Is KO About to Land a Fab Group of Recruits?

[Zionn]

Fishy on the money.

 

[Chief00]

Fishy on the money.

It's all about Stone.

 

[jleves]

I've had this feeling since May that KO could be the one coach that goes head-to-head with Calipari for the top recruits. These players definitely see the NBA in their near future, and no other coach has the education and NBA credentials that KO has. If you're a one-and-done, he's the guy you might want to tutor you for a year. He's also got charisma and the ability to relate to today's players.

This is just a gut feeling on my part, but I think this week is going to an eye opener for the college basketball recruiting world. The quiet has become deafening. That's about to change, I just feel it.

While I can appreciate your enthusiasm, in my line of work it's always better to under promise and over deliver. I think it works the same in recruiting - under expect, over appreciate.

 

[ColoradoUCFan]

It's all about Stone.

No treble

 

[DogMania]

Ollie is one Diamond Stone away from an excellent class.

If he goes 0-5 on Clarke/Mack/Briscoe/Jones/Stone, he's underachieved coming off a title, the new practice facility, etc.

If he goes 1-5 and the one is Stone, great.

If he goes 1-5 and the one is Mack or Jones, all right.

If he goes 2-5 and one of those is Stone, he's crushed it.

Briscoe and Clarke have sailed. I'm not holding my breath with Mack, but Stone is 50/50 and we have time to let the current UNLV infatuation settle with Jones.

You nailed it. I'm not feeling very optimistic, and welcome being surprised in the end. If they don't sign another top target this fall, I'd definitely conclude that it was a recruiting failure in light of coming off an NC and the opening of the new practice facility. Wonder how much is due to the AAC factor.

Hopefully they land Stone and a nice wing and set aside these concerns.

 

[epark88]

Reportedly, Briscoe is coming to Bristol to announce his decision live, on air.

And the last recruit that chose UConn at ESPN live, on air was...?

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Worse Case 2015:
Everyone goes pro. Nolan at center. TSam at point. Cassel at shooting guard. Facey at power forward. Calhoun at small forward.
Like this year Calhoun needs his jumper back.
Junior and Senior dominated team
Enuch, Adams, Lubin coming off bench.
Still NCAA team.
This means no transfers(unlikely). No recruits(unlikely)

I find the spelling Nazis to be tedious, but we should get the kids' names correct: "Enoch," not Enuch please. Fishy doesn't like others to be referred to in any way that resembles what his wife calls him at those tender times: "oh, my little eunuch."

In the unbelievably unlikely event we lose 5 players, I wouldn't bet on Adams coming off the bench.

 

[Gurleyman]

You nailed it. I'm not feeling very optimistic, and welcome being surprised in the end. If they don't sign another top target this fall, I'd definitely conclude that it was a recruiting failure in light of coming off an NC and the opening of the new practice facility. Wonder how much is due to the AAC factor. Hopefully they land Stone and a nice wing and set aside these concerns.

Failure is a strong word. We filled our two biggest needs already with top talent. The wings we are recruiting are insurance policies, because we have a pretty darn good top 25 freshman at that position right now, and nobody can be sure yet how long he will be here. Hamilton is not Andrew Wiggins (obvious one and done), nor the sort of role player a top 50 kid can feel comfortable beating out for minutes. As long as he's here, he's playing 30+ minutes. We could hit the jackpot with another Giffey - someone content with a limited role early on who blossoms late, but that's probably not going to be a top 50 kid looking to play right away. They'd have to take a leap of faith that Hamilton will have a short stay in Storrs, and showing a shiny new practice facility doesn't address that.

We've had recruiting classes that consisted entirely of Uri Cohen-Mintz and Donnell Beverly in the past, and earned No. 1 rankings early in their careers. Those years, we happened to be loaded with young, returning talent and it was tough to find anyone who wanted to wait their turn. We aren't quite loaded to the same degree now that we were in those years, but we aren't too far off.

