Nowell in the transfer portal | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Nowell in the transfer portal

I don't see how we're in a materially worse position as a result of this or how keeping either one of those guys would be "ideal."

Abraham was a back half of the top 100 kid. It's not 15 years ago where Hilton Armstrong will bide his time for 3 years and then get picked in the lottery. If he doesn't want to stick around for a few years with a shot at being a role player that's the nature of college basketball right now. There's going to be competition at his spot every year. Nowell and Abraham might very well end up being good college basketball players but in an era where a lot of teams are going to trot out new starting 5s every year I don't see how this is much of an event.

I assume we're going to focus on 5 star or 5 star adjacent high school kids that look like they can contribute from day 1 going forward and then supplement the rest with the portal, until the rules inevitably change again.
 
Lemuel said:
How do you know how much he made in NIL? Is that public information? What's everybody making?
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This article was published at the beginning of the season, but its accuracy might be questionable.

bvmsports.com

Top 5 richest UConn Huskies basketball stars based on NIL

UConn Huskies basketball players are securing NIL deals that are crucial in keeping their men’s and women’s teams competitive.
bvmsports.com bvmsports.com
 
Fishy said:
Welp.

Turning last year’s recruiting class into zero sophomores isn’t ideal
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I don't know if that's the case anymore. It's not like he failed here. He stayed one year and decided to leave. And I think that's the new norm. If you come in and contribute? You enter the draft or play that into a bigger NIL somewhere else. If you don't contribute? You transfer somewhere you can play more to hopefully get a bigger NIL next year.
 
Doctor Hoop said:
I was less optimistic about Nowell’s potential ceiling than Abraham’s, after seeing his few minutes during the season. His handle was OK, but no deception for a point guard. I never saw him wrongfoot a defender and blow by, I never saw him force the D to scramble to respond to him. He seemed to dribble into traps a times. His open shots were often off target.

I could be wrong, but I saw him as at best a third guard his whole career here. I hope he finds success at his next stop. It will be interesting to see the schools that contact him and where he ends up. Being a Philly guy, maybe a LaSalle, Temple or St. Joes.
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High dribble is bad for a point guard.
 
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I expected this one, nothing against Nowell but I think it's for the best all around. It has been said ad nauseum and I agree, we need a big defensive guard next year more than anything else. Being the biggest team on the floor was kind of our calling card the last 3 years.


Fishy said:
Welp.

Turning last year’s recruiting class into zero sophomores isn’t ideal
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One is going to the NBA, so not a total loss. Sadly, it does look like it's going to be tough to recruit freshmen going forward to top programs if they aren't able to contribute meaningful minutes. Seems like the route will be to start in lower programs and get some experience before getting picked up by schools like ours to fill the need we'll have every few years for a starting, experienced lead guard.
zmart said:
Doesn't anyone want to question the high number of total recruiting misses the staff has had over the past couple of years?
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Shall we recount the hits instead? It's a much more positive activity and would give you the opportunity to reminisce about some amazing players we've seen in just the last few years.
 
There is a huge opening for a grown man point guard at UConn. Quite frankly we need 2. No 6 foot PGs are going to get us where we want to go. Kahlid is not walking through that door.
 
The NBA would beg to differ. We have had how many guys drafted in the last 5 years?

Look at both transfers and HS recruits. For each miss we have 2 guys in the NBA.

Those last 2 banners weren’t that long ago were they?

The Wrench!!!!!

zmart said:
Doesn't anyone want to question the high number of total recruiting misses the staff has had over the past couple of years
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BigErnMcCracken said:
Nowell and Abraham might very well end up being good college basketball players but in an era where a lot of teams are going to trot out new starting 5s every year I don't see how this is much of an event.
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You can also just buy them back when they transfer again
 
Storrs South said:
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Diggins' stats are available for all to see. 17 and 3 on a 12-20 A10 team suggests it's more about Hurley no appropriately evaluating the kid (and it was COVID) than it was about something mysteriously "not working."

I wish Nowell luck.
 
Total curious speculation here so all the grains of salt...but I wonder with Hurley saying half the team was talking about portaling if that affected playtime opportunities. Not sure if or when he actually knew who was looking...
 
jdb50 said:
There is a huge opening for a grown man point guard at UConn. Quite frankly we need 2. No 6 foot PGs are going to get us where we want to go. Kahlid is not walking through that door.
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…..as we watch Zakai Ziegler destroy Kentucky and your narrative.
 
