It's Talent and It's Recruiting

[superjohn]

They looked more talented tonight. Game should not have been as close as it was. They got literally every open look they wanted.

They were better than us tonight but playing better than someone for 1 game and talent are two completely separate things.

 

[Horatio]

Terrance Samuel, Phil Nolan and the current Rodney Purvis do not belong in a high major rotation. Facey and SC Jr would be role players coming off the bench with limited minutes in most rotations. We cant have guards who cant dribble or shoot and bigs who cant rebound playing major minutes, but we don't have anyone else. It's sad.

Dude, Purvis scored 19 pts. His last game . We could've used half of that against Texas , West Virginia and Yale. I have no comment on Nolan because of my personal policy regarding harmful statements aimed at college athletes .

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

They were better than us tonight but playing better than someone for 1 game and talent are two completely separate things.

There's not a lot of evidence for your talent argument, professor. It would be one thing if they ____ the bed tonight and it was an aberration. They trailed Bryant, Charleston, and Dayton at halftime. They can't hit the broadside of a barn and have basically no offense to speak of. It's not like Yale played out of their minds. They weren't even particularly good tonight, and they still carved them up in the halfcourt.

A week ago you were saying we were going to have the best backcourt in the country.

 

[CTBballfan243]

UCONN has to learn to adapt to the current reality. It is going to be a tuff sell to get top level recruits to want to play in the AAC. I don't think it is a reflection on UCONN, but more of a reflection on the conference. Heck, ESPN ranks the AAC below the ACC, Big10, BIG12, SEC, PAC12, Big East, A10. Blue Chip recruits are going to be hard to come by as long as UCONN is in the AAC. UCONN has a brand new basketball facility, just won a 4th national championship, and lost a recruit to VCU. Have you ever seen VCU's facilities? They are comparible to CCSU, and are located in Norfolk, which is bad enough. Bottom line, UCONN needs to change there approach to recruiting. They are no longer in the "Penthouse" conference and are going to have their work cut out for them.

 

[Paesano]

Memphis is in the AAC and they recruit pretty well.

 

[upstater]

It sucks that we didn't win the national championship last year.

Kromah, Brimah, Giffey, Samuel, etc.

4 of the key guys on that team. None of them highly recruited.

The two I didn't mention? Shabazz. Not really a nationally regarded recruit, and in his Sophomore year, many had buried him as a never-will-be.

Daniels obviously was a top recruit but he's replaced by Daniel Hamilton.

they have a bad mix out there right now and they obviously lack a solid ball handler. But in terms of where they were recruited and where the national champ was, there's very little difference.

 

[Stainmaster]

Memphis is in the AAC

We try to forget that.

 

[Rico444]

Hard to disagree with this. The team hasn't put together an entire half where they looked like a good offensive team, not even when we played the D-II teams. Defense has the potential to be very good by the end of the year, but I just don't think this team has the personnel to be good offensively. We have one or two players that have above average handle, and the same number that can hit the 3. As a result, we have no answer when even mediocre teams like Yale pack the paint. Hard to imagine this as a tournament team.

 

[Dynasty]

We try to forget that.

We can't with @UofMemphis reminding us everyday.

 

[chapwilvaug72]

hey Ct243: Looks like you do not get out much. As one approaches Richmond on the interstate you see big parking garages with signs "Virginia Commonwealth Univ."

If you think VCU is in Norfolk, I understand why you do not drive anywhere up or down the eastern seaboard. You would never be able to return home.

 

[superjohn]

There's not a lot of evidence for your talent argument, professor. It would be one thing if they ____ the bed tonight and it was an aberration. They trailed Bryant, Charleston, and Dayton at halftime. They can't hit the broadside of a barn and have basically no offense to speak of. It's not like Yale played out of their minds. They weren't even particularly good tonight, and they still carved them up in the halfcourt.

A week ago you were saying we were going to have the best backcourt in the country.

Do you think Yale has as much talent as us?

 

[Lefty2one]

Two years ago we needed double OT to beat Quinnipiac with the core that cut down the nets last April. The sky is not falling though that was probably the worst team we've lost to in the last 25 years. At the same time, we just played the #6 team in America to the wire. Things will get better. We're a young team, replacing all of our leadership, outside shooting and a program legend. It's going to take a lot of time.

• Boat was not himself.
• Purvis is not healthy.
• Calhoun is a non-factor until he proves otherwise.
• The offense is really, really bad. We have absolutely no identity, no one looks comfortable in their role. Their is no chemistry or cohesiveness. It doesn't help that we're 311th in the nation in 3PT shooting.
  
