Jalen Gaffney Transferring

[RayIsTheGOAT]

One quibble: Jordan Hawkins is a guard and not a whiff. (And technically, Jackson is listed as a guard.) We'll see about Floyd; I am going to be optimistic!

I should rephrase- whiffed on every * lead ballhandling, prototypical 1 guard *.

 

[coloradohusky]

Does anyone actually think that’s going to work?

He does not cherish possession of the ball and is way to reckless. He would be a very good point forward who is the #2 guy in regards to distribution.

The press will murder us if AJ is our point.

Aj won't be the pg next year. And if he is, I can cancel my youtube tv contract because I won't need to watch the travesty that will be UConn basketball.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

One quibble: Jordan Hawkins is a guard and not a whiff. (And technically, Jackson is listed as a guard.) We'll see about Floyd; I am going to be optimistic!

Agree. All of a sudden Bouknight is not a guard and Hurley did not recruit him? The revisionism to fit the narrative knows no bounds

 

[August_West]

Yup. Every year.

except it wasnt the same zoom call, was it?

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Agree. All of a sudden Bouknight is not a guard and Hurley did not recruit him? The revisionism to fit the narrative knows no bounds

Again, I agree. I meant specifically freshmen lead ball handling point guards.

All I'm trying to say is we had smoke blown up our rear about Gaffney and Diggins, who are the closest to true 1s that Hurley has brought here as freshmen, and it didn't work out.

 

[nomar]

I should rephrase- whiffed on every * lead ballhandling, prototypical 1 guard *.

No quibble there. Hurley had a security blanket with Cole and that is gone now. The bed is stripped bare.

 

[navery12]

except it wasnt the same zoom call, was it?

No it wasn't a zoom call this year because we weren't in the middle of Covid and reporters were able to be in person this year

 

[August_West]

I've been saying for a while now that next year will be a rebuilding year and that he will be on the hot seat going into 2023/2024. But it's definitely too early to say what will happen that far in the future. A rebuild next year could be good for us. We really need to revamp the offense and to do that we needed to revamp the roster. Now it's his job to fix it.

LOL Year 5 of a rebuild is not in of itself a rebuild year.

 

[Sonova]

I think he expected Diggins to earn minutes and also for more improvement out of Gaff.

I can't argue with the results, they weren't good. I'm just not trying to make too big a deal out of whiffing on Diggins.

I agree on Diggins somewhat (though that’s a enormous over-ranking if true) I have always been more than a bit surprised and concerned by his faith in/optimism for Gaffney. You shouldn’t whiff on a guy you see everyday for 2+ years. That faith seemed to prevent us from adding a PG from the portal last year (meaning for this past season) as he counted on Gaffney turning into something he clearly isn’t.

So it’s going to be interesting to see if he goes after a backup/under-utilized PG from a high major or can still get a lower level good point guard looking to upgrade levels. In either case, I’m not sure there are obvious, high major rockstar PGs just looking for a change of scenery.

 

[storrsroars]

Yes. We needed at least one more when diggins and gaffney were still here. So yeah. And this isn’t good.

Remember last year when someone suggested getting KEA's kid and the board squashed that idea like it was a drunk, crippled cockroach?

Ishmael shot >40% from three and >90% from FT line. He wasn't a prolific scorer, but could've taken a bit of load off Cole or played alongside and contributed more than what we had. And maybe helped get to R32 or better.

 

[AllAbout5]

The majority of people in here are extremely pessimistic. Try being optimistic! Look at the portal, which is filling up constantly everyday. Let’s think positively about this team and let the coaching staff work things out. I have no doubt we can be a strong team in the Big East next year. Obviously, we need to find some transfers after nearly our entire guard depth departed. However, we’re a blue blood program and who doesn’t want to play in the Big East? Keep your head up, everyone. We’ve been through worse.

 

[nomar]

Andre will be a great PG. Those who can’t see that don’t see how high is ceiling is.

He can be an NBA PG if he learns to get his shot off a bit quicker. Everything else is there and his size and athleticism, other PG’s cannot match it

As much as I'd like to see it, I don't.

For anything but a PG, he's got excellent passing and handling skills. And if he can improve his shot, those skills will make him stand out and give him a chance to succeed at the next level. But I just don't see him being ready to play PG for us. Also, if you slide him to the 1, then we're sliding him from the 2 and replacing him there with someone who probably doesn't even have his skills.

So my strong preference is to keep him on the wing (2/3).

 

[UConnSwag11]

This means rebuild 2.0. Lowering expectations next season, but it appears everyone is eligible to return the year following.

Transfers are a great option, however a new PG (especially transfers) need time to adapt to the new system, coaches, players and of course Big East basketball. Hurley will have some hard work ahead of him this off-season into next.

I honestly felt with RJ, Martin, Whaley and Polley leaving was going to hold us back next season. Now with Gaffney and to a lesser extent Diggins, this means a complete rework. Nonetheless next season will be interesting and hopefully Rebuild 2.0 will be the last and final, and then back to dominance. At least the coaching staff is intact, which is very important with losing so many players.

Its AJ's team now, lets hope his leadership skills shine.

We’re into season 5 and we’re at a rebuild. Is this what we expected. We/he can’t blame Ollie anymore. Are our expectations going back to year 1 of Hurley?

