Returning Players

[nyhuskies13]

I know the 'yard forbids any speculation on transfers. In light of the thread on Cobb and Jalen's recent announcement, any other players confirm they will 100% be back next year? A Dime Back wrote an article about the roster being complete after Yawke committed, but is that set in stone?

Confirmed?
Jalen Adams
Eric Cobb
Alterique Gilbert
Sidney Wilson
Tarin Smith
Brendan Adams
Kassoum Yawke

Unconfirmed
Josh Carlton
Mamadou Diarra
Tyler Polley
Isaiah Whaley
Kwintin Williams

Draft
Christian Vital


Anyone have color? Surprised more guys have not come out and said, i will 100% be back

 

[UConnSwag11]

I know the 'yard forbids any speculation on transfers. In light of the thread on Cobb and Jalen's recent announcement, any other players confirm they will 100% be back next year? A Dime Back wrote an article about the roster being complete after Yawke committed, but is that set in stone?

Confirmed?
Jalen Adams
Eric Cobb
Alterique Gilbert
Sidney Wilson
Tarin Smith
Brendan Adams
Kassoum Yawke

Unconfirmed
Josh Carlton
Mamadou Diarra
Tyler Polley
Isaiah Whaley
Kwintin Williams

Draft
Christian Vital


Anyone have color? Surprised more guys have not come out and said, i will 100% be back

from what it this board has said, Carlton and Polley are coming back and Williams seems to be as well

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

I'm sure we will hear more shortly after exams are over (Last day is 5/5)

 

[UconnU]

More talent on this roster than people are giving us credit for. We’re going to compete for a conference title. I’d like to see everyone gain 5-10 pounds of muscle though. We were noticeably smaller than our competition last year. We got killed on the boards.

 

[TopDogs]

Have we heard about the new strength and conditioning coach yet?

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

Have we heard about the new strength and conditioning coach yet?

As they say on the Price is Right..."Will the next John Reilly COME ON DOWN"!

John Reilly (@coach_jreilly) | Twitter

Eccentric training vid. Nice!

 

[ColchVEGAS]

More talent on this roster than people are giving us credit for. We’re going to compete for a conference title. I’d like to see everyone gain 5-10 pounds of muscle though. We were noticeably smaller than our competition last year. We got killed on the boards.

I may be in the minority, but I never thought talent has been an issue the past few years. I think there is enough talent there to be a competitive and winning team. The issues I have seen are in player development and preparation.

Take the Nova game last season for example. During warm ups UConn was doing their typical dunks and chucking threes while being stretched out. Nova was running set plays and yelling as if they were already 15 minutes into an old Big East rivalry.

 

[Hankster]

I may be in the minority, but I never thought talent has been an issue the past few years. I think there is enough talent there to be a competitive and winning team. The issues I have seen are in player development and preparation.

Take the Nova game last season for example. During warm ups UConn was doing their typical dunks and chucking threes while being stretched out. Nova was running set plays and yelling as if they were already 15 minutes into an old Big East rivalry.

I went to the UCF game in Orlando. Pregame warm ups looked like a joke. A gathering of friends playing ball. Chucking three's, everybody was dunking, where ever the ball was landing that player picked it up and decided to do a triple axle dunk. In fact I don't remember seeing a member of the coaching staff out there. Laughing, joking around. Not a problem doing that when it is constructive.Needless to say, we got beat, without Andre the Giant playing.

 

[rayrayfor3]

whenever I hear someone say "talent was the issue" i just point to rodney purvis now being a productive nba player. We had nba talent on our roster and we still stunk, Ollie had a ferrari but didn't know how to drive a car. It was 100% coaching, I have faith all the players are gonna look brand new this coming season.

 

[Horatio]

 

[champs99and04]

whenever I hear someone say "talent was the issue" i just point to rodney purvis now being a productive nba player. We had nba talent on our roster and we still stunk, Ollie had a ferrari but didn't know how to drive a car. It was 100% coaching, I have faith all the players are gonna look brand new this coming season.

And whenever I hear somebody cite Rodney Purvis in the context of Ollie's failings, I assume they probably weren't watching the games. You'd have much better luck blaming him for Facey and Brimah.

