Rahsool Diggins transferring (merged threads)

[uconngb]

Statements like this are laugh out loud funny. People genuinely believe they're more plugged in than the coaching staff.

Gaffney was objectively awful. It's hard to be worse than that. The kid was never given a chance. That much is obvious. You don't get to be a top 50 recruit by sucking.

 

[NotADime89]

You can either blame Hurley for not playing him or for misevaluating him. Take your pick.

It happens its college basketball.....time to move on

 

[aburks41]

Is Richie springs not a miss because he’s still with the program? Or is it because he wasn’t a 5 star recruit? Not sure how you gauge something as a “miss” without a sample size to understand what you hypothetically could have missed out on

Richie Springs probably doesn't even want to play basketball anymore. If he did, he would have transferred by now. I honestly think he just likes being a part of the team and getting the D1 athlete college experience.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

He did not hit on Cole out of HS. Recruiting transfer guards is much different than identifying hs guard talent. This isn’t hard

Better question, who cares where they start their college careers or where they were rated coming out of HS?

 

[TyroneShoo]

The word from Nova folks back in the HS days when he and Nova had some level of intrigue but never any real interest. Most Nova folks wanted to pass (esp coming off the memory of the Quinnerly year). Diggins didn’t want to wait and he wouldnt be nearly physically ready to contribute as a Freshman. Also, he can be dazzling and confident (and self impressed at times). But my guy said he’d be shocked if Diggins was ready to contribute to a good big East team NEXT year, unless he filled out A lot.

H has skills. But was definitely too slight right outa HS to play a switch every screen defense that Wright plays. I figured it isn’t much different at UCONN. Cole was a great guard for that duty. Diggins needs time.

Quinnerly eventually put on some weight, really matured and was a leader on the Alabama squad.

The guy you want is probably in or about to be in the portal

 

[AntG168]

Is Richie springs not a miss because he’s still with the program? Or is it because he wasn’t a 5 star recruit? Not sure how you gauge something as a “miss” without a sample size to understand what you hypothetically could have missed out on

What? Can you agree Hurley banked on Gaffney and Diggins being better than they were? Stop confusing yourself

 

[AntG168]

Better question, who cares where they start their college careers or where they were rated coming out of HS?

I don’t want to get into the habit of relying on transfers to man our pg position. It is probably the hardest transition for a transfer. Hurley needs to be able to recruit the right guards out of Hs. I’m a big fan of Castle

 

[djct1999]

Let’s not overreact. He couldn’t get on the floor this year with a clear path to some minutes. There is a reason he is leaving. With three ships to fill, this team can get much better quickly.

 

[8893]

If history is any guide, I look forward to seeing him earn first team all-AAC honors and playing in the Elite Eight next season.





Jk…

 

[Rico444]

It happens its college basketball.....time to move on

And that's fine, but it's definitely fair to criticize him for dropping the ball here. I'm not saying he should get fired.

 

[auror]

This. Why would any guard want to come here or sit on the bench when Hurley shows loyalty to a player like Gaff?. Also the fact that he refuses to give freshmen and transfers time unless forced upon.

Gaffney's minutes in the important games at the end of the season...
5, 11, 7, 3, 6.

What are we even talking about here? What loyalty?

 

[uconngb]

All this says to me is that Floyd is much further along than expected, there is a portal guy expected to enroll, or both.

Programs have turnover, can’t expect every kid these days to play the long game - unrealistic to have expectations that every recruit will come year one and be game ready or a 4 year guy.

Calhoun had top 50 recruits leave as well, the difference is that we had a backlog of McDonald’s All Americans behind him. Hurley has proven to have a strong track record recruiting, let’s see how he fills the gap before we pass judgement.

a backlog of McDonald's All Americans?? I think you're on the wrong board

 

[Stinger92860]

Cole went to Howard. Nobody recruited Cole out of HS.

Howard did!

 

[Tenspro2002]

This. Why would any guard want to come here or sit on the bench when Hurley shows loyalty to a player like Gaff?. Also the fact that he refuses to give freshmen and transfers time unless forced upon.

Hurley recruited Cole and Martin for major roles.

 

[Connecticut13]

We simply can't judge this situation yet. There's a chance Hurley was right all along and Diggins just can't play at this level. We'll find out over the next few years.

Bottom line is that we are not in a good spot right now. We have zero point guards on the roster. Floyd is clearly a SG from the tape I've seen. Gaffney can not be a rotational piece next year. Another concern is that Hurley has been here for four years and has yet to find a good PG coming out of HS.

The thing about this is that it would mean Hurley was still wrong at some point in judging the kid's talent. Either Hurley got it wrong when recruiting Diggins - or he got it wrong in not playing Diggins. But either way, he got it wrong. And hey, sometimes this happens. It certainly happened under Calhoun too (see for example, Darius Smith, Rob Garrison, etc.).

The major issue here is that the result is that we have no point guard. For example, when Darius Smith left, we still had Kemba Walker (and Shabazz Napier coming in as a freshman). And when Rob Garrison left, there was A.J Price and Craig Austrie. Now, we don't have anyone! That's the issue.

 

[Lefty2one]

There's a reason why Jay Wright passed on him....

Was that the case? I don't follow recruiting closely but I remember an article or tweet about how Hurley went into Villanova's backyard and stole a point guard from Wright.

 

[NH Husky]

Hurley gave him more PT than Calhoun gave Hazleton. Nough said

 

[Shamon30]

I hope Gaffney has a breakout senior season, I guess.

 

[UConnStats]

1) Floyd is not a PG

2) thinking Castle can skip a year of HS, make the jump to college and be a full time PG on a team with tournament hopes = insanity

 

[djct1999]

Hopefully a lesson to be learned that you should probably play your freshman. Maybe he wasn't good enough anyways, but now we HAVE to get 2 guards in the portal

You play your freshmen if they can contribute. Diggins showed little in practice and even less in the limited minutes he got on the floor. I am sure this decision was mutual.

 

[tzznandrew]

Gaffney's minutes in the important games at the end of the season...
5, 11, 7, 3, 6.

What are we even talking about here? What loyalty?

It's a false narrative he's attached to. He said transfers and freshmen, but Gaffney, Bouk, and Akok all got run their first year, and Jackson got run once he got back from injury. Took him a little while to give Sanogo the PT he deserved, but he was getting minutes early. Hawkins was getting minutes this year. And as for transfers, Cole/Martin played right away big minutes last year, so I don't get it.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Is the “OMG you have to play your freshmen” crowd aware that this year’s Final Four is four teams that all play 6-7 guys, at most?

 

[navery12]

Diggins wasn’t good enough. Hurley thought he would be. Complete miss

Maybe if you say it for a 10th time in this thread people will agree with you

 

[Hungryhusky99]

Diggins wasn’t good enough. Hurley thought he would be. Complete miss

You could tell right away last summer Hurley didn't think he was any good. I just don't understand how he realized that so quickly once he got here, but not from watching him extensively in HS.

 

[Durks07]

This. Why would any guard want to come here or sit on the bench when Hurley shows loyalty to a player like Gaff?. Also the fact that he refuses to give freshmen and transfers time unless forced upon.