One or Two More?

[McLovin]

I expect to see Stewart starting and with an improved outside shot, I expect to see him as a first rounder in next year's draft. The kid is explosive and at points in the tournament, you could see him physically imposing his will on the opponent. Castle is gone. Now, other than Stewart, we actually don't have a guy who through strength and quickness can bully the other team.

Stewart is our bully.

Stewart blew a lot of defensive assignments last year so I think he’s going to have to really improve that to earn the starting 3 spot.

But regardless he will get plenty of minutes between the 3 and 4.

 

[Psolo12]

I think that's what people are concerned about if we bring in a guard in addition to McNeeley: that Ross will be pushed to the sidelines when he should be in the rotation.

Who says Ross “should be in the rotation”? If he earns it he will be.

 

[Psolo12]

Stewart blew a lot of defensive assignments last year so I think he’s going to have to really improve that to earn the starting 3 spot.

But regardless he will get plenty of minutes between the 3 and 4.

I cannot see a scenario in which Stewart isn’t starting this year.

 

[mussels]

Just to add to this discussion, Hurley and the team were at the state capitol yesterday, and he made these comments which COULD be interpreted to mean they might only be looking to add one more player to Reed instead of two. Tea leaves, I realize...

"We’re in construction, the architecture of trying to put together all the right pieces and another great team,” Hurley said. “We’re not looking to put together an all-star team. We’d like to retain as many players as we can, that would make sense for us, so we can carry over a lot of our culture. But we’ll be strategic and smart. We won’t add a lot because we feel like we’ve got a lot coming back, even though we’re probably going to lose more.”

The "lose more" comment was likely related to Castle, so let's not flip out about that.

Hurley at the state capitol

Think we need to remember that Hurley knows he has several audiences, and is speaking to his players as well as the fans. In this brave new world, a coach has to re-recruit his team every year.

 

[husky429]

Haven't read the thread. It's 2 and possibly more if we have anyone leave the program.

 

[Scrutineer]

I think that's what people are concerned about if we bring in a guard in addition to McNeeley: that Ross will be pushed to the sidelines when he should be in the rotation.

I've been rooting for Ross to be our next Jeremy Lamb but he's been too anxious to fire up forced three's so far. If DH felt it was necessary to address why he wasn't at the Capitol that's a positive regarding how the staff must feel about him so let's hope he calms down and gets more comfortable as a sophomore.

 

[Horatio]

1 more. A pg / combo guard. Anything after that is gravy. We need one more ball handler

 

[UofCT]

I think that's what people are concerned about if we bring in a guard in addition to McNeeley: that Ross will be pushed to the sidelines when he should be in the rotation.

Ross looked completely lawst in the very limited minutes he played...missed FTs, missed layups, missed threes.

 

[navery12]

Stewart blew a lot of defensive assignments last year so I think he’s going to have to really improve that to earn the starting 3 spot.

But regardless he will get plenty of minutes between the 3 and 4.

At the risk of this post getting deleted, if Stewart isn't the starting 3 then he's not going to be available to back up Karaban at the 4 spot

 

[UCLJ0211]

I'm not trying to underrate McNeeley, I just have extremely high expectations for Stewart. That 2nd year jump under Hurley and Co. is insane. We've seen it over and over again so at this point I just assume it's going to happen lol. I have no reason to believe it won't

Absolutely. We started to see it in the BET when he had a couple good games in the limited minutes he played. He will be a stud next year.

 

[Ricker]

I understand being short ball handlers when we basically only had Gaffney to spell RJ Cole. On this roster, Ball is capable at least as a combo guard, and Stewart had the ball in his hands from end to end on his AAU team and would surprise you with his handle. The early posts about Stewart were about his strength and power to back down guards like a Cumberland(?), from Cincinati did. Even though he had the height and weight to play forward, like Castle, I thought based on his AAU play, he projected more as a bully big guard. Then he cut his hair and changed his body before he arrived at UConn. The slimmer, faster, stronger, Stewart seems to have settled in as a power forward, but I doubt his backcourt capabilities have vanished. With that said, I prefer 3. Center-Reed, Knockdown Shooter forward or guard, and a 6'4 or bigger guard with >80% FT. I'm giving Roumoglou the chance to give us deep shooting rather than absolutely needing 2 more deadly snipers. I also think Ross is very capable of a positive surprise because he is very active. He is capable of finishing everything he wasn't able to this year.

