OT: Paul White to Georgetown

[upstater]

Prepare to be saying 'next' over the next 2 weeks.

Since Robinson isn't coming until well past 2 weeks, are you referring to him committing on one of his visits?

The others, Colson, Newberry, Larrier, will not be a surprise at all if they don't come to UConn.

So.... are you referring to Robinson?

 

[djct1999]

UConn has never had those classes in the past.

Not entirely true. While UConn has rarely went after the highly publicized 5 star, they have for the better part of the last 15-20 years, excluding the past few, have always had top 25 classes.

 

[James]

Not entirely true. While UConn has rarely went after the highly publicized 5 star, they have for the better part of the last 15-20 years, excluding the past few, have always had top 25 classes.

Well sign one more player and definitely be a top 25 class. So what's your point? Ollie signs two legit big men that haven't played yet so they're unproven, therefore we need to go get more unproven commodities to player over them?

 

[djct1999]

We've pulled in two 5 star recruits for 2014 and we're still in the mix for another in Devin Robinson. We're looking good with Jeff Newberry and the staff has been watching Jabari Craig and Ray Kasongo recently. Kasongo recently went off for 24 points 15 rebounds and 7 blocks against Mac Irvin Fire, playing against Jahlil Okafor and Cliff Alexander. The staff is also in early on a lot of big time 2o15 prospects AND we'll have the practice facility built by then.

Kemba was barely top 100 (if he was even top 100) at the beginning of his senior year. Some kids will be making huge jumps and some kids will be falling down the rankings. The sky isn't falling because we've missed on several top 50 guys. Uconn has NEVER been a recruiting powerhouse like Duke/Kentucky/UNC. We've always had to mix in 5 stars with some developing players. But if we do get Devin Robinson, which I feel we have a good chance, then that is three 5-star recruits in a single class which is incredible no matter who you are, save Kentucky.

First off, no one is claiming just yet that the sky is falling. We are talking hypothetically here, which I have previously stated that by getting Robinson and Newberry will change the tune quickly. But what if Robinson chooses Indiana? The mood changes quickly. And Purvis fell in to our laps, after of course we lost out in his recruiting battle. If you think that UConn can rely on receiving pledges from former 5 stars that are disgruntled in their existing programs, good luck with that. Transfers and pledges are two completely different things. This is about recruiting and getting kids on campus from day 1. A miss with Robinson could potentially be a precursor to things down the road. Finally, I also find it prudent to discuss things like this proactively, not when the sky has already fallen.

 

[upstater]

Not entirely true. While UConn has rarely went after the highly publicized 5 star, they have for the better part of the last 15-20 years, excluding the past few, have always had top 25 classes.

Top 25 classes are reward for having multiple players. UConn could have landed a bunch of these 3 star kids, mixed in with Hamilton and Purvis, and that would have launched them into the top 25.

I thought we were discussing here the prospect of landing top 50 kids. Because UConn has always grabbed one or two of those and mixed them in with kids outside the top 100, many of them with next to nothing in terms of offers. The top 25 class rank is largely meaningless because many schools don't offer more than one or two scholarships on an off-year. There are only 13 to go around. So a school that suddenly grabs 5 3-stars suddenly looks like it had a good year.

 

[djct1999]

Well sign one more player and definitely be a top 25 class. So what's your point? Ollie signs two legit big men that haven't played yet so they're unproven, therefore we need to go get more unproven commodities to player over them?

if we sign just newberry or someone less, i doubt we will be top 25. my point is, if you think uconn's past success was built on marginal talent, you are wrong. it was built on top 25, usually top 15 recruiting classes, sprinkled with the occassional late bloomer. in fact, in terms of recruiting and its impact on our elite status, the only "unheralded" real impact player that helped us play the 3rd week in the national tournament was jeremy lamb. i agree that uconn never has been about the andrew wiggins of the worlds, but stop playing as if recruiting multiple top 50 guys does not matter. if this class is anything short of robinson and hamilton, coupled with the last few years, then will are quickly forming a new trend that replicates nothing of our past.

 

[djct1999]

Top 25 classes are reward for having multiple players. UConn could have landed a bunch of these 3 star kids, mixed in with Hamilton and Purvis, and that would have launched them into the top 25.

I thought we were discussing here the prospect of landing top 50 kids. Because UConn has always grabbed one or two of those and mixed them in with kids outside the top 100, many of them with next to nothing in terms of offers. The top 25 class rank is largely meaningless because many schools don't offer more than one or two scholarships on an off-year. There are only 13 to go around. So a school that suddenly grabs 5 3-stars suddenly looks like it had a good year.

