Let's talk about 2014

[hungry husky]

Don't be surprised if it happens...he already showed significant improvement in the ball handling department during the season. If he didn't hurt his wrist, there would be significant national buzz about the kid blowing up next year.

Take off the blue and white glasses. He only shot 40% from the field and had long stretches of disappearing in important games. He's a 3 year player at least.

 

[Rico444]

Take off the blue and white glasses. He only shot 40% from the field and had long stretches of disappearing in important games. He's a 3 year player at least.

The 4 or 5 games before he hurt his wrist, he was great. And just when he was starting to shoot well, he hurt his wrist, played through it, and put up horrible shooting stats.

Disappeared in big games, huh? Yeah, he was awful against Syracuse, and didn't hit a huge shot against Georgetown (with a defender in his grill) to send it to overtime or anything.

 

[upstater]

He came along really nicely as a freshman. I can see him leaving after 3. He's got an excellent midrange game. After 2? As I wrote, unless he improves tremendously, no. But... ya never know.

 

[CTBasketball]

Ben Gordon was 5x better as a freshman (in my opinion) and he didn't leave until after his junior year. There will be A LOT better shooting guard prospects entering the draft as well.

 

[tentoes4rings]

I agree with those who've predicted Omar is here 3 years. Again, I don't think Boat will be an NBA player after next year, I just think expecting a kid who considered playing professionally last year to stay 3 additional years is a bit too optimistic. I expect by their sophomore years Facey and Brimah will be very solid and Nolan should be a really nice player by then. As I said originally, if we can secure a top 3 I feel the sky will be the limit for this group, with or without Boat and/or Omar.

 

[hungry husky]

The 4 or 5 games before he hurt his wrist, he was great. And just when he was starting to shoot well, he hurt his wrist, played through it, and put up horrible shooting stats.

Disappeared in big games, huh? Yeah, he was awful against Syracuse, and didn't hit a huge shot against Georgetown (with a defender in his grill) to send it to overtime or anything.

I'll give you Syracuse. He had a great 2nd half against Gtown but 2 points between 1st half, and both overtimes is disappearing.

 

[aceboon]

I'll give you Syracuse. He had a great 2nd half against Gtown but 2 points between 1st half, and both overtimes is disappearing.

He banged his wrist up pretty badly in that game after it was already injured. It seemed like he had started to adjust to the pain as he knocked down open shots in the DePaul game, but then early in the GT game he drove to the basket(which he started to do much better as the season progressed) and as the norm in CBB a defender parked himself under the basket and Omar landed right on his wrist after the collision. He was grimacing and flexing the wrist the rest of the game and was pretty much never the same the rest of the year.

 

[benjordan]

Some people confuse whether someone "should" leave early aka Boat, and will. To some people any paycheck is better than playing for free in college. To others the college experience is great and is worth delaying a paycheck a year or two. It's all about the individual and their family.

 

[7774]

Almost no one ever makes a great leap in ballhandling, shooting, strength, etc over the summer. Maybe minimal improvement but no big improvement

Wow, you packed an incredible amount of wrong into just 2 sentences.

 

[James]

Ben Gordon was 5x better as a freshman (in my opinion) and he didn't leave until after his junior year. There will be A LOT better shooting guard prospects entering the draft as well.

The numbers would suggest bg was a better shooter and ball handler. But omar is better on the glass and arguably further along defensively (two inches taller). I wouldn't go as far as "five times".

 

[Jluc]

lol to people thinking Omar is gone after this year.

 

[BearJWS]

As much as I like Calhoun's grittiness & toughness, I don't think he's athletic enough for the NBA. Maybe he can improve on that somehow, but that's not normally something players can improve on. Either you were born with it or not. If he can improve his shooting, ball handling & his defense, maybe an outside chance he makes the NBA but it would have to be the right situation, ala a Kieth Bogans, Maurice Evans, DeShawn Stevenson role. He could be a very valuable player for UConn though. There are many very good college players that don't make the NBA. That's just my opinion.

 

[Rico444]

I'll give you Syracuse. He had a great 2nd half against Gtown but 2 points between 1st half, and both overtimes is disappearing.

