Karl Hobbs, Recruiting:

[tentoes4rings]

As many of us banter back and forth about the need for a top recruiter, what's the deal with our own Karl Hobbs? It seems with his Crenshaw connections, KO was the lead figure in DH's recruitment, with Ricky being the lead recruiter for Lubin. Purvis I'm not sure about since the bulk of his recruitment was two years ago.

Hobbs was the lead recruiter for Rip and heavily involved with Caron, Freeman, Taliek, Khalid and Emeka. I'll happily hand the keys to a guy with that track record and take our chances. The way I see it, the process being used recently is what's a bit worrisome. As others have stated, a big net is being cast and from my observation the wrong kids have been prioritized while kids we've had legitimate chances with have been overlooked until it's too late. Does anyone have any inside information on how much authority Hobbs has recently or about how the delegation of recruiting responsibilities is being hashed out? I'm not sure we don't have the right guys on the bench already, including the top recruiter Fishy is asking for but the process seems like it can be improved upon considerably.

 

[UCONNfan1]

I don't know about a top recruiter, but they are also talking about adding Taliek Brown. Not sure what he's been doing since he graduated, but I'm not sure he qualifies as a top national recruiter either. Maybe Ollie feels we don't need one, or they can't lure what they want.

 

[Fishy]

Hobbs clearly recruited Lansan Kromah!

Our current staff is nice if you like family reunions, but we're short by one stone-cold recruiter.

We have no one who has been pounding on the AAU circuit consistently for the past few years.

 

[Hugo]

Agree 100% that we need a top recruiter who has national connections. I love Taliek, but he isn't the guy for this position. As to having another coach with UCONN pedigree, Fishy said it best it's "nice for family reunions". We need someone with a different background who can bring new ideas to the recruiting process. Times have changed and going outside the family makes sense and IMO is critical.

 

[upstater]

If Hobbs doesn't have connections, there's very little hope. Guy has been at this for ages. Was integral in landing some of the biggest stars at UConn. Ran an A10 program and had them ranked as high as #5 at the end of the season. Had several top AAU recruits go through that school.

If Hobbs isn't the top gun, I want to know why. It's easy for me to believe that Glenn Miller isn't shaking trees, given his background at the more academic non-scholarship schools. But Hobbs has been there and done this before. If he's lost it, for whatever reason, then that's bad. But you can't say he never had the connections nor that he never succeeded at doing this. He has.

 

[ctchamps]

If Hobbs doesn't have connections, there's very little hope. Guy has been at this for ages. Was integral in landing some of the biggest stars at UConn. Ran an A10 program and had them ranked as high as #5 at the end of the season. Had several top AAU recruits go through that school.

If Hobbs isn't the top gun, I want to know why. It's easy for me to believe that Glenn Miller isn't shaking trees, given his background at the more academic non-scholarship schools. But Hobbs has been there and done this before. If he's lost it, for whatever reason, then that's bad. But you can't say he never had the connections nor that he never succeeded at doing this. He has.

Just a case of people making suppositions because of a string of bad luck! This is particularly strange given that DHam is on board! And Purvis chose UConn over many other schools. No one knows what Ricky saw in the Rock! Kid could be depth or the real deal. I'm not panicking. Way too early.

 

[Palatine]

Ollie is the closer.

A great recruiter would be terrific. But we seem to get i on most of the kids the staff identifies. Ollie has to examine his performance as the guy who seals the deal.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Ollie is the closer.

A great recruiter would be terrific. But we seem to get i on most of the kids the staff identifies. Ollie has to examine his performance as the guy who seals the deal.

See in most cases you'd be right - the head coach should be the closer. Calhoun certainly had it set up that way for many years. Tom Moore and the rest of the staff did much of the early leg work and Calhoun sealed the deal when they came to visit.

