2024 Recruiting: - One more potential add? | Page 3 | The Boneyard

2024 Recruiting: One more potential add?

I think the current roster is very deep and has tremendous potential on offense. Lots of shooters, good inside game, lob dunk game, transition, everything.

The one aspect that could make or break our season is on the boards. We replaced a 6’7 (triple double machine) 5th year, a 6’4 5th year and a 6’6 freak athlete, with a 6’0 FR, 6’7 FR, and a 6’3 slighter Jr. we also replaced a 7’2 mountain of a man with a 6’10 more below the rim player. I think the bigs will still be fine especially if AK comes back, but the guards help on the boards certainly won’t be as prolific.

It could all boil down to just more close games if other teams are getting extra looks. We are still going to score a ton of points with our offense. The only fix would be a big guard addition but it seems like we are out on adding anything to the back court. Not sure it makes sense to add a front court player who is a board only guy that isn’t going to play much over the 5s and certainly wouldn’t play over AK and Stewart. Maybe a KaSean Pryor/C.Hawkins type if AK stays in the draft.
 
From the comments on some of these threads regarding the roster and the team's goals I think folks might be underestimating how good the last two teams we had were, how that's not easy to duplicate and how they had a unicorn in Clingan who completely changed the way both the offense and the defense worked when he was on the floor.
 
80shusky said:
From the comments on some of these threads regarding the roster and the team's goals I think folks might be underestimating how good the last two teams we had were, how that's not easy to duplicate and how they had a unicorn in Clingan who completely changed the way both the offense and the defense worked when he was on the floor.
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This. I think we’ve done a great job replacing (at least) four starters and making ourselves competitive again. And teams win basketball games, not individual players. But I’m hard pressed to see how we’re going to be as good with the present roster (even with AK) as we were the last two years.
 
www.espn.com

2024-25 men's NCAA basketball transfer portal tracker: updates

Commitments continue to trickle in from the top players remaining in the transfer portal.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Dan Hurley needed to replace nearly his entire starting lineup from the Huskies' second straight national championship team, and he's close to finalizing his roster after landing this Saint Mary's transfer. Mahaney was a first-team All-WCC selection after averaging 13.9 points and shooting 37.5% from 3 over two seasons in Moraga. He'll slot into Cam Spencer's starting spot from day one in Storrs.

UConn is likely done finalizing its perimeter rotation with the addition of Mahaney.
 
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kcc1442 said:
I think the current roster is very deep and has tremendous potential on offense. Lots of shooters, good inside game, lob dunk game, transition, everything.

The one aspect that could make or break our season is on the boards. We replaced a 6’7 (triple double machine) 5th year, a 6’4 5th year and a 6’6 freak athlete, with a 6’0 FR, 6’7 FR, and a 6’3 slighter Jr. we also replaced a 7’2 mountain of a man with a 6’10 more below the rim player. I think the bigs will still be fine especially if AK comes back, but the guards help on the boards certainly won’t be as prolific.

It could all boil down to just more close games if other teams are getting extra looks. We are still going to score a ton of points with our offense. The only fix would be a big guard addition but it seems like we are out on adding anything to the back court. Not sure it makes sense to add a front court player who is a board only guy that isn’t going to play much over the 5s and certainly wouldn’t play over AK and Stewart. Maybe a KaSean Pryor/C.Hawkins type if AK stays in the draft.
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Who is this 6'7" Triple double machine I must of missed him? I'm guessing you mean 6'4" Newton. I think with McNeeley, Mahaney, improved Ball, Improved Stewart and Diarra we will be a better 3 pt shooting team next year. We won't have someone like Castle dragging or Newton Dragging down our %. I agree we might be lighter on rebound and interior D but we are hoping we make that up with the 3 ball on offense.
 
bendm said:
i really dont like seeing ross as our backup PF. he's 6'7 190 lbs soaking wet. closer to a 2 than a 4.
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Stewart would be the backup PF. He was the backup PF this year. He'd also see time at the 3, but he'd be the primary back-up PF for Karaban. If Karaban leaves, I'd expect Stewart to start at the 4 - and Abraham to back-up Stewart. I would think McNeeley is more likely to see spot minutes as a stretch 4 than Ross -- Ross is more of a 2/3 and not a 3/4.
 
