OT: Paul White to Georgetown

[Dogbreath2U]

There has been talk about the impact of the possibility of RB returning on PG recruits, but not much consideration of the impact of the possibility of DD coming back on PF's. Deandre played so well over the last several games that we project him gone, but other's may not see it as likely. We might have a pretty darn good team if he did decide to return.

 

[Sportsman5]

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.

Take a deep breath and calm down. You say you have "a uconn room in our house" and then end with "some of you need to get out more, get a life, get a grip, jeez". That's interesting. You also say "im sure most uconn fans are frustrated about our current recruiting results and the apparent lack of success at this point". We have a commitment from a clear 5 star player that is probably the best scorer in his class, can start from day one, and has a good chance at being drafted very high and having NBA success. That is a win in every category. Ollie also recruited a 5 star while he was in high school and then again once he decided to transfer. He committed to UConn after proving to be able to have success at a high division 1 level and believed uconn gave him his best chance at NBA success. There are a mix of players that are seriously considering uconn including a point guard and several 3/4. A few of these players are rated very high, while others appear to be solid role players and possibly better. The reason players have passed on uconn is mostly playing time. Purvis and Boatright at the 1/2. Calhoun at the 2/3. Hamilton at the 2/3/4. Daniels at the 3/4. These players will most likely command 30+minutes per game unless a freshman plans to step in and beat them out, which would mean he would likely have to be a top 25 player in college basketball as a freshman. Boatright and Daniels will be lucky to get drafted in next years draft according to the sites that a recruit would look at. If you see a different consensus, than please show me. As much as some people think Facey, Brimah, and Nolan are unproven trash, that is not how a recruit looks at a group of players that will be sophomores or juniors when he arrives on campus. He will assume that he will have to fight tooth and nail to get playing time from them. Just because recruiting sites didnt rank them as top 50 talent doesn't mean that recruits look into that and trust what the recruiting sites think. We tried to cast a wide net, so of course we will miss out on recruits. Casting a wide net while having recruiting restrictions will only increase the chances of missing out on recruits. I would still say that almost any college team would take our recruiting situation right now.

 

[champs99and04]

A lot of princesses in this thread. I thought everybody was aware Paul White was a long shot. We're in a difficult situation with an unproven head coach and an unappealing conference but Ollie has made the most of it. Saying Purvis doesn't count because he's a transfer is ridiculous - he's only used one year of eligibility and is just as talented as all but a handful of kids in the 2014 class. Worst case scenario, this is a class consisting of two five stars and a bunch of underrated three stars like Bonzie Colon. And we still have a decent shot with Robinson and a shot in the dark with Larrier if he doesn't commit to VCU within the next week. Everything is fine.

 

[Sportsman5]

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

If you are trying to say Purvis does not count as a recruit for this year, than you are insane. He absolutely scared off the top point guards in the class. Not only is he a 5 star guard out of high school, but he has proven success at a very high division 1 level and will have had a year in the UConn system. I don't give a crap what people on here say about him possibly not being a point guard. Recruits absolutely think he will be UConns point guard the next year+ and that is why they did not want to consider UConn. Playing time will be at a premium in the eyes of recruits for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post.

 

[CTBasketball]

There are a lot better bigs in the 2015 class. Hopefully we'll bridge the gap with a JUCO forward and then get a couple bigs then.

 

[UConniki]

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

Just can't stop with the sarcasm. While my family and I will remain Uconn fans forever , one of the things I don't miss is ct. people, while the people down here are genuinely friendly, ct is still full of insecure wannabes . NO pro sports, Uconn floundering (unfortunately ), it's a small state full of small minded people that think small. I went to south catholic high and played there, Joe Reilly was the hof coach, Dom Perno was also a coach there, (yes the former Uconn coach), Gary palladino Uhartford coach. I think I have a clue, at least in so far as to offer an occasional opinion on the Boneyard with out being attacked or insulted. Were all Uconn fans, save the hostility for fans of other schools, Uconn isn't well liked or held in high esteem these days at least athletically, and could use all the fans it can get.

 

[tcf15]

I'm kind of glad I labeled this thread as OT now.

 

[david]

Just can't stop with the sarcasm. While my family and I will remain Uconn fans forever , one of the things I don't miss is ct. people, while the people down here are genuinely friendly, ct is still full of insecure wannabes . NO pro sports, Uconn floundering (unfortunately ), it's a small state full of small minded people that think small. I went to south catholic high and played there, Joe Reilly was the hof coach, Dom Perno was also a coach there, (yes the former Uconn coach), Gary palladino Uhartford coach. I think I have a clue, at least in so far as to offer an occasional opinion on the Boneyard with out being attacked or insulted. Were all Uconn fans, save the hostility for fans of other schools, Uconn isn't well liked or held in high esteem these days at least athletically, and could use all the fans it can get.

I've dealt extensively with people in CT as well as people in Florida through work and I can say that there is absolutely no comparison. People from CT and New England in general are much much friendlier than people in Florida.

