Looks Like the Staff Brought In Some NBA Alum for This Weekend

[3uconn]

@_TheNextBest_: Kemba Thabeet Lamb Adrien Giffey Nolan Purvis
@_TheNextBest_: All at gample

So Kemba, Thabeet, Lamb, and Adrien are here for Lyle, Kasongo, and Cassell Jr. Could look very impressive to the recruits.

 

[azescobar]

great to hear..there likely will be more alum on campus before the weekend is over. I have a good feeling on Kasongo..let's do thihi.

 

[tentoes4rings]

I would expect or at least hope many more high profile names would be coming in for tomorrow's dinner to honor Calhoun. No offense to Thabeet, Jeff or Lamb but it would be nice to have Ray, Rudy, Caron, Emeka etc there to honor a coach who helped them make tens of millions of dollars. Those are the type of recognizable faces we need to reel in some big fish on such an important recruiting weekend.

 

[HooperScooper]

Obviously they are all there for the Calhoun dinner tomorrow. They didn't bring them in for recruiting purposes. But I'm sure they did try to bring the recruits in for this weekend. Big football game (even though they'll probably get killed!) and the Calhoun dinner. No better weekend than this.

 

[mauconnfan]

I would expect or at least hope many more high profile names would be coming in for tomorrow's dinner to honor Calhoun. No offense to Thabeet, Jeff or Lamb but it would be nice to have Ray, Rudy, Caron, Emeka etc there to honor a coach who helped them make tens of millions of dollars. Those are the type of recognizable faces we need to reel in some big fish on such an important recruiting weekend.

Hold on to your hats they may still be........

 

[SirHypeAlot]

I am so fired up for this weekend. So far so good.

 

[Gurleyman]

I would expect or at least hope many more high profile names would be coming in for tomorrow's dinner to honor Calhoun. No offense to Thabeet, Jeff or Lamb but it would be nice to have Ray, Rudy, Caron, Emeka etc there to honor a coach who helped them make tens of millions of dollars. Those are the type of recognizable faces we need to reel in some big fish on such an important recruiting weekend.

Frankly current recruits will identify more with the group that's here. They were 7 when Emeka played here, 5 when Caron played here, and fetuses when Ray played here. Although Ray has a ton of NBA cred and played with Ollie at both levels, so he'd certainly be of use.

 

[superjohn]

Ray has more cred than just about anyone, the guy is an NBA legend.

 

[Gurleyman]

Well, sure - but current recruits will think of him as an older Celtic/Heat player, and the fact he went to UConn is distant trivia. Ray can tell stories of what the campus looked like before all the UConn 2000 construction, or of being in a Spike Lee movie, but he won't have anything to tell them about the UConn experience that's all that relevant (other than vouching for Ollie, which is certainly huge).

They'll know Kemba as a UConn guy, who made some big dude from Pitt look silly that once (they may have even tweeted about it) and won a national title while they were old enough to appreciate it. And he's a guy who Ollie coached. Kemba can tell them what the UConn experience did for him and it will be info that current guys can feel would be relevant to their experience if they came.

I'm not saying that if Ray shows up, you say "no thanks" by any means. Everything helps. But a recruit's perspective is typically more narrow than ours.

 

[Jaybo]

These kids watch the NBA RAY RIP an RUDY would be huge along with KEMBA and company.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Ray has been cited by many, including Calhoun, as the so-called father of the UConn NBA alumni family. Yes, many younger kids may not remember that he played for us, but they all surely know who he is, and he's surely not at all shy to tell everyone he played for UConn, much less that he played with Kevin Ollie.

 

[superjohn]

Well, sure - but current recruits will think of him as an older Celtic/Heat player, and the fact he went to UConn is distant trivia. Ray can tell stories of what the campus looked like before all the UConn 2000 construction, or of being in a Spike Lee movie, but he won't have anything to tell them about the UConn experience that's all that relevant (other than vouching for Ollie, which is certainly huge).

They'll know Kemba as a UConn guy, who made some big dude from Pitt look silly that once (they may have even tweeted about it) and won a national title while they were old enough to appreciate it. And he's a guy who Ollie coached. Kemba can tell them what the UConn experience did for him and it will be info that current guys can feel would be relevant to their experience if they came.