Purvis does not count towards rankings. And lets stop marginalizing the impact and importance of grabbing multiple top 100 recruits when you have the scholarships to give. Here is a somewhat realistic, yet very negative scenario that could possibly play out......a) boatright leaves early b) the ncaa comes down hard on facey and he somehow doesnt play at uconn c) neither purvis or samuel prove capable of playing the true pg and there is a logjam at the 2/3 d) our bigs, in particularly nolan, have marginal impact..................which brings me back to necessity of having strong recruiting classes. if any thing close to the above mentioned worst case scenario plays out, and hamilton is our lone get, we will all look back on this year's swings and misses and recognize the impact then. recruiting is a very fluid situation, so you can never afford to miss out on all but one of your targets. especially playing in the aac!

 

[upstater]

if we sign just newberry or someone less, i doubt we will be top 25. my point is, if you think uconn's past success was built on marginal talent, you are wrong. it was built on top 25, usually top 15 recruiting classes, sprinkled with the occassional late bloomer. in fact, in terms of recruiting and its impact on our elite status, the only "unheralded" real impact player that helped us play the 3rd week in the national tournament was jeremy lamb. i agree that uconn never has been about the andrew wiggins of the worlds, but stop playing as if recruiting multiple top 50 guys does not matter. if this class is anything short of robinson and hamilton, coupled with the last few years, then will are quickly forming a new trend that replicates nothing of our past.

Just so we can stop this, I'm going to list the classes at UConn:

2014: Purvis and Hamilton (5 stars)
2013: Facey (top 100, #66 on Rivals), Samuel, Brimah
2012: Calhoun (top 50), Nolan, Tolksdorf
2011: Drummond (top 2), Boatright (top 100), Daniels (top 20)
2010: Roscoe (top 50), Lamb (top 100, #46 SG according to ESPN, not 100), Napier, Olander, Giffey, Wolf, Bradley
2009: Oriakhi (top 50), Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (around 100, unranked at some places), Trice, Smith
2008: Kemba (top 50), Okwandu, Miles, Haralson, Majok
2007: Beverly
2006: Kelly (top 35), Robinson (top 35), Dyson (top 35), Thabeet (top 100), Eaves, Edwards, Mandeldove, Wiggins
2005: Adrien (top 50), Austrie, Garrison, Johnson
2004: Gay (top 15), Price (top 25), Kellogg

Our top classes were 2004, 2006, 2011. 2006 is the only class that is not prototypical of these since we landed 4 players in the top 100. In 2004, we landed 2. In 2011, we landed 3. But otherwise, UConn has been landing 1 or 2 kids like Hamilton and Purvis each year. That's it. If you ask me which is the best class of all these, I would rank them like this:

1. 2011
2. 2008, Kemba was the top player in college, that recruit alone was worth his weight in gold
3. 2010, it didn't look great at the time, and many of us were a little underwhelmed, but landing Lamb, Napier, Roscoe and Giffey saved the program.
4. 2004

Biggest downer?
2006. 4 top 100 players could have amounted to a national championship, but at least Thabeet , Robinson and Dyson aided the team in getting to a Final 4.

 

[upstater]

Purvis does not count towards rankings. And lets stop marginalizing the impact and importance of grabbing multiple top 100 recruits when you have the scholarships to give. Here is a somewhat realistic, yet very negative scenario that could possibly play out......a) boatright leaves early b) the ncaa comes down hard on facey and he somehow doesnt play at uconn c) neither purvis or samuel prove capable of playing the true pg and there is a logjam at the 2/3 d) our bigs, in particularly nolan, have marginal impact..................which brings me back to necessity of having strong recruiting classes. if any thing close to the above mentioned worst case scenario plays out, and hamilton is our lone get, we will all look back on this year's swings and misses and recognize the impact then. recruiting is a very fluid situation, so you can never afford to miss out on all but one of your targets. especially playing in the aac!

It counts in the only place that matters. Without UConn bringing in Purvis, it changes the entire dynamic of the class. Can they go hard after Isaiah Whitehead? No, they have Purvis and Calhoun. This is meaningful. Not meaningless. It makes a big difference.

Put it this way, do you think Pitino is obsessing over the rank of the class which landed him Hancock?
The 2012 class was totally unranked. Yet Hancock paid dividends.

 

[aceboon]

There are over 300 plus transfers per year now, grabbing trransfers and 5th year seniors make up part of the recruiting process.

 

[UConniki]

And... what's your point?

Bad recruiting ,while they were in Fl investing time in Brimah,they should have stayed in Ct and went after a ct kid Chukwu. Bad decisions being made, thats my point, I live in Fl, no one in FL recruited him.

 

[aceboon]

Bad recruiting ,while they were in Fl investing time in Brimah,they should have stayed in Ct and went after a ct kid Chukwu. Bad decisions being made, thats my point, I live in Fl, no one in FL recruited him.