 

[UConniki]

Take a deep breath and calm down. You say you have "a uconn room in our house" and then end with "some of you need to get out more, get a life, get a grip, jeez". That's interesting. You also say "im sure most uconn fans are frustrated about our current recruiting results and the apparent lack of success at this point". We have a commitment from a clear 5 star player that is probably the best scorer in his class, can start from day one, and has a good chance at being drafted very high and having NBA success. That is a win in every category. Ollie also recruited a 5 star while he was in high school and then again once he decided to transfer. He committed to UConn after proving to be able to have success at a high division 1 level and believed uconn gave him his best chance at NBA success. There are a mix of players that are seriously considering uconn including a point guard and several 3/4. A few of these players are rated very high, while others appear to be solid role players and possibly better. The reason players have passed on uconn is mostly playing time. Purvis and Boatright at the 1/2. Calhoun at the 2/3. Hamilton at the 2/3/4. Daniels at the 3/4. These players will most likely command 30+minutes per game unless a freshman plans to step in and beat them out, which would mean he would likely have to be a top 25 player in college basketball as a freshman. Boatright and Daniels will be lucky to get drafted in next years draft according to the sites that a recruit would look at. If you see a different consensus, than please show me. As much as some people think Facey, Brimah, and Nolan are unproven trash, that is not how a recruit looks at a group of players that will be sophomores or juniors when he arrives on campus. He will assume that he will have to fight tooth and nail to get playing time from them. Just because recruiting sites didnt rank them as top 50 talent doesn't mean that recruits look into that and trust what the recruiting sites think. We tried to cast a wide net, so of course we will miss out on recruits. Casting a wide net while having recruiting restrictions will only increase the chances of missing out on recruits. I would still say that almost any college team would take our recruiting situation right now.

White is going to a school overloaded w/ pf, sf types.It doesn't seem to matter at other schools.RB might be back, DD might be back, Gtown now has 6 (4top 100) sf/pf. I hope you 'r right and it all works out, I'm just not as optimistic. Thanks for the civil response.

 

[CTBasketball]

Maybe some kids don't want to go to UConn because Ollie hasn't proved anything yet.

 

[Brochacho]

So going by Rivals the 2014 roster barring any early entrees (doubtful) or no other top 150 players committing (also doubtful) we will have a team of:
#11 Daniels
#12 Purvis
#18 Hamilton
#39 Calhoun
#42 Boatright
#66 Facey
#118 Nolan
#118 Samuel

We are fine.

 

[CTBasketball]

So going by Rivals the 2014 roster barring any early entrees (doubtful) or no other top 150 players committing (also doubtful) we will have a team of:
#11 Daniels
#12 Purvis
#18 Hamilton
#39 Calhoun
#42 Boatright
#66 Facey
#118 Nolan
#118 Samuel

We are fine.

If you want to go into a season with 3 bigs you're crazy.

 

[UConniki]

I've dealt extensively with people in CT as well as people in Florida through work and I can say that there is absolutely no comparison. People from CT and New England in general are much much friendlier than people in Florida.

48yrs in ct, 14yrs in fl. I respectfully disagree. Have owned retail electronics stores in both states, it's not even close , Its called southern hospitality. people in ct are probably more educated, but definitely not friendlier.

 

[Brochacho]

If you want to go into a season with 3 bigs you're crazy.

Well yes you're correct. I was just taking on the talent angle, rather than the personnel.

 

[UConniki]

Maybe some kids don't want to go to UConn because Ollie hasn't proved anything yet.

Maybe.

 

[UConn990411]

48yrs in ct, 14yrs in fl. I respectfully disagree. Have owned retail electronics stores in both states, it's not even close , Its called southern hospitality. people in ct are probably more educated, but definitely not friendlier.

Correction: People in Florida are much nicer ... as long as you're white.

New Englanders are generally a**holes, but at least we're a**holes to everyone.

 

[upstater]

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.

We've been reading about Chukwu visiting UConn since before his junior year. Just how early do you want them to be. He came from Africa, played a year of HS ball, and before the year was out, UConn was on him.

 

[UConniki]

Correction: People in Florida are much nicer ... as long as you're white.

New Englanders are generally a**holes, but at least we're a**holes to everyone.

Your referring to the souths reputation for being racist. Fl is60% transplanted northerners,you must be thinking about South carolina, Miss, Ala ect.

 

[UConniki]

Visiting doesn't mean they offered him back then, Pc coach was on him while he was still at fairfield.

 

[upstater]

Your referring to the souths reputation for being racist. Fl is60% transplanted northerners,you must be thinking about South carolina, Miss, Ala ect.

When I went on an interview to U. Miami, they grilled me as to how I handled issues dealing with diversity in previous jobs. In about 25 interviews before all over the country, I'd never been asked that question. So I answered as best I could. Then I asked what particular issues does U. Miami have. They replied that there are basically 3 contingents at the school of people who did not grow up with one another and occasionally there are problems. If you look at their numbers, you see the divide. 50% of their students are from the state of Florida. There's a Latino population, small-town Florida population (nearly all white), and an urban black population.

 

[upstater]

Visiting doesn't mean they offered him back then, Pc coach was on him while he was still at fairfield.

Do you remember what Calhoun said when people asked him about a Conn. kid that went to play at PC?

UConn is not in competition with PC.

 

[Matrim55]

If you want to go into a season with 3 bigs you're crazy.

Tolksdorf as well, though he was left out of the original post for obvious reasons.

Brochacho's point - that we'll be ok in 2014 even if Ollie doesn't land another big recruit - is a good one. We're going to be fine no matter what happens, and given the upside of all four bigs projected to be on the 2014/15 roster, we'll probably be better than fine.

It would be nice, however, if we'd landed the type of talent who could elevate us from "fine" to "favorites." But if we don't... oh well. We don't have to be favorites to be champions.

 

[pinchy]

Your referring to the souths reputation for being racist. Fl is60% transplanted northerners,you must be thinking about South carolina, Miss, Ala ect.

So only 40 percent of Florida is nicer than CT

 

[UConniki]

So only 40 percent of Florida is nicer than CT

Not all northerners are from ct, but it's all good.

Do you remember what Calhoun said when people asked him about a Conn. kid that went to play at PC?

UConn is not in competition with PC.

Good point.

 

[UConniki]

Not all northerners are from ct, but it's all good.

Good point.

Hopefully it stays that way.