How do we fix recruiting?

[PcketknfNiels]

The people in here who were smart enough not to bicker about whether conference affiliation has any major impact on recruiting (not really) and who pointed out the talent development issue are correct. For Purvis to have arguably regressed from his freshman year in a P5 conference is really concerning. I don't buy into the transfer year being the sole/main reason, because he was definitely getting a lot of court time in with a national title team in practice.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The people in here who were smart enough not to bicker about whether conference affiliation has any major impact on recruiting (not really) and who pointed out the talent development issue are correct. For Purvis to have arguably regressed from his freshman year in a P5 conference is really concerning. I don't buy into the transfer year being the sole/main reason, because he was definitely getting a lot of court time in with a national title team in practice.

How many NC State games did you watch 2 seasons ago? I'm going to guess less than 3.

Purvis was up and down but we get blown out of the building if not for Purvis yesterday.

If there is one guys stock who I am buying next season it's his.

Can't understate how much taking a year off from in game competition hurts you. He's got two more to prove me right.

 

[jibsey]

Talent is in the formula for success and we don't quite have enough right now. If we get it KO can coach it up.

 

[CTFIRERETIRED]

This is going to be real important year in the KO reign. There are no more JC players left in the fold. Everyone on the club are KO's recruits. We will see how next years team stacks up.

 

[3rdbass]

The people in here who were smart enough not to bicker about whether conference affiliation has any major impact on recruiting (not really) and who pointed out the talent development issue are correct. For Purvis to have arguably regressed from his freshman year in a P5 conference is really concerning. I don't buy into the transfer year being the sole/main reason, because he was definitely getting a lot of court time in with a national title team in practice.

Regressed from what? He was an up and down player at ng state also! I'm actually thinking RP has turned the corner but he needs an adequate point guard to be effective. Hopefully Adams is as advertised.

 

[Brochacho]

2013: Purvis, Facey, Brimah, Samuel
2014: Hamilton, Cassell, Lubin
2015: Adams. Enoch

He's doing alright.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

Some guys take more then a year 2 progress. As much as I've had my doubts about Purvis, he's only spent i'll say 1.5 years developing at UConn. Yea he was here practicing with the NC team, but you gotta get court time to really develop in our system. He showed flashes this year which I didn't even think that would happen. He just needs to workout over the summer and get more consistent. Little things like hesitating and traveling on a catch because he hesitates to make a decision, fixing things like that will go along way. I look for more consistency from him next year.

Dham should have all of us excited. He's shown a lot of promise straight out of the game. He needs to work on free throw shootings, stopping with the pump fakes all the times and better decision making in the open court, but he does so many things so well I'm excited. Again consistency on the offensive side for him will take him and us to the next level.

Amida, foul trouble and offense. I expect him to improve getting a full healthy off season to come back and produce much better than this year. He needs to work on getting into position in the post and boxing out for boards.

Those are our stars. I still expect improvement for others. I'd like to see Calhoun start to regain some of his old flair. I think Facey can take another step forward. I think Lubin has showed a little something that he can improve on. Tsam can work on shooting and finishing through contact in the paint. And lets not for get our incoming players. I think we all unfairly expect too much from Jalen, but I think he's going to be a special player eventually for us. Enoch, I really don't know what to expect but I like the potential I see and read about.

I think we are good on recruiting. Its just a cycle of guys coming in and maturing and getting better. Boat just matured at the wrong time, he didn't have another pieces around him this year. Had Daniels come back things might have been a bit different for us. Either way I still think the future is bright, we have good players in place and players with the potential to become very good and I trust the UConn staff to motivate and unlock that potential especially after a year like this one.

Another things to take note on is that look at what happened yesterday when Boat when down with that shoulder injury. Purvis really really stepped up. Even Dham seemed a bit more aggressive. These guys may become completely different players knowing that we cant sit back and wait for Boat to get us a win, we have to go out and do it ourselves. These kids have a lot riding on them stepping up so the effort is going to be there. losing boat hurts but it could help these guys become the players they've had the potential to be all along as well.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

How many NC State games did you watch 2 seasons ago? I'm going to guess less than 3.