Stone is a different situation - he'd give us a new element we haven't had and simply come in and get big minutes, and force returning players into lesser roles. I think if we get him, it's a monster class of three given what we already have, and we can wait until the spring to see if there's anything else we need when we have a better feel for how far Hamilton is from declaring (or perhaps Purvis, if he shakes off the rust). Maybe it means Jones or a stopgap JuCo or fifth-year senior. But if Hamilton is one and done and everyone else stays, we can play Adams-Cassell-Purvis 1-2-3 (or have Samuel start) and we're still in good shape, other than maybe one more role player for depth.

 

[CallMeBruce]

We filled our two biggest needs with good talent, but it was local talent that wasn't a hard get. In other words, I think we'd have gotten Adams and Enoch without the awesome new facility and a championship. The difference between how this class will look with Stone and without cannot be overstated.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

We filled our two biggest needs with good talent, but it was local talent that wasn't a hard get. In other words, I think we'd have gotten Adams and Enoch without the awesome new facility and a championship.

Unless you get brownie points based on the mileage between a recruit's hometown and the Uconn campus, I don't see how that matters. Jalen Adams, by all accounts, is an absolute stud. Yes, he's local. But he also could have gone to Kansas (like Wayne Selden did) or to Louisville (like Donovan Mitchell did), but he chose Uconn instead.

I don't believe that Tremont Waters is going to be a particularly hard get for us either. Does that mean we should be less excited if Ollie closes the deal?

 

[Danzz]

We have a good recruiting class with Adams and Enoch and we have also been seriously in the mix for others so even standing pat KO did fine. I don't know how hard or easy it was to land them and neither does anyone else. Now land Stone and we are over the top. The others (Jones, Briscoe and Mack) I've about 95 % written off so if we do get any of them I'd be thrilled but the current odds are pretty high. Then again Daniels signed out of nowhere along with Drummond and you can add Donyell to that list. Damn, now my hopes are back up on the other 3. I hate recruiting but I'm addicted.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

Reportedly, Briscoe is coming to Bristol to announce his decision live, on air.

And the last recruit that chose UConn at ESPN live, on air was...?

That's about as good as Lebron making "The Decision " at the NYC YMCA and choosing Miami.

We have a good recruiting class with Adams and Enoch and we have also been seriously in the mix for others so even standing pat KO did fine. I don't know how hard or easy it was to land them and neither does anyone else. Now land Stone and we are over the top. The others (Jones, Briscoe and Mack) I've about 95 % written off so if we do get any of them I'd be thrilled but the current odds are pretty high. Then again Daniels signed out of nowhere along with Drummond and you can add Donyell to that list. Damn, now my hopes are back up on the other 3. I hate recruiting but I'm addicted.

KEA was a late(surprise) get too .

 

[jibsey]

Even if we don't get any of these players, aren"t there a lot of 4 and 5 star players in the positions we need waiting for the spring?

 

[David 76]

Even if we don't get any of these players, aren"t there a lot of 4 and 5 star players in the positions we need waiting for the spring?

I'll defer to those that have following this stuff for a long time, but I don't think we have any time in with the other recruits. That would make us long shots

 

[Jay-Bone]

Failure is a strong word. We filled our two biggest needs already with top talent.

I don't know if I entirely agree with that. Our backcourt is stacked and PF has 5 years of elibility left after this year. Hamilton is likely gone after next year and I always like to not have a freshman start to fill the gap (even though D-Ham looks to be up to the task this year). And I've always put Omar in the SG category. Brimah might be gone after next year also. Already this season I feel uncomfortable with the lack of frontcourt experience depth with Brimah's proneness to fouling. To me, a pure SF and C would be beautiful for this class. Not to say I'm not already elated with what we have and find it far from failure, just that underestimating those recruitment needs can be dangerous.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Unless you get brownie points based on the mileage between a recruit's hometown and the Uconn campus, I don't see how that matters. Jalen Adams, by all accounts, is an absolute stud. Yes, he's local. But he also could have gone to Kansas (like Wayne Selden did) or to Louisville (like Donovan Mitchell did), but he chose Uconn instead.

I don't believe that Tremont Waters is going to be a particularly hard get for us either. Does that mean we should be less excited if Ollie closes the deal?

That's not the point. If Ollie is unable to leverage the new basketball facility and a brand-new championship ring (not to mention his incredibly impressive NBA resume) to land some "difficult" gets, what's he going to do in years that New England isn't this stacked with talent?