 

[Hi-Low]

An experienced guard that can handle ball & make 3's

 

[ec33]

Roumoglou's time to shine baby. Unleash the Greek Freak!

It is time for Roumoglou to get into the action. I think we all agree he looks like a player in his brief cameos.

I don't see him hiding at the very end of the UConn bench waiting for "garbage time" next year.

 

[ctchamps]

It’s possible that if we land McNeeley next week we bank that final scholarship for the summer edition of the portal to see if any diamonds shake loose.

Both Joey C and Cam were great June adds for us…

I believe Cam was mid May.

 

[SubbaBub]

Next year will depend more on the development of the returning guys. We will get enough impact transfers.

Can Johnson become a dominant defender? Can Stewart/Ball et al earn meaningful minutes on a championship level team? Can Diarra or whomever is the starting PG even approach Newton's level? Do we even have an AA candidate?

Can these new guys even run Hurley’s offense in such an unselfish manner? Last year we had a starting 5 with 3 key contributors from 2023, including 1 AA, an epic shooter/glue guy/transfer and probably the most unselfish 5 star McDAA ever plus a 6th man who made a monster jump on both ends of the court.

Not an easy thing to replicate.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

An experienced guard that can handle ball & make 3's

Don't even think he has to be too experienced. The freshmen learned a ton from Cam/Newton and we have three core upperclassman leaders

Wouldn't mind an Alleyne type ( who of course WAS actually experienced )

 

[aburks41]

Everyone go look at Max Shulga's (VCU) stats and then compare them to Cam Spencer. He should be our guy instead of Brea. Plus that still leaves room for McNeeley since Shulga can handle the rock

 

[Drame]

McNeeley and one more backup. All ya'll forgetting about Ross who has more potential as a shooter, passer, and defender than Hausen or anyone else in the portal AND he's already on the team.

 

[auror]

Everyone go look at Max Shulga's (VCU) stats and then compare them to Cam Spencer. He should be our guy instead of Brea. Plus that still leaves room for McNeeley since Shulga can handle the rock

He was on my shortlist last year with Jaylon Tyson and Aaron Estrada before Cam entered late. He had a really great year.

My top wishlist at the moment:

Aaron Estrada - rumors put him pretty firmly with Alabama.
Jaylon Tyson - Probably KU unless the Timberlake commit throws him off.
Noah Thomasson - Georgia, Penn St, Pitt, OK st are the top on him it seems.
Max Shulga - Might be heading to VCU with his old coach.
Dawson Baker - Seems like a mountain time zone guy.

I don't know. Maybe we just wait and see if anything else shakes loose.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I've seen differences of opinion scattered across various recruiting threads, and thought I'd ask the question here in its own thread.

Reed is on board. We're recruiting McNeeley (wing) as well as several guards with varying levels of ballhandling skills (Brea, Hausen, Mahaney).

Assuming Castle leaves but everyone else stays (Diarra, Karaban, and the remaining four rising sophomores), how many new players are we brining in?

If McNeeley commits, is that it and we drop our interest in the guards?

Or, assuming McNeeley commits, are we also bringing in one of the guards as well?

IMO, we should be bringing in three players in total, so ideally Reed, McNeeley and a guard (ideally with some handle to assist Diarra and Nowell with ballhandling and distribution). That would provide cover for injuries and give us a deep rotation that was key this year.

Some have argued that this might block the progress of some of the rising sophomores and freshmen. I can see that as a valid opinion as well.

So I'm curious where you all stand. What say you?

I don't participate much in speculative threads...in terms of speculation.

I'm weighing to commend you for a well-constructed post, AND for weighing in with you own thoughts as a separate post. I think both have fostered an interesting discussion this far.
Thank you

 

[Fan1978]

None of the guards we've been connected with thus far meet this criteria, right? Brea, Mahaney and Hausen would not expect to be "bench depth" I'm thinking. So if this is true, that bench guard has yet to be identified in the media.

Hausen would be a bench guy, 20 minutes. Besides alex no other 30 minute guys. Team will have deeper rotation this year

 

[navery12]