Purvis was up and down but we get blown out of the building if not for Purvis yesterday.

If there is one guys stock who I am buying next season it's his.

Can't understate how much taking a year off from in game competition hurts you. He's got two more to prove me right.

As opposed to your closely watching every game and knowing ahead of time he was going to transfer here?

And he sure did have a great game yesterday, doesn't change the fact that he went from a true P5 conference to the AAC and in 2 years of physical development/college experience did not manage to get any better/smarter/more consistent. People like you are what make these forums as worthless as the conference we're in, everyone would agree that Purvis vastly underperformed compared to what we thought he'd be heading into the season, yet I point that out and how that reflects on the coaching staff and their ability to develop players and immediately get some idiot arguing otherwise.

 

[caw]

Purvis and Hamilton should be expecting to be the two scoring leaders, consistently. They both put up about 10-11 per game and with some additional practice/reps I think both could get up to 14-15 pretty easily. Would love to see both around 37.5% and 75% from three and FTs respectively.

In addition to that Brimah has averaged nearly 10 (and vastly improved without being able to fully practice this past summer). I wouldn't be shocked if he was more consistent and stronger next year. His jumper from 12-15 looks pretty legit and should be better utilized. I think 12 PPG is a minimum to expect from him.

Calhoun had an inconsistent year but still is at 5.5 per game. I think he should be able to average 6-7 next year at a minimum.

That's 46-49 ppg. That's the core scorers for next year from the returnees. I don't think any of those estimates are absurd to consider, 4-5 extra PPG for Purvis and Hamilton and 2 for Brimah/Calhoun.

Consistency is the key for all four of Purvis/Hamilton/Brimah and Calhoun next year.

It will also be interesting to see if Ollie implements and new aspects to the offense or defense with a more veteran team than this years team (Adams aside) and no more small guards. In two years UConn will go from a backcourt of 5-10, 6-0 to 6-3, 6-4. That should theoretically allow UConn to be able to play a zone better and a press better, with better height and length.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

Regressed from what? He was an up and down player at ng state also! I'm actually thinking RP has turned the corner but he needs an adequate point guard to be effective. Hopefully Adams is as advertised.

I'd say posting the same numbers as a true freshman in a P5 conference as what he put up in what would be his junior year in a non-P5 counts as regression. But you and the other guy who quoted me have essentially done so saying he's the same player as he was 2 years ago, how is that a good thing? More importantly, how does that prove me or anyone else who pointed out talent development as an issue wrong?

 

[PcketknfNiels]

Some guys take more then a year 2 progress. As much as I've had my doubts about Purvis, he's only spent i'll say 1.5 years developing at UConn. Yea he was here practicing with the NC team, but you gotta get court time to really develop in our system. He showed flashes this year which I didn't even think that would happen. He just needs to workout over the summer and get more consistent. Little things like hesitating and traveling on a catch because he hesitates to make a decision, fixing things like that will go along way. I look for more consistency from him next year.

You're talking about Purvis like he's some African prospect who didn't touch a basketball until he was 16. "1.5" out of 4 years of eligibility is more than enough time to have seen some improvement. Unfortunately at this point the fault either lies with the coaching staff for failing to develop properly or with the player himself for just not having it.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

You're talking about Purvis like he's some African prospect who didn't touch a basketball until he was 16. "1.5" out of 4 years of eligibility is more than enough time to have seen some improvement. Unfortunately at this point the fault either lies with the coaching staff for failing to develop properly or with the player himself for just not having it.

Not at all I have strong doubts about Pruvis. However I was one saying at that beginning of the season that he was just incompetent. As the season has progressed he's showed me that he isn't and i'm man enough to admit that. I still think he is wildly inconsistent but I have to give credit where credit is due he's willing to step up and take shots when nobody else (outside of Boatright) was willing too, and he has showed a bit of progress. I'm hoping that continues.

