No Liam, really ?? (List of Top 10 Freshman) | Page 2 | The Boneyard

No Liam, really ?? (List of Top 10 Freshman)

Waquoit said:
In other words, do what Hurley's doing.
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Yes. I am a fan of Coach Hurley for many reasons, but the biggest one is the strategy he is using to position the program for sustained success. I think he nailed it. We were very fortunate that Coach found success when he did. It enabled us to be above the fray right at the beginning of this wild west era. The timing simply could not have been better. Without the Natty's we wouldn't have had the clout to be able to implement this to the degree we are able to now on the recruting trail. I've heard outside observers consider that "lucky", but it isn't luck, it is good fortune born of the previous hard work that got us to the top.
 
Waquoit said:
He set a tone from the start when he didn't run anyone off. He build a culture of trust and that resulted in the buy-in that has been a hallmark of the program ever since.
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Yes and now he can sell it to recruits and their families. The impact of that can't be discounted. I see people sometimes mentioning that we should've taken Kobe Brea this offseason. He has some pretty gaudy shooting stats from 3 this year, so that is a natural reaction. But what would be the cost? We have a glut of players that we recruited at his position, we don't want to upset the delicate balance Coach is trying to achieve. Who wouldve been driven to the portal by that move? What would happen to team chemistry? All that stuff is in play. It's a game of dominoes crossed with a game of Whack-a-mole. Hurley decided to ride with the kids he brought in, and I was, and am, fully on board with that thinking. Will it always be the right move in hindsight? I think that in the big picture over the long term the answer is yes even when a player might be out performing a comparison in the short term. And that is not even taking into account what a crapshoot the portal is. We won that crapshoot last year when we got snubbed by Timberlake and ended with Cam. That was blind luck. This year it seemed that we made a choice of Mahaney over Brea. We weren't going to take both and blow credibility with retained recruits who have upside. We won't know the results of those choices until the seasons over, but I feel that he does things for the best of the program in every instance so far.
 
August_West said:
Yes and now he can sell it to recruits and their families. The impact of that can't be discounted. I see people sometimes mentioning that we should've taken Kobe Brea this offseason. He has some pretty gaudy shooting stats from 3 this year, so that is a natural reaction. But what would be the cost? We have a glut of players that we recruited at his position, we don't want to upset the delicate balance Coach is trying to achieve. Who wouldve been driven to the portal by that move? What would happen to team chemistry? All that stuff is in play. It's a game of dominoes crossed with a game of Whack-a-mole. Hurley decided to ride with the kids he brought in, and I was, and am, fully on board with that thinking. Will it always be the right move in hindsight? I think that in the big picture over the long term the answer is yes even when a player might be out performing a comparison in the short term. And that is not even taking into account what a crapshoot the portal is. We won that crapshoot last year when we got snubbed by Timberlake and ended with Cam. That was blind luck. This year it seemed that we made a choice of Mahaney over Brea. We weren't going to take both and blow credibility with retained recruits who have upside. We won't know the results of those choices until the seasons over, but I feel that he does things for the best of the program in every instance so far.
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Brea has shot well against bad teams but is 8-26 from three in their five games against good competition. Haven’t watched enough to see if he can’t get open much, and he would still have some value with floor spacing since nobody is going to leave him open. But he hasn’t been much of a difference maker for UK yet other than burying bad teams in blowouts.

Of course, Mahaney hasn’t panned out for us yet - but I get the decision. On paper he was a guy with a versatile skillset who could do some of the things that Tristen and Cam did on offense. If we were doing a straight up replacement for Jordan Hawkins, Brea would have been by far the best candidate, but with Newton and Spencer gone, we needed a three-level scorer who could create his own shot and pass. That player could still be in there for us and we need to try to unlock him. I don’t think Diarra and Ball can be counted on to get us 20+ points every time out - Diarra isn’t a natural scorer and Ball struggles to find other ways to score when his three ball isn’t there. I also don’t think Nowell is going to be a reliable scorer as a freshman from what I’ve seen of him. So our ceiling involves Mahaney as some sort an offensive spark.
 
Gurleyman said:
Brea has shot well against bad teams but is 8-26 from three in their five games against good competition. Haven’t watched enough to see if he can’t get open much, and he would still have some value with floor spacing since nobody is going to leave him open. But he hasn’t been much of a difference maker for UK yet other than burying bad teams in blowouts.
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Plus from what I've seen he wouldn't solve our most pressing need: Tightening up the Defensive end. . Shot makers are always fun, but I think our offense is humming this year, and the metrics certainly bear that out, and we aren't even shooting as well from deep as I think we can yet. We are getting buckets in big spots constantly. Even in the losses. What we arent getting are stops. Still winning because the offense is great, but the top results we are all wishing for this year will only be attainable if we can do it on the defesnisve end. We are improving , no reason to think we won't keep improving. I'm excited for the rest of this season and league play. I know we are going to get punched a few times, but that's ok if we can keep improving defensively.
 
There are some very good freshmen, so I won’t overreact to Liam’s exclusion. However, both Evan Miya’s site and Bart Torvik’s site rate him among the top freshmen.

EvanMiya CBB Analytics

T-Rank Player Stats - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank

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It sounded disrespectful when I first read it, but I guess it's not too offensive. Can't really argue the top 7 (maybe the order of it but not the players), I'd drop VJ out and redo 8-10
8. Boogie Fland
9. Liam McNeeley
10. Egor Demin

There's probably some mid/low major guy averaging like 20 a game, but sticking with the big names here
 

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