If you could have one more year from an underclassmen who left UConn early | Page 2 | The Boneyard

If you could have one more year from an underclassmen who left UConn early

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Matrim55 said:
I think people are forgetting just how negative people were about 'Yell after the missed free throws. He was burned out on being the man, and another year in Storrs would have just made it worse.

Plus I'm not sure he actually would have helped that 94/95 team. They wanted to run, Run, RUN! and he didn't.
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My memories are hazy after 20 years but I don't recall Donyell not wanting to run. Looking back at the stats the 95 team only averaged 1 more point per game than 94. I definitely remember him running against Seton Hall (?) for a 360 dunk and 1, one of the all time spectacular UConn plays.
 
I'm a little confused by this thread. Isn't an underclassmen considered a freshmen or sophomore? Or do you just mean anyone that didn't stay four years?

Underclassmen I'll go with Caron or Nadav
Upperclassmen gotta go with Kemba but can't go wrong with any of the other 30 pros that left after their junior year
 
If we're being realistic here, the guy I want back is Roscoe (in this case for another two years). His toughness on the boards and versatility defensively could have been the difference between 20-10 and 23-7 last season. We desperately needed somebody physically mature enough to bang inside early in the season when Daniels was having some growing pains, and even more importantly, he was the guy in 2011, and to some extent in 2012, that would guard the opposing teams best player, an attribute that's difficult to quantify. He guarded everybody in his two years here - Dreymond Green, Terrence Jones, Tobias Harris, Jordan Hamilton, Kris Joseph, Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Williams, Matt Howard, Jae Crowder, Otto Porter, Royce White, etc. That's the type of versatility you can't replace. This season he would have been our solution to players like Chane Behanan, Noah Vonleh, Dez Wells, Ryan Anderson, etc. Giffey has proven capable of filling 80% of the void Roscoe left, but that additional 20% can be the difference between a sweet 16 and final four.
 
My answer is easily Kemba. The inside-out game with him and Drummond would've been ridiculous to watch. Would've sent Coach Calhoun to retirement with back-to-back titles.
 
My choice is Caron without a doubt. Give him another year with Emeka and Ben, while also adding Rashad and Denham to the mix, and the sky's the limit for the 02-03 team.
 
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Thabeet. Team would go from NIT-bound to NC contender. Would of ran:

Kemba
Dyson
Robinson
Edwards
Thabeet

Oriakhi, Majok, Okwandu, Bev as the bench. Not much of a bench but probably the most intimidating front court.
 
The thread says 'another year from an UNDERCLASSMAN' and Kemba was a Junior when he left so he doesn't apply in my mind.

Kemba would easily be the first choice if you don't account for underclassmen... that 2012 team needed leadership and we would have had a great shot at back-to-back titles with him.

I'd probably say Caron or Rudy or AD
 
Huskyforlife said:
if not upperclassmen, it has to be caron or AD
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Or Rudy Gay. Those are the only 3 players UConn has lost to the draft who were freshman or sophomores. I'm guessing the OP meant any early entrants and not just freshman or sophomores.
 
champs99and04 said:
If we're being realistic here, the guy I want back is Roscoe (in this case for another two years). His toughness on the boards and versatility defensively could have been the difference between 20-10 and 23-7 last season. We desperately needed somebody physically mature enough to bang inside early in the season when Daniels was having some growing pains, and even more importantly, he was the guy in 2011, and to some extent in 2012, that would guard the opposing teams best player, an attribute that's difficult to quantify. He guarded everybody in his two years here - Dreymond Green, Terrence Jones, Tobias Harris, Jordan Hamilton, Kris Joseph, Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Williams, Matt Howard, Jae Crowder, Otto Porter, Royce White, etc. That's the type of versatility you can't replace. This season he would have been our solution to players like Chane Behanan, Noah Vonleh, Dez Wells, Ryan Anderson, etc. Giffey has proven capable of filling 80% of the void Roscoe left, but that additional 20% can be the difference between a sweet 16 and final four.
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I would have loved watching Roscoe deny Archidacono.
 
