Agreed, I'll never understand how that dorkfest appeals to so many kids.
Something was off with the recruiting net not being cast more widely. The feel the staff had on is think multiple recruits seems to have given them more optimism than perhaps they should have had. We probably will never know if that’s from one or more recruits not being totally honest with their intentions, but it didn’t and doesn’t make sense.
They dont like the 24 class. No one does. Not worth spending our NIL on a wide net that will probably transfer.
Don’t know why that’s funny but sure ok. I’d love an alternate explanation of why there are only two commits and why more offers didn’t go out. And why we weren’t a finalist for PN. I’m all ears.
We didn’t like Ngongba or Betsey? Why did we offer them and why did Pat get invited to our first night?
Because we just had this conversation literally 3 days ago about why there weren't a ton of offers in the 24 class. So I'm not convinced you're all ears
I can only guess, but Hurley isn't promising anybody playing time or a starting spot.
Swartz was offered too right? Betsey? Flagg? Ngongba? Edgecombe? There might be others I’m forgetting at the moment. Perhaps in comparison to other cycles it wasn’t many. But there were a lot. Might we have gotten a guy like Swartz if we had prioritized time and resources there? I’m not sure. You yourself made a reference to PN being the villain and seemed to give credence to some validity around posts on Hurley’s social media rant the day of us being cut from the list. So yes a haha react is misplaced.
How about in terms of THE GUYS WE PRIORITIZED RESOURCES ON? Go with your gut and stop responding to me. Please. Lol
They didn’t want 24 guys in the 2024 class. I think you’re missing the point. You’re digging when Hurley already told us
I have no idea what you're even rambling on about now. Sorry for incorrectly using the laugh emoji, it's pretty funny coming from the guy who spent 5 straight days reacting to everything in the Cooper Flagg thread with a laugh emoji.
You didn’t like it any more than I did it seems. Casting a wider net is probably wrong. Casting the net at different targets offered earlier in the process and prioritizing staff time and resources there? Is that better? You said this isn’t what I had in mind about Pat being the villain after Hurley posted on social media and when we were cut from the list. Does it not strike you as odd to have a recruit at our first night and then maybe ten days later cut us from a final list of 3? Not saying we should have gotten him or were favorites, but do you at least agree that there was a communication breakdown or different level of understanding of interest level?
No, I'm good with the guys we targeted this cycle. We got the most important spot filled with Nowell at PG and nobody I can think of off the top of my head I wish we offered but didn't like in years past. Would I have loved it if Betsey or Ngongba chose UConn, absolutely. But these are kids with their own priorities and interests and we can't make them like UConn.
I like Nowell and Abraham a lot and are glad they’re coming. I will also say for the folks piling on me that Duke appears to have liked the class of 2024 very much.
Yes they liked the same five stars we did..... the difference is they landed their first options at all positons. We pivoted once, from Pettiford to Nowell. We dont need another developmental big, which is what we would have gotten after missing on Ngongba. We can get a shooting guard in the portal with some seniority. We just brough in three freshman at that position.
You're missing my point, I'm saying we didn't want/need a ton of role players in this class. We brought in a bunch of them in 2023 and we need to give them minutes. Duke's class is filled with the top of the class guys, which are the ones we targeted and missed on
I’m not missing your point. I agree we don’t want role players. I don’t look at guys like Swartz or Richmond as a role player. I don’t know if we would have gotten them with an earlier full court press or not. But we won’t know. Speaking of the class of 2024, it’s very interesting when you look at the volume of offers. Duke offered 14 2024s compared to 11 2023s and 10 2022s. Kentucky offered 17 2024s compared to 19 2023s and 14 2022s.
We weren't really late on those guys though. It didn't click, they were probably looking for something else than we could provide. So I don't see any indication that we could have done more and had it work out.
Maybe not. Hopefully we can recruit one of our existing guys, Karaban, to stay a third year in Storrs. All or some of that NIL money that would have gone to Flagg and Ngongba can hopefully be steered Alex’s way to make it a very difficult decision to leave after this year.
That's not how Hurley operates, if Alex is ready to go after this season Hurley will tell him to go. Unless he shows he can put it on the deck a lot more and score he'll be back IMO. He started to do it a little at the end of last season.
I do not have a substantive answer for you, and the question I ask is not intended to belittle you. I'm responding to your having written, "I'm all ears" above.
If he can make the leap similar to Hawkins, then more power to him. But if there’s doubt, if he’s on the fence, or if he’s in a position where Hurley thinks another year would benefit him, then I could see this coming into play. If we were going to allocate NIL to recruits who haven’t been here and won a title here, then why wouldn’t we for someone like AK?
Does it count that despite knowing I still wanted to be wrong?