2025 Recruiting: - Meleek Thomas Electic Boogaloo | Page 2 | The Boneyard

2025 Recruiting: Meleek Thomas Electic Boogaloo

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HooperScooper said:
That was my thought also. This quote below from that Arkansas guy is stupid. UConn is not matching NIL with Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, etc. for recruits so there's no "struggling". Hurley has already said he's not going to compete on NIL deals with schools desperate to hand out NIL like candy to get recruits. That's not who he is and he's not making the program's culture about that either. UConn's NIL is competitive in the market but they're not out there just buying recruits like some schools. I'm predicting that strategy is going to back fire for these type of schools and it will be great to watch.

"But on the Meleek Thomas and Acaden Lewis, since UConn's been heavily factored with both lately. I'm hearing that UConn is struggling with NIL, in terms of matching what other schools have got out there for these players. So they may like UConn a lot, but they're taking their time."
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UConn is not struggling with NIL at all; we're actually thriving in the NIL era. We get guys who are balanced in their thinking and are smart enough to know that they'll get good dough from us and move on to the NBA at a draft level better than most other programs.

The schools struggling with NIL are the ones over-paying because they have to and then underperforming in the W-L columns.
 
awy said:
with the league shifting to value team play more and development, it's increasingly becoming a poor decision to waste a year. the other factor is how good the college programs are at teaching the same skills desired by NBA. UConn is certainly a leader there but there's some others as well
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After the last two NCAA tournaments you could make the case that Uconn has already revolutionized college hoop between culture, player development and offensive/defensive strategy.
 
”I’m hearing”
”may be making a shift towards”
”possibly gaining momentum”
”seems strong but”

The simple truth is that these recruiting folks are struggling in this new era of NIL. They simply do not have the same level of insight and inside info that they were able to get previously.

The (sometimes/often shady) brokers float so many false stories as part of their negotiations that there is often no way to know where something is going. But, they have jobs to do and info to churn out, so you get even more of those qualifying phrases (“narrowing in on making a final list”- what even is that?!).

The whole recruiting experience has changed for players, fans, and media, which is fine, but the covering of it has not quite evolved yet.
 
CTFAN4LIFE said:
UConn is not struggling with NIL at all; we're actually thriving in the NIL era.
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I don't think NIL era is fully formed and I don't think we're thriving on the trail right now. If this wasn't the start of the NIL era, we'd already have our draft class signed.
 
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Waquoit said:
I don't think NIL era is fully formed and I don't think we're thriving on the trail right now. If this wasn't the start of the NIL era, we'd already have our draft class signed.
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Maybe but I think what this doesn’t consider is that they are in a position to be very selective and are not scared of waiting, both because of their recent success and the way the transfer situation has evolved in the sport. NIL gets a lot of the attention, but it happening at the same time as the new transfer rules gets people conflating the effects.
 
Waquoit said:
I don't think NIL era is fully formed and I don't think we're thriving on the trail right now. If this wasn't the start of the NIL era, we'd already have our draft class signed.
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Maybe. But that seems to be the case for everyone. Only 12 of the top 50 recruits on 247Sports have verbally committed so far. I wonder how that compares to prior years at the same point in time?

247sports.com

2025 Top Basketball Recruits

The 247Sports rankings are determined by our recruiting analysts after countless hours of personal observations, film evaluation and input from our network of scouts.
247sports.com 247sports.com
 
navery12 said:
But that doesn't mean they're not thriving with recruiting. Nobody has their full class already signed
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But I don't think we can say "thriving" until we land a few and things will be fine. I guess my point is UConn finally makes it to the zenith of college basketball and all of a sudden there's a new factor to deal with that wasn't there before. I mean why do we have to worry about BYU and Texas Tech, for cryin' out loud.
 
Waquoit said:
But I don't think we can say "thriving" until we land a few and things will be fine. I guess my point is UConn finally makes it to the zenith of college basketball and all of a sudden there's a new factor to deal with that wasn't there before. I mean why do we have to worry about BYU and Texas Tech, for cryin' out loud.
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I hear what you’re saying and it’s frustrating. But I still believe this staff will get the right kids that fit their system that are winners who want to be here.
 
Waquoit said:
But I don't think we can say "thriving" until we land a few and things will be fine. I guess my point is UConn finally makes it to the zenith of college basketball and all of a sudden there's a new factor to deal with that wasn't there before. I mean why do we have to worry about BYU and Texas Tech, for cryin' out loud.
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We just landed back to back 5*s on top of other top 50 recruits.

