Our biggest recruiting miss- Bonzie Colson

[Fishy]

I don't think anyone, including Mike Brey, thought Colson was a 17 and 10 guy in the ACC, so it's not a bad thing that UConn didn't make him a priority over Abu or Larrier.

But you need to have contigency plans and this kid could not get a call back from anyone on the staff.

In August, Colson complains he cannot get a hold of our staff.

A week later, Larrier commits to VCU and Abu commits to NCSU. Devin Robinson cancels his official visit to UConn.

Colson then tells them to pound sand and commits to Notre Dame about a month later.

UConn ends up with Rock Lubin.

Fast forward two years and you have UConn going .500 in large part because they don't have an answer to a power forward with any sort of muscle tone. This stuff matters.

 

[aceboon]

I was always a big Colson fan, I was a big Abu fan as well. It wasn't hard to see Colson would be a good college player. He had great footwork and post moves in high school, huge wingspan, killed it on the AAU circuit, and comes from great stock. I can care less about size in the college game. Undersized skilled power forwards almost always seem to do well and we never seem to recruit this type of player.

You can say whatever you want, I've also seen you bag on this recruiting class for the rankings of Polley and Carlton, 2 guys who are in the same range of where Colson was coming out of HS. Y'all want it both ways, criticize the staff when they don't focus on lower ranked guys who outperform their ranking, then bash them when they sign lower ranked guys before they ever play.

 

[ktuck911]

We need a monster in the paint. A mailer who absolutelyrics loves cleaning the glass. We get that kind of play out of kids like Diarra and the JUCO kid coming in as well we will be fine. Enoch and Durham will never be those guys. Enoch can provide some offensive in the paint/post though, while Durham probably has more variety on his offensive game. I think he just got his legs back after HS injuries.
Excited about our future.

 

[ctchamps]

For all the talk about Ollie's coaching and other popular topics of discussion on here, you just never know how challenged UConn is until you see our post players up close on the offensive end in person. It's one thing to see it on TV, it's another just to see what a struggle it is offensively playing 4 vs 5, and with the way Facey played this tournament, 3 on 5. It just puts us at a tremendous disadvantage. Bad hands, bad decisions (one play Brimah had the ball dished to him, all he had to do was go up and lay it in for 2, he puts the ball on the floor, tries to do a pump fake and it's a travel, 2 points gone), unable to finish around the rim with contact.

We just have to get better in the post. Evaluating, developing, recruiting, whatever. It has to get better or we are gonna be having the same discussions every year.

And yet that incredible comeback to start the second half was a combo of Vital and Facey playing well. Kentan playing well was the piece UConn needed to beat Cincy and the refs made sure that wasn't going to happen. Of course his fourth foul was maddening stupid on his part. But he was torched on a similar out of bounds play in the first half and he reflexly blew it.

 

[ctchamps]

Kid is just destroying Duke like he does every other team. He's the perfect college power forward and we were his dream school, can't believe we blew that one.

You forget Ryan Gomes!

 

[Pudge]

Totally agree

But that Colson story - with the downs - sounds like Freeman and others. Sometimes you get lucky.

 

[EBonz30]

Kid is just destroying Duke like he does every other team. He's the perfect college power forward and we were his dream school, can't believe we blew that one.

One thing I am concerned with is, this coaching staff's ability to improve post players and I am coach Ollie's biggest supporter.

Point being, I highly doubt it if Bonzie came to Uconn he would be as good as he is today so I don't lose any sleep over it.

 

[huskymagic]

Ollie's recruiting philosophy regarding big men is not good. He is recruiting either athletic bean poles with no IQs or guys who have no toughness and swagger or both.

Too many nice guys and not enough bullies being recruited in the front court. That's our problem with teams like Cinci and SMU we get outbullied, outtoughed, outmuscled. We didn't even bother adjusting especially against UCONN killer Gary Clark. No one took the challenge to shut him down or force away from the block.

Ollie has to do a better job recruiting and also throwing different looks including double teams against guys like Gary Clark as we will see him again next year as well as Semi Ojeleye.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Drove me nuts at the time because I knew Colson would be good.