He was a different player after hitting his wrist. The games leading up to GTown, he was great. More aggressive attacking the basket, better handle, and making more shots in general.

For the record, I would bet Omar is a 3 year player, but wouldn't be surprised if he made enough of a jump next year to be a 1st rounder.

 

[Waquoit]

Almost no one ever makes a great leap in ballhandling, shooting, strength, etc over the summer.

I agree with everything but the strength part. I have read many pre-season reports on the 'Yard over the years about players adding 15-25 pounds of solid muscle in the off season. Tyler being the latest.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

lol to people thinking Omar is gone after this year.

Lol to saying "lol."

 

[mauconnfan]

Wow, you packed an incredible amount of wrong into just 2 sentences.

He is absolutely spot on except for "strength" as Omar is a solid kid already!

Ballhandling, passing aren't easy to improve on in a short period of time..........he can throw the occasional sweet no-look, but getting out of double teams, pressure is something you basically need to work real hard unless you just "got it". He doesn't yet and he's here through his Jr year at least and I am almost willing to say he's a 4 year guy from what i saw!

 

[7774]

He is absolutely spot on except for "strength" as Omar is a solid kid already!

Ballhandling, passing aren't easy to improve on in a short period of time..........he can throw the occasional sweet no-look, but getting out of double teams, pressure is something you basically need to work real hard unless you just "got it". He doesn't yet and he's here through his Jr year at least and I am almost willing to say he's a 4 year guy from what i saw!

His post couldn't possibly be less spot on. His post wasn't even specific to Omar. I have no idea how much Omar will improve but to say in general you can't improve ball handling significantly over the course of a summer if you work hard on drills. I mean...................

 

[Jluc]

Lol to saying "lol."

You're the man!!

 

[Gurleyman]

Calhoun doesn't need to become a Grant Hill type point forward - he just needs to tighten it up. He needs to feel the defensive pressure and know how to protect the ball. It wasn't even that he lost the ball a lot this year, it was just really easy to take it from him sometimes. He has a ways to go, but we can expect a little more savviness at the least.

But there's a long line of UConn 3s that have gotten better at their ball handling and perimeter skills, going back to Scott Burrell, who was basically an undersized 4 as a freshman who moved his game out as his career went on. Donny Marshall, Ray Allen, Caron Butler, Rudy Gay - all were a bit shaky or unpolished putting the ball on the deck as freshmen and got better. Donyell became a much more polished perimeter player, although more in the sense of being more fluid coming off screens than in becoming a ball handling threat. Rip was pretty polished from the get go (he played point guard in that Kansas game), and Sticks never really got there - he was either spot up or work off the dribble in the post. Ollie and Kemba became much better shooters - AJ too (with the caveat that he was very rusty his first year). The Freeman at the 3 experiment didn't really work, but he did get better handling the ball and facing the basket - I think the larger problem that year was that Freeman was a downgrade from Rip at the 3, and Saunders was also a downgrade from Freeman at the 4.

Over time, we tend to remember the finished product and forget the process in getting there of smoothing out the edges.

 

[tentoes4rings]

Assuming we are fortunate enough to land Purvis, the potential for that team would be limitless if we're able to land a stud 3. Here is the depth chart the way I see it, if Deandre and Boat leave early. I know we'll stay heavily involved with Okafor, Chukwu and other big men but Ive put together a conservative short list with them off it.

Starters:
Nolan or Brimah
Facey
?
Calhoun
Purvis

Bench:
Samuels
Tolksdorf
Nolan or Brimah

Am I missing any commits for 2014?

Can anyone provide a good breakdown on where we are with some of the top 3s from 2014 please? We would need to add one or two more players to round out the roster but I think for a stellar 8 man rotation we just need that quality 3 to have legit Final Four aspirations the next 2 years.

I couldn't be happier that since I posted this we did indeed land Purvis and a stud capable of playing the 3. This will start us off with a terrific 8 man foundation, assuming nobody leaves early. Add Boat to the mix and we've got a lethal, athletic 9 man rotation. One more stud and a few team oriented role players would be ideal. So proud of KO and his staff for their incredible recruiting efforts so far.