Obviously I have no first-hand knowledge, but this doesn't seem to be the case now. You see quotes all the time from recruits where they mention the name of an assistant coach when discussing why they chose a particular school. Ollie's name used to be brought up in such a fashion back when he was an assistant. But can anybody else think of a single example of Glen Miller or Karl Hobbs being singled out by a recruit or his inner circle? Ollie's the only guy you ever hear mentioned.

Miller and Hobbs are obviously great guys to have on staff from an x's and o's standpoint and it was probably really important for Ollie to have three former head coaches by his side in his first year. But I agree with the idea that he might need a bit more help on the recruiting trail than he's currently getting.

 

[Huskybass]

Let the dust settle. If we wind up with Hamilton, Purvis, Lubin, Kasongo and Cassell it will be one of our top classes ever.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Let the dust settle.

And I agree with this mindset as well. Things can change in a heartbeat with recruiting and if we end up with a couple of these kids we're involved with, we'll still have a damn good class. If that ends up being the case, not too many people are going to care (or even remember 6 months from now) that we came up short with so many kids.

I just wonder if the (potentially) good results are coming despite a somewhat broken process. I know you're going to hear "no" 90% of the time in recruiting, even in good years. But all these swings and misses seem to have one thing in common - we keep ending up in the final 5, or final 3, or final 2. Very few kids are dismissing us early on in the process, we're just finding a way to consistently finish 2nd or 3rd. No idea why that is, but if virtually every single recruit, parent, and coach has nothing but glowing things to say about Kevin Ollie, it's hard for me to come to the conclusion that he's the one dropping the ball.

 

[James]

Can somebody explain why we need a big time recruiter to hit the aau trails if we land two more targets? If we sign kasongo and Cassell/Robinson, how much better can someone get us? especially with our current conference woes

 

[ctchamps]

And I agree with this mindset as well. Things can change in a heartbeat with recruiting and if we end up with a couple of these kids we're involved with, we'll still have a damn good class. If that ends up being the case, not too many people are going to care (or even remember 6 months from now) that we came up short with so many kids.

I just wonder if the (potentially) good results are coming despite a somewhat broken process. I know you're going to hear "no" 90% of the time in recruiting, even in good years. But all these swings and misses seem to have one thing in common - we keep ending up in the final 5, or final 3, or final 2. Very few kids are dismissing us early on in the process, we're just finding a way to consistently finish 2nd or 3rd. No idea why that is, but if virtually every single recruit, parent, and coach has nothing but glowing things to say about Kevin Ollie, it's hard for me to come to the conclusion that he's the one dropping the ball.

At least we're in the ballgame! Lots of programs are not getting any at bats!

I'll go one step further. At least UConn is in the playoffs for most of these recruits!

 

[Hugo]

Can somebody explain why we need a big time recruiter to hit the aau trails if we land two more targets? If we sign kasongo and Cassell/Robinson, how much better can someone get us? especially with our current conference woes

And if we don't get Kasongo and Cassell/Robinson would you agree that we need a big time recruiter ? In fact since only Robinson is highly rated, if we miss on DR would you agree we need a big time recruiter ? The targets you mention are basically plan B or plan C targets as all the A's are no longer available except for DR.

 

[upstater]

And if we don't get Kasongo and Cassell/Robinson would you agree that we need a big time recruiter ? In fact since only Robinson is highly rated, if we miss on DR would you agree we need a big time recruiter ? The targets you mention are basically plan B or plan C targets as all the A's are no longer available except for DR.

Napier was plan B too. I don't think UConn is going to stare down its nose at Cassell, especially since they offered him a couple years ago prior to his Maryland commitment.

 

[upstater]

One thing to add. It's not only that SMU and Houston are selling the opportunity to play UConn, but schools like Seton Hall are selling kids on the opportunity to AVOID playing UConn.

I can't imagine being a St. John's fan right now. Seton Hall just snagged 3 top players from NYC, Whitehead, Delgado and Carrington, and Samson Johnson doesn't have a single top 100 recruit.