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My ranking in terms of chances (guess) for a NC
Emeka & Ben - highest chance for a repeat (95%)
Kemba - Lamb would get less pressure. Kemba would have made AD much better (90%)
Caron - nose picker would have ZERO NCs (85%)
Donyell - UCLA game would turn out differently (80%)
 
HooperScooper said:
Or Rudy Gay. Those are the only 3 players UConn has lost to the draft who were freshman or sophomores. I'm guessing the OP meant any early entrants and not just freshman or sophomores.
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This is true.
 
HooperScooper said:
Or Rudy Gay. Those are the only 3 players UConn has lost to the draft who were freshman or sophomores. I'm guessing the OP meant any early entrants and not just freshman or sophomores.
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CV and Lamb too. But we've been pretty lucky as a whole with our talent to years lost ratio.
 
TheRogers said:
My ranking in terms of chances (guess) for a NC
Emeka & Ben - highest chance for a repeat (95%)
Kemba - Lamb would get less pressure. Kemba would have made AD much better (90%)
Caron - nose picker would have ZERO NCs (85%)
Donyell - UCLA game would turn out differently (80%)
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Gotta have Rip in there too - we still would have missed Ricky's clamps, but we keep Free at the 4, and KEA isn't forced to carry all the creating offense load.

The Michigan State team that won was pretty good, so no guarantees - but that was a bad year for Final Four quality (Wisky and UNC made it as eight seeds, and Florida as a five seed), so the door was open.
 
MikeSol12 said:
Believe it or not, my 2nd answer would be Andre Drummond.

I really think he would thrive under Kevin Ollie. Unfortunately, I just don't think his laud back personality meshed well with Calhoun. Andre is the most athletic player that UConn has ever had. And yes, more so than Rudy, Donyell, Rip, and company.
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I scratch my head at this. What good would AD's coming back have done? It's not like we would have made the tournament. His leaving was for the best - for him and the team.

And all those guys that left after winning an NC made the right choice, look what happened to KEA. His staying cost him money. And Donyell had to leave. He signed for $42M, if he stayed it would have been less than $10M.

I'm voting for Nadav. The team made the Sweet 16 without him, maybe they could have contended for the FF with him.
 
I totally agree with you in terms of no postseason. In an ideal world, if the NCAA wasn't a fraudulent organization, then Andre could have competed for a title his sophomore year.

But you're right. No point of him coming back with no postseason.
 
.-.
Gurleyman said:
CV and Lamb too. But we've been pretty lucky as a whole with our talent to years lost ratio.
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Oh yeah. How quickly I forget. Didn't think that through. So 4 have left after 2 years and only 1 one and done. Compared to other schools who have had a lot of early entrants that is pretty good.
 
Surprised noone has said Marcus Williams yet. I strongly believe that had he stayed for his Senior year, he could have done something very similar to what Kemba and the kids did in 2011. The hunger that team would have had after losing to George Mason in the Elite Eight could have been something special. The team would have had the defense from Thabeet, hard nosed player in Adrien, and an all around leader in Marcus dishing out assists left and right. Really think another year in school would have done wonders for his draft stock also and could have potentially been a top-10 pick.
 
I wonder how Bynum would have been if he ever showed up. He had committed but reneged for the NBA.
 
I'd go with Charlie Villanueva. I'm glad we didn't end up with Bynum. The guy is a punk through and through and I wouldn't want him in a UConn uniform, regardless of his talent level.
 
joober jones said:
I'd go with Charlie Villanueva. I'm glad we didn't end up with Bynum. The guy is a punk through and through and I wouldn't want him in a UConn uniform, regardless of his talent level.
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this, he would have probably affected our rep.
 
joober jones said:
I'd go with Charlie Villanueva. I'm glad we didn't end up with Bynum. The guy is a punk through and through and I wouldn't want him in a UConn uniform, regardless of his talent level.
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It would've been interesting to see Calhoun handle Bynum. Maybe he would have been able to smack the punk right out of him? One year under Calhoun's tutelage just might have had enough of an impact on Bynum. Hopefully at least enough to not sport that abomination of a haircut.
 