Sounds like Danny likes his roster until or once there's clarity on AK's decision. I respect the fact that he's added some new faces with obvious talents while remaining loyal to returning players-including being able to keep the Fab Four together for their soph. year. No easy task.

Practices and summer sessions are going to be wars fighting for PT in the fall. Gonna be a different team and a wild ride. Can't wait to see these guys grow.
 
MrSec224 said:
Yeah exactly! Pryor we had supposedly checked in on. Hed be a great AK replacement
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Pryor is who I want if AK doesn't come back but I'm not sold Hurley will replace like with like. I can see him going the more developmental route with this and letting Stewart take over the 4. He actually can create offense off the dribble and shoot from both inside and outside. He plays decent D too but is inconsistent player. I'm sure under Hurley's staff he would really shine and become more consistent.
 
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kcc1442 said:
I think the current roster is very deep and has tremendous potential on offense. Lots of shooters, good inside game, lob dunk game, transition, everything.

The one aspect that could make or break our season is on the boards. We replaced a 6’7 (triple double machine) 5th year, a 6’4 5th year and a 6’6 freak athlete, with a 6’0 FR, 6’7 FR, and a 6’3 slighter Jr. we also replaced a 7’2 mountain of a man with a 6’10 more below the rim player. I think the bigs will still be fine especially if AK comes back, but the guards help on the boards certainly won’t be as prolific.

It could all boil down to just more close games if other teams are getting extra looks. We are still going to score a ton of points with our offense. The only fix would be a big guard addition but it seems like we are out on adding anything to the back court. Not sure it makes sense to add a front court player who is a board only guy that isn’t going to play much over the 5s and certainly wouldn’t play over AK and Stewart. Maybe a KaSean Pryor/C.Hawkins type if AK stays in the draft.
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See thread titled: "Honest question -- Do we have enough rebounding to be bulletproof?" for four pages of discussion and erroneous comments on this very topic.
 
Wasn’t the first portal tweet from Hurley when Liam committed? I am going to combine myself that Norlander was referring to a 25 like Dybantsa.

And do people forget Hurley’s odd quote about making sure the role they want for Hass matches the role he envisions? I expect he will be the 6th man with Mahaney and Ball as the starting guards.
 
McNeeley isn't coming to be a 4. It's not going to be his position in the NBA and it wouldn't help him by playing there in college. Aside from some quick rotations this sort of thing is established during elite recruiting. Also, Omier is a "whatever it takes, we'll make it work" level player who can bring the beef. I'd love to see us involved with him if he drops out of the draft. I do like Pryor alot too.
 
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auror said:
His first name is Liam.
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Ahhh the reading be hard. Think I didn’t see him in the mix for the three, didn’t see his last name, and then got confused. I’m also still traumatized from the Mahaney thread the other day with Alex Teriyaki, et al…
 
bendm said:
i really dont like seeing ross as our backup PF. he's 6'7 190 lbs soaking wet. closer to a 2 than a 4.
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A 20 yr old kid with personal training and chef should be able to gain 10lbs or more of muscle easily over the summer
 
For those over-zealous fans that think that our offense will be as good as the last two years - please calm yourselves. The Huskies five starters all averaged double figures this season, and I personally don’t expect that again for the 24-25 season. Nowell, Mahaney, McNeeley and Hoss all need to learn the offense - and if they do there’s no guarantee that they’ll run it as smoothly as this past season. Ball and Stewart have a leg up here, and don’t think that they won’t take advantage of that edge over the newcomers to carve out minutes for themselves. They’ll start, but do you expect them to fill it up like Tristen and Cam? McNeeley can score, but even Jordan Hawkins didn’t average double figures his freshman year coming off the bench. Do you think that McNeeley is better than Hawkins at this stage? Do you think that he’ll bump Ball or Stewart?

The guards will unlikely rebound as well as Newton, Spencer and Castle did this past year. The Huskies enjoyed a tremendous edge in rebounding all year, and that wasn’t solely due to Clingan.