Talent was a problem last year. Not an 8th place level talent problem, but definitely a problem. It was Jalen, a broken player coming off an ACL, and some guys who weren't ready yet. The two years before that is when he lost his job.

 

[UconnU]

Adams is going to average 20+ points next year in Hurley's system. If you were to create the perfect guard for Hurley's system, which is predicated on dribble penetration and points in transition, you couldn't create a better guard than Adams.

 

[UconnU]

And whenever I hear somebody cite Rodney Purvis in the context of Ollie's failings, I assume they probably weren't watching the games. You'd have much better luck blaming him for Facey and Brimah.

Talent was a problem last year. Not an 8th place level talent problem, but definitely a problem. It was Jalen, a broken player coming off an ACL, and some guys who weren't ready yet. The two years before that is when he lost his job.

Talent was a problem but we had more talent than a lot of the teams we lost to. Our half court sets were horrendous! and our defense lacked energy.

 

[superjohn]

Adams is going to average 20+ points next year in Hurley's system. If you were to create the perfect guard for Hurley's system, which is predicated on dribble penetration and points in transition, you couldn't create a better guard than Adams.

I get your point but that's some serious hyperbole.

 

[Bryan Lord]

Well that's a better draft class for us than last year.

 

[UconnU]

I get your point but that's some serious hyperbole.

The point about Adams averaging 20? He averaged 18 last year and missed a cup cake game... or the point about creating a guard for the system? He is a really good fit. Maybe you would make him an inch or 2 taller... but his length makes up for it.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

I get your point but that's some serious hyperbole.

I don't see how that's hyperbole. Jalen is going to thrive under Hurley and be an absolute force.

 

[UconnU]

What we need next year more than anything is to just win games, hopefully early before most 2019 kids decide. Put a number in front of UCONN so that the sense is that UCONN is BACK under Hurley. Would go a long way.

 

[superjohn]

The point about Adams averaging 20? He averaged 18 last year and missed a cup cake game... or the point about creating a guard for the system? He is a really good fit. Maybe you would make him an inch or 2 taller... but his length makes up for it.

That you couldn't create a better guard for Hurley's system.

 

[champs99and04]

Talent was a problem but we had more talent than a lot of the teams we lost to. Our half court sets were horrendous! and our defense lacked energy.

I wouldn't say a lot. We had more talent than Tulsa, SMU by the time they lost all their players, and Memphis. UCF minus Fall is a maybe. If you want to say we had more talent than Temple or Houston or even Wichita you might be able to make a case based on high school ranking, but their players were further along than ours. No coach was getting a lot out of Whaley or Polley last season.

The coaching was really bad. There's no ambiguity there. But that was pretty much always going to be an ugly situation minus Gilbert.

 

[UconnU]

We bring in an entirely new coaching staff. Not one player leaves, including our best player who would easily be starting for a G-League team or making lots of money overseas. Says a lot about the previous staff and the current staff's recruiting/re-recruiting. I was fully expecting to see one or two kids transfer. Impressive.

 

[Danzz]

Can't say much but I heard this weekend that one player may have academic issues. Hope that is not the case.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

We bring in an entirely new coaching staff. Not one player leaves, including our best player who would easily be starting for a G-League team or making lots of money overseas. Says a lot about the previous staff and the current staff's recruiting/re-recruiting. I was fully expecting to see one or two kids transfer. Impressive.

The semester isn't over yet...

 

[Chief00]

Can't say much but I heard this weekend that one player may have academic issues. Hope that is not the case.

True, and that’s not unusual. Often times when guys leave for academics, they paint a different narrative as cover.

 

[Huskybass]

I wouldn't say a lot. We had more talent than Tulsa, SMU by the time they lost all their players, and Memphis. UCF minus Fall is a maybe. If you want to say we had more talent than Temple or Houston or even Wichita you might be able to make a case based on high school ranking, but their players were further along than ours. No coach was getting a lot out of Whaley or Polley last season.

The coaching was really bad. There's no ambiguity there. But that was pretty much always going to be an ugly situation minus Gilbert.

Your inability to see things for what they were is mind boggling. We had to go to overtime, at home, to beat Columbia. Columbia, a team that won 8 games and had nowhere near the talent on the UConn roster. Last season could have been so much better with a decent coach... and you are really selling Polley short.