.-.
tcf15 said:
It would've been interesting to see Calhoun handle Bynum. Maybe he would have been able to smack the punk right out of him? One year under Calhoun's tutelage just might have had enough of an impact on Bynum. Hopefully at least enough to not sport that abomination of a haircut.
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Or he might have called the coach a mumu!
 
Huskyforlife said:
AD
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To see him mature and dominate more, sure. But the team had no chance of winning anything so I don't think he can even be in the discussion IMHO. I would say Rip first, followed very closely by Donyell and Caron.
 
UConNick said:
I don't want to say superstars after a title like Kemba or Emeka, so how about Charlie Villanueva? He was big for that 04-05 team, and obviously in 05-06 we had an entire lineup of studs. Add one more experienced, upperclassmen stud, and we don't lose to George Mason. That team would have been loaded even more than it already was. Plus maybe Charlie develops into a more mature player that lived up to the lottery.
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This is a good choice, especially since Charlie probably needed the extra year of development moreso than any of the other early entrants. That team would have been ridiculously deep and versatile up front with him.
 
FlaHusky said:
This is a good choice, especially since Charlie probably needed the extra year of development moreso than any of the other early entrants. That team would have been ridiculously deep and versatile up front with him.
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I don't prefer to reference Vitale, but I remember clearly after the NC State loss that he devoted a few minutes to CV, urging him to come back as he was sure to be an AA and lead Uconn to the NC. It was similar to how he was hyping Uconn for the NC going into 03-04.

If we're talking about who would've given that team the best shot at a NC, I'd go with
#1 Caron (That team had great chemistry with and without Caron, but Caron would've been unstoppable).
#2 Donyell (The 94-95 team would've had two AAs. I think Donyell would've carried them over O'bannon and UCLA).
#3 Charlie (Charlie was beginning to dominate by the end of the year).
#4 Kemba (I don't put Kemba higher because I just don't want to touch 2011. That year was so magical and I'm not sure even Kemba would've been able to smooth over the seeming discontent on that team).
#5 Rip (The team wouldn't be the same without Moore and Jones. With Rip, they'd easily be a FF team, but MSU with Cleaves would've been a tough opponent without Moore).

If we're just talking about who would be dominant, I'd leave out Emeka, Ray, Donyell, Rip, Ben, Kemba, and Hasheem, since I think all of them really couldn't go much higher as they were AA. I'd also throw in MW and JL since it seemed like they had peaked wearing Uconn uniforms.

So, I'd go with Caron or Charlie.
 
bobbygt said:
I don't prefer to reference Vitale, but I remember clearly after the NC State loss that he devoted a few minutes to CV, urging him to come back as he was sure to be an AA and lead Uconn to the NC. It was similar to how he was hyping Uconn for the NC going into 03-04.

If we're talking about who would've given that team the best shot at a NC, I'd go with
#1 Caron (That team had great chemistry with and without Caron, but Caron would've been unstoppable).
#2 Donyell (The 94-95 team would've had two AAs. I think Donyell would've carried them over O'bannon and UCLA).
#3 Charlie (Charlie was beginning to dominate by the end of the year).
#4 Kemba (I don't put Kemba higher because I just don't want to touch 2011. That year was so magical and I'm not sure even Kemba would've been able to smooth over the seeming discontent on that team).
#5 Rip (The team wouldn't be the same without Moore and Jones. With Rip, they'd easily be a FF team, but MSU with Cleaves would've been a tough opponent without Moore).

If we're just talking about who would be dominant, I'd leave out Emeka, Ray, Donyell, Rip, Ben, Kemba, and Hasheem, since I think all of them really couldn't go much higher as they were AA. I'd also throw in MW and JL since it seemed like they had peaked wearing Uconn uniforms).

So, I'd go with Caron or Charlie.
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i think he could've saved our year. he was such a great leader
 
Ray. He would have been the odds on favorite for POY as a senior.
 
.-.
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