On me talking about him like he just touched a basketball for the first time at 16, nah. I'm just saying, the jump from high school to college is a huge one. He didn't come straight to UConn. I cant talk to NC's ability to grow players, so as far as i'm concerned he didn't start getting better under UConn until he came here. Then I only half credit last season because he couldn't play. I think playing in games and playing in practice are 2 completely different things. I think playing in games this year has also helped him to grow and get better. I still hold out hope that he can improve by next season because of all the factors mentioned above. Just my personal opinion. Weather he'll do it or not, that's on him. But I think the UConn staff will squeeze and get the most of out of him that he'll allow them to get out of him.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

As opposed to your closely watching every game and knowing ahead of time he was going to transfer here?

And he sure did have a great game yesterday, doesn't change the fact that he went from a true P5 conference to the AAC and in 2 years of physical development/college experience did not manage to get any better/smarter/more consistent. People like you are what make these forums as worthless as the conference we're in, everyone would agree that Purvis vastly underperformed compared to what we thought he'd be heading into the season, yet I point that out and how that reflects on the coaching staff and their ability to develop players and immediately get some idiot arguing otherwise.

I'm not making a rash claim that he underperformed based on his freshman year at NC State.

Considering his True shooting percentaged increased and he averaged more points per game, I'm not sure how you're saying he regressed.

Not to mention he played his best ball by far at the end of the season.

So let's see, year off from the game, increases scoring, plays best ball in march but he didn't meet your expectations because as a high school kid he may have been a tad overrated.

Good call making it clear who is the actual idiot here.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

Not at all I have strong doubts about Pruvis. However I was one saying at that beginning of the season that he was just incompetent. As the season has progressed he's showed me that he isn't and i'm man enough to admit that. I still think he is wildly inconsistent but I have to give credit where credit is due he's willing to step up and take shots when nobody else (outside of Boatright) was willing too, and he has showed a bit of progress. I'm hoping that continues.

On me talking about him like he just touched a basketball for the first time at 16, nah. I'm just saying, the jump from high school to college is a huge one. He didn't come straight to UConn. I cant talk to NC's ability to grow players, so as far as i'm concerned he didn't start getting better under UConn until he came here. Then I only half credit last season because he couldn't play. I think playing in games and playing in practice are 2 completely different things. I think playing in games this year has also helped him to grow and get better. I still hold out hope that he can improve by next season because of all the factors mentioned above. Just my personal opinion. Weather he'll do it or not, that's on him. But I think the UConn staff will squeeze and get the most of out of him that he'll allow them to get out of him.

None of what you said is dealing with the fact that he was arguably better 2 years ago than he was this year. You realize he's 21 right? I would buy that playing in real games is that much more important if he weren't a kid who's been playing ball all his life and if he had shown any improvement at all from practicing with a NC team with 2 of the best guards this school has ever had while physically maturing and having a year to grasp game plans. Even yesterday during the game that's making you fawn all over him he still managed to get called for traveling multiple times on the perimeter and some idiotic reaching plays defensively while still showcasing a wildly inconsistent jumper. I'll tell you this, UCONN would not have won 4 titles if the program were being ran by someone like you who honestly doesn't seem to mind that a player has made zero development in 2 years.

 

[PcketknfNiels]

I'm not making a rash claim that he underperformed based on his freshman year at NC State.

Considering his True shooting percentaged increased and he averaged more points per game, I'm not sure how you're saying he regressed.

Not to mention he played his best ball by far at the end of the season.

So let's see, year off from the game, increases scoring, plays best ball in march but he didn't meet your expectations because as a high school kid he may have been a tad overrated.

Good call making it clear who is the actual idiot here.

His FG% and 3P% were down from 2 years ago. Every other stat either stayed virtually the same or worse besides PPG, which based on having a worse FG% is just due to higher usage. He also averaged less PPG in conference play than he did OoC, and outside of the 2 SMU games regularly played his worst ball vs better opposition.

Good call neglecting to mention any of that though. Certainly what we were all expecting from the 21 year old former 5 star who had that extra year to train with a guard dominant NC team.

 

[3rdbass]

I'd say posting the same numbers as a true freshman in a P5 conference as what he put up in what would be his junior year in a non-P5 counts as regression. But you and the other guy who quoted me have essentially done so saying he's the same player as he was 2 years ago, how is that a good thing? More importantly, how does that prove me or anyone else who pointed out talent development as an issue wrong?