If you think they had a chance of signing Chukwu you didn't pay attention to his recruiting at all, St Joes was in his final 2 for Christ sakes. Your avi is very fitting right now, you sound like a big ass baby.

 

[tcf15]

Bad recruiting ,while they were in Fl investing time in Brimah,they should have stayed in Ct and went after a ct kid Chukwu. Bad decisions being made, thats my point, I live in Fl, no one in FL recruited him.

At the time Chukwu committed, his handlers said it was in his best interest to play basketball at a smaller school. UConn never really had a chance.

 

[upstater]

Bad recruiting ,while they were in Fl investing time in Brimah,they should have stayed in Ct and went after a ct kid Chukwu. Bad decisions being made, thats my point, I live in Fl, no one in FL recruited him.

By investing a weekend in 2012 in FL, they lost out on Chukwu? So you're saying Chukwu was intimidated at the thought of competing with a kid no one in Florida wanted?

What does that say about Chukwu, if true?

 

[Catsailor]

djct1999 what exactly is your point regarding recruiting/UCONN success past and future?

Not entirely true. While UConn has rarely went after the highly publicized 5 star, they have for the better part of the last 15-20 years, excluding the past few, have always had top 25 classes.

Well this is not exactly true either.

Not sure where your pulling your ranking info from since class ranks don't appear available beyond 2002 scout/rivals and 2005 ESPN.

If memory serves me UCONN went after 5* just didn't land as many as
NC, Puke, Kansas, and Ksucky, (lately), etc. Got a few and had ridiculous success finding diamonds in the ruff and coaching up.

Not sure player/class rank is the best indicator see UCONN vs Puke.

"Raters" opinions of talent varies quite a bit among the top 3-4 services.

Scout ranked UCONN's class of 2009 #13 (Darius Smith, Jamall Trice, Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, AO) so how did that class turn out?

Yeah I know a couple of good games from the last two guys but overall they were massive under achievers and not really high level players or a good fit.

Since you mentioned Lamb (your words-"unheralded") was a top 100 player around 70-something and had a better college career/draft result than almost everyone ranked above him in that class.

I would call Lamb under rated.

My parting words... trust our coaching staff to evaluate better than so called rating service experts LOL

 

[UConniki]

If you think they had a chance of signing Chukwu you didn't pay attention to his recruiting at all, St Joes was in his final 2 for Christ sakes. Your avi is very fitting right now, you sound like a big ass baby.

They are 2 of my children, and you sound like a big ass jerk. You are living proof of what most people think of Uconn, rude and arrogant . I hear it all the time in fl.WERE. ELITE, JC retired, were in the AAC not ACC, football team sucks, basketball, we can hope doesn't follow football, but isn't looking great. We WERE ELITE. We are Jim Calhoun.

 

[aceboon]

They are 2 of my children, and you sound like a big ass jerk. You are living proof of what most people think of Uconn, rude and arrogant . I hear it all the time in fl.WERE. ELITE, JC retired, were in the AAC not ACC, football team sucks, basketball, we can hope doesn't follow football, but isn't looking great. We WERE ELITE. We are Jim Calhoun.

let it all out dawg, let those emotions flow

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Bad recruiting ,while they were in Fl investing time in Brimah,they should have stayed in Ct and went after a ct kid Chukwu. Bad decisions being made, thats my point, I live in Fl, no one in FL recruited him.

You're one of the least informed posters we have here. And that's saying something.

 

[caw]

if we sign just newberry or someone less, i doubt we will be top 25. my point is, if you think uconn's past success was built on marginal talent, you are wrong. it was built on top 25, usually top 15 recruiting classes, sprinkled with the occassional late bloomer. in fact, in terms of recruiting and its impact on our elite status, the only "unheralded" real impact player that helped us play the 3rd week in the national tournament was jeremy lamb. i agree that uconn never has been about the andrew wiggins of the worlds, but stop playing as if recruiting multiple top 50 guys does not matter. if this class is anything short of robinson and hamilton, coupled with the last few years, then will are quickly forming a new trend that replicates nothing of our past.

Err, Jake Voshkuhl? Hasheem Thabeet? Shabazz Napier? Craig Austrie? Emeka Okafor? Josh Boone?

I believe all of those guys were lower than Jeremy Lamb, though all were top 100ish players.

Calhoun made his bread with guys ranked 40-100 with a smattering of guys in the top 40 and a smattering lower than 100.

 

[UConniki]

You're one of the least informed posters we have here. And that's saying something.