 

[Jay-Bone]

That's not the point. If Ollie is unable to leverage the new basketball facility and a brand-new championship ring (not to mention his incredibly impressive NBA resume) to land some "difficult" gets, what's he going to do in years that New England isn't this stacked with talent?

I've read some people questioning KO's recruiting ability throughout, but they forget that in an odd way he has gotten 4 - 4*+ players to commit for the '15 class. 2 even before the ship. Unfortunately Will Jackson's stock plummeted due to injury and Ali may have moved on with the incoming of Adams but if we still had all those commits we'd be log-jammed at the back court. I'm fine with Ollie pulling 2 of the best local kids.....love it. If he nails Stone, it will be a holiday. If he gets Jones (assuming Mack has moved on), icing on the cake for an extremely well rounded class. Maybe he doesn't need an SF this year with his hands in early on the pot for some good '16 SF's, but I'd feel more comfortable if he tied one 4* down.

 

[Scottzer]

That's not the point. If Ollie is unable to leverage the new basketball facility and a brand-new championship ring (not to mention his incredibly impressive NBA resume) to land some "difficult" gets, what's he going to do in years that New England isn't this stacked with talent?

It's UConn - a place where players develop. We've only had 9 McDonald's all Americans (or so). I don't worry about us having the top class - all we need are the right players, not those who everybody else says are the "best." The handful of absolute studs don't stick around long enough to build a title team around.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I've read some people questioning KO's recruiting ability throughout, but they forget that in an odd way he has gotten 4 - 4*+ players to commit for the '15 class. 2 even before the ship. Unfortunately Will Jackson's stock plummeted due to injury and Ali may have moved on with the incoming of Adams but if we still had all those commits we'd be log-jammed at the back court. I'm fine with Ollie pulling 2 of the best local kids.....love it. If he nails Stone, it will be a holiday. If he gets Jones (assuming Mack has moved on), icing on the cake for an extremely well rounded class. Maybe he doesn't need an SF this year with his hands in early on the pot for some good '16 SF's, but I'd feel more comfortable if he tied one 4* down.

I'm not at the point where I'm questioning KO's recruiting ability. If he lands Stone, which seems to be very much in play, that's a top-5 kid at a marquee position being stolen from a big name coach fresh off a Final Four when he'd have an obvious spot in the starting lineup for a team that is always among the favorites to win the most prestigious league in the country. It would solidify KO as an elite recruiter. Really, even being in on him is huge, but I would really like something to show for it.

 

[pj]

KO is recruiting great. He's got the Rivals #25 and #60 players. JC typically had about 40% of his recruits in the top 75; KO is batting 100% this year. He's still competing for Diamond Stone (Rivals #5) and Tevin Mack (Rivals #77). It has a chance to be a truly outstanding class. If we get 3 good players we can fill the other scholarship a year later, or with a late bloomer in the spring. Either way it looks good for us.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

That's not the point. If Ollie is unable to leverage the new basketball facility and a brand-new championship ring (not to mention his incredibly impressive NBA resume) to land some "difficult" gets, what's he going to do in years that New England isn't this stacked with talent?

Well, last year he went to the other end of the country and stole Daniel Hamilton and then he got a Junior College All-American who might be one of our better players.

 

[B1GEast]

it's stone or nothing, we've been "all in" on stone for a while and hopefully it will pan out. That being said, it would not surprise me if briscoe puts on the uconn hat on thursday, why any big time recruit would want to play 10 minutes a game in a crowded rotation is beyond me.

If briscoe does pick uconn, I worry about jalen staying.

 

[metsfan2323]

KO is recruiting great. He's got the Rivals #25 and #60 players. JC typically had about 40% of his recruits in the top 75; KO is batting 100% this year

Yup, we already have two blue chip recruits. It wouldn't surprise me if Enoch ended up having a better college career than one and done Stone, we have seen it happen over and over again. (Brimah > Drummond, TSAM had a better NCAA tournament than Wiggins and he is still here while Wiggins is off to the NBA)

 

[David 76]

You think Brimah is greater than Drummond?

 

[jleves]

You think Brimah is greater than Drummond?

Think he meant Brimah will have a more impactful UConn career than Drummond did.