He was injured last year so he didn't get a full year of development. Also, for the last 5 games he average 17.6PPG. How about looking at the progression at the end of the year. It was going to take him some time to get his game together especially for not playing competitive basketball in over a year and being injured for half of last season.

If you want to talk about regression how about TSAM? He didn't do anything to address his two weaknesses(ball handling and shooting). He actually looked worst on defense as he was a step slower compared to last year.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

None of what you said is dealing with the fact that he was arguably better 2 years ago than he was this year. You realize he's 21 right? I would buy that playing in real games is that much more important if he weren't a kid who's been playing ball all his life and if he had shown any improvement at all from practicing with a NC team with 2 of the best guards this school has ever had while physically maturing and having a year to grasp game plans. Even yesterday during the game that's making you fawn all over him he still managed to get called for traveling multiple times on the perimeter and some idiotic reaching plays defensively while still showcasing a wildly inconsistent jumper. I'll tell you this, UCONN would not have won 4 titles if the program were being ran by someone like you who honestly doesn't seem to mind that a player has made zero development in 2 years.

I just have to disagree with his 0 development. I'm only going by THIS year on his development, anything before UConn doesn't matter to me because he wasn't under UConn instruction. maybe he had a "better" freshman year, but he was also playing a different team that doesn't exactly have the same expectations that UConn has. He may have to take a step back under management at UConn before can take a few steps forward. Either way you make it sound like i'm a Purvis fan boy, i'm clearly not, but I don't blindly hate the kid either. He's on our team, he's what we have, and he's not going anywhere. We all should be ROOTING for him to get better, not waiting to say I told you so he sucks. If you think he sucks and he's going to bring our team down then just lower your expectations for the team so that when you are right your not disappointed and making all these negative posts. Either way you are entitled to your opinion and i'm entitled to mine, just like everyone else is entitled to theirs. I'm not going to call you any names, but I don't your outlook is become being realistic and just down right pessimistic.

I think that since he has been here he has shown improvement over the course of the season. Like people have pointed out, he has shown a lot of improvement over the last few games of the season (remember mr. DeAndre Daniels doing the same at the end of his sophomore year?). The stuff you complain about the traveling and stupid fouls, I agree they are extremely frustrating. On the flipside they are things that are extremely fixable. The staff will point these things out to him and he will spend a lot of time working on not making some of those simple mistakes in the future.

I get what you are saying. He wont improve and we need better players on the team. I just disagree. I think he has the potential to improve and I think he'll see a different player next season. Only time will tell though. Its why we keep coming back each year to watch our team play.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

His FG% and 3P% were down from 2 years ago. Every other stat either stayed virtually the same or worse besides PPG, which based on having a worse FG% is just due to higher usage. He also averaged less PPG in conference play than he did OoC, and outside of the 2 SMU games regularly played his worst ball vs better opposition.

Good call neglecting to mention any of that though. Certainly what we were all expecting from the 21 year old former 5 star who had that extra year to train with a guard dominant NC team.

Do you even know what true shooting percentage is?

His 3 point percentage went down by .013% and he shot twice as many as the year before. Spoiler alert that's going to bring down your overall field goal percentage.

Even with that being said, the difference is negligible.

The made a lot of mental errors like catching the ball out of bounds which comes with time, but he played his best ball in march. Also known as the end of the season. That's improvement.

 

[Lefty2one]

It's both recruiting and development. The guys who saved us from having an embarrassing season were the high profile recruits - Boat, Hamilton and Purvis. The gap between those guys and the rest of the roster is remarkable. Those guys are talented and athletic enough to be difference makers.

Our interior guys are all 3-star recruits (Brimah, Nolan, Lubin) and a borderline 3-star/4-star in Facey. Enoch projects to be similar to Facey. That's simply not good enough. A decade ago we had 5-star/future lottery big men coming off the bench.

This team has one future NBA player on the roster and that's Hamilton. We don't have to worry about Brimah leaving early, that's not going to happen. Recruiting aka pure talent in this program is a big problem and quite frankly it has been since the 2009 Final Four team.

