Rocket Watts?

[bendm]

Conceivably? Almost every spring and summer for the past 30 years or so.

when in the last 30 years has our 12th man been a top 65 recruit?

 

[superjohn]

if you dont think Hall has elite 8 potential cool, but re our team, it seems like you should be quibbling with 8893 not me

I had no idea you think Seton Hall has elite 8 potential. The UConn team you're describing obviously does as well. You've got to be the only person in the country who thinks Hall is an elite 8 type team next season.

 

[bendm]

I had no idea you think Seton Hall has elite 8 potential. The UConn team you're describing obviously does as well. You've got to be the only person in the country who thinks Hall is an elite 8 type team next season.

surely some BE bias but i think richmond/harris/cale/rhoden/yetna/obiagu is the best top 6 willard has had

 

[HuskyHawk]

when in the last 30 years has our 12th man been a top 65 recruit?

What? Last I knew this team still had Polley. #168. Are we ranking teams by recruiting rankings now? I don't know who our worst scholarship player will be next year, with or without Watts. I think it is unlikely that our worst scholarship player will be as good as some from the past. Shamon Tooles wasn't great, but he got 6 mpg on a team that sent 6 guys to the NBA.

 

[8893]

when in the last 30 years has our 12th man been a top 65 recruit?

What? You asked me when was the last time we had 11 guys who could each conceivably play ten minutes or more. Now you are asking me about the ranking of the player considered to be the 12th man?

I don't see where you are going with this; and I don't pay much attention to rankings anymore because they've seldom correlated with what we end up with. Same reason I don't start assessing our players until I see them wearing our uniform and playing in our games.

Listen, I love the @Scrappy3 -level optimism, but every spring and summer for decades we hear about going ten-plus deep and it never happens.

And it isn't a given that all the players will improve; some do, some don't. As we say, progress is not linear. Assuming that everyone improves is not a safe bet.

Assuming that all the players are at full health is not a safe bet. Assuming that the incoming freshmen will each be ready to contribute at a level commensurate with their rankings is not a safe bet.

We know that Hurley was looking to improve the team through the transfer portal or otherwise. I am happy that Whalley and Polley are returning, but to act like standing pat was the plan all along is delusional imo.

 

[navery12]

We know that Hurley was looking to improve the team through the transfer portal or otherwise. I am happy that Whalley and Polley are returning, but to act like standing pat was the plan all along is delusional imo.

Haven't you been posting all off-season about how there's no