Rahsool Diggins transferring (merged threads)

[Waquoit]

That 2005-2006 season is fun to look at...

Yeah, it was a real laff riot

 

[navery12]

Not speculating on his potential. All I am saying is that he was a top 100 recruit which is where the national rating services graded him. How many high school players are there across the country? Thousands? After getting the sales pitch from various high level college programs (affirming they can play) and after making a school decision, a lot of top 100 recruits and their families come in expecting to get some serious playing time in the first year. Diggins didn't get any significant minutes.

And yet freshman all across the country came in and didn't get significant minutes in their first year. And some of them are going to still be great players once they do get their minutes

 

[UCDaveD]

The most unpleasant Elite Eight run I can imagine. Every single game was a struggle. I still remember leaving the office when they were down 12 to Albany in the second half.

The Kentucky game was the only one that wasn’t absolutely nauseating and we won by what? 4 points?

 

[bigknight3]

Where did you hear this?

Somewhere between pages 1-19 of this thread...

 

[UCTitleTown]

Not speculating on his potential. All I am saying is that he was a top 100 recruit which is where the national rating services graded him. How many high school players are there across the country? Thousands? After getting the sales pitch from various high level college programs (affirming they can play) and after making a school decision, a lot of top 100 recruits and their families come in expecting to get some serious playing time in the first year. Diggins didn't get any significant minutes.

550,000 Boys play high school basketball in the US, so divide that by 4 years, and roughly that's 140,000 Seniors. So being Top 50 to 100 puts you in the top 99.9994 percentile. Not too shabby...

 

[Fishy]

We now have zero point guards. Of all the point in America, we currently have none of them.

I feel like I might be onto something with these roster management complaints, but absolutely keep telling me that this is totally cool in 2022 because of the portal.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We now have zero point guards. Of all the point in America, we currently have none of them.

I feel like I might be onto something with these roster management complaints, but absolutely keep telling me that this is totally cool in 2022 because of the portal.

I honestly think it's a bit of both. We will survive it just fine. And a very good looking PG is recruited for next year. But this is clearly not an ideal situation and Hurley takes responsibility for that.

 

[UConNick]

I honestly think it's a bit of both. We will survive it just fine. And a very good looking PG is recruited for next year. But this is clearly not an ideal situation and Hurley takes responsibility for that.

A good, balanced take. Obviously this is not what Hurley envisioned. But with the portal there’s an easy path to fill these holes and ensure we don’t miss a beat. Neither of these guys should end up being a significant loss so long as Hurley gets his ish together in the portal. Yes, you don’t want to build a whole team through it necessarily, but grabbing pieces from it is critical in today’s game.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

We now have zero point guards. Of all the point in America, we currently have none of them.

I feel like I might be onto something with these roster management complaints, but absolutely keep telling me that this is totally cool in 2022 because of the portal.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that next year’s starting point guard (yes, from the portal), will be a better player than the two kids who transferred this week.

And as long as that’s the case, the net impact of these moving parts would be a better roster than what we started with.

I thought that was the idea when it comes to roster management.

 

[dennismenace]

The biggest problem I think is philosophical. He's trying to build an NBA style roster and sees that college shooting guards often become NBA point guards. A former PG he seems to think he doesn't need a PG on the court - he still wants to be PG from the sideline? He thinks he can teach a SG to be a PG? Whatever it is, in general the roster has lacked natural PGs. Last year he recruited one natural PG (Diggins) and two combo guards (Cole, Gaffney) and only played the combo guards.

Whereas Calhoun & Ollie had greatest success playing two PGs and converting PGs to SG - Ricky Moore playing off Khalid, Doron playing off Ollie, Shabazz off Kemba, Boatright off Shabazz.

We need a little more creativity on the court to get to the highest level. Personally I like watching guards play more than watching Samson Johnson, Richie Springs, Akok Akok sitting on the bench while two centers are on the court. I get that big men need time to develop, and Whaley and Sanogo were two of our best players, but if we can have so many big men why can't we have one natural PG who plays?

Thanks for clarifying another piece to the PG puzzle in your post. Your insight into changing scoring guards into point guards makes sense about Dan Hurley motivation. Looking ahead we see Castle (6-5 shooting guard) year 2023 and 6-5 Hawkins and 6-3 Floyd shooting guards next year. Roll the dice on the transfer to get one or more PGs (or maybe more shooting guards!) and pass on Diggens for his performance in practice. The big problem I see with this is the better teams we will play (let alone elite teams) will pressure the ballhandlers because their defensive prowess will overpower the "transitional would be point guards". If your theory is correct, and our only ballhandler (Cole) just said goodbye he has made a huge gamble on next season and possibly beyond.