The player development is also a concern but we're starting with less talent than JC did in the past. While we've had plenty of 2 and 3-star stop-gaps transfer out we've certainly made the most out of 3-star and 4-star guys and developing them into "UConn" type of players. Athletic, aggressive, tough, etc. There are a ton of schools out there that thrive off of developing lesser guys, from Wisconsin on down.

In the past we had plenty of players who may not have increased their skill level tremendously but they had something else to hang their hat on. They were either plus-level athletes or strong enough to be your lunch-pail type of role player. If the were neither of those things then they didn't see the floor. This year we were stuck with guys who weren't skilled and were average athletically. Our returning backcourt is full of guys who aren't great athletes who can't dribble, pass or shoot - with the exception of Purvis roughly every third game while he's doing his bizarre Dyson/Selvie impression.

When our recruiting is down a miss like Calhoun hurts even more. A 4-star SG coming out of HS with a reputation as a scorer and shooter - that's exactly what this team needed. Another scorer and one lights-out shooter. But we all know he's essentially a Coombs-McDaniel clone - a shooter who can't shoot and isn't athletic enough to be a difference maker at this level. His respectable freshman year seems like a lifetime ago. Maybe his injuries have really derailed him. His confidence is non-existent.

Then there are the things that should be correctable as players pass through the program. The lack of shooting on this team is so remarkable. Every guy who struggles with his shot has glaring issues with their mechanics and none have been corrected.

• Purvis doesn't cock his wrist back nearly far enough and has way too much palm on the ball.
• I don't know where to begin with Calhoun, his jumper needs to be completely rebuilt.
• Cassell Jr is leaning backwards on every 3PA he takes.
• Samuel makes us long for Taliek's jumper.

Right now we're in a dangerous spot. The AAC thing is absolutely killing us. We're in a bad mid-major conference (the MWC and A-10 got more bids than us) with no rivals and a brutal travel schedule. With so many other attractive destinations for top recruits we've definitely got our work cut out for us. We have to get in to the friggin ACC.

 

[kobe]

Your problem this year was simple, you didn't have a 4 or 5 that was an offensive threat. I mean a times in our game last week we simply didn't guard 2 guys. It reminded me a ton of our 12-13 team that barely got into the field, we had good guards in kilpatrick and cash wright but simply had no one in the paint...our guards shot a horrible percentage as a result.

 

[3rdbass]

Your problem this year was simple, you didn't have a 4 or 5 that was an offensive threat. I mean a times in our game last week we simply didn't guard 2 guys. It reminded me a ton of our 12-13 team that barely got into the field, we had good guards in kilpatrick and cash wright but simply had no one in the paint...our guards shot a horrible percentage as a result.

I agree at least last year we had Deandre that presented some inside threat. Unfortunately nobody developed enough to replace that. We also missed a decent rebounder inside to compete with other teams bigs. The other thing people forget was that DD helped AB a lot on D as he was a decent shot blocker also. We only had AB this year to deter teams inside.

 

[Lefty2one]

I agree at least last year we had Deandre that presented some inside threat. Unfortunately nobody developed enough to replace that. We also missed a decent rebounder inside to compete with other teams bigs. The other thing people forget was that DD helped AB a lot on D as he was a decent shot blocker also. We only had AB this year to deter teams inside.

Not having an inside threat is okay when you have great shooters like we had with Bazz, Giffey and Daniels. Keep the floor spaced and opening up driving lanes. This year teams could pack the living hell out of the paint and opposing bigs could help at will because outside of the Hamilton-to-Brimah lob there was zero threat that our interior bigs were going to score.

 

[3rdbass]

Not having an inside threat is okay when you have great shooters like we had with Bazz, Giffey and Daniels. Keep the floor spaced and opening up driving lanes. This year teams could pack the living hell out of the paint and opposing bigs could help at will because outside of the Hamilton-to-Brimah lob there was zero threat that our interior bigs were going to score.

True but we didn't have either option this year. Last year's team had good outside shooting and at least a decent inside threat in DD.

 

[tzznandrew]

Do you even know what true shooting percentage is?

His 3 point percentage went down by .013% and he shot twice as many as the year before. Spoiler alert that's going to bring down your overall field goal percentage.

Even with that being said, the difference is negligible.