Why because I dared to disagree with the popular opinion on this forum that KO who I know personally is infallible . I went to my first Uconn game in1965, had 4 season tickets at htfd civic center for 15 or so years till we moved ti fl in 2000, we have a Uconn room in our house, filled with memorabilia , I took a last minute 32 hr bus ride to the 1999 nc game in tampa, I am an insider on ESPN, and SCOUT which is where I get some of my information, as opposed to some of the obviously biased info here. I want to see Uconn succeed as much as any one but I reserve the right to express my opinion and would prefer to do so with out the personal attacks. Right about now I'm sure most Uconn fans are frustrated about our current recruiting results and the apparent lack of success at this point, so maybe that explains some of the hostility, if not some of you need to get out more, get a life,get a grip, jeez.

 

[UConniki]

At the time Chukwu committed, his handlers said it was in his best interest to play basketball at a smaller school. UConn never really had a chance.

Uconn admits they were late to the party, didn't get involved early on, he wasn't considered a top recruit by many including Uconn, which is why pc probably got involved earlier than us.

 

[Clockshop]

just jumping in here, we have an opening on the weekend of Sept 27-29th now for an official visit in place of P White

 

[aceboon]

Uconn admits they were late to the party, didn't get involved early on, he wasn't considered a top recruit by many including Uconn, which is why pc probably got involved earlier than us.

Admitted where and to whom?

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Why because I dared to disagree with the popular opinion on this forum that KO who I know personally is infallible . I went to my first Uconn game in1965, had 4 season tickets at htfd civic center for 15 or so years till we moved ti fl in 2000, we have a Uconn room in our house, filled with memorabilia , I took a last minute 32 hr bus ride to the 1999 nc game in tampa, I am an insider on ESPN, and SCOUT which is where I get some of my information, as opposed to some of the obviously biased info here. I want to see Uconn succeed as much as any one but I reserve the right to express my opinion and would prefer to do so with out the personal attacks. Right about now I'm sure most Uconn fans are frustrated about our current recruiting results and the apparent lack of success at this point, so maybe that explains some of the hostility, if not some of you need to get out more, get a life,get a grip, jeez.

Wait, you're an ESPN insider? I stand corrected then.

 

[djct1999]

Just so we can stop this, I'm going to list the classes at UConn:

2014: Purvis and Hamilton (5 stars)
2013: Facey (top 100, #66 on Rivals), Samuel, Brimah
2012: Calhoun (top 50), Nolan, Tolksdorf
2011: Drummond (top 2), Boatright (top 100), Daniels (top 20)
2010: Roscoe (top 50), Lamb (top 100, #46 SG according to ESPN, not 100), Napier, Olander, Giffey, Wolf, Bradley
2009: Oriakhi (top 50), Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (around 100, unranked at some places), Trice, Smith
2008: Kemba (top 50), Okwandu, Miles, Haralson, Majok
2007: Beverly
2006: Kelly (top 35), Robinson (top 35), Dyson (top 35), Thabeet (top 100), Eaves, Edwards, Mandeldove, Wiggins
2005: Adrien (top 50), Austrie, Garrison, Johnson
2004: Gay (top 15), Price (top 25), Kellogg

Our top classes were 2004, 2006, 2011. 2006 is the only class that is not prototypical of these since we landed 4 players in the top 100. In 2004, we landed 2. In 2011, we landed 3. But otherwise, UConn has been landing 1 or 2 kids like Hamilton and Purvis each year. That's it. If you ask me which is the best class of all these, I would rank them like this:

1. 2011
2. 2008, Kemba was the top player in college, that recruit alone was worth his weight in gold
3. 2010, it didn't look great at the time, and many of us were a little underwhelmed, but landing Lamb, Napier, Roscoe and Giffey saved the program.
4. 2004

Biggest downer?
2006. 4 top 100 players could have amounted to a national championship, but at least Thabeet , Robinson and Dyson aided the team in getting to a Final 4.

to be more precise:

per rivals(only way to quantify recruiting)- uconn, in years past, always had depth. my point again, is if our lone recruit is hamilton(missing out on abu, robinson, larrier, etc), the last few and next few do not resemble anything close to what uconn has been.
2003
charlie villanueva 5
josh boone 54
marcus williams 61


2004
rudy gay 5
aj price 32


2005
andrew bynum 6
jeff adrien 41

marcus johnson 59


2006
stanley robinson 14
curits kelly 27
jerome dyson 52
doug wiggins 84


2008
ater majok 13
kemba walker 14
nate miles 79

2009
alex oriachi 21
jamal coombs mcdaniel 50
darius smith 71

2010
roscoe smith 37
jeremy lamb 76
shabaz napier 98

2011
deandre daniels 11
ryan boatright 42

2012
omar calhoun 39

2013
kentan facey 66

2014
daniel hamilton 18