BYU and Texas Texas Tech does not recruit better than us.
 
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Waquoit said:
But I don't think we can say "thriving" until we land a few and things will be fine. I guess my point is UConn finally makes it to the zenith of college basketball and all of a sudden there's a new factor to deal with that wasn't there before. I mean why do we have to worry about BYU and Texas Tech, for cryin' out loud.
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So since only 9 recruits in the 2025 class have committed so far then nobody is "thriving" at this point. Relax. UConn is going to be just fine. I promise. :)
HooperScooper said:
Maybe. But that seems to be the case for everyone. Only 12 of the top 50 recruits on 247Sports have verbally committed so far. I wonder how that compares to prior years at the same point in time?

247sports.com

2025 Top Basketball Recruits

The 247Sports rankings are determined by our recruiting analysts after countless hours of personal observations, film evaluation and input from our network of scouts.
247sports.com 247sports.com
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Correction, only 9 of the top 50 have verbally committed.
 
Waquoit said:
But I don't think we can say "thriving" until we land a few and things will be fine. I guess my point is UConn finally makes it to the zenith of college basketball and all of a sudden there's a new factor to deal with that wasn't there before. I mean why do we have to worry about BYU and Texas Tech, for cryin' out loud.
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I get where you're coming from, and it does suck. But I'd say we are thriving on the recruiting trail. Whether we can close on some of these guys is a different story, but there's 12 top 25 recruits we've been connected to and 11 of them are 5 star guys. And we're still recruiting 7 or 8 of them. I don't think that's ever happened before for UConn
 
Waquoit said:
But I don't think we can say "thriving" until we land a few and things will be fine. I guess my point is UConn finally makes it to the zenith of college basketball and all of a sudden there's a new factor to deal with that wasn't there before. I mean why do we have to worry about BYU and Texas Tech, for cryin' out loud.
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Seems to me winning the last two nattys and going into next season in the top 5 with a really deep roster is thriving.
 
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Waquoit said:
Seems to me you missed the entire point of the discussion.
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No, not at all. Without saying it, my point is we know how to identify talent early in the recruiting process, bring talented team oriented players on board, develop that talent as well as any program in the country, win championships, and send players to the NBA. I'd call that thriving. AND, we do all that without overpaying NIL dollars. I'd call that thriving efficiently.
 
If one of the other recruits for his position is ready to commit and in we are in danger of losing them - take them now. Otherwise we can afford to chill.
 
RuffRuff said:
The more his visits and list congeal, the more it looks directed at NIL.
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Alabama is going to be a pre-season Top 3 team in the country and a lot of people are going to have them in the Final Four for the second consecutive year. Oats is a rising star in college basketball. Seems strange to chalk up interest in that program to NIL.
 
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he really should go somewhere that can develop/showcase his passing game. alabama is a lot better than arkansas for that but it'll prob be NIL decision.
 
Is there any reason to think Ball, Mahaney and Nowell can't eat most of the minutes in the backcourt in 25-26? I know they need more options to protect against injury or some other unforeseen issue, but this one always felt like we might be recruiting over Ball in particular. If Thomas ultimately comes to Storrs, great , but I'm okay if Hurley ends up with another Top50ish guy instead who might give 5-10 minutes per game as a freshman and then will be ready for significant time as a soph.

Even if Ross stays and excels, Ament seems like the must get if there is a decent chance the Huskies lose all of Karaban, McNeeley & Stewart to next years draft.
 
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BigErnMcCracken said:
Alabama is going to be a pre-season Top 3 team in the country and a lot of people are going to have them in the Final Four for the second consecutive year. Oats is a rising star in college basketball. Seems strange to chalk up interest in that program to NIL.
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Of the 6 visits he's been on or scheduled, it's local school Pitt, 2x defending champ UConn, and then Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Maybe he just really likes SEC football.

The Arkansas podcast had the right date a few days early, so good confirmation that he's plugged in on the recruitment from an Arkansas perspective at least.
 
CTFAN4LIFE said:
No, not at all. Without saying it, my point is we know how to identify talent early in the recruiting process, bring talented team oriented players on board, develop that talent as well as any program in the country, win championships, and send players to the NBA. I'd call that thriving. AND, we do all that without overpaying NIL dollars. I'd call that thriving efficiently.
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Would you call it thriving when the Big East distributes out only $4 million each to it’s members for all sports?
 
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