Rahsool Diggins transferring (merged threads)

[pierogiscri]

We will find out whether or not this was a good or bad thing for our program in due time, it would be ignorant to draw any conclusions at this point.

 

[uconngb]

Yea let's call a spade a spade, Hurley's loyalty to playing Gaff likely costed us a future with Diggins. If Diggins gets 10mpg I doubt he's leaving. Maybe it was the right call for this season but probably hurts long term.

Bingo. Every arm chair coach on this board was saying the same thing but ole stubborn Dan just put his head in the sand. Well now it's gonna come back to bite him. There is not a positive to put on this.

 

[NotADime89]

So funny that everyone is blaming Hurley for "not playing him". Multiple sources (inside and outside the program) had said Diggins wasn't ready. Hurley and Staff came to the conclusion that he's not not a fit for the program or Big East basketball. There's a reason why Jay Wright passed on him....

 

[Rico444]

So funny that everyone is blaming Hurley for "not playing him". Multiple sources (inside and outside the program) had said Diggins wasn't ready. Hurley and Staff came to the conclusion that he's not not a fit for the program or Big East basketball. There's a reason why Jay Wright passed on him....

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

 

[Palatine]

So funny that everyone is blaming Hurley for "not playing him". Multiple sources (inside and outside the program) had said Diggins wasn't ready. Hurley and Staff came to the conclusion that he's not not a fit for the program or Big East basketball. There's a reason why Jay Wright passed on him....

It's the old dilemna. You need experience to get a job. You need a job to get experience.

 

[KingAG]

It’s a miss for Hurley either way. It doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. But either way it’s on Hurley.

 

[Justin M]

It’s a miss for Hurley either way. It doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. But either way it’s on Hurley.

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

 

[NJHusky]

Hurley hit big on Cole, and while thats not a HS PG prospect, it really doesn't matter the distinction in the end. Hurley has, and will continue to have, a high level PG at UConn. It doesn't matter what ranks they come from.

Did Dan hit on Cole or did dad?

 

[Slick]

Best of luck to Diggins. We hardly knew him.

Sool should have gotten minutes early, and especially after Gaffney stuggled. Yes, Sool struggled when he saw the floor too, but that was with the B team around him and after the midway point of the year... he was never was put in a position early to learn, develop, and get comfortable.

Another lesson for Hurley. He's learned from some of his coaching mistakes to-date, but hasn't learned from others. Let's see if he learns from this one. I have no doubt Diggins will be a contributor at a P5 school elsewhere.

If he showed any ability in practice he would have gotten time in games. Good luck to rashool and hopefully he drops down to a low division 1 or even a division 2 program.

 

[auror]

Hurley reducing Gaffney's minutes and not having Sool ready to play is essentially proving my point.

Hurley made the error of sticking with Gaffney early in the year. We know what kind of player Gaffney is, and it was evident early in the year... his ceiling is maxed.

What kind of player will Diggins be or what kind of player could he have been by the end of the year? We'll never know, because Hurley never allowed the opportunity for him to develop early on. He didn't get any run in semi-meaningful minutes.

Hurley reducing Gaffney's minutes and not playing Diggins is proof that he effed up the whole situation.

You're still the one not seeing my point. Hurley decided seemingly pretty early that Diggins wasn't going or didn't have the ability to be ready by the end of the year. It's not like he literally never played or practiced. He played 7-10 minutes in the first 3 games and was practicing with the team the full season. You can develop guys in practice, too. You can't necessarily judge a guy's performance in games in small samples of minutes in garbage time, but you sure can judge their play in practice.

You give someone a chance to develop if they are worth developing, and coaches have to judge that all the time. You can tell by his consistent comments to the media that Hurley thinks that Samson is clearly worth developing.

This is what Hurley said when he was asked about Diggins' minutes:

 

[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

 

[KingAG]

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

 

[KingAG]

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.