Nowell in the transfer portal

[Hans Sprungfeld]

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Carr is getting his money's worth on the way out the door. Not exactly doing the kid any favors.

 

[djct1999]

Carr is getting his money's worth on the way out the door. Not exactly doing the kid any favors.

It’s sad.

 

[Deleted at users request]

247 who I like much more, has him a CG. Doesn’t mean much - feels like they took a flyer on a kid outside their archetype because he was tough, and it just didnt work out.

Ahmad Nowell, Connecticut Huskies, Combo Guard

Ahmad Nowell is a combo-guard from Germantown, TN.

247sports.com

I also prefer 247. For some reason their website wasn’t working at the time I was looking this up.

It’s just surprising the high hit rate for top ranked guards last year that are also playing for very successful teams. I didn’t even include Jeremiah Fears on that list who’s like 70th at OU.

 

[uconnfan68]

I mean the fact that Duke is at worst the second best team in the country would suggest otherwise but I think we’re basically saying the same thing. The notion of recruiting high school kids that aren’t going to be major pieces year one seems to be out the window. Traditional bigs might be an exception.

Cooped Flagg makes Duke look good. He’s a true generational talent, on offense and defense.

 

[Slick]

Just how well did the other Philly PG do at his second school? Hang any banners?

No but he was very solid at a much lower level of play . Good kid, hard worker but really couldn’t play at UConn level

 

[Slick]

Of our 4 incoming recruits, 3 are McDonald’s All-American who will almost certainly play meaningful minutes as freshman. So I don’t have a concern about them jumping ship after one season.

Guys like Diggins, Floyd, Abraham, Nowell…the staff puts in the time and effort to recruit them here. They take up a scholarship. They spend a year using our program’s resources and developing under our staff. Then when they don’t play starter minutes as a freshman, they jump ship. Why continue to recruit guys like that? Not everything is catered towards freshman. Whatever happened to player development?

Player development is pretty much over

 

[Slick]

Nowell at 6'5" would be a physical beast. Almost a Kadary clone.

He is probably around 5’10. He is not exceptionally quick, doesn’t have a great handle, and is a mediocre outside shooter. He works extremely hard on defense but is too short to guard 6’6 small forwards when he has to switch. I was hoping he would be much better. Good luck to him in transfer portal at his next school. I hope he goes to a mid major or lower division 1 school like UMass we he might be able to do ok.

 

[RuffRuff]

I also prefer 247. For some reason their website wasn’t working at the time I was looking this up.

It’s just surprising the high hit rate for top ranked guards last year that are also playing for very successful teams. I didn’t even include Jeremiah Fears on that list who’s like 70th at OU.

Agree with the high hit rate elsewhere - but it’s probably the biggest job on the floor to play PG, as essentially the QB. Hurley may just have to scrap finding frosh in HS.

 

[aceboon]

Carr is getting his money's worth on the way out the door. Not exactly doing the kid any favors.

You could see he was a bit of a nutbag on social media even back when he was in love with Hurley and the program, can't say I'm surprised he's acting up when things went south

 

[freescooter]

I think Ahmad can play. Clearly I am higher on him than a decent chunk of people, but it wasn’t a good situation for a freshman to try to crack this rotation with the pressure that the team had on it

Probably would be PG2 next year, and I’m not sure how many teams will give him the reigns to be PG1 right now. So I guess he just wants a change of scenery

Best of luck to Ahmad

Best of luck to him.. but come on. There was TON of opportunity to crack the lineup. Diara was hurting. His backup, Mahaney wasn’t cutting it. We needed someone to step up. He wasn’t even close. He didn’t even need to be great. Just better than Mahaney. Pretty low bar that he didn’t come close to clearing. Small, slow, no shot, weak handle. A10 level guard.

 

[Greedo]

Best of luck to him.. but come on. There was TON of opportunity to crack the lineup. Diara was hurting. His backup, Mahaney wasn’t cutting it. We needed someone to step up. He wasn’t even close. He didn’t even need to be great. Just better than Mahaney. Pretty low bar that he didn’t come close to clearing. Small, slow, no shot, weak handle. A10 level guard.

Unlike Abraham, Hurley gave him the shot too. Nowell had his opportunities to prove he deserved to be on the floor and he fell short. Nothing against the kid, it’s rare that a freshman PG is ready at this level. Just needed more patience.