 

[dennismenace]

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that next year’s starting point guard (yes, from the portal), will be a better player than the two kids who transferred this week.

And as long as that’s the case, the net impact of these moving parts would be a better roster than what we started with.

I thought that was the idea when it comes to roster management.

What, going out on a limb?

 

[Dogdeacon]

Diggins PT - I generally agree with those positing that he shoulda played in Nov/Dec. But given that is SO obvious it can also be true that he simply didn't have the strength/skills & defensive fundamentals to play at a UConn level - that is certainly what we saw in the limited minutes he did play.
Gaffney - He was very frustrating this year. A lot of it was poor decision making. He is very athletic, capable of spectacular plays yet not able to consistently make the 'right play' in games.
So I posit that Gaffney turning the corner at some point in the year was deemed way more possible & probable than Diggins developing into a contributor in the short OR long term. Gaffney plays too fast due to nerves or some other in-game disconnect that leads to mistakes, but his athleticism was superior to his game performances and possibly he was better in drills/practices.

So the most logical conclusion on "Why did Gaffney get the minutes?' is he had the better potential for 21-22 and 22-23. The knock is he could never earn more than the 5-10 minutes he played down the stretch of the season nor could he adequately hold down the fort during those 5-10 minutes, for 21-22 his style of play was uncorrectable. Now that 22-23 is also lost it seems like a bad limited upside bet on him vs the possible short-term pain but longer therefore higher upside of Diggins.

The way the minutes were allocated & the performance the last 2 months of the season losing both became more and more possible. The short-term prioritization didn't work and the long-term was sacrificed for little benefit.

Samson Johnson's season falls into a similar conundrum. Clearly the long-term even if its just 22-23 considerations argue for more burn for him. The only plausible excuse is that it is more customary for freshman big men to play sparingly and still develop into big-time college players (PG arguably the 2nd hardest position, yet great ones do play right away in college b/c typically the fundamentals are there). Regardless, Samson Johnson's minutes in 21-22 were under-allocated for the short-term with limited upside benefits of Whaley. Can see how this happens as Whaley and infinitely better defender, team guy and someone to reward for his hard work & loyalty. But in the end even though he played very well, rewarding Whaley didn't reap enough 21-22 benefits (ie. a flawed team exists, NMST dares Whaley to shoot) to offset delaying Samson's development.

 

[Guapo]

We now have zero point guards. Of all the point in America, we currently have none of them.

I feel like I might be onto something with these roster management complaints, but absolutely keep telling me that this is totally cool in 2022 because of the portal.

You’re not onto anything, whoever we bring in will be an upgrade over what we had.

Nothing against Diggins and Gaffney personally, but they were really bad fits. Forcing out pieces that don’t fit in order to bring in pieces that do is how modern, big time programs work. I’m happy that we’re behaving like the big time program we are.

 

[RayRay]

Now that we see Gaffney has entered the portal, any chance Diggins changes his mind? Would Hurley take him back? Maybe he comes back in with a fresh motivation given the clear path to minutes if he performs. Just a thought.

 

[dennismenace]

Do you really think that Hurley was caught off guard by this and they don't have some one lined up to replace him? This is college basketball 101. I guarantee you the staff has been in touch with multiple ball handlers who will contribute next year far more than Diggins would have. This was expressed to Diggins and the choice to transfer was mutual. This happens in every program in America. People slammed Hurley for not acknowleding his mistakes. Now they are slamming him for admitting them. Its insufferable.

Excuse my apparent ignorance but how is our staff able to discuss things with players from other programs without seriously violating NCAA recruiting policies and the related penalties?

 

[JMick]

Excuse my apparent ignorance but how is our staff able to discuss things with players from other programs without seriously violating NCAA recruiting policies and the related penalties?

I would imagine the same way everyone else does?

 

[aburks41]

Now that we see Gaffney has entered the portal, any chance Diggins changes his mind? Would Hurley take him back? Maybe he comes back in with a fresh motivation given the clear path to minutes if he performs. Just a thought.

