Jalen Gaffney Transferring

[Candyman]

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

Jacksons handle needs a lot of work to be a primary ball handler. He can be a nice point forward along side a primary ball handler in a Daniel Hamilton type role, but he can’t handle a tough man to man D. Nor can he cross over someone or take his man one on one.

Hurley is looking for a scoring guard with handle. This way you can use Jackson as a Point Forward and still have a ball handler to help him in tough spots.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

What’s comical is these absolute whiffs by Hurley on these recruits. For all who praise his recruiting prowess….hoo boy…..the teams gettin worse.

Rarely does someone manage to carve out an identity as one of the Boneyard's singular clowns as fast as this pantload. Kudos. It's almost impressive.

 

[Mooch82]

Is it really bad news that mid major caliber players are leaving...? We will find better talent

While I agree with this, there is concern that Gaffney didn’t develop at all in 3 years (in fact got worse over time) and that it seems we badly mis-evaluated Sool.

 

[MexicoHusky]

Not really.

Watch how many kids in the portal are out of college basketball next season. The portal is the greatest sleight of hand ever in college sports. Biggest function of the portal is to convey players downward and the ones already near the bottom are conveyed out.

Interesting take. Not saying it's wrong. What happens to a guy like Gaff if he finds no one is interested? Does he ask UCONN if he can return? Can they say no? I assume they can. Does he lose his scholarship at some point? I assume he would.

 

[8893]

Was this the second shoe that @husky99 was talking about? I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a quick commitment out of the portal.

To be clear he never specified how many shoes.

 

[BGesus4]

Interesting take. Not saying it's wrong. What happens to a guy like Gaff if he finds no one is interested? Does he ask UCONN if he can return? Can they say no? I assume they can. Does he lose his scholarship at some point? I assume he would.

Scholarships are technically year to year at the school’s option. Calhoun would notoriously tell players in the end of the year group team meeting who needed to transfer.

 

[Woodson]

I’m going to assume Corey has been killing these guys in practice

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Don’t they do a end of season wrap up after end of season meetings every year

Yes, you do one on one sit downs with each player. You recap the last year, you talk about what they need to improve on and give them an assessment of where they stand on the depth chart. The player then has to decide if they want to stay or not. With instant eligibility transfers, more players hit the bricks than ever before. Everyone is on a series of one year contracts. Its the new reality.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

I think this begs the question (excluding Whaley and Polley who had to leave anyway) does the departure of Cole, Martin, Gaffney, and Diggins cast a bad impression on Hurley, that something is not "right" with the program?

No more than about a hundred other programs that lose a couple of transfers each year.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Over-recruiting and managing guys to transfer out has been going on in football (larger rosters) for decades and now with the immediate eligibilty transfer rule, it has made it's way into basketball (smaller rosters) and it just feels different - because it is.

 

[Horatio]

UConn has back court playing time available now. The portal should be easier to manage now.

 

[EASTFLA]

Our biggest issue isn’t going to be able to fill the roster. There is plenty of talent out there. There could be a possibility that he gets A following year recruit to reclassify. The big problem that I see is half your roster or more is going to be new to the system. Team chemistry is going to be hard to develop quickly as well, and do the pieces fit in that regard because there is going to be a lot of new ones. Everything will have to break right. We won’t know until we see it on the court in November.

 

[aburks41]

While I agree with this, there is concern that Gaffney didn’t develop at all in 3 years (in fact got worse over time) and that it seems we badly mis-evaluated Sool.

Gaffney not developing is an outlier. Bouknight, Jackson, Sanogo, Whaley, Martin, Polley, Hawkins, Cole, etc all became better players under Hurley. Player development is not a concern at all. Gaffney's best season was against AAC mid major level talent. It's not surprising that he struggled against Big East caliber players. He just was never that good to begin with

 

[Horatio]

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

We don’t have the 3-4 additional years for all this miraculous development to take place.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Does this mean Andrew Hurley is currently top of the depth chart at PG

Yup - its called Boeheim lite, lol!

 

[Salty Dog]

Some of you people are batsh!+ crazy lol!

