I hope the young man takes this gift and runs with it down the right path. There are so many things that can get in the way. Best of luck to JB. Looking forward to the upcoming UConn season The Hawk will fly
His handlers need to step up their game or be replaced. Pushing all the that Top 5 narrative and then not having a suit to wear at his introductory presser.
Two other things that jumped off the page for an observer like Chief. First, Bouknight’s comment about feeling awkward because he’s never seen so many reporters in the room, seemed like he went to some school other than UConn. But with Covid last season, being a protected freshman Hurley wanted on a low profile and the decline of local media in CT - it made more sense. Having said that, the school needs to do a better job preparing him.
Second, you can analyze his comment about how his game was held back at UConn in a few ways. He didn’t have the supporting cast, his career had Covid and injury. Additionally, his own bad decisions caused interruptions to normal progress. However, the staff must take an honest look at our offense, pace and court spacing. James’s must accept responsibility too for an assist to turnover ratio of below 1.0 in both his seasons here and that makes it difficult to open up the game and play faster. So he needs to be more efficient with the ball. Finally, you need to knock down 3’s in actual games, in order to achieve the desired spacing and 29% doesn’t cut it.
Having done all of the above game breakdowns, it really comes back to James doing the things he talks about in the OP of this thread off the court. If he does those things off the court, he will be able to improve on the court.