• Every returning player was spoiled by Shabazz the two previous seasons and his ability to create his own offense and bail them out approximately one million times.
• We are not attacking at all. SIX FTA's against friggin Yale?
• We are playing at a snail's pace, actually that might be an understatement.
• I'm not sure I've see Cassell Jr take a 3PT yet where he isn't leaning backwards or sideways. Might still be adjusting to the speed of the D1 game but that needs to be corrected ASAP.
• The defense is also really bad. I can't remember a low-major ever getting so many open looks against us. They got an open J on nearly every possession it seemed. Thankfully no one on their team can shoot worth a damn, though that makes this sound even worse.

It's about toughness and playing hard. Talent isn't the issue, this team just isn't tough right now. Not defensively and not on the glass. Don't forget that Bazz was arguably the best rounder on our team last year - while that's a nice endorsement for Bazz it's a major indictment of the rest of the roster. Justin Sears getting 8 ORB and getting out-glassed as a team on the offensive boards 13-1...to Yale? Good grief. The team picked a really bad time to have nine days off. Practice is going to be hell for the next several days.

Ollie will prepare them though, we aren't going to roll into that match up against Duke and get embarrassed. Don't think KO will let it happen.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

The OP is right and the people bashing him are the same people who refuse to awknowledge anything negative relating to the program.

I've been worried about this for a while now. And this summer as we continued to swing and miss at all those recruits that we shouldn't have everyone keeps saying "no were uconn we find diamonds in the rough" and then list off Okafor who is a once in a lifetime guy. Of course we've developed plenty of guys and had a lot of success doing so. But that was also wih Jim Calhoun who was probably the best ever at it. And you also need some stars too.

The fact is basically every guy on this team besides boat omar and Hamilton was a backup option. Yeah facey and samuel were good regional guys but they were borderline top 100 at best and if I remember correctly both were signed in the spring which would imply we went after them after other options fell thru.

Cassel was added because we had no one else. Same for Nolan lubin and as much upside as he has, brimah as well. We have ten guys and only three were legit target recruits.

This is what happens. Samuel and cassell would be nice role guys who could come off the bench for a few minutes but can't be expected to play 30 min a game. Lubin and Nolan have no business seeing the court. Facey and brimah have tons of upside but have limited skills and are far from finished products. They should be backups right now. And they would be on most uconn teams from 99-12. Brimah has starter talent and is good enough but he's too inconsistent right now.

We really shouldn't be surprised. We'll see what omar and purvis cam be when they get healthy but it's a legitimate concern. The coaching staff has to do a better job recruiting. Glen Miller seems like a nice guy and I'm sure he's a decent coach but can anyone really see recruits lining up to play for him? The guy is boring as hell and has as much charisma as a tomato can. The staff needs a star recruiter.

 

[PWS]

The OP is obviously relentlessly negative about everything but he makes a valid point about the talent level of this team. Your post about Facey is just ridiculous though. I would count him among the guys that - while he wouldn't beat out Kevin Freeman at the four spot (probably even today) - can be a very good player, and sooner rather than later.

Who is the OP?

 

[boog204]

Well what happened to Samuel? He was a very solid contributor off the bench for a National Champion team. He just all of a sudden regressed?

TSam played in 30 games last year. In about 8 of those he played more than 10 minutes and in four of those games he contributed in what could be called a "very solid" way. In addition to him playing with talent that hid his lack of skills, there is a common theme on this board of remembering those two truly great tourney games and disregarding the other 25+ games where he was no factor whatsoever. He is what he is. He's Donnell Beverly. If you had lots of talent around him, he can blend in and be a glue guy. If you are relying on him to be a key cog, you are going to disappointed.

 

[chapwilvaug72]

"charisma of tomato can"

gotta luv it

 

[TheChamps990411]

TSam played in 30 games last year. In about 8 of those he played more than 10 minutes and in four of those games he contributed in what could be called a "very solid" way. In addition to him playing with talent that hid his lack of skills, there is a common theme on this board of remembering those two truly great tourney games and disregarding the other 25+ games where he was no factor whatsoever. He is what he is. He's Donnell Beverly. If you had lots of talent around him, he can blend in and be a glue guy. If you are relying on him to be a key cog, you are going to disappointed.

Exactly! And i really like him. I just think hes a guy who should come in about 10 minutes a game and play defense first and foremost. If he can get an easy basket from time to time thats great but thats all he should be doing. Hes better than Beverly who imho was just awful 95% of the time.

 

[BluffCityHsky]

We try to forget that.

Hopefully they stay.....Even though I can't stand their delusional fan base thinking they are an all time top ten team, if the below link happens we are additionally screwed. Hopefully just smoke.
http://www.espn929.com/johnmartin/Nashville-radio-host-Memphis-to-the-Big-12/20457311

 

[uconnbill]

No excuse losing to Yale, but the only place to go is up after these last three games.