I'm not saying that if Ray shows up, you say "no thanks" by any means. Everything helps. But a recruit's perspective is typically more narrow than ours.

He just hit one of the biggest shots in playoff history and is considered the best shooter in history, trust me he's fresh in high schoolers minds.

 

[boog204]

Ray is timeless... The Emeka/Caron connections I would think are less impressive to a high school kid.

 

[BearJWS]

These kids, if they are smart, will remember Ray hitting a huge 3 to send game 6 of the NBA Finals into OT this past season. And they will remember Ray being a key player in the Celtics 2008 NBA championship. Maybe they'll know he's the NBA's All Time Leader in 3 Pt FG's and approaching his 19th season in the NBA. I could go on, but I would say kids looking to go to the NBA know who Ray is....

 

[upstater]

Try typing Jesus Shuttleworth on Twitter. A thousand people use that name, and one of them is Devin Robinson.

 

[tentoes4rings]

Frankly current recruits will identify more with the group that's here. They were 7 when Emeka played here, 5 when Caron played here, and fetuses when Ray played here. Although Ray has a ton of NBA cred and played with Ollie at both levels, so he'd certainly be of use.

Point taken on Emeka, especially since he hasn't been on playoff teams but Caron has been on a lot of playoff teams and these guys do follow the NBA pretty closely usually. As pointed out, Ray just hit one of the biggest shots in NBA history and that should be capitalized on as much as possible while it's still so fresh in everyone's minds. Before being traded last year, Rudy was becoming one of the more recognizable guys in the league, his presence would certainly resonate with high school kids.

We can debate about the names all we want but my basic point was we still have considerable NBA assets to draw upon and need to do so more than ever during an uncertain time in our history. Other than Kemba, I think we can do better than a journeyman lunch pail guy and two guys who spent more time in the NBA Development League than on the court in the NBA.

 

[tentoes4rings]

It looks as though Drummond will be there tonight. As his star continues to rise, he's going to be a critical ambassador for the program. This kid impresses me more and more each week.

 

[Rico444]

Someone tweeted out that Ray and Kemba were at the game last night; so I'm assuming they'll be around for Coach Calhoun's ceremony.

 

[alexd]

Someone tweeted out that Ray and Kemba were at the game last night; so I'm assuming they'll be around for Coach Calhoun's ceremony.

Jeff Adrien was there also sitting next to Kemba...we also saw Thabeet in the parking lot and inside the Rent later on...

 

[scotty0330]

Hopefully this results in a commit before the end of the weekend. Too big a weekend with too many kids to have them all leave without reeling in one

 

[HuskyNan]

Come to UConn, meet the stars (keep reading for men's bball mention):

Star-Studded Rent

The official attendance of 42,704, the highest ever for UConn, thanks to the extra 2,200 temporary seats, included its share of celebrities. Yankees captain Derek Jeter, an avid Michigan football fan from Kalamazoo, made his way to East Hartford with his girlfriend, model Hannah Davis, following the Yankees' afternoon game, and sat in the athletic director's suite. Door closed, no visitors allowed. … Retired UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who will be honored at Gampel Pavilion on Sunday night, was in his suite, as was men's basketball coach Kevin Ollie. … Among the former UConn basketball stars in town for the Calhoun event were Hasheem Thabeet, Ray Allen, Kemba Walker, Donny Marshall and Jeff Adrien. . … The men's basketball program took the opportunity of the big football game to host some recruits, including Sam Cassell Jr., who plays junior college ball in Florida and was up for an official visit, as was Ray Kasongo, a 6-9 forward from Toronto. …The UConn women's basketball team was out in force, on the field, dancing with the band as part of the halftime entertainment. Stefanie Dolson did her dance with the national championship trophy.

 

[Adios]

What a great atmosphere last night. Probably the best ever at the Rent.

 

[alexd]

those extra 2200 seats they added on the sides of the jumbotron looked like they had been there all along....too bad is was mostly UM fans. They sold all 5K seats they were given.