 

[aboogieee]

He is probably around 5’10...

I met him in Maui (oof), and he's definitely a little over 6'0".

 

[businesslawyer]

Doesn't anyone want to question the high number of total recruiting misses the staff has had over the past couple of years?

“The past couple of years?” You mean the period over which we won two national championships and have been 13-1 in the tournament? No, I think I’ll pass thank you.

If you want to be serious, the future with 15 man rosters and 8 or 9 man rotations is that every team in the country is going to bring players in to sit for a year, and then figuring out if they’re ever going to be one of those 8 and not just one of the 15 and then cutting most of them. That’s not a “miss.” It’s coaching in 2025.

 

[businesslawyer]

No but he was very solid at a much lower level of play . Good kid, hard worker but really couldn’t play at UConn level

Look at his shooting percentages this year. Even at the A-Ten level, he was no more than a solid starter.

 

[UCan3]

So many ways that posters want to control my perceptions, emotions, and behaviors. How do I decide who's right? Who should I obey?

Well, this is a message board and people here are loaded with opinions…. Take w/ grain of salt including my posts

 

[businesslawyer]

Of our 4 incoming recruits, 3 are McDonald’s All-American who will almost certainly play meaningful minutes as freshman. So I don’t have a concern about them jumping ship after one season.

Guys like Diggins, Floyd, Abraham, Nowell…the staff puts in the time and effort to recruit them here. They take up a scholarship. They spend a year using our program’s resources and developing under our staff. Then when they don’t play starter minutes as a freshman, they jump ship. Why continue to recruit guys like that? Not everything is catered towards freshman. Whatever happened to player development?

Because some players need to be not playing on your bench in case you have a bunch of injuries?

 

[TheChamps990411]

This. Brought this up earlier in season in anticipating off season. Go grab kids that are instant contributors and starters by year 2 minimum or pass. Unless you can find the high upside kid/international, maybe a big, you could stash on your bench. The last thing you need is a bunch of freshman malcontents in the locker room. Stay in the top 30 for frosh. This is basically the Duke model this year.

We can replicate.

Duke and Uconn have the most McDAA with 3 each. So it may be trending that way as i dont remember Uconn ever getting 3 in a game.

 

[RuffRuff]

Duke and Uconn have the most McDAA with 3 each. So it may be trending that way as i dont remember Uconn ever getting 3 in a game.

Given this last class will be 0-3 going into their soph year the trend is definitely moving in that direction.

 

[Chief00]

Abraham is the one guy on this year’s team, the eye test didn’t match the court time. I wish them all well regardless if they are staying, coming, or going.

 

[jibsey]

Abraham is the one guy on this year’s team, the eye test didn’t match the court time. I wish them all well regardless if they are staying, coming, or going.

Didn’t see enough of him for an eye test. I would have liked to see him in scrimmages to know if he could have been a piece for us.

 

[Fan1978]

Didn’t see enough of him for an eye test. I would have liked to see him in scrimmages to know if he could have been a piece for us.

Hearing luke going back to his alma mater Fairfield and taking nowell and Abraham with him

 

[RuffRuff]

Didn’t see enough of him for an eye test. I would have liked to see him in scrimmages to know if he could have been a piece for us.

I saw him at open practice - he passed. He looked like a better player than McNeeley, smooth athlete. High potential frame. Hard to know what the deal is here, will be curious to watch where he goes.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I saw him at open practice - he passed. He looked like a better player than McNeeley, smooth athlete. High potential frame. Hard to know what the deal is here, will be curious to watch where he goes.

Appreciate these honest, first hand observations!

 

[RuffRuff]

Appreciate these honest, first hand observations!

Yeah this one will be interesting to watch - Abraham has an NBA body profile. He has a really solid base, and muscular upper body. He can play vertically, and has a gorgeous shooting stroke. He is smooth in his movements. My guess is he lacks something on the metal side of the game, overall work ethic. When he wasn’t getting time it made me look into his HS profile to understand why, and the biggest knock I saw was that he lacked balance in his shot taking, which seems correctable. I’m going to be really curious to where his career goes from here because he looks the part. I hope the best for the kid.