Prince Ali doing Prince Ali things again in EYBL

[Uconn3412]

At the end of the day, we should all be happy that Prince Ali is coming to play at UCONN

 

[August_West]

Hate to say this, but Turtle was scoreless in only 9 minutes of action as his team lost, again, big.

 

[intlzncster]

...

Way to take it to him August. Put down the bong.

 

[tcf15]

From Rivals:

UConn-bound Prince Ali has proven himself over and over as one of the premier drivers in the class of 2015. He is athletic, tough and relentless to the rim and will move up nicely from his current ranking of No. 68.

 

[I Bleed Blue]

From Rivals:

UConn-bound Prince Ali has proven himself over and over as one of the premier drivers in the class of 2015. He is athletic, tough and relentless to the rim and will move up nicely from his current ranking of No. 68.

My boy Prince tryna become a king

 

[Kitaman]

@ebosshoops: Good grief Ali is relentless to the rim. Not sure there is another 2G in 2015 who attacks the rim with as much ferocity.

Do you see his attack as controlled (drawing fouls) or reckless (drawing charges)?

 

[Huskyforlife]

My boy Prince tryna become a king

Lol

 

[tcf15]

Best slasher: Prince Ali

The future Connecticut Huskies wing attacks the rim on a regular basis. He splits defenders for uncontested layups and finishes with great touch and body control. He plays with good energy and urgency and does an excellent job keeping defenders on their heels.

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncbrecruiting/on-the-trail/post?id=10381&ex_cid=espnapi_public

 

[Inyatkin]

Turtle just seems like a dud.

Is this the earliest a player or player-to-be has been declared a bust? Honestly hard to believe that people write things like this.

 

[Deleted at users request]

[

You missed the point. There's a difference between making someone a primary target early in the recruiting process and trying to find the best guy available in the spring to fill a void. We pretty much had a choice between Brimah and an empty chair when we brought him in. Or at least not another big. The 2012-13 season showed us we had some potential for this year, but we had a huge weakness (rebounding/rim protection) and Brimah helped fill it (more so with rim protection). With Bazz-Giff-TO gone and DD-Boat considering it, we would have been remiss if we didn't try to find some sort of reinforcement with a scholarship open. Vonleh and Johnson were long since off the table.

Similarly, when we hit the spring of 2009, we were losing Price and Austrie, we had cut Wiggins loose the year before, and we had nobody projected to back up Kemba and Dyson other than Beverly, who hadn't panned out well at that point. We had three senior starters and a chance to be good on paper, but we were severely lacking backcourt depth. We had to find the best of what was out there and Smith was pretty much near the top of the slim pickings list. That one didn't work - but if we had decided that we learned our lesson and wouldn't reach for a recruit in the spring, we would have sat idly by while Brimah went somewhere else and we almost certainly wouldn't have won this year.

My point before wasn't that they were bad decisions and we shouldn't do it again. It was that yes, we do give scholarships to guys who aren't that good sometimes. Ollie made the best of a situation with Brimah. I know those other guys were off the table I were just using them as hypothetical examples.

This case with a Turtle is not similar to those mentioned before. We have amazing options at the guard position that we look good for and to think we might not take 1 (imagine if JA and Newan wanted to come) because we already have Turtle, a guard whose struggling mightily during a time it should be the easiest to show out, doesn't sit well with me. Like I said even before the injury I wasn't too thrilled about how turtle looked on film. He's a very average athlete with good size and okay handle who could shoot on film (don't know about now) and just doesn't seem like the special talent ali and our other recruits seem to be.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Is this the earliest a player or player-to-be has been declared a bust? Honestly hard to believe that people write things like this.

Sorry I like to keep it real. I'm not going to say a player is going to be good just because he's a uconn commit. I call a spade a spade. If he were a Duke commit you would all be saying the same thing if not a lot worse.

 

[upstater]

Sorry I like to keep it real. I'm not going to say a player is going to be good just because he's a uconn commit. I call a spade a spade. If he were a Duke commit you would all be saying the same thing if not a lot worse.

People like you knocked Terence Samuel before last year. People knocked Jeremy Lamb on here as well.