 

[aceboon]

And if we don't get Kasongo and Cassell/Robinson would you agree that we need a big time recruiter ? In fact since only Robinson is highly rated, if we miss on DR would you agree we need a big time recruiter ? The targets you mention are basically plan B or plan C targets as all the A's are no longer available except for DR.

neither Bazz(Bazz was actually plan D), Boat, or even Kemba were the plan A targets at PG, and I don't think anyone is unhappy with having had them in the program. Cassell would be a great get, look at the schools that are competing for him, don't being a slave to rankings.

 

[Hugo]

Napier was plan B too. I don't think UConn is going to stare down its nose at Cassell, especially since they offered him a couple years ago prior to his Maryland commitment.

Some Plan B's work out and some don't, but by definition they are not the first choice. In Bazz's case he was not a priority until he reclassified so the Plan A/B may not apply in his case. You never win all your recruiting battles, but you need to have impact players and if you do your scouting properly, you have identified them as your Plan A's that you have a good chance of getting. Hamilton aside, I'm not sure we have been all that successful doing that this year. This is where a big time recruiter will help.

 

[upstater]

Some Plan B's work out and some don't, but by definition they are not the first choice. In Bazz's case he was not a priority until he reclassified so the Plan A/B may not apply in his case. You never win all your recruiting battles, but you need to have impact players and if you do your scouting properly, you have identified them as your Plan A's that you have a good chance of getting. Hamilton aside, I'm not sure we have been all that successful doing that this year. This is where a big time recruiter will help.

Napie was definitely Plan B that year. We went through a bunch of guys who said no. Knight, Selby, Joseph, Pressey, Jackson. All PGs. If one of them commits, Napier never becomes a Husky. It was a similar story in Kemba's year as well.

Let's flip it a bit. How many times has UConn landed it's Plan A top 30 recruit prior to this year?

Rudy Gay
Alex Oriakhi
Curtis Kelly
Stanley Robinson
Andrew Bynum
AJ Price
Rashad Anderson

That's 7 guys in 12 years, or roughly one PLAN A player every other year.

 

[Gurleyman]

Napie was definitely Plan B that year. We went through a bunch of guys who said no. Knight, Selby, Joseph, Pressey, Jackson. All PGs. If one of them commits, Napier never becomes a Husky. It was a similar story in Kemba's year as well.

Let's flip it a bit. How many times has UConn landed it's Plan A top 30 recruit prior to this year?

Rudy Gay
Alex Oriakhi
Curtis Kelly
Stanley Robinson
Andrew Bynum
AJ Price
Rashad Anderson

That's 7 guys in 12 years, or roughly one PLAN A player every other year.

Price is even tough to say for sure. If I recall right, us and Kansas were both in it for Price and Russell Robinson, who were ranked similarly - I believe Robinson broke first for Kansas and Price came to us soon after.

My memory could be off, though.

 

[James]

I wish some of our delusional fans looked around the country @ what other big time programs are doing recruiting wise RIGHT now. I would say only Ohio state and unc have hit their targets. oh and the dreaded "Hamilton aside..." Comment hahaha. I don't get it he might as well have not commited here

 

[Rico444]

Napie was definitely Plan B that year. We went through a bunch of guys who said no. Knight, Selby, Joseph, Pressey, Jackson. All PGs. If one of them commits, Napier never becomes a Husky. It was a similar story in Kemba's year as well.

Let's flip it a bit. How many times has UConn landed it's Plan A top 30 recruit prior to this year?

Rudy Gay
Alex Oriakhi
Curtis Kelly
Stanley Robinson
Andrew Bynum
AJ Price
Rashad Anderson

That's 7 guys in 12 years, or roughly one PLAN A player every other year.

I would add Daniel Hamilton to that list.

 

[Chief00]

As a general rule you don't just want guys with UConn roots as coaches. It's a big World out there so that would exclude lots of coaching talent. It also gives you exposure to new ideas, etc.

 

[Huskybass]

This recruiting class could be Hamilton, Purvis and me and still be a success. If we land Cassell and Kasongo, it will be a stellar class.