes we`re going to have some bumps in the road but this program will be back among the elite in the next few years.

Call me crazy but I agree with you. There still may be some difficulties in the near future, but I'm optimistic like you.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Ollie's most important recruits for the class of 2013 at this point are Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright. They both should come back, and we need them to.

 

[uconNYC]

I feel KO has the ability to recruit top quality players. It will be interesting to see what sort of kids he goes after - 1 and dones, 4-year players, fundamentally sound, raw talent, etc.

He needs to get a right mix - something JC was able to do.

 

[Hoophound]

I normally say no Juco's but some front court beef is needed. I think we could stand to grab one.

 

[SubbaBub]

Will need decent NCAA runs...9
Will need decent conference schedule...4

So what's that, a 6.5?

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Huskymaniac]

Conference affiliation is a "take the escalator" excuse. This is UConn. No conference affiliation doesn't affect ND football recruiting. Calipari was able to get McD AAs at umess and Memphis. I don't expect the re-alignment thing to impact Georgetown's recruiting. It is really simple at this point, if Ollie doesn't get top notch recruits now, the contract excuse was wrong.

 

[dogpause]

I'd like to believe that conference affiliation doesn't matter, but because it will impact TV exposure in the future, it does matter. The UConn brand is still valuable, and who knows, maybe by next year we'll be invited to join the ACC or another major conference.

Comparing us to ND football is not a legit argument IMO. We're in conference limbo right now and it's defintately going to be an obstacle to recruiting. Having said that, I think Ollie has all the personal tools to be a fantastic recruiter. He's got the personaltiy, passion, compassion, NBA resume, and I think he'll have great rapport with recuits and their familes.

I hope you're right and I'm wrong, but to discredit conference affiliation would be a mistake.

 

[aceboon]

I'm pretty confident that KO is going to kill on the recruiting trail, and I'll go on the record and say that he'll sign a top 10 recruiting class for 2014. I don't think conference affiliation will hurt us that much as opposed to football, the athletic dept is just going to have schedule more national games like Gonzaga and Memphis have done. I know Vegas is more appealing than Storrs but UNLV has been pulling in all kinds of talent lately playing in the MWC(which the new BE will be similar to), and these guys growing up weren't even born when UNLV was dominant during the Tark days. I just see KO's personality and demeanor as a plus that kids will want to play for him, alot of the recruiting analysts have said the same when KO was first given the gig and when he signed his contract.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I'm pretty confident that KO is going to kill on the recruiting trail, and I'll go on the record and say that he'll sign a top 10 recruiting class for 2014. I don't think conference affiliation will hurt us that much as opposed to football, the athletic dept is just going to have schedule more national games like Gonzaga and Memphis have done. I know Vegas is more appealing than Storrs but UNLV has been pulling in all kinds of talent lately playing in the MWC(which the new BE will be similar to), and these guys growing up weren't even born when UNLV was dominant during the Tark days. I just see KO's personality and demeanor as a plus that kids will want to play for him, alot of the recruiting analysts have said the same when KO was first given the gig and when he signed his contract.

I agree. I do think conference affiliation matters when all is calm, but all is not calm right now. I imagine our pitch to recruits is that they should throw conferences out the window when making their decision because nobody knows who will be in what league 3-4 years from now.

 

[gibhunter]

Well next year we'll still have the C7 plus cincy on the schedule so it won't be all duds. But in two years if we're still in the cluster***k that is the NNNBE we'll need to schedule like Gonzaga in OOC to have a schedule strength resembling what we have now. We'll be like old CUSA with Cincy, Memphis and UConn instead of UL, Memphis and Cincy. Three good teams, OK four with Temple and a bunch of patsies.

 

[Vuce]

I think KO is going to bring in a very good class next year. He will sell the kids on Uconn no matter what conference we are in and likely tell them we will have TV exposure wherever we land. He should also be able to show kids the basketball practice facility being built and tell them that yes, you will spend a lot of your time in a brand spaking new state of the art facility dedicated to specifically basketball players. That is going to be huge.

 

[8893]

I actually he surprised that he hasn't landed any top-notch recruits yet. It's been almost a week already. Clearly, the contract was not the problem.

 

[gampelcrazies]

I actually he surprised that he hasn't landed any top-notch recruits yet. It's been almost a week already. Clearly, the contract was not the problem.

It's not going to happen that fast

 

[aceboon]

It's not going to happen that fast

'Casm, my friend.

 

[freescooter]

Not happening. He'll bring in ok recruits, mostly high mid-major maybe. He might occasionally get lucky with an under the radar guy. But the combination of conference affiliation and his lack of a "name" (and please no he was a backup point guard for 13 years...nobody cares) will be huge obstacles. Calipari brought guys to UMass by paying them. He brought them to Memphis because he was Calipari. Just like Pitino brought guys to Louisville because he was Pitino. Calhoun could probably continue to recruit blue chippers to UConn even in the Big Mess conference. Ollie, not so much.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Not happening. He'll bring in ok recruits, mostly high mid-major maybe. He might occasionally get lucky with an under the radar guy. But the combination of conference affiliation and his lack of a "name" (and please no he was a backup point guard for 13 years...nobody cares) will be huge obstacles. Calipari brought guys to UMass by paying them. He brought them to Memphis because he was Calipari. Just like Pitino brought guys to Louisville because he was Pitino. Calhoun could probably continue to recruit blue chippers to UConn even in the Big Mess conference. Ollie, not so much.

