2025 Recruiting: - Meleek Thomas Electic Boogaloo | Page 3 | The Boneyard

2025 Recruiting: Meleek Thomas Electic Boogaloo

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Recruiting Top 20ish players is different these days. NIL-player development-PT-transfer portal options if it doesn't work out-advisor-parental influence. Those players can/should explore their options. End result-Doesn't always fit the preferred timeline of the recruiting schools.

Seems to me that the first of Thomas or Lewis that wants to commit (or not) to UConn is our guy. In the meantime-Got some strategic OVs to get ready for and scoring on an Ament OV.
 
Umami Zen said:
Recruiting Top 20ish players is different these days. NIL-player development-PT-transfer portal options if it doesn't work out-advisor-parental influence. Those players can/should explore their options. End result-Doesn't always fit the preferred timeline of the recruiting schools.

Seems to me that the first of Thomas or Lewis that wants to commit (or not) to UConn is our guy. In the meantime-Got some strategic OVs to get ready for and scoring on an Ament OV.
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Thankfully the calendar will soon be turning to September, which means that commitments should start falling like dominoes in the fall. This is the reality which probably means schools have to cast wider nets than they’d like to, even if they’re consistent winners and having kids go in the lottery. I look forward to celebrating the kids that choose Storrs as their destination.
 
TheHorde said:
Thankfully the calendar will soon be turning to September, which means that commitments should start falling like dominoes in the fall. This is the reality which probably means schools have to cast wider nets than they’d like to, even if they’re consistent winners and having kids go in the lottery. I look forward to celebrating the kids that choose Storrs as their destination.
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In the NIL era, and with a coach like Hurley, it’s a great feeling knowing that every kid that wears a Husky jersey is 100% locked in to the program and the culture that Hurley built

He’s sent guys to the NBA draft from top 10 to top 100. There’s room for everyone who wants to lock in, be coached hard, and make the league
 
REB1094 said:
In the NIL era, and with a coach like Hurley, it’s a great feeling knowing that every kid that wears a Husky jersey is 100% locked in to the program and the culture that Hurley built

He’s sent guys to the NBA draft from top 10 to top 100. There’s room for everyone who wants to lock in, be coached hard, and make the league
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I worry a bit that the grind and toll of the recruiting process in this era will push Hurley to the NBA sooner rather than later, for the same reason Jay Wright left coaching for tv. Hurley has to be shaking his head in frustration, at least privately, wondering what more has to do to prove to some kids that Storrs is the place to play. You can lead the proverbial horse to water, but you can’t make the proverbial horse drink.
 
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PAHusky said:
Is this an insider info “next” or are you saying next because a kid is taking official visits to schools that aren’t UConn?
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He's saying it because he is one of the 'yards 24/7 grumpy, glass-half-empty, shout-at-the-clouds, negative nelly, pessimist curmudgeons. ;)
 
RuffRuff said:
I don’t blame a kid for doing their DD, but coupling this with all the noise that Hurley has moved off, visa versa. For a kid that was crystal balled as the perfect fit and streams of mutual admiration/fit, to suddenly go south(UConn not even on the short list of favorites now, KSt is), it feels like a pretty clear message to me. Show me the money.

And his growing list includes many of the highest bidders, whether legit programs or not.
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Where are you seeing we've backed off? The last article I saw posted in this thread still said UConn is the favorite
 
I have no idea what is going on but if there is still heavy mutual interest I'd look for another official visit to UConn this fall before he decides. Recruits can take 1 official visit to each school per academic calendar year (typically September through the next August). So he can take another one to UConn. If he schedules another one to UConn that is a very good sign. If not then I'd think the odds are going down. I know some people are going to say he's already been to UConn, but I'm sure if he's not totally sold on UConn then the staff would like another chance to sit down and discuss everything with him and be there for a real practice.
 
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RuffRuff said:
I don’t blame a kid for doing their DD, but coupling this with all the noise that Hurley has moved off, visa versa. For a kid that was crystal balled as the perfect fit and streams of mutual admiration/fit, to suddenly go south(UConn not even on the short list of favorites now, KSt is), it feels like a pretty clear message to me. Show me the money.

And his growing list includes many of the highest bidders, whether legit programs or not.
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It will be his loss.
 
It's funny - from a recruiting perspective, I think this may have been the worse possible year to be coming off back to back national championships, as it's the first year that NIL has played such a major factor in high school recruitments. I'm fairly confident that if NIL never became a thing, we'd already have at least two commitments (Thomas included), and maybe more. I'm still confident we will end up with a solid class when it's all said and done, but at one point I thought we may be looking at our best class ever, and I don't feel that way anymore.
 
While I am disappointed that we do not have a commitment yet for 25 I will say that we are swinging for the fences compared to years past. Most if not all of the kids we have offered are 5 star or at least top 40 players in the class. Slightly different casting net than in the past.
This obviously is because of the back to back Nattys and Hurley getting credit for being a top 3 coach in college basketball and the fact our staff develops talent at a different level than anyone.
 