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Good luck to him. I just didn't see any glimpses of future p/t especially when the next class comes in and the coaches needing to recruit over him via the portal.
 
huskiesNhoos said:
Total curious speculation here so all the grains of salt...but I wonder with Hurley saying half the team was talking about portaling if that affected playtime opportunities. Not sure if or when he actually knew who was looking...
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You mean that he stopped playing anyone he suspected of portaling?
 
jdb50 said:
There is a huge opening for a grown man point guard at UConn. Quite frankly we need 2. No 6 foot PGs are going to get us where we want to go. Kahlid is not walking through that door.
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Zeigler, Sears, Brayden Smith, LJ cryer, Pettiford, Pedulla, Jamal Shead last year etc etc. There are tons of good small guards, I’d take any of them in a second. Everyone obsesses now about having “big guards.” I’ll just take a complete guard who can penetrate, create, facilitate, & defend. If they’re bigger, great, but I wouldn’t rule ones out that can play like those guys.
 
I thought this would happen. Not sure if it was the shoulder or the complicated system and the other things related to the slow start.

But he got a chance, he was not quick enough for his size in my opinion. I think he will have a very good career but does anyone see him with the potential,of being even a 2nd round nba draft pick. Because I did not see that granted it was a small sample size.

But we have to trust the coaches. Toward the end of the year when he could have gotten more playing time the word may have been out to the coaching staff that he was already gone.

There won’t be many players that will play 3 or even four years unless they are major contributors by the end of their sophomore season. We should expect some surprises. I know we can’t name them but I think if we could we would be able to put an accurate list together of who else will be joining Abraham and Nowell.
 
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BigErnMcCracken said:
I don't see how we're in a materially worse position as a result of this or how keeping either one of those guys would be "ideal."

Abraham was a back half of the top 100 kid. It's not 15 years ago where Hilton Armstrong will bide his time for 3 years and then get picked in the lottery. If he doesn't want to stick around for a few years with a shot at being a role player that's the nature of college basketball right now. There's going to be competition at his spot every year. Nowell and Abraham might very well end up being good college basketball players but in an era where a lot of teams are going to trot out new starting 5s every year I don't see how this is much of an event.

I assume we're going to focus on 5 star or 5 star adjacent high school kids that look like they can contribute from day 1 going forward and then supplement the rest with the portal, until the rules inevitably change again.
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I see it the opposite. Focus on the portal and supplement with very high end high school talent. You can’t trot out 18 year old 5 stars all the time, it doesn’t work against 22 year old portal players.
 
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Deepster said:
Maybe I’m just a crabby jerk but when a guy says he doesn’t want to be part of the family anymore, for whatever reason, the last thing on my head is “hey pal! Best of luck!”

You’re not with us anymore. You’re against us. You didn’t buy into our process and work hard enough to earn your time and you quit. Good riddance.
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Same. I’m an avid and proud life long hater though. If something can be even remotely turned into a competition, I want my team to crush it and the other team to fall into a pit of despair. Makes for some interesting work situations.
 
Undersized - would have been a spark off the bench replacing Hassan - nothing more - I think Hurley was expecting Mahaney to replace Newton
 
Deepster said:
Maybe I’m just a crabby jerk but when a guy says he doesn’t want to be part of the family anymore, for whatever reason, the last thing on my head is “hey pal! Best of luck!”

You’re not with us anymore. You’re against us. You didn’t buy into our process and work hard enough to earn your time and you quit. Good riddance.
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I hope you are joking. Otherwise, that is a sad, petty view. These are 18 year old young men. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out, for any number of reasons. It's not like he went all Dionte Johnson on us and refused to play. If he wasn't working hard, he wouldn't have seen a minute of playing time. Good luck, Ahmad.
 
The kid is tough. He'll land on his feet somewhere else.

I just wonder if Hurley is looking to build a team especially an offense like he had in 23 and 24 with a quality big and shooters surrounding the perimeter. With a big man threat, you need the ability to pass the ball into the post which this team struggled with at times this last year.
 
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