Let's make sure this post gets saved for future reference. It belongs right next to the one about there being no chance that the NCAA selection committee would ever include 11 teams from the same conference.

 

[freescooter]

I posted elsewhere about the quality of our "new" conference. Mid-major. Even good mid-major teams don't typically recruit high level talent except by luck or because they have a big name head coach. Gonzaga doesn't recruit the same level of player that UCLA gets. Butler doesn't get the same level that Indiana does. Xavier doesn't get the same level that Ohio State gets. Those schools have very good coaches, they sometimes land a "light blue" chipper, or a guy who blows up when he gets there. When that happens they have very good years. They have mostly a bunch of good players who stay for 3-4 years, know the system and are well coached. They win their leagues and make occasional NCAA runs, but rarely beyond the sweet 16. For all the love for Gonzaga, for example, their best NCAA team was 1999 Elite 8. Been to 4 Sweet 16s since then but that's all. In many respects they are a model of what we can expect since they've been doing it for the longest time.

 

[Sportsman5]

What matters most to top recruits... 1. how well they like the coach/ coaching staff 2. who is in the NBA from the school 3. national exposure 4. history of basketball success at the school 5. basketball specific facilities. Some consider things like proximity to home and quality of education. You could reorder the top 5 depending upon the recruit, but I think the order I put is pretty solid. Lets see how UConn stacks up. Ollie has to be way up there in terms of likeability and connecting with both recruits AND their families. UConn has tons of NBA players and ollie has a very close relationship with many of them. It doesn't hurt that he's a 13 year NBA vet and graduate of the school/ program. In terms of national exposure UConn is a brand name that is 45 minutes from ESPN. Even if we were in a terrible conference, we could still schedule 3-5 games per year on national TV. Home and Home with Syracuse and Georgetown type stuff. 3 National championships speaks for itself in terms of past success. The womens team helps UConn to become far and away the #1 basketball school in the country over the last 15 years. Our facilities starting with 2014 should be very near tops in the country.

 

[caw]

Not happening. He'll bring in ok recruits, mostly high mid-major maybe. He might occasionally get lucky with an under the radar guy. But the combination of conference affiliation and his lack of a "name" (and please no he was a backup point guard for 13 years...nobody cares) will be huge obstacles. Calipari brought guys to UMass by paying them. He brought them to Memphis because he was Calipari. Just like Pitino brought guys to Louisville because he was Pitino. Calhoun could probably continue to recruit blue chippers to UConn even in the Big Mess conference. Ollie, not so much.

You need to clarify this a bit more for me to make sure I understand exactly what you mean. What do you consider high mid-major recruits? Are those top 76-100 recruits, 50-75, 100+, etc. Obviously there are different rating services but let's just use general consensus as an example.

I get you will argue the following aren't Ollie recruits, but I'm not asking that, I want to know which of the following are studs, high majors, high mid-majors, mid-majors, low, under the radar, etc. I'm just trying to calibrate what exactly you mean going forward:

2013:
Kentan Facey
Terrance Samuel

2012:
Omar Calhoun
Philip Nolan
Leon Tolksdorf

2011:
Ryan Boatright
DeAndre Daniels
Andre Drummond

I do get what you are saying about UMass, though they only really had a few stud recruits, from my recollection, on their final four (vacated) team.

However, Memphis still recruits at an extremely high level. You can argue that Calipari started the high level recruiting but he has been gone 3 years now and they still get quite a few high level recruits a year.

Another school that recruits at a high level is UNLV (currently) with Dave Rice. Do you think he is cheating? He has the best freshman (arguably) in the country this year and quite a few other top 50-100 kids on the roster.

Or we can look at Xavier which was getting good recruits pre-brawl.

Sure UConn may not recruit at the level of Duke, UNC, UCLA, or UK but has it ever?

 

[GemParty]

Not happening. He'll bring in ok recruits, mostly high mid-major maybe. He might occasionally get lucky with an under the radar guy. But the combination of conference affiliation and his lack of a "name" (and please no he was a backup point guard for 13 years...nobody cares) will be huge obstacles. Calipari brought guys to UMass by paying them. He brought them to Memphis because he was Calipari. Just like Pitino brought guys to Louisville because he was Pitino. Calhoun could probably continue to recruit blue chippers to UConn even in the Big Mess conference. Ollie, not so much.

How many toes do you have in? Do you even have a single toe in? Curious-

 

[Huskymaniac]

Conference affiliation excuse = taking the escalator...period. Confernce affiliation only helps the lower teams in a conference get a couple of Top 100 kids. It doesn't impact blue chip players. UConn will be on national TV plenty of times because we are now an elite program which has won 3 championships in the last 15 years. At this time, we don't need conference affiliation to get on national TV. We did in 1985 when we were a bottom feeder program. The blue chippers go where they think they need to go to have the best shot at getting into the NBA. That depends mostly on the coach. If KO continues to lose out on all of these kids, it will be on him as the contract excuse is gone. If he can't outrecruit Pastner, he shouldn't be our head coach.