Diggins is leaving because he's not good enough to get meaningful minutes here no matter who is on the roster. We will get better talent

 

[Deadrody]

If it takes bringing in a guy like Taliek Brown who has a handle and can run an offense, I am all for it.

As you likely recall, Taliek Brown was a McDonald's All American

 

[Deadrody]

Forcing out pieces that don’t fit in ... is how modern, big time programs work.

Absolutely not true. This is how lousy coaches run programs. The fact that the transfer portal operates differently than the old redshirt transfer system does not make relying on other team's castoffs a better option.

The simple fact is that transfers rarely work out and despite their above average regular season results, we're seeing that play out right before our eyes. Nevermind that the inability to keep your recruits on your roster is, in and of itself, a sign of failure in running an athletic program.

 

[Ports21]

Excuse my apparent ignorance but how is our staff able to discuss things with players from other programs without seriously violating NCAA recruiting policies and the related penalties?

I believe once players enter the portal anyone can contact them.

Now do things happen before they even enter...probably.

 

[PNolanFan]

As you likely recall, Taliek Brown was a McDonald's All American

I was just trying to figure this out since I thought I remember him being the equivalent of a 5 star recruit

 

[t8per]

Now that we see Gaffney has entered the portal, any chance Diggins changes his mind? Would Hurley take him back? Maybe he comes back in with a fresh motivation given the clear path to minutes if he performs. Just a thought.

I assume Diggins knew that Gaffney transferring before transferring himself. It might be a bad look if he decides to change his mind and stay.

 

[aburks41]

Excuse my apparent ignorance but how is our staff able to discuss things with players from other programs without seriously violating NCAA recruiting policies and the related penalties?

They can discuss things with their AAU or high school coaches. The reality is that no one cares about tampering though

 

[Fatroony5]

They can discuss things with their AAU or high school coaches. The reality is that no one cares about tampering though

I said this before, but I was talking to a P5 assistant a couple months back about transfers/the portal for awhile. He said it’s such a s*** show. He landed a very talented player last year basically before he even hit the portal. He said it’s all relationship based but usually when the “big name” players hit the portal, people already know before it happens. If you contact the big names once they hit, you’re too late. The players usually talk to their AAU or high school coaches, who start informing coaches and leaking out the info. The wheels get set in motion… I can’t say for certain but when Borges published that article about Diggins, the decision was probably already made by then and other coaches knew.

 

[Scoe]

One thing Ollie could do was coach up pgs even when the downfall occurred. He found a way for Terrance Samuel to get some minutes in March and I'm pretty sure wasnt as high of a ranked recruit as Diggins.

This is an absolute failure on Hurleys part, has to do a better job of developing pgs, hire someone who can, improve the offensive efficiency.

 

[BGesus4]

One thing Ollie could do was coach up pgs even when the downfall occurred. He found a way for Terrance Samuel to get some minutes in March and I'm pretty sure wasnt as high of a ranked recruit as Diggins.

This is an absolute failure on Hurleys part, has to do a better job of developing pgs, hire someone who can, improve the offensive efficiency.

Jalen Adams and Alterique, the two borderline 5 star pgs he had would beg to differ.

But true, samuels did have 8 points once.

 

[Mister P]

You're not looking at this the right way.

Hurley started reducing Gaff's minutes because he wasn't playing well and STILL didn't increase Diggins' minutes. Diggins' minutes were what they were because of how he was practicing and performing, clearly. Because there was no relationship between Gaff's minutes and Diggins'. And now that Cole is gone and there are a ton of minutes available, Diggins isn't sticking around. Maybe the relationship is fractured, but Hurley isn't a fool. Hurley is a PG himself. He's not fracturing a relationship with his PG of the future to play a guy that he himself was benching quickly.

Barely. Gaffney was down to 4-8 minutes a game by the end of the year. If Diggins could do anything he would have been playing. There's no doubt of that.

Out of 500+ comments I think @auror has the best take on the Diggins situation and him transferring.

The staff saw him everyday in practice and in game situations. They know how he played and what to expect if he was given 10-15 minutes a game like many here have suggested. He wasn’t given those minutes because of what the staff saw. Simple as that.
Some players have great high school careers and are highly touted but just can’t improve when they are matched against equal or better D1 talent. It happens.

