Junior County

[WeAreUCONN]

As we scan the portal for our second point guard why can’t it be Junior? Strong, has a handle, slasher and shooter inside and behind the line. Yes there’s a learning curve and there will be some painful learning moments but why couldn’t he be the one to give 20 minutes a game? The way the portal is these days if the kids don’t get the floor time to develop they are gone. He’s in the top 30-50 player range.

When is the last time we had a freshman point guard that was capable of playing 15 minutes a game?I can’t remember 1. Maybe Khalid over 20 years ago?

 

[WeAreUCONN]

I'm really referring to mastery of the offense. When Malachi came in with the second unit early, it was a little helter skelter. He does indeed do well playing like that.

Hurley fine tuned him but it took several months. At the end I had complete confidence in his play.

 

[Lafayette]

I hope County turns out to be a great multiple year player for us. I wish this for every young man who commits to our program.

And yes, I am comparing a 6'0" point guard to a 6'4" combo guard to play the extremely important position on next year's team of: back up point guard. You are actually making the argument for me.

Next year's team is not in need of a back up combo guard... it is in serious need of a back up point guard. One who can handle pressure in our most important games against very good teams. And you are fine with us leaving it up to a 6'4" combo guard that we have no idea about at this point? With a team that will clearly be good enough to contend for the title again.

Sorry, but you talk as if the last two years of UConn basketball didn't just happen.

And I bet at least half of you if not most of you, at the end of 2024-2025 were lamenting the fact that the biggest short coming on that team was the lack of a competent back up point guard. Like pretty much everybody else on this board at that time. I think some of you like to argue just for the sake of arguing.

I merely thought Darius is a better comp to County than Nowell. The rest what you posted IDK where you got that from.

 

[LStudfellow]

This is the most rational argument. No matter how good at talent evaluation a coaching staff is they don’t get it right 100% of the time. Given how relatively short a season is and how important every game is there is a limit with experimentation. You increase the odds of success by bringing in redundancy. There are risks and downsides associated with it just as there are risks and downsides not doing it.

@HW611 along with a small minority of us turned out to be correct about Ross arguing against the majority in this forum that Ross's lack of playing time was limiting his development. The coaching staff correctly decided that Ball and Mullins should be the respective players getting the preponderance of minutes at the two and three. Ross only got the opportunity to prove the minority opinion because both Ball and Mullins were getting into foul trouble. Ross was built in redundancy willing to sacrifice himself for the goal of the team winning a championship. An extremely rare individual who fortunately got his opportunity in a unlikely situation.

You try to get the best possible experienced point guard in the portal willing to play backup minutes hoping that both County and this hypothetical experienced pg are both more than capable and both have to fight it out for that backup role. The worst case scenario is both are inadequate. But the chances are reduced when testing out two viable options.

Now you want to use a guy (Ross) who has been in our system for over two years, was clearly NOT ready in year 1 or year 2, as a blueprint for how County as a freshman will what?......... accelerate his growth on a Ross-like tragectory, only much faster and be like an end-of-junior-year Jayden Ross by the end of his freshman year? After we have seen that even guys with several years of college basketball under their belt (Newton, Diarra, Demary) struggle in their first year to get comfortable playing point guard in our system? Maybe you haven't noticed, but our point guards have to learn and process a heck of a lot more information than our wings.

But other than that part which TOTALLY NEGATES YOUR ARGUMENT HERE, you are spot on.

Oh, and since you brought it up: I was not one of those in this "majority" that you speak of that believed Ross could not have had more development last year if he had received more playing time earlier on. You can look it up. You will not find one single post where I ever said any such thing. Because in my mind the jury was out on that, and I looked forward to seeing how he developed coming into this year.

Congrats on being right about Ross. Watching him blossom this year was absolutely one of my favorite parts of this season. And watching guys develop and grow during their time here is one of my favorite things about being a college basketball fan, and a UConn fan in particular. I have stated from back when Hurley started here and he stayed loyal to guys who committed to our program even when there may have been better options out there to bring onto the team to improve us immediately that his loyalty would pay dividends in the long run. All of us who took that side were right, too, based purely on our recent results.