I expect UConn to be one of the best teams in the nation in 2024-25. I also expect that their average margin of victory will be single digits. That doesn’t mean that they won’t 3-peat, but if they do I expect a closer score in the final. 77-74 sounds about right.
 
NJHusky said:
A 20 yr old kid with personal training and chef should be able to gain 10lbs or more of muscle easily over the summer
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Is there a personal chef on the staff?

Or, is there a BY volunteer who will cook and bring daily meals?
 
NJHusky said:
A 20 yr old kid with personal training and chef should be able to gain 10lbs or more of muscle easily over the summer
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Alex did it so not sure why Stewart can't. Ross isn't going to be the backup PF as he is the backup SF.
 
bendm said:
i really dont like seeing ross as our backup PF. he's 6'7 190 lbs soaking wet. closer to a 2 than a 4.
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It’s not ideal but he fills the role of floor spacer when Alex is on the bench. I also think he might simply beat out Abraham with his experience. Plus you can always move Stewart down to the 4 defensively and have Ross play the guard/wing role offensively.
 
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Maybe the next time someone’s cries about misspelling names, using abbreviations, or mixes first and last names in a single post, it’ll never happen again?
 
navery12 said:
2 of Mahaney, Ball, Stewart, McNeeley would come off the bench and it seems crazy to suggest any of them do. So I'm not sure what to predict
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I like solo a lot but what has he done to be anointed a starter? Mahaney is the only one that should expect to start from that group.
 
Scottobot said:
if Karaban goes pro, we could use a player who can rebound, play some defense on 4 and shoot. Unless, Hurley thinks Ross or Abraham could do that role. I think 6’7 is tall enough to play the 4 in UConn system but need some strength to defend players like Bryce Hopkins. I suppose it’s possible Samson could get some time at 4 against some of the nastier opposing power forwards, but that would probably mess up offensive sets.
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And he would foul out in 2 minutes
 
speckle said:
McNeeley isn't coming to be a 4. It's not going to be his position in the NBA and it wouldn't help him by playing there in college. Aside from some quick rotations this sort of thing is established during elite recruiting. Also, Omier is a "whatever it takes, we'll make it work" level player who can bring the beef. I'd love to see us involved with him if he drops out of the draft. I do like Pryor alot too.
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We can’t afford omier’s salary
 
Huskyforlife said:
Maybe something like.

Diarra(25)-Mahaney(15)
Liam(25)-Mahaney(10)-Solo(5)
Stewart(25)-Solo(15)
Alex(30)-Ross or Abraham(10)
Center(20)-Center(20)

Nowell could push Solo and Ross/Abraham for the 9th spot, but I think a lineup like this fits our personnel better. Really depends on Liam and/or Stewart’s ability to be a support ball handler.
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Is there a chance Singare could play the backup 4 in spot minutes? I see him more as a 5 though.
 
3rdbass said:
Alex did it so not sure why Stewart can't. Ross isn't going to be the backup PF as he is the backup SF.
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Last year we played basically 3 combo guards ath 1-3 because that was what the roster dictated we do. This season i think we'll see more 2 Guard, 2 Fwd, 1 Big lineups because that's what this roster is.
Basically what i'm saying is that this season there wont really be a SF & PF, there will be 2 guards and 2 wings. There may even be times when we go 1 "guard" and 3 wings if Liam has a secure enough handle, although i don't expect this a lot....but who knows.

Guards- Nowell, Diarra, Solo, Mahaney
Wings- Stewart, McNeeley, Abraham, Ross, ?Karaban
Bigs- Samson, Reed, Singare

Diarra, Nowell and Solo will be able to guard 1-3 (most teams play a "3" that's between 6'4"- 6'7"). Nowell will be a terror defensively against taller players similar to the way Boatright was. TBD on Mahaney. On the occasion that there's a bigger 4, we will offer some help when necessary, or just single cover and let that guy get his points while locking up everyone else, like we did with Edey and Purdue.

The tricky thing will be if the wings can guard down on quicker guards. I think Stewart and Abraham will have no problem, but i'm not as sure about Ross and Liam. They may just chase their wing counterparts when on the floor.
 
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