That being said, I’m all for giving incoming freshman who come in with higher expectations ,or even sophomores, plenty minutes in order for them to gain the experience that can only help them as their college career moves forward. However, that’s only when a team is average at best and you’re not going anywhere with the current team that you have. Doing this could only help a team as those underclassman get older and as the coach keeps trying to recruit high talent for future classes……
This year we had a team with a good amount of talent, both underclassman and upperclassman not named Diggins, that proved they should be on the court every game and this was a team that had high expectations. A coach needs to play those players in order to try and achieve the teams goals. Hurley and staff did that but unfortunately the season ended not how they expected it.

Diggins did not show the staff that he earned game time minutes and his leaving was a mutual agreement by both parties.

Getting a couple of experienced guard transfers with the nucleus of Jackson,Hawkins and Sanogo, a highly regarded freshman class and hopefully the return of 2 tall 4’s COULD mean a better team next year.

 

[Scoe]

Jalen Adams and Alterique, the two borderline 5 star pgs he had would beg to differ.

But true, samuels did have 8 points once.

Not defending Ollies downfall but he was good with pgs, if Hurley can get better at that we will get to that next level. I guess people forget about Terrance Samuel giving us some minutes in March as a freshman, the fact that we couldn't get that our of Diggins is a failure. Bad pg development and/or he wasnt the player we thought .

 

[auror]

Out of 500+ comments I think @auror has the best take on the Diggins situation and him transferring.

The staff saw him everyday in practice and in game situations. They know how he played and what to expect if he was given 10-15 minutes a game like many here have suggested. He wasn’t given those minutes because of what the staff saw. Simple as that.
Some players have great high school careers and are highly touted but just can’t improve when they are matched against equal or better D1 talent. It happens.

That being said, I’m all for giving incoming freshman who come in with higher expectations ,or even sophomores, plenty minutes in order for them to gain the experience that can only help them as their college career moves forward. However, that’s only when a team is average at best and you’re not going anywhere with the current team that you have. Doing this could only help a team as those underclassman get older and as the coach keeps trying to recruit high talent for future classes……
This year we had a team with a good amount of talent, both underclassman and upperclassman not named Diggins, that proved they should be on the court every game and this was a team that had high expectations. A coach needs to play those players in order to try and achieve the teams goals. Hurley and staff did that but unfortunately the season ended not how they expected it.

Diggins did not show the staff that he earned game time minutes and his leaving was a mutual agreement by both parties.

Getting a couple of experienced guard transfers with the nucleus of Jackson,Hawkins and Sanogo, a highly regarded freshman class and hopefully the return of 2 tall 4’s COULD mean a better team next year.

Thanks. And I agree with most of what you wrote as well.

I would go even further that I don't even necessarily think it was mutual. I think Hurley would have wanted Diggins to stay and continue developing, despite not playing him "enough" this season to satisfy him. At the same time, the staff also knew they were not playing him "enough". There was that article that came out a couple months back

According to Mosco, Diggins has at times been frustrated.

“In the beginning of the year he was,” the coach said. “He and Danny (Hurley) talked. Danny’s got to get the confidence in him, he’s got to get confidence in Danny. It’s a long process.”

The staff absolutely knew they were risking him leaving by playing Gaffney over him and then further choosing to just increase Cole's minutes instead of adding to Diggins' when they reduced Gaffney's. But they also knew that was the best way to win this year and that the downstream risk, Diggins leaving, likely wasn't that major a concern. Upon practice evaluation, he turned out to be extremely replaceable, despite his HS rank. So now we're going about replacing him.

So really, it's a two-part risk: the risk that he left in the first place, and the risk that we don't recruit a better transfer for next year (at least Castle coming in 2 years decreases the future risk). We have to fail both to truly fail. The calculation the staff arrived at is that it will not be difficult to get a better replacement for this year because Diggins was that far away and that the future is already solidified. If we get a 2-year Big East starting caliber PG in the portal, we will have improved our roster going forward while at the same time having optimized our chances of winning this past year. In other words, even losing one of the bets, a win-win is certainly possible and in my opinion, the most likely outcome.

 

[Guapo]

Absolutely not true. This is how lousy coaches run programs. The fact that the transfer portal operates differently than the old redshirt transfer system does not make relying on other team's castoffs a better option.

The simple fact is that transfers rarely work out and despite their above average regular season results, we're seeing that play out right before our eyes. Nevermind that the inability to keep your recruits on your roster is, in and of itself, a sign of failure in running an athletic program.

Tell me you don’t pay attention to basketball nationally without telling me