2026 Recruiting: Junior County COMMITS to UConn

[OLD MAN UCO]

Welcome Junior to the fold. Another big shooting guard. Good job by the staff.
GO HUSKIERS

 

[WrenchFan69]

This is the mixtape Williams was given a scholarship offer based on. I'm not sure he'd even get a walk-on offer at this point for us.

I don't know that I'd ever seen that before. Kid would have made an all-time great D3 PF or C

 

[nomar]

In Hurley I trust but having watched some reels, looked at this stats, and read some reviews, I don't quite get why his ranking is so high? He's not a great shooter, particularly off the dribble, and he doesn't seem very athletic.

Can someone give me the upside here? What's a good comp? What do you reasonably expect?

I'm hardly the expert on HS recruiting, but I got a similar vibe last year with Adams.

 

[bendm]

In Hurley I trust but having watched some reels, looked at this stats, and read some reviews, I don't quite get why his ranking is so high? He's not a great shooter, particularly off the dribble, and he doesn't seem very athletic.

Can someone give me the upside here? What's a good comp? What do you reasonably expect?

I'm hardly the expert on HS recruiting, but I got a similar vibe last year with Adams.

He’s ranked a bit lower in the composite than Adams was (40 versus 27). Adams would’ve fit into next years rotation much better than this years.

 

[Hoophound]

In Hurley I trust but having watched some reels, looked at this stats, and read some reviews, I don't quite get why his ranking is so high? He's not a great shooter, particularly off the dribble, and he doesn't seem very athletic.

Can someone give me the upside here? What's a good comp? What do you reasonably expect?

I'm hardly the expert on HS recruiting, but I got a similar vibe last year with Adams.

Last time I watched him (assuming I am thinking of the right guy), he seemed to have some Andre Jackson type instincts in terms of passing and seeing the court. However, I agree. I did not see the shocking athleticism or pure shooting that you often see with UConn level recruits. He is a solid shooter though.

 

[Waquoit]

Getting that first one early is big.

 

[HW611]

In Hurley I trust but having watched some reels, looked at this stats, and read some reviews, I don't quite get why his ranking is so high? He's not a great shooter, particularly off the dribble, and he doesn't seem very athletic.

Can someone give me the upside here? What's a good comp? What do you reasonably expect?

I'm hardly the expert on HS recruiting, but I got a similar vibe last year with Adams.

I’m with you. He seems like a solid all around and heady basketball player. But I am hoping we find a way to inject some athleticism into this class eventually. Cloer and Toure were my top choices there but it’s not too late for someone else to pop up.

 

[Son of Robert]

Out of 15 or 12? Hurley just reaffirmed he can only effectively coach 12 scholarship guys or something like that didn’t he. And of the 12 only 9 are rotational players

I have not seen this information before, it doesn't sound like something the UConn program or Hurley would want to own. If you can produce it, I'll believe it because Hurley does say a lot of stuff, but there is a negative connotation to this and it just seems unlikely. It may well be a matter of context. I know he said something about trying to manage 15 people and 15 personalities and can he make it all fit, something like that, like it is better for practices, but can it somehow cause a strain because there are so many.

 

[jibsey]

In Hurley I trust but having watched some reels, looked at this stats, and read some reviews, I don't quite get why his ranking is so high? He's not a great shooter, particularly off the dribble, and he doesn't seem very athletic.

Can someone give me the upside here? What's a good comp? What do you reasonably expect?

I'm hardly the expert on HS recruiting, but I got a similar vibe last year with Adams.

Defense wins championships. Newton was not flashy and similar size and improved to retire his number by the time of his junior and senior years. Did we see that in him when he came to UConn? 3 point FG% East Carolina was 32, 26, and 33%. He was not a rim rattler either. Hurley sees clay he can mold.

 

[Scottzer]

In Hurley I trust but having watched some reels, looked at this stats, and read some reviews, I don't quite get why his ranking is so high? He's not a great shooter, particularly off the dribble, and he doesn't seem very athletic.