Anyway, we only know what two expect from two of the players on the roster, Sanogo and Jackson. Hawkins showed his potential but wasn’t that consistent. Hurley has a lot riding on this upcoming season. Hoping he can surround Sanogo and Jackson with shooters/scorers and gets a heady PG who can run the team. We lack an identity on the offensive end

 

[August_West]

No it wasn't a zoom call this year because we weren't in the middle of Covid and reporters were able to be in person this year

mmmmhmmmm.

 

[August_West]

One quibble: Jordan Hawkins is a guard and not a whiff. (And technically, Jackson is listed as a guard.) We'll see about Floyd; I am going to be optimistic!

Hopefully they are still here.

 

[August_West]

As much as I'd like to see it, I don't.

For anything but a PG, he's got excellent passing and handling skills. And if he can improve his shot, those skills will make him stand out and give him a chance to succeed at the next level. But I just don't see him being ready to play PG for us. Also, if you slide him to the 1, then we're sliding him from the 2 and replacing him there with someone who probably doesn't even have his skills.

So my strong preference is to keep him on the wing (2/3).

Andre should be a 1 or a 4. I think hed be a great 4. Better than a 1.

 

[JMick]

LOL Year 5 of a rebuild is not in of itself a rebuild year.

Call it a rebuild/revamp/pivot/change in philosophy, whatever. Everyone who watched the team this year knows we needed to change how we play basketball on the offensive end. Now he has a chance to do that.

 

[nomar]

I agree on Diggins somewhat (though that’s a enormous over-ranking if true) I have always been more than a bit surprised and concerned by his faith in/optimism for Gaffney. You shouldn’t whiff on a guy you see everyday for 2+ years. That faith seemed to prevent us from adding a PG from the portal last year (meaning for this past season) as he counted on Gaffney turning into something he clearly isn’t.

So it’s going to be interesting to see if he goes after a backup/under-utilized PG from a high major or can still get a lower level good point guard looking to upgrade levels. In either case, I’m not sure there are obvious, high major rockstar PGs just looking for a change of scenery.

Honestly not sure about Gaff. I personally had no confidence him being a real contributor, so I find it hard to believe Hurley thought he was going to be great. Maybe he just thought he'd be a passable 3rd string PG. Not a huge ask there.

 

[UConnSwag11]

The majority of people in here are extremely pessimistic. Try being optimistic! Look at the portal, which is filling up constantly everyday. Let’s think positively about this team and let the coaching staff work things out. I have no doubt we can be a strong team in the Big East next year. Obviously, we need to find some transfers after nearly our entire guard depth departed. However, we’re a blue blood program and who doesn’t want to play in the Big East? Keep your head up, everyone. We’ve been through worse.

Yes, I agree with you. It’s not fun being a pessimist but you have to be a realist otherwise you get complacent with mediocrity. It’s year 5 of this and we’re acting like it’s Hurley’s first year.

 

[Lefty2one]

Best of luck to Jalen. The speed of the high major game always bothered him. On the rare occasion that he played with pace and under control he had some nice moments. By and large, he played like a chicken with its head cut off.

The reactionary stuff this week is amusing. We're in a bad place at the moment but we're now a Top 25 program with literally all of our PG minutes available. Most kids who are transferring to top schools are looking for minutes and to have an immediate impact and we're offering that in spades. We'll see how this plays out but in the coming months I imagine we'll have two PGs on our roster who are better than Gaff and Diggins. At the same time, if Hurley gets snubbed then this will be the most painful UConn season imaginable. It's been ugly enough with just Cole the last two years. If we don't sign at least two solid transfer PGs then this season will be torture.

Jackson is not a point guard and if Hurley even considers allocating PG minutes to Jackson then he's repeating the same major mistake he made last season with Cole/Gaff/Diggins. We need proven ballhandlers and initators.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Again, I agree. I meant specifically freshmen lead ball handling point guards.

All I'm trying to say is we had smoke blown up our rear about Gaffney and Diggins, who are the closest to true 1s that Hurley has brought here as freshmen, and it didn't work out.

Understood. just saw your followup clarification...

 

[UConnSwag11]

Call it a rebuild/revamp/pivot/change in philosophy, whatever. Everyone who watched the team this year knows we needed to change how we play basketball on the offensive end. Now he has a chance to do that.

Did we give Ollie the same chance?

 

[SeattleHoop]

Man, people on here really don’t like Andre’s game. Hurley is putting is trust in him and I’m all for it. Count me in the camp that believes Ajax can be a really great PG for us.

He is OUR guy. And we are lucky to have him imo. He has his flaws but he may turn out to be something really really special for us. IMO his ceiling is high enough that you take the gamble on him.

You guys should be more positive about what we have. Andre is a special dude

 

[storrsroars]

Jackson is not a point guard and if Hurley even considers allocating PG minutes to Jackson then he's repeating the same major mistake he made last season with Cole/Gaff/Diggins. We need proven ballhandlers and initators.

Jackson may not be a PG, but to suggest he's not a ball handler or initiator is absurd.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Jackson may not be a PG, but to suggest he's not a ball handler or initiator is absurd.

He’s improve his handle but still needs work. His court vision is great and he’ll average more assists and less TO with other scorers in the court. He needs to work on getting to the rim. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t be beating his man off the dribble for a dunk or layup unless it’s lack of confidence. I think he’ll be a very good PG/PF (if that’s what he ends up playing) when all is said and done