Question About Our New Freshman

[Scrutineer]

I don't think we'll be recruiting a center unless our staff isn't very confident in Reibe. All 3 of the American hs recruits are burger boys.... 3/4 of our recruits this year are better ranked than everyone last year. I doubt every one of them sees serious minutes, but they are on the whole more talented.

Mullins seems likely to get real minutes. He's the #15 ranked kid in the class and a ridiculous shooter. He's only 6'5 185lbs or so, which is the only concern. Very nice athlete. HS and AAU competition level hasn't been great so he may have some bumps in the road.

Reibe is a stretch big. Not terribly athletic or strong but has a lot of skill relative to his position. I suspect we'll slot him in playing 15mpg or so behind Reed. HS and international competition levels have been solid. He's been inconsistent from what I've seen. Needs to get in the gym... he's soft.

Adams is 6'5 but excruciatingly scrawny. HS and AAU competition level have been the highest level it gets. Averaged like 16/6/2 in the best hs league in America. Shooting has gone up and down... 36% or so in AAU, but only 28% in hs. FT% has ranged from 60% to 80% over the last couple years too. I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a redshirt-ish season to get stronger.

Furphy is an enigma. He has great size and elite skill (shooting, passing, dribbling with both hands) but is not athletic and needs to lose 15lbs of babyfat. He could be our next Luka or he could sit the bench for a couple years and leave. It's all just guesses... no one knows.

Let's hope "The Furph" at least has the athleticism and stamina of one KEA! We could live with that!

 

[Fishy]

Adams is a total wild card to me. He at times looks quite skilled and others looks pretty bad. He looks totally unprepared physically for the Big East and his recruitment was strange. For a while he was the top player, rankings wise, that we were recruiting, but we were also far and away the biggest name school recruiting him and most here preferred some of the other guys that we lost.

I think Furphy will play quite a bit. He does lots of stuff that is just natural IQ and talent. Hopefully he’s in good enough shape to impact from the start.

I generally do not disagree about Adams - he looks scrawny, but I thought Rip Hamilton looked scrawny and he played in the Big East when felonies were not fouls. Hopefully, he’s stronger than he looks.

But…I’d point out that he played at about as high a level of basketball as you can get in high school and the two official visits he made sandwiching his visit to UConn were to Michigan State and Tennessee.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I generally do not disagree about Adams - he looks scrawny, but I thought Rip Hamilton looked scrawny and he played in the Big East when felonies were not fouls. Hopefully, he’s stronger than he looks.

But…I’d point out that he played at about as high a level of basketball as you can get in high school and the two official visits he made sandwiching his visit to UConn were to Michigan State and Tennessee.

I think we've also seen that some kids show up with 10 pounds of muscle they seemingly didn't have. Even while in HS, I would expect our S&C guys are advising them. If he can get to 190 or so, he'd be fine. Should be the primary backup PG with occasional minutes at SG.

We're looking at a very different team next year, which is exciting. I think Stewart's defense is better against 4s than 3s. It's anecdotal, but I preferred Liam/Stewart to Stewart/AK. He can play either, but he's a better 4, especially if he can get a bit stronger too. I think that gives Hurley some flexibility to find a 3/4 with enough strength, shooting, rebounding and passing ability to fit.

 

[REB1094]

I would assume Braylon gets major minutes and likely is a starter (although he is small for SF, so a big PG would be necessary since we’re running Solo at the 2)

I would also assume Reibe will get solid minutes. Tarris will start and get a majority of C minutes, but I’d be surprised to see us go after a backup C in the portal

Not sure about Adams. He’s skinny but if he makes threes in games, he will get minutes. I’d guess small minutes in year 1 while we groom him to be the CG of the future starting year 2

Furphy will either bring us #7 or spend 4 years on the bench. No idea lol