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Stasher599 said:
While I am disappointed that we do not have a commitment yet for 25 I will say that we are swinging for the fences compared to years past. Most if not all of the kids we have offered are 5 star or at least top 40 players in the class. Slightly different casting net than in the past.
This obviously is because of the back to back Nattys and Hurley getting credit for being a top 3 coach in college basketball and the fact our staff develops talent at a different level than anyone.
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Most of the top 100 recruits have not committed. With that said, if NIL is the a major factor for UConn's top targets, the recruiting boost due to the B2B NC, player development and NBA draft success we've all hoped for might not be enough to overcome some other top programs throwing outrageous amounts of NIL money.

I'm not losing hope. Let's see how it plays out as the recruits complete all their visits.
 
DogMania said:
I'm not losing hope. Let's see how it plays out as the recruits complete all their visits.
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We're gonna get good players. It's just UConn luck that when we finally got to the place where they should be able to pick and choose; the rules of the game changed.
 
Waquoit said:
We're gonna get good players. It's just UConn luck that when we finally got to the place where they should be able to pick and choose; the rules of the game changed.
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Pro leagues have salary caps and some (MLB & NFL) have salary bands based on draft position, and some sort of guard rails. The NCAA needs to come up with something that cannot be litigated to get this whole NIL thing under control. I'm all for college athletes making money off their NIL but changes are needed so that players are choosing colleges based on other factors and not waited so heavily on NIL money.
 
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TheHorde said:
I worry a bit that the grind and toll of the recruiting process in this era will push Hurley to the NBA sooner rather than later, for the same reason Jay Wright left coaching for tv. Hurley has to be shaking his head in frustration, at least privately, wondering what more has to do to prove to some kids that Storrs is the place to play. You can lead the proverbial horse to water, but you can’t make the proverbial horse drink.
Expand ...
 
DogMania said:
Pro leagues have salary caps and some (MLB & NFL) have salary bands based on draft position, and some sort of guard rails. The NCAA needs to come up with something that cannot be litigated to get this whole NIL thing under control. I'm all for college athletes making money off their NIL, but changes are needed so that players are choosing colleges based on other factors and not waited so heavily on NIL money.
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Yep. Made the same comment about cap limits on NIL awhile back. As it is with anything, the devil is in the details. How would this be policed? What stops a school from offering monetary value other than money, such as cars, homes whatever.
 
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Mooch82 said:
It's funny - from a recruiting perspective, I think this may have been the worse possible year to be coming off back to back national championships, as it's the first year that NIL has played such a major factor in high school recruitments. I'm fairly confident that if NIL never became a thing, we'd already have at least two commitments (Thomas included), and maybe more. I'm still confident we will end up with a solid class when it's all said and done, but at one point I thought we may be looking at our best class ever, and I don't feel that way anymore.
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The "NIL" has always been with us. It just had another name and was not talked about. We only want the highest motivated coachable young men. Message: "That's
our culture; what's yours?" He knows where we live.
 
dennismenace said:
The "NIL" has always been with us. It just had another name and was not talked about. We only want the highest motivated coachable young men. Message: "That's
our culture; what's yours?" He knows where we live.
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Eh - it's much different than it has been previously. Obviously, everything is out in the open now which has substantially changed how players go about their recruitments. It's not just a coincidence that so few of the top 100 recruits have committed - it's all tied to the new landscape.
 
Mooch82 said:
It's funny - from a recruiting perspective, I think this may have been the worse possible year to be coming off back to back national championships, as it's the first year that NIL has played such a major factor in high school recruitments. I'm fairly confident that if NIL never became a thing, we'd already have at least two commitments (Thomas included), and maybe more. I'm still confident we will end up with a solid class when it's all said and done, but at one point I thought we may be looking at our best class ever, and I don't feel that way anymore.
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There is no such thing as a worst year to be coming off back to back championships.

That would be like being in the worst threesome with two playboy centerfolds.
 
FearThePups said:
Yep. Made the same comment about cap limits on NIL awhile back. As it is with anything, the devil is in the details. How would this be policed? What stops a school from offering monetary value other than money, such as cars, homes whatever.
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I think the NIL money has to be tied to leveraging that athletes name, identity and/or likeness and not just throwing cash and goods for nothing other than getting them to select that school. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but regardless we all know some programs will funnel under the table money to entice recruits and portal athletes. There will always be cheaters.

Again, let's see how this plays out. Hopefully, the UConn staff will continue to build relationships with recruits they want, such as Thomas, and be able to have a combination package of their B2B NC resume, proven player development success, NBA draft success stories and competitive NIL money that can be attractive enough to overcome some rediculous NIL offers that UConn just can't or won't meet.
 
Since Universities cannot pay players, the NIL is not direct school to player. It comes from boosters and companies tied to UConn, but for every NCAA team, it's not school to player.
 
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