2025 Recruiting: - Meleek Thomas to UConn Crystal Ball | Page 14 | The Boneyard

2025 Recruiting: Meleek Thomas to UConn Crystal Ball

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HuskyFich said:
Do you mind elaborating on this? Not trying to be argumentative, but the ball moved because of Andre. Andre had the best vision, the best instincts, the best everything except maybe not the tightest handle. He dribbled a little high and loose. TNew spent so much more time driving to the lane when Andre was in the game.

Once Dan Hurley figured out how to involve AJax on offense by being the primary ball handler/set up man, rather than sitting in the corner waiting for 3s and long rebounds (Xavier game comes to mind), UConn turned the corner and never looked back.
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Here’s an article on what we did with Andre from the NYTimes.

www.nytimes.com

Film room: Once UConn unlocked Andre Jackson Jr., everything changed

The 6-foot-6 wing does a little bit of everything for the Huskies — especially after he figured out how not to be a 'dork.'
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

We pretty much turned him to Draymond Green as a screen and passer and instead of having him sit in the corner taking 3s, we told him to cut to the dunker spot for easy layups.

Earlier in the season he did have a lot of the primary ballhandler duties and it took away from Newton. Once we found out how to play Andre off ball and let Newton be the primary guy again in the half court things seemed to click.

Being the best passer and playmaker does not always equal being the PG. Some of Andre’s best passes in the tournament came on off ball cuts and in transition. He wasn’t much of a setup the offense kind of guy. If he was he’d probably be looked at as Josh Giddey by the NBA but they never saw him as being close to a PG because that’s not what he did here.



Also, eye roll time here. Guess who said we should make that change to have Andre cut to the basket more during his struggles?


IMG_5906.jpeg
 
Looking like Meleek is going to drag this out. His loss if he goes elsewhere. Loving this years team.
 
navery12 said:
It literally won us a championship but keep going. You're on an impressive streak of Idiocy
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Uh, no. Andre Jackson handled the ball - at times - for that team, and they won a championship - absolutely does not even remotely imply "Andre Jackson playing PG won us a championship". That is weapons grade insanity.

What you guys are talking about here is best exemplified by the end of the first half against Gonzaga where Ajax salvaged a bad entry pass and kicked out to Karaban for three. But that exemplifies his ability, not the way the team played every possession on offense.
 
HuskyFich said:
Do you mind elaborating on this? Not trying to be argumentative, but the ball moved because of Andre. Andre had the best vision, the best instincts, the best everything except maybe not the tightest handle. He dribbled a little high and loose. TNew spent so much more time driving to the lane when Andre was in the game.

Once Dan Hurley figured out how to involve AJax on offense by being the primary ball handler/set up man, rather than sitting in the corner waiting for 3s and long rebounds (Xavier game comes to mind), UConn turned the corner and never looked back.
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Yeah, at times. Yes, he had vision. Yes he could handle the ball. He was not the PG, nor the primary ball handler.
 
DRBackup said:
Uh, no. Andre Jackson handled the ball - at times - for that team, and they won a championship - absolutely does not even remotely imply "Andre Jackson playing PG won us a championship". That is weapons grade insanity.
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Andre Jackson averaged 6.8 assists in the NCAA tournament en route to a championship, he did a little bit more than handle the ball at times
 
Guys, the offense thrives on having multiple guys who can dribble shoot and pass. We don't have A POINT GUARD. We have multiple facilitators. Castle, Cam and Newton all played the role of facilitator, scorer, off ball mover.

I know it's a discussion board, but we're all on the same side here.

Any Meleek news?
 
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HuskyWarrior611 said:
The boneyard talking about positionless basketball and how everyone is a PG:

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Positionless works on offense but players all need to guard and have the ability to defend specific positions and types of players.
 
Mr. French said:
I am not on board with his opinion on this topic so I don't want to jump in "on his side" but I must disagree with you here, there were quite a few saying he was not a PG and he'd have to be a wing in the NBA.

I know that because I was conductor of the "Castle Has Always Been A PG" Train and I got disagreements from a decent amount of people.
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Dark Side Revenge Of The Fifth GIF
 
awy said:
cant believe this discussion still going on with no change in the content
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I came here to find out about Meleek and instead find comments that have nothing to do with the content.
 
KemBuckets21 said:
Guys, the offense thrives on having multiple guys who can dribble shoot and pass. We don't have A POINT GUARD. We have multiple facilitators. Castle, Cam and Newton all played the role of facilitator, scorer, off ball mover.

I know it's a discussion board, but we're all on the same side here.

Any Meleek news?
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I don't know why this is so difficult for people to understand.
 
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HuskyFich said:
Do you mind elaborating on this? Not trying to be argumentative, but the ball moved because of Andre. Andre had the best vision, the best instincts, the best everything except maybe not the tightest handle. He dribbled a little high and loose. TNew spent so much more time driving to the lane when Andre was in the game.