 

[champs99and04]

You guys lamenting the current talent level do realize that, from a recruiting perspective, the talent is as good or better than what it was last year? We essentially swapped five star Daniels and four star Napier for five star Hamilton and five star Purvis. I realize there isn't a fool-proof correlation between recruiting rankings and basketball talent, but talent is not the problem here - the pieces don't fit right now.

 

[BUConn10]

The OP is right and the people bashing him are the same people who refuse to awknowledge anything negative relating to the program.

I've been worried about this for a while now. And this summer as we continued to swing and miss at all those recruits that we shouldn't have everyone keeps saying "no were uconn we find diamonds in the rough" and then list off Okafor who is a once in a lifetime guy. Of course we've developed plenty of guys and had a lot of success doing so. But that was also wih Jim Calhoun who was probably the best ever at it. And you also need some stars too.

The fact is basically every guy on this team besides boat omar and Hamilton was a backup option. Yeah facey and samuel were good regional guys but they were borderline top 100 at best and if I remember correctly both were signed in the spring which would imply we went after them after other options fell thru.

Cassel was added because we had no one else. Same for Nolan lubin and as much upside as he has, brimah as well. We have ten guys and only three were legit target recruits.

This is what happens. Samuel and cassell would be nice role guys who could come off the bench for a few minutes but can't be expected to play 30 min a game. Lubin and Nolan have no business seeing the court. Facey and brimah have tons of upside but have limited skills and are far from finished products. They should be backups right now. And they would be on most uconn teams from 99-12. Brimah has starter talent and is good enough but he's too inconsistent right now.

We really shouldn't be surprised. We'll see what omar and purvis cam be when they get healthy but it's a legitimate concern. The coaching staff has to do a better job recruiting. Glen Miller seems like a nice guy and I'm sure he's a decent coach but can anyone really see recruits lining up to play for him? The guy is boring as hell and has as much charisma as a tomato can. The staff needs a star recruiter.

I've been saying pretty much exactly this for quite a while now, with the same responses from overly proud detractors. Our recruiting has been getting worse each year since 2011 (aside from Drummond who was a CT native and fan of the program). Developing talent is awesome, but to win consistently you need to get good talent to begin development with.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

You guys lamenting the current talent level do realize that, from a recruiting perspective, the talent is as good or better than what it was last year? We essentially swapped five star Daniels and four star Napier for five star Hamilton and five star Purvis. I realize there isn't a fool-proof correlation between recruiting rankings and basketball talent, but talent is not the problem here - the pieces don't fit right now.

I don't think relying on "stars" -as driven home by the example you just used - is all that compelling.

 

[BUHusky]

There's not a lot of evidence for your talent argument, professor. It would be one thing if they ____ the bed tonight and it was an aberration. They trailed Bryant, Charleston, and Dayton at halftime. They can't hit the broadside of a barn and have basically no offense to speak of. It's not like Yale played out of their minds. They weren't even particularly good tonight, and they still carved them up in the halfcourt.

A week ago you were saying we were going to have the best backcourt in the country.

During the game chat you stated that Yale had more talent than UConn and now you seem to be doubling down on that absurd stance. That's f--cking ridiculous. You can't seriously believe that. Do you actually think a team of high IQ athletes who happened to win a game is more talented than a team of full 3, 4, and 5 star recruits? (some of them being key players of a national champion) Because if that's the truly the case then a lot of high level D-1 coaches made a serious mistake by passing up on these Yale kids. .

I usually commend you for being above the fray and calling out the litany of reactionary posters on this board, but apparently when gets really bad you're just another one of them.

 

[chapwilvaug72]

BUbo: Please name one club in the top 50 that would take any of 6 student athletes from UCONN (boat,amoeba,newrip,rockskew untouchable)?

 

[Paesano]

I will admit, based on rankings, we do appear to have more talent this year. However, Giffey is a wildcard because he was foreign. I think most people would have equated him to at least a 4 star player coming in. And, last year really was a miraculous run by that group. Ollie did a great job coaching those experienced kids to wins over more talented teams.

What we are seeing now is what happens to teams with limited talent when they are young and/or injured. When an injury or immaturity takes a kid out of the game, there isn't enough left to allow the team to play at a decent level. If a kid on Duke or UK gets hurt or has head issues, they just plug in another 5 star player. We plug in a 3 star. HUGE difference! We can't keep losing these recruiting battles and especially when we have obvious needs at their position!!!!! And people need to stop with the excuses. We no longer have an old coach ready to retire. We no longer have a coach without a long term contract. We no longer have an unproven young coach. We no longer lack a practice facility. Memphis gets way more 5 star kids and they are in the same conference. KO needs to build a plausible deniability shelter like the squid has and that shelter needs to start using dirty recruiting tactics. We don't pay enough. Everything else is an excuse.