I'm calling bullscalito on this.

 

[Walker11]

I'm calling bullscalito on this.

Actually true. From SJ

I'm actually kind of glad we didn't get AMA, the more I saw of his recruitment the less I wanted him a Husky. Bonzie Colson may not be much of a pro prospect but I have a feeling he will be a damn good college player and Devin Robinson is a much better prospect than AMA. These things tend to work out for us in the end.

Wouldn't worry too much about Colson's game translating to College, the kid has been awesome on the summer circuit against other top forwards. AMA is far from a finished product, he's taller and more athletic than Colson but Colson is definitely more skilled from 12 feet and in than AMA is at this point.

Edit. This is the thread on Colson being offered. LINK

Everyone was excited about the offer and tape besides tenspro who said "he doesn't mind the offer."

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

At best, he was hyped briefly on these pages as Adrien redux. I was therefore disappointed when he chose Notre Dame. I haven't seen him play, but his numbers are similar and better than Jeff's.

 

[mauconnfan]

You forget Ryan Gomes!

Did you miss my pst fleudy? LOL

great minds.....

 

[mauconnfan]

Actually true. From SJ

I'm actually kind of glad we didn't get AMA, the more I saw of his recruitment the less I wanted him a Husky. Bonzie Colson may not be much of a pro prospect but I have a feeling he will be a damn good college player and Devin Robinson is a much better prospect than AMA. These things tend to work out for us in the end.

Wouldn't worry too much about Colson's game translating to College, the kid has been awesome on the summer circuit against other top forwards. AMA is far from a finished product, he's taller and more athletic than Colson but Colson is definitely more skilled from 12 feet and in than AMA is at this point.

Edit. This is the thread on Colson being offered. LINK

Everyone was excited about the offer and tape besides tenspro who said "he doesn't mind the offer."

A lot of people wanted this to happen huh? Where's the staff when the BY has it right?

 

[Matrim55]

A lot of people wanted this to happen huh? Where's the staff when the BY has it right?

There was near unanimous support for signing Colson (@Tenspro2002 was the only one who was even sort of against it), but at the same time there's an old user poll thread that showed about a 3-to-1 preference for Kasongo instead b/c he was bigger and more athletic, even though he was/is so raw.

So... it's kinda funny how certain people are killing KO for "only" recruiting project bigs, isn't it?

 

[MuchoDogYears]

The lesson learned, hopefully, is recruit demonstrated superior basketball skills/production over superior size and/or athletic ability.

Results trump potential. Too many times recruiters devalue a skilled player because they don't fit the prototype

Uconn , above all others, should understand not to do this when evaluating big men. They don't do it with guards, and they've been uber successful in that arena.

 

[Walker11]

The lesson learned, hopefully, is recruit demonstrated superior basketball skills/production over superior size and/or athletic ability.

Results trump potential. Too many times recruiters devalue a skilled player because they don't fit the prototype

Uconn , above all others, should understand not to do this when evaluating big men. They don't do it with guards, and they've been uber successful in that arena.

This is exactly which I'm excited about Polley and Carlton. I'm all for a mix. I would have loved to land Ikey even though he may be Brimah like offensively.

 

[Tenspro2002]

There was near unanimous support for signing Colson (@Tenspro2002 was the only one who was even sort of against it), but at the same time there's an old user poll thread that showed about a 3-to-1 preference for Kasongo instead b/c he was bigger and more athletic, even though he was/is so raw.

So... it's kinda funny how certain people are killing KO for "only" recruiting project bigs, isn't it?

Well then it's a good thing nobody's paying me big bucks to evaluate HS talent. I was wrong, and our staff was wrong.

 

[mauconnfan]

Hopefully out of all of these scenario's which occurred the one that should never happen again is all the eggs in one basket. Between Bruce Brown and David Beatty the staff blew it with all in on Diallo. Hey I wanted the kid but I also said when the offer of a nice player is there don't wait. Not at all patting myself on the back, just wishing they were more proactive when Brown and Beatty were throwing themselves at them.