Precious Speaks on Recruiting!

[superjohn]

Put me on ignore then.

As tens said, we need to be relevant all year to get a better fan base. CT is super apathetic about college sports--it shows. A cultural shift needs to occur.

Temporary success = temporary fans. Hurley has made a priority of energizing the fans, which will help i hope

CT. likes winners, most places do but CT. probably more so because it's full of New York and Boston fans who are used to winning all the time When we were winning and a fixture in the rankings few places got into it like CT. did. I think we will be back there and fairly soon.

 

[CL82]

Put me on ignore then.

As tens said, we need to be relevant all year to get a better fan base. CT is super apathetic about college sports--it shows. A cultural shift needs to occur.

Temporary success = temporary fans. Hurley has made a priority of energizing the fans, which will help i hope

Temporary success = 1999 - 2014? I guess having the most national championships in the last two decades is "temporary" in the geologic sense of time.

 

[CL82]

We need to be relevant all year. That's what recruits care about -- exposure, buzz, and getting to the NBA. They don't care about championships. If they happen to win en route to getting that exposure, buzz, and NBA attention, great, but that's not their priority.

The last time we were relevant wire to wire was, maybe, 2011, and even then we fell off somewhat in the middle of the year. Since then:
2012 -- only relevant at the beginning of the year with a high preseason ranking; forgotten after that
2013 -- irrelevant all year (maybe some buzz with the MSU win)
2014 -- relevant early and late, but largely forgotten in the middle
2015 -- see 2012
2016 -- irrelevant except for maybe a week and a half of buzz between Jalen's shot and the Kansas game
2017 -- irrelevant all year
2018 -- irrelevant all year

That's 7 years over which we've been prominent on the national stage for less than a quarter of the time. That's a major turn-off to top recruits whose other options are constantly talked about and featured on ESPN, etc.

Respectfully suggest that kids are much more cognizant of natties and NBA players than whether a squad was "relevant" in December of 2013.

 

[Walker11]

I think this whole conversation is being bogged down by expectations and by what it means to be relevant. We had a stretch where we were a top 2 seed 11x in 20 years. Those years are passed. Even after a ban and some sub par seasons, following the 2014 championship, KO looked like he had the world by the balls and we were again on the lips of top recruits all over. Recruiting didn't even slip until the 2017 class which you will notice isn't too long ago. The brand is strong enough that if we start to be a consistent top 25 team again, we will have no problem hauling in good classes year in year out. To me, this is the goal - consistent top 25 teams with nice runs every so often. It seems like this is the current trajectory with the way the staff is recruiting out of the gate.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

I think this whole conversation is being bogged down by expectations and by what it means to be relevant. We had a stretch where we were a top 2 seed 11x in 20 years. Those years are passed. Even after a ban and some sub par seasons, following the 2014 championship, KO looked like he had the world by the balls and we were again on the lips of top recruits all over. Recruiting didn't even slip until the 2017 class which you will notice isn't too long ago. The brand is strong enough that if we start to be a consistent top 25 team again, we will have no problem hauling in good classes year in year out. To me, this is the goal - consistent top 25 teams with nice runs every so often. It seems like this is the current trajectory with the way the staff is recruiting out of the gate.

Interesting avatar. What is the story behind it? My visual acuity is far from 20/20 though

 

[Scrutineer]

Hurley has publically touted UConn's history from day one.
He pushed through renovations to the new practice facility which included adding banners for all the NBA players.
So, he must believe the kids being recruited today recall the UConn greats from the past, as well as the history of four championships, and has purposefully chosen to highlight those to the recruits visiting the Werth Center.