The made a lot of mental errors like catching the ball out of bounds which comes with time, but he played his best ball in march. Also known as the end of the season. That's improvement.

Purvis was playing far fewer minutes at the end of the 2013 year.

He played 12 minutes and scored 2 points in their NCAA loss to Temple.
He averaged 13 minutes and 3.33 ppg in their 3 ACC tournament games.
He scored double figures only 3 times after 2/1. He averaged 6.4 ppg after 2/1.

But he regressed here?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Purvis was playing far fewer minutes at the end of the 2013 year.

He played 12 minutes and scored 2 points in their NCAA loss to Temple.
He averaged 13 minutes and 3.33 ppg in their 3 ACC tournament games.
He scored double figures only 3 times after 2/1. He averaged 6.4 ppg after 2/1.

But he regressed here?

Well said and thank you.

 

[Deadrody]

You really think diamond stone was scared off by AB? If any center was scared off by AB I don't want him. AB is an adequate center who can't play against real strong tall big guys. Maybe he will be a lot better next year with a full offseason but right now he is decent but far from scaring off real recruits at that position.

Here's the thing. It's not about anyone being "scared" to compete with the talent of someone like Brimah. The fact is, however, that UConn has won 4 titles because their signature is max effort. And Brimah - as flawed as he may be - is trusted on the court in big games. So he is the default starter and it would be no minor effort to displace him. To suggest that any freshman will be able to come in and take minutes away from Brimah - as a Junior - might be wishful thinking.

I wouldn't hold it against any kid to think guys like Hamilton, Purvis, and Brimah would impact their ability to get a lot of minutes.

 

[Lefty2one]

Purvis came on strong for sure and was much better than he was at NC State (and in December for us for that matter).

In seven March games he averaged 17 ppg on 47% shooting (that includes his 0-7 dud against Memphis) and was damn near the only aggressive offensive player besides Boat for that entire stretch. Even more amazingly he shot nearly 43% from deep. If he can turn into a halfway decent FT shooter he can average 16-18 ppg for us next year.

 

[Bonehead]

So - raise your hand if you DON'T think Adams and Enoch are da bomb? I am not a BB junkie like many but all I heard is how these two are the 'Bomb' and great gets.

So, we are still in the AAC and have two great recruits coming in, what's there to fix?

 

[3rdbass]

Here's the thing. It's not about anyone being "scared" to compete with the talent of someone like Brimah. The fact is, however, that UConn has won 4 titles because their signature is max effort. And Brimah - as flawed as he may be - is trusted on the court in big games. So he is the default starter and it would be no minor effort to displace him. To suggest that any freshman will be able to come in and take minutes away from Brimah - as a Junior - might be wishful thinking.

I wouldn't hold it against any kid to think guys like Hamilton, Purvis, and Brimah would impact their ability to get a lot of minutes.

I will just have to disagree with you on this. Though AB does provide the threat of the block he has very little impact on the rest of the game. If Diamond Stone was coming to UCONN I'm sure Ollie would be laying the red carpet for him to start. Not saying he is just going to give him the job but I'm sure he would love to have Diamond Stone as his starting center as opposed to such a limited player in AB. If anything the AAC tourney showed us was that AB really has to improve this off season to have any impact on next year's team. Right now we don't have a bonafide front line player. We just have backups starting for us right now.
If any other player really regressed this year besides TSAM it is AB. Hopefully a full off season will do wonders for the kid. He isn't an awful player like one poster wants to believe but he has to get a lot better to be a real impact player besides blocks in the AAC. The last seven games he average 4.7 PPG and 3.1 RPG playing 28.5 MPG. Do you really think those are great numbers for your starting center?

 

[Lefty2one]

So - raise your hand if you DON'T think Adams and Enoch are da bomb? I am not a BB junkie like many but all I heard is how these two are the 'Bomb' and great gets.

So, we are still in the AAC and have two great recruits coming in, what's there to fix?

Adams is supposedly legit, a Top 30 kid. Enoch is a late riser ranked around 100th overall, so really a low-end 4-star. I wouldn't expect too much out of him next year. Similar to Facey two years ago and Lubin this year.