 

[James]

Sorry I like to keep it real. I'm not going to say a player is going to be good just because he's a uconn commit. I call a spade a spade. If he were a Duke commit you would all be saying the same thing if not a lot worse.

What in the world are you keeping real ? Your evaluation of a prospect based entirely on a boxscore of a glorified pick up run? Why don't you just calm down and realize you have nothing substantial to contribute here.
Look killing in eybl vs the best comp means a lot , but we may not be recruiting Jackson as a "star" player, you can't have 12 guys who expect 30 mpg signed

 

[7774]

Sorry I like to keep it real. I'm not going to say a player is going to be good just because he's a uconn commit. I call a spade a spade. If he were a Duke commit you would all be saying the same thing if not a lot worse.

Labeling someone a bust 15 months before his first UCONN practice isn't keeping it "real".

 

[mcs333]

Red flags yes, a bust no. That is way over the top.

 

[upstater]

What in the world are you keeping real ? Your evaluation of a prospect based entirely on a boxscore of a glorified pick up run? Why don't you just calm down and realize you have nothing substantial to contribute here.
Look killing in eybl vs the best comp means a lot , but we may not be recruiting Jackson as a "star" player, you can't have 12 guys who expect 30 mpg signed

I remember last year when this article made people say the same things about Samuel: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/high-school/isaiah-swipes-vike-big-lincoln-win-article-1.1232761

1 point in a big high school game.

 

[noeynox]

Sorry I like to keep it real. I'm not going to say a player is going to be good just because he's a uconn commit. I call a spade a spade. If he were a Duke commit you would all be saying the same thing if not a lot worse.

Kevin Ollie just won a national championship in his second year. You are going to need to have some faith and trust that he knows what he is doing in terms of who he offers scholarships to. Maybe the players you like may be more dynamic or simply have flashier internet videos or maybe turtle is not 100 percent coming off injury OR Ollie simply knows what type of players are good for his team first system. You kinda make the board look bad when you try and bash a kid who KO offered, and got a commitment from. Sometimes I really feel bad for kids and their families if they read the fan forums.

 

[Scot-e]

Sorry I like to keep it real. I'm not going to say a player is going to be good just because he's a uconn commit. I call a spade a spade. If he were a Duke commit you would all be saying the same thing if not a lot worse.

This is the worst post I have read in months. You need to get a grip and stop trying to "keep it real" since you obviously do not know what that means.

 

[Yonick]

Turtle's injury was last summer. He had a great HS junior year. Even though his team may have played in a weak league, they got to the states'
semis. Turtle scored over 30 in that game.
In the early EYBL games, this spring, he was playing 30+ minutes per game. In Minneapolis, this past weekend he played only 9 minutes in game 3. And didn't play in game 4.
Either he reinjured himself, or, playing on a 1-16 team, he may have had some "differences" with the AAU coach. Irregardless, 1-16 record is the worst on the EYBL circuit.
Hopefully, at the July summer camps he'll be healthy & happy, and w/0 that AAU coach around, Turtle can show what he can do.

 

[Uconn3412]

We shouldn't really be worried about Turtle.. His job will be to get Prince Ali the ball... Which shouldn't be a hard task..

 

[his dudeness]

He's been playing out of position. some of you idiots need to calm down and respect the fact that KO wouldn't offer and accept a commitment from someone who can't play

 

[CallMeBruce]

He's been playing out of position. some of you idiots need to calm down and respect the fact that KO wouldn't offer and accept a commitment from someone who can't play

Every coach whiffs from time to time. Ollie's track record on this is very short, so it doesn't seem remotely unreasonable to me that it could happen here.

 

[tcf15]

Every coach whiffs from time to time. Ollie's track record on this is very short, so it doesn't seem remotely unreasonable to me that it could happen here.

True, but that's usually determined after the athlete's first or second year on campus. It's unusual to deem a 2015 recruit a bust when they are a year away from actually suiting up for a college team.

 

[sdhusky]

It's unusual to deem a 2015 recruit a bust when they are a year away from actually suiting up for a college team.

Not sure unusual is the right word.

Stupid. Idiotic. Moronic.

Those might be better choices

 

[Deleted at users request]

People like you knocked Terence Samuel before last year. People knocked Jeremy Lamb on here as well.