 

[3rdbass]

We still have Andrew Hurley!

Nah I don't want to go the Syracuse route. LOL!

 

[uconnbill]

UConn needs a point guard badly now. Gaffney leaving hurts no matter how anyone feels about it.

 

[Ratso]

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

if he tightens his handles and fixes the to ratio, he's a serious nba prospect

 

[8893]

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

His game is easy to like but we need a lot more production and a lot fewer "nice flashes".

In Feb/March he averaged 5.6/5.5/3.4 and shot 37.5% from the floor. It's just not great, yet. We are throwing around the idea of a massive increase in his role and responsibilities. I love him as a secondary playmaker but I think we're in deep crap if he's our starting point guard.

This actually terrifies me. I’m a big AJ fan, and I wouldn’t mind him getting some minutes at the point, but he’s a long way away from being a starting point guard.

If you look at my post history you know I'm being sarcastic. I'm horrified if he is the person that will be given the keys to run the team. I don't mind him in Point forward position like D-ham but I want a real PG who can create for other while keeping defenders honest by looking for their own shot.

Jackson has PG attributes, like vision. But he's lacking PG skill and experience in a couple areas. He doesn't have the handle or savvy running a pick and roll, for one. That's one of the main things our roster is currently lacking and developing PnR reads is generally a skill built up over lots of repetition and instinct, so unlikely to develop over one summer. It also relies on a foundation of ballhandling and driving, which is not his forte either.

Jackson, if he were going to be in a distributor in our offense, will likely operate in a different/more creative manner. But we still need that pick and roll ballhandler for many situations. We absolutely need someone in the portal who has PnR savvy.

If Andre is our starting point guard next season it will be by necessity, not design.

Any suggestion otherwise is complete fiction imo.

 

[UconnFanDC]

Welp, only waiting to see/hear if Sampson will stay. I predicted Gaffney and Rashool.

 

[huskyinfl]

How can people knock Hurley's recruiting when Kwintin Williams wore a UConn jersey.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Catching up on this thread but I'll leave this here.

To paraphrase, we were a two time first round losing NCAA team with the players who are transferring out or graduating. i think we can be at least as good as that with the players who will back fill those schollies.

 

[QDOG5]

Next year is not a rebuild year. I will use not that word. I hope Dan Hurley never utters it. You can't rebuild something that hasn't been built yet.

 

[Jaydumo20]

Do you consider Cole and Martin Huskies? They were transfers.
I, for one, consider them true Huskies.

This is the way of the NCAA now. We can certainly bring in instant impact guys who also have 2, or more, years of eligibility.

2 years for Martin and Cole make them more 'Husky' in my eyes than 1 year Miller and Gibbs so yeah. Plus they were both Hurley guys. And 2 years is a lot more than 1 when it comes to a 4 year sport.

I know it's the way of the NCAA, I just dislike it. You're right though, I'm hoping that we have a 2 year guy like TM or RJ. It

 

[QDOG5]

Welp, only waiting to see/hear if Sampson will stay. I predicted Gaffney and Rashool.

I'm pretty sure he's staying at Houston.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I don’t think so. That would be suicide. Hurley has no idea of who he gets on transfer market yet.

I'm guessing even in the transfer portal you can swap Diggins and Gaffney and do equal or better. I was really big in preseason hoping Gaffney could contribute. By the time he fell the third time just trying to walk and dribble against no pressure, I was okay with him not playing again. Mental? Most probable. But it's still a real negative on the court when your PG knows he can't walk without falling.

 

[Lynyrd]

Some of you people are batsh!+ crazy lol!

Some?!

 

[UCDaveD]

I’d kill to land an Andrew Nembhard-type transfer.

 

[AllAbout5]

Next year is not a rebuild year. I will use not that word. I hope Dan Hurley never utters it. You can't rebuild something that hasn't been built yet.

THIS!! Take Bill Belichick for example, the man will never rebuild, no matter what situation he is. We should make the best of what we’re in and get some transfers that deserve to wear the navy and white colors for us next year.