Joel Ntambwe (UNLV Transfer)

[superjohn]

Yes.

Gonna have to make some room for him.

 

[NJHoops]

i think the guys who hurley might suggest to look elsewhere because they might not play.... know that if they stay, they will play. for no reason other than lack of options.

Only if there are injuries. If everyone is healthy, the roster is likely to go 10 deep with any kind of significant minutes.

 

[bazz&boujee]

Only if there are injuries. If everyone is healthy, the roster is likely to go 10 deep with any kind of significant minutes.

i mean carlton/akok aren’t playing 40 minutes each and someone will need to play in the frontcourt. doesn’t look like kofi is walking through that door..

 

[Kenny11]

This is basically the conversion you have with these kids and 90% of them get it. And reality is - there’s maybe 2/3 guys you’ll have that conversation with assuming you have to to begin with.

But you need to be careful about how you go about it. These kids are always wary of people trying to snack on them. Everyone’s your best friend when you’re winning and when you’re not they want to throw you in the trash. For some of these kids and teams, it’s a bad message to send that they better look fantastic in a year or two or Coach is gonna run me outta town... Pretty awful way to treat people, never mind kids. And really hard to get buy into any kind of creed of love, brotherhood, culture, etc. While it’d be great that they just get it, most wont.

“That guy doesn’t care about you, he just cares about himself and winning” is a fast way to getting no one ever.

You nailed it. College coaches constantly preach culture, brotherhood, sticking together, family, love, believing in one another, etc. young people are the best detectors of hypocrites and it hurts if you get branded as such. So a coach has to be very careful.

But I really don’t think we have a problem here. We have a scholarship open and more than likely one more opening. 2 is enough, especially since we already have a significant talent influx coming in. The most important thing is for our returning players to work their tails off and become better players for next season.

 

[Towney007]

That’s what I’m saying. It’s kinda a mountain out of a molehill.

There’s legit two guys who probably should move on and both might. And if they wanna stay, then fine so long as they work hard, etc. But in all likelihood, they move on.

And we’re lookkg st like 2/3 scholarships.

 

[navery12]

Some of y’all are not even arguing the same point. You can meet with the player, tell them it’s unlikely they get real minutes, and then what? If the guy decides he wants to stay and fight for minutes... what do you do? Some of you are comfortable kicking off a guy like that? One who is a good teammate, competes, pulls his weight academically? It’s not the player’s fault someone messed up his recruitment. Building a program takes some time, and you can do some damage with what looks like a quick fix. That being said, this is all a philosophical discussion because next year’s roster isn’t set yet.

If he's not good enough, then yes. It sucks but you don't win games being nice

 

[NJHoops]

If he's not good enough, then yes. It sucks but you don't win games being nice

It’s not about being nice. It’s about doing right by a group of 18-22 year old non-professionals. We clearly disagree on this subject.

 

[navery12]

It’s not about being nice. It’s about doing right by a group of 18-22 year old non-professionals. We clearly disagree on this subject.

Agreed on doing right by the kids, we just clearly disagree on what that entails

 

[GHSWolverines]

It’s not about being nice. It’s about doing right by a group of 18-22 year old non-professionals. We clearly disagree on this subject.

The emphasis is that they are non-professionals.

 

[David 76]

Why bother with arranging transfers and hard conversations? Just disappear the freeloaders and be done with it.

 

[Kmba2Rmemba]

Case in point: Kwintin Williams mysteriously disappearing from the team about a month into the season.

Did anyone ever find out wtf happened??

 

[Walker11]

Agreed on doing right by the kids, we just clearly disagree on what that entails

How is it possibly doing right by the kid by revoking his scholarship when he wants to stay? At least @UCDaveD is completely transparent. It seems like most people are on the same page here. You tell the kid minutes will be hard to come by or that the program is looking for a different style of player or whatever to make the kid understand his best basketball future is elsewhere. If he loves the school and doesn't want to leave, you don't pull the scholarship unless you are a scum bag. You can give the kid a very tight leash and if he is a bad teammate, go ahead and KW him but if they are doing everything right off the court, they deserve their scholarship.

 

[navery12]

How is it possibly doing right by the kid by revoking his scholarship when he wants to stay? At least @UCDaveD is completely transparent. It seems like most people are on the same page here. You tell the kid minutes will be hard to come by or that the program is looking for a different style of player or whatever to make the kid understand his best basketball future is elsewhere. If he loves the school and doesn't want to leave, you don't pull the scholarship unless you are a scum bag. You can give the kid a very tight leash and if he is a bad teammate, go ahead and KW him but if they are doing everything right off the court, they deserve their scholarship.

I'm not saying you just walk in and pull a scholarship, I'm just saying I don't need a sunshine and happiness approach when going into these meetings. Kid wants to stay then you make it VERY clear why that's not in his best interest. You call it a scumbag move, maybe. But that's life

 

[Walker11]

I'm not saying you just walk in and pull a scholarship, I'm just saying I don't need a sunshine and happiness approach when going into these meetings. Kid wants to stay then you make it VERY clear why that's not in his best interest. You call it a scumbag move, maybe. But that's life

Well then it seems like you have the same take as basically everyone else. No one thinks it's a scum bag move for Hurley to clearly explain to a player why his best basketball move is to go elsewhere.

