Jalen Gaffney Transferring | Page 9 | The Boneyard
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Jalen Gaffney Transferring

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If you look at football, something like 35-40% of P5 transfers did not have a spot as of Februry something and like 20-25% of those who did dropped to FSC. I am sure some have landed since then, but can you imagine what the numbers are for the G5 and lower?
Football is really different. Massive roster size (NCAA allows 105, 85 is minimum) means the big schools dramatically over-recruit. NFL rosters are 53. So there will be many kids who never play that can now transfer down and out.
 
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.
 
Yep. Both Diggins and Gaffney were offered by most of the major schools in the northeast but we were really the only school that prioritized them and we didn’t prioritize Gaffney until it was clear we were off the mark with Wong.
Well, yeah, we went with Gaffney because we couldn’t go Wong.
 
They should reinstate the year sit rule. It’s not healthy for the game to have this many kids in the portal and it absolutely benefits the bigger name schools.
So what you're saying is that it should benefit us?
 
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.
I mean I just simply disagree. I think he’s in a much better position as a distributor than us relying on him as a scoring wing.

His natural tendency is to find people in scoring spots. He has the vision, passing skills ams athletiscism to get where he needs to be and find people in spots where they can score.

He’s more of an asset at the PG position imo than any other position. His assist numbers show this.

He can be something really special at that position and I think Hurley thinks so too
 
A school can offer a kid without recruiting them heavily. We only recruit a fraction of the kids we give offers to. I don't recall Bill Self coming to watch a bunch of Rahsool's games.

I'm not saying it's definite that these big schools didn't have legitimate interest, but just saying "Kansas and Villanova offered" isn't enough to prove that a kid is a good player.
I get that. But I don't think a school would offer a guy they didn't think could play there. They may not be the first choice, but should work as the 2nd or 3rd option.
My point was just that others have seen RD in HS/AAU and rated him highly and offered him scholarships. He clearly showed something and maybe will still pan out somewhere.
 
The "discount aisle" comment tells me that people are still scarred by the Ollie experience. Plenty of teams took big leaps this year by shopping at the same discount aisle. If he can't get anyone, or the guys he does get are terrible, I'll be the first to say it's starting to fall apart.
The portal is two bins. It used to mostly just be the 1 (except for rare cases when a coach got promoted or whatever), because strong players usually didn't want to sit out. But now it is a "Discount Bin" and a "Now Featuring" bin.

There are players too good or too bad for their level. It works both ways. Our program is in a good spot, so we get to shop at the Now Featuring bin. This bin has guys that worked out the rawness at a lower level and now have a complete game. Or who prove the doubters about their size or skill level wrong and have proven to be capable players. There's also the guys whose coach left and were already high major in there.

Diggins and Gaffney are both in the discount bin, but Diggins will likely get a high major team to take the chance and shop in there for him.
 
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I mean I just simply disagree. I think he’s in a much better position as a distributor than us relying on him as a scoring wing.

His natural tendency is to find people in scoring spots. He has the vision, passing skills ams athletiscism to get where he needs to be and find people in spots where they can score.

He’s more of an asset at the PG position imo than any other position. His assist numbers show this.

He can be something really special at that position and I think Hurley thinks so too
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.
 
Good luck to Jalen. Not a huge surprise by any measure. We need some guards!!
“Not a huge surprise,“ in retrospect? Or did you believe this was coming, say, 3 days ago, i.e., pre-Diggins transfer?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
UConn has back court playing time available now. The portal should be easier to manage now.
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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