Can someone give me the upside here? What's a good comp? What do you reasonably expect?

I'm hardly the expert on HS recruiting, but I got a similar vibe last year with Adams.

I don’t see it either, right now, but there’s got to be a reason he’s shooting up the rankings, and had a lot of serious schools taking a look (Purdue, Mich St, Kansas, BYU, Arizona).

 

[nomar]

Last time I watched him (assuming I am thinking of the right guy), he seemed to have some Andre Jackson type instincts in terms of passing and seeing the court. However, I agree. I did not see the shocking athleticism or pure shooting that you often see with UConn level recruits. He is a solid shooter though.

I did see the word "connector" which Andre definitely was. I'd trade some athleticism for shooting. I think he's also coming in with better ball skills.

 

[nomar]

Defense wins championships. Newton was not flashy and similar size and improved to retire his number by the time of his junior and senior years. Did we see that in him when he came to UConn? 3 point FG% East Carolina was 32, 26, and 33%. He was not a rim rattler either. Hurley sees clay he can mold.

As I said, I'm definitely not an expert, but I was pretty high on Newton. His 3-point % wasn't great (nor was it great at UConn, although he took a lot of VERY deep 3s and people had to guard him like an excellent 3-point shooter), but he was a proven scorer who could get to the rim. And he was a plug & play guy.

I do trust Hurley but nobody gets this stuff exactly right. I was pretty high on Nowell and Abraham (and I still think they can be really good). What I love about him and the staff is that they've figured out the portal and are, consequently, clearly focusing on HS recruits who can contribute right away. So he must see that in County. Because, as we've seen, if you bring a top-50 kid and don't give him minutes, he's gone.

 

[RuffRuff]

As I said, I'm definitely not an expert, but I was pretty high on Newton. His 3-point % wasn't great (nor was it great at UConn, although he took a lot of VERY deep 3s and people had to guard him like an excellent 3-point shooter), but he was a proven scorer who could get to the rim. And he was a plug & play guy.

I do trust Hurley but nobody gets this stuff exactly right. I was pretty high on Nowell and Abraham (and I still think they can be really good). What I love about him and the staff is that they've figured out the portal and are, consequently, clearly focusing on HS recruits who can contribute right away. So he must see that in County. Because, as we've seen, if you bring a top-50 kid and don't give him minutes, he's gone.

High floor kid with size like him, who plays smart and knows how to pass, will at minimum safely fit into the system. That kind of profile will find minutes as you can trust him.

Not sure why we recruited Nowell as a really small PG. Doubt Hurley goes after that again. I'm flushing everything as it comes to the 2024 recruiting cycle as it feels like staff's heads were elsewhere.

 

[NJHusky]

I don’t see it either, right now, but there’s got to be a reason he’s shooting up the rankings, and had a lot of serious schools taking a look (Purdue, Mich St, Kansas, BYU, Arizona).

He's shooting up the rankings because of the schools recruiting him...

 

[superjohn]

In Hurley I trust but having watched some reels, looked at this stats, and read some reviews, I don't quite get why his ranking is so high? He's not a great shooter, particularly off the dribble, and he doesn't seem very athletic.

Can someone give me the upside here? What's a good comp? What do you reasonably expect?

I'm hardly the expert on HS recruiting, but I got a similar vibe last year with Adams.

Athleticism is my one concern for this season and it bit us on the butt some last season along with point guard play. It's one of the reasons I wanted Toure so much. We're not exactly recruiting great run and jump guys.

 

[RuffRuff]

Athleticism is my one concern for this season and it bit us on the butt some last season along with point guard play. It's one of the reasons I wanted Toure so much. We're not exactly recruiting great run and jump guys.

Question is, how much run & jump do you really need in Hurley's system? If you take 2024 for instance, I'd say 4/5 of the starting lineup was sub average in those categories. AK, Newt & Spencer certainly don't grade well there. Perhaps Clingan was the great equalizer.