 

[MDHuskFan]

How is it possibly doing right by the kid by revoking his scholarship when he wants to stay? At least @UCDaveD is completely transparent. It seems like most people are on the same page here. You tell the kid minutes will be hard to come by or that the program is looking for a different style of player or whatever to make the kid understand his best basketball future is elsewhere. If he loves the school and doesn't want to leave, you don't pull the scholarship unless you are a scum bag. You can give the kid a very tight leash and if he is a bad teammate, go ahead and KW him but if they are doing everything right off the court, they deserve their scholarship.

“You KW him”.... pretty unfair statement if we’ve never found out what really happened

 

[navery12]

Well then it seems like you have the same take as basically everyone else. No one thinks it's a scum bag move for Hurley to clearly explain to a player why his best basketball move is to go elsewhere.

Yeah I don't think I'm that far off from everyone else, just maybe give a little more pushback if they do want to stay

 

[superjohn]

Two kids just taking up scholarships is a huge drain on the team.

 

[Walker11]

“You KW him”.... pretty unfair statement if we’ve never found out what really happened

Pneumonia?

 

[AfgHusky15]

There is a commitment on a year to year basis, none of these are Hurley's recruits and he owes them nothing. Nothing Hurley wants to do is a quick fix, he's trying to build the program back up and by doing that you tell kids who aren't good enough or healthy enough to move somewhere better for them and bring in better talent to replace them.

Hurley's job is to win basketball games.

A scholarship is not a year to year commitment, and Hurley did recruit the players because when he got hired the first thing he did was reach out and meet all the players and told them he wanted them all to stay.

He made a commitment to them. It’s clear from Hurley’s past that pushing players out is not his style.

You are just itching for transfers because for the past few months you have been stating that there will be several transfers, and to date there has been none.

You really just need to shut up about transfers for a while,

 

[superjohn]

A scholarship is not a year to year commitment, and Hurley did recruit the players because when he got hired the first thing he did was reach out and meet all the players and told them he wanted them all to stay.

He made a commitment to them. It’s clear from Hurley’s past that pushing players out is not his style.

You are just itching for transfers because for the past few months you have been stating that there will be several transfers, and to date there has been none.

You really just need to shut up about transfers for a while,

You're wrong, scholarships are on a year to year basis.

I'm itching for us to be good again. Players taking up scholarships to be cheerleaders doesn't make us good, it hurts us terribly. Hurley knows that and wants to upgrade the talent.

 

[Towney007]

While coaches try to find ways around it, they're only supposed to pull scholarships for non-performance related issues like GPA, conduct, etc. You can't pull scholarships for athletic performance, especially if they're issued as four year scholarships. There are year-to-year scholarships, but they're the exception, not the rule at a level like ours.

 

[Chief00]

There would never be bench warmers!!! Your son going to another program will in turn make someone else's son have less playing time in that program. That other son will transfer to another program and then someone else's son...

In the study of economics, there’s a term called “equilibrium”. Sometimes the journey there may seem harsh at times, but eventually you fine balance or your playing level in this case.

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

You're wrong, scholarships are on a year to year basis.

I'm itching for us to be good again. Players taking up scholarships to be cheerleaders doesn't make us good, it hurts us terribly. Hurley knows that and wants to upgrade the talent.

It doesn’t look good at all, to any players whether they’re current players or potential recruits. It could potentially backfire hard to get that reputation of not caring for the kids on your team, even if you didn’t recruit them.

And I think it’d be especially damaging given where uconn is right now. We’re not winning games, so gotta sell recruits on that legacy of uconn basketball and it’s reputation.

 

[superjohn]

It doesn’t look good at all, to any players whether they’re current players or potential recruits. It could potentially backfire hard to get that reputation of not caring for the kids on your team, even if you didn’t recruit them.

And I think it’d be especially damaging given where uconn is right now. We’re not winning games, so gotta sell recruits on that legacy of uconn basketball and it’s reputation.

We're not winning games because we don't have much talent. Every coach does this, you help the kid find another program that fits his talent level. If a kid doesn't have basketball in his future because of injury you find another way he can get his diploma free of charge. You don't sacrifice your ability to win games by wasting schollies.

You don't sell UConn to anyone by continuing to suck.

 

[djct1999]

This whole pulling a scholarship narrative is vintage boneyard at a relatively slow time. Hypothetically, I agree that you don't pull a scholarship if a kid wants to stay but recognize how infrequent this really happens Most kids who were recruited and played at the D1 level have both feet out the door the moment they hear there won't be any playing time. I can't imagine things here are any different. Especially with how things transpired the last few years. Name a kid, outside of M. Diarra who has battled career ending injuries, who had a such a great two years in Storrs that wouldn't be open to a new start. I take Hurley on his word that he has never pulled a ship. That said, I am not concerned at all that we won't have room for a kid we really want.