Once Dan Hurley figured out how to involve AJax on offense by being the primary ball handler/set up man, rather than sitting in the corner waiting for 3s and long rebounds (Xavier game comes to mind), UConn turned the corner and never looked back.
Expand ...
So nice to see someone being civil and not calling the other person stupid or an idiot just because they don't agree with them.
 
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Watch the tournament games. Castle initiated the offense lots of times.
Willing to bet Dan Hurley was surprised Tristen came back. Dan Hurley did a tremendous job blending our guards into the best backcourt in the country
 
JLW said:
Looking like Meleek is going to drag this out. His loss if he goes elsewhere. Loving this years team.
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It wouldn't be his loss if he went elsewhere. What's up with this weird energy where we think we're the ONLY school in the world producing talent? Have you not paid attention to his highlights? He will be a stud wherever he goes.
 
UConn player dev does add more value than most programs. As the incoming talent level increases this will be more evident. They are cooking with gas.
 
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pj said:
Would you rather we talk about player versatility? Would you grant that Stephon demonstrated versatility in his time at UConn? And that versatility is valued by the NBA?
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I’d rather us just say what things are. We did a great job developing Castle’s defense and ability to move off ball. I don’t think he becomes the defender he did here anywhere else (he might’ve still been good elsewhere but not best in class like here).

But I don’t think we did anything to help develop him into a future star player. Luckily for him he was able to force himself into the perfect situation with his talent to make that possible anyways.

The skills he showcased here are valuable skills for a role player in the NBA. I’m sure as a top 10 player in his class and in hindsight he probably should’ve been #1 (how the hell was DJ Wagner ranked over him?) he sees himself as being more than that.

It’s one of my few remaining gripes with the staff is trying to figure out how to develop these very talented recruits we get into more complete star players instead of seemingly developing them to be role player specialists. Because we are recruiting more talent than we ever had.
 
HuskyWarrior611 said:
I’d rather us just say what things are. We did a great job developing Castle’s defense and ability to move off ball. I don’t think he becomes the defender he did here anywhere else (he might’ve still been good elsewhere but not best in class like here).

But I don’t think we did anything to help develop him into a future star player. Luckily for him he was able to force himself into the perfect situation with his talent to make that possible anyways.

The skills he showcased here are valuable skills for a role player in the NBA. I’m sure as a top 10 player in his class and in hindsight he probably should’ve been #1 (how the hell was DJ Wagner ranked over him?) he sees himself as being more than that.

It’s one of my few remaining gripes with the staff is trying to figure out how to develop these very talented recruits we get into more complete star players instead of seemingly developing them to be role player specialists. Because we are recruiting more talent than we ever had.
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You've moved on from Andre Jackson being drafted in 2nd round as a development failure to Steph Castle's development being underwhelming?
 
ConnHuskBask said:
You've moved on from Andre Jackson being drafted in 2nd round as a development failure to Steph Castle's development being underwhelming?
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And these are the last #10 overall recruits and what they did, it's crazy to suggest Castle's development was underwhelming. Even becoming a rotation player is not a given for that level of recruit.

Cason Wallace - 1.10 after freshman season

Scoot Henderson - 1.3 skipped college for G League

Greg Brown III - 2.13 after freshman season

Tyrese Maxey - 1.21 after freshman season

Quentin Grimes - 1.25 after junior season

Hamidou Diallo - 2.15 after freshman (RS) season

Thon Maker - 1.10 after skipping college

Stephen Zimmerman - 2.11 after freshman season

Rashad Vaughn - 1.17 after freshman season

James Young - 1.17 after freshman season
 
navery12 said:
And these are the last #10 overall recruits and what they did, it's crazy to suggest Castle's development was underwhelming. Even becoming a rotation player is not a given for that level of recruit.

Cason Wallace - 1.10 after freshman season

Scoot Henderson - 1.3 skipped college for G League

Greg Brown III - 2.13 after freshman season

Tyrese Maxey - 1.21 after freshman season

Quentin Grimes - 1.25 after junior season

Hamidou Diallo - 2.15 after freshman (RS) season

Thon Maker - 1.10 after skipping college

Stephen Zimmerman - 2.11 after freshman season

Rashad Vaughn - 1.17 after freshman season

James Young - 1.17 after freshman season
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Look at it half full. Anyone silly enough to suggest castle’s development was underwhelming highlights the selflessness of this kid and what a great team first player he was. Most kids with castles ability would have searched for stats. Castle simply did what was asked of him and needed. At any time Danny needed to unleash him, castle could go off at will. If anything, it shows a maturity beyond his years and his championship season showed invresible development. It’s why he went fourth to an organization who rarely gets it wrong.
 
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