Jeremy Lamb was killing it during AAU season. I've said it before that I'm not basing my evaluation of a Turtle based on just his AAU stint rather it's more negative to what I already saw on film. Dud was probably the wrong word to use but he isn't going to be a special player. So sorry if I have a problem with having him over guys like Malik and JA like I said before. Do you guys think he's going to be better than those players? If not then I don't see what's wrong with the statement besides bad wording. Turtle looks like he's going to be a player who wouldn't really contribute until his 3rd or 4th year. When you have that in a class where you have guys who will probably want to come here and contribute right away AND go on to kill it in the league that's where I see the problem.

Terrence Samuels situation was also different. We weren't taking him over other highly rated guards. You can also see on film he was the typical New York guard who probably couldn't shoot but was excellent at finishing the basketball and distributing. He was also a big PG and not a combo tweener. Two completely different situations.

 

[7774]

Jeremy Lamb was killing it during AAU season. I've said it before that I'm not basing my evaluation of a Turtle based on just his AAU stint rather it's more negative to what I already saw on film. Dud was probably the wrong word to use but he isn't going to be a special player. So sorry if I have a problem with having him over guys like Malik and JA like I said before. Do you guys think he's going to be better than those players? If not then I don't see what's wrong with the statement besides bad wording. Turtle looks like he's going to be a player who wouldn't really contribute until his 3rd or 4th year. When you have that in a class where you have guys who will probably want to come here and contribute right away AND go on to kill it in the league that's where I see the problem.

Terrence Samuels situation was also different. We weren't taking him over other highly rated guards. You can also see on film he was the typical New York guard who probably couldn't shoot but was excellent at finishing the basketball and distributing. He was also a big PG and not a combo tweener. Two completely different situations.

I think people's problem is that you take a ton of your own opinions and assumptions and pretend like they are facts. But maybe that's just my problem with what you say.

 

[Deleted at users request]

What in the world are you keeping real ? Your evaluation of a prospect based entirely on a boxscore of a glorified pick up run? Why don't you just calm down and realize you have nothing substantial to contribute here.
Look killing in eybl vs the best comp means a lot , but we may not be recruiting Jackson as a "star" player, you can't have 12 guys who expect 30 mpg signed

Why can't we be recruiting stars at the guard position when we are the hottest school for guards to go to right now or is going to be very soon? I want to be NBA U again like we were back in the mid-late 2000s. So sorry if I have higher expectations for a recruit than to be a 4 year player and help us win a title on a smaller scale and would prefer the recruit that could be a special player for the program who could help us when a title and go on to be a great ambassador for the program in the NBA to keep our great brand going.

I've said this here before that I won't be satisfied by just winning NCs every so often. I'm not just a college basketball or nba fan. I'm a basketball fan and I want uconn to dominate the whole aspect of this sport. So I would prefer the stars that Ollie can win with AND send them off to the NBA to become stars. This is where my opinion and logic stems from. Not just trusting Ollie to win NCs because that won't be a problem while he's here to me. Our program has the potential to be more than that.

 

[sdhusky]

I've said it before that I'm not basing my evaluation of a Turtle based on just his AAU stint rather it's more negative to what I already saw on film.

Ok. You broke down his highlight film?

genius.

 

[sdhusky]

So sorry if I have higher expectations for a recruit than to be a 4 year player and help us win a title on a smaller scale and would prefer the recruit that could be a special player for the program who could help us when a title and go on to be a great ambassador for the program in the NBA to keep our great brand going.

Its not that we don't want the best players.

I just think that maybe Ollie is a better evaluator than you with your youtube highlight film.

Maybe you have a better BB mind but I'm still going to go with Ollie.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I'm sorry if you

I think people's problem is that you take a ton of your own opinions and assumptions and pretend like they are facts. But maybe that's just my problem with what you say.

I'm sorry if you all felt like I say things as fact. Didn't mean it that way. I come here to talk basketball really but try to be as objective as possible because I'm used to arguing with friends who are Duke, UNC, and Texas fans. So I'm not as much of a homer as others on this board. But I did say in my last post how my posts are merely opinion (while my track record with discussions and future player assessment have been pretty good) so you guys don't have to agree with them. Just give your opinion on why you don't think mine is right.