 

[LStudfellow]

I love how the freshman who hardly played gets blamed for our PG depth and not the transfer we brought in who had ample opportunity the freshman didn’t get.

Ok... and what exactly are you trying to say? That if you had been the head coach you would have played Nowell more, and he would have magically morphed into the back up point guard that we so desperately needed but never had on that team?

Most people on here do not "blame" Nowell more than Mahaney. They blame them equally. And obviously Nowell did not play more because when he did play he clearly displayed a lack of ability to handle the position at the level Hurley requires. You try to make it into an either/or situation when clearly both things can and were true at the same time. Mahaney received blame because he wasn't good enough to play the back up point guard role in 2024/2025. Nowell also received blame because he wasn't good enough to play the back up point guard role in 2024/2025.

Why do you feel the need to make it an either/or? Anyone who reads the previous threads on that subject of back up PG on the 2024/2025 team on here without any bias can clearly see that the consensus belief was that both of them failed at the postion. There is plenty of proof of practically everyone who commented on it back then and since then that they blamed Mahaney just as much as Nowell.

 

[navery12]

Ok... and what exactly are you trying to say? That if you had been the head coach you would have played Nowell more, and he would have magically morphed into the back up point guard that we so desperately needed but never had on that team?

Most people on here do not "blame" Nowell more than Mahaney. They blame them equally. And obviously Nowell did not play more because when he did play he clearly displayed a lack of ability to handle the position at the level Hurley requires. You try to make it into an either/or situation when clearly both things can and were true at the same time. Mahaney received blame because he wasn't good enough to play the back up point guard role in 2024/2025. Nowell also received blame because he wasn't good enough to play the back up point guard role in 2024/2025.

Why do you feel the need to make it an either/or? Anyone who reads the previous threads on that subject of back up PG on the 2024/2025 team on here without any bias can clearly see that the consensus belief was that both of them failed at the postion. There is plenty of proof of practically everyone who commented on it back then and since then that they blamed Mahaney just as much as Nowell.

That is exactly what he's saying. He said it all year when Nowell was here, which was crazy enough when it was obvious he wasn't good enough. To still say that after he couldn't get on the court at VCU is indefensible at this point. It was very obvious from the first game that Mahaney and Nowell were not good enough for UConn

 

[HW611]

Ok... and what exactly are you trying to say? That if you had been the head coach you would have played Nowell more, and he would have magically morphed into the back up point guard that we so desperately needed but never had on that team?

Most people on here do not "blame" Nowell more than Mahaney. They blame them equally. And obviously Nowell did not play more because when he did play he clearly displayed a lack of ability to handle the position at the level Hurley requires. You try to make it into an either/or situation when clearly both things can and were true at the same time. Mahaney received blame because he wasn't good enough to play the back up point guard role in 2024/2025. Nowell also received blame because he wasn't good enough to play the back up point guard role in 2024/2025.

Why do you feel the need to make it an either/or? Anyone who reads the previous threads on that subject of back up PG on the 2024/2025 team on here without any bias can clearly see that the consensus belief was that both of them failed at the postion. There is plenty of proof of practically everyone who commented on it back then and since then that they blamed Mahaney just as much as Nowell.

By your logic, we should have also not brought in Silas because we tried to bring in a transfer to be our starter and he failed.

I know you don’t think that so I’m not sure why you are now damming all freshman because of Nowell even though you aren’t damming all transfers because Mahaney.

Similar to going from Mahaney to Silas, the coaching staff clearly have a type of PG they are targeting by going from Nowell to County.

 

[upstater]

Now you want to use a guy (Ross) who has been in our system for over two years, was clearly NOT ready in year 1 or year 2, as a blueprint for how County as a freshman will what?......... accelerate his growth on a Ross-like tragectory, only much faster and be like an end-of-junior-year Jayden Ross by the end of his freshman year? After we have seen that even guys with several years of college basketball under their belt (Newton, Diarra, Demary) struggle in their first year to get comfortable playing point guard in our system? Maybe you haven't noticed, but our point guards have to learn and process a heck of a lot more information than our wings.

But other than that part which TOTALLY NEGATES YOUR ARGUMENT HERE, you are spot on.

Oh, and since you brought it up: I was not one of those in this "majority" that you speak of that believed Ross could not have had more development last year if he had received more playing time earlier on. You can look it up. You will not find one single post where I ever said any such thing. Because in my mind the jury was out on that, and I looked forward to seeing how he developed coming into this year.

Congrats on being right about Ross. Watching him blossom this year was absolutely one of my favorite parts of this season. And watching guys develop and grow during their time here is one of my favorite things about being a college basketball fan, and a UConn fan in particular. I have stated from back when Hurley started here and he stayed loyal to guys who committed to our program even when there may have been better options out there to bring onto the team to improve us immediately that his loyalty would pay dividends in the long run. All of us who took that side were right, too, based purely on our recent results.

I think UConn fans are getting hung up on recruiting misses at the position.

You can't blame it on the difficulty of the offense when those players leave and end up not playing well elsewhere.

So the failures of Nowell and Diggins have to be looked at by what they did at other schools. It seems it wouldn't have worked out in any case.

This doesn't mean that a freshman can't pick it up in the time that it took Demary or Newton (2 months) or even Malachi (3 or 4 months).

I think it has more to do with the quality of the player than their class. I'm not saying we'll find Shabazz Napier often, but I have no doubt that a kid like him or Marcus Williams or Khalid El-Amin would pick up the offense as a freshman.

My concern with constantly going to the portal for a junior or even senior PG is that you're bringing on a guy that you've guaranteed a starting spot to and then they still need 2 or 3 months to acclimate themselves. Whereas if you had a freshman who has talent (again, scouting/recruiting) they would take the required 3 months to learn and then you'd have them in the pipeline after that.

 

[willstafa24]

I think the point was that we tried to take someone that wasn’t a true PG and rely on them to develop into that immediately. This is a complex offense. One that veteran PGs like Silas even took a reasonably long time to really look comfortable in. Expecting that out of a freshman CG is risky. If Hurley thinks he can, I’ll get on board though.

This is spot on. Newton had the same deal. Look at his numbers from year 1 and 2. Malachi had an issue too. We all complained that he dribbled too much but I think he was just uncertain of his next move in our system.

It's curious that Hurley would recruit a guy who would aspire to the handle the role as a Freshman but in Hurley we trust.

 

[Kenny11]

Is there any good recent video on Junior County? There doesn’t seem to be much on youtube, especially from his senior year

 

[willstafa24]

By your logic, we should have also not brought in Silas because we tried to bring in a transfer to be our starter and he failed.

I know you don’t think that so I’m not sure why you are now damming all freshman because of Nowell even though you aren’t damming all transfers because Mahaney.

Similar to going from Mahaney to Silas, the coaching staff clearly have a type of PG they are targeting by going from Nowell to County.

Hurley is cautious to change but will and does it well. The Mahaney/Nowell recruitments were not the type of PG we need and bringing in Silas shows that Hurley and the staff recognized the key to our offense. I can't imagine County being recruited now without the aptitude and potential to grow into the role.

 

[uconn_jack]

The question isn't whether we bring in a backup PG, obviously we need to. The question is whether l its a guy who IS the 1st backup or CAN BE the 1st backup if County isn't up to the task (or until he is). I think Hurley brought him in to eventually be our primary PG, he likes CG types for that obviously, but he won't be if we don't develop him by playing him.

I will contend again that we should bring in more of a Millender type than a Smith type in terms of expecting of playing time.

 

[444JR]

Is there any good recent video on Junior County? There doesn’t seem to be much on youtube, especially from his senior year

Full game from last month: 4/13 Wasatch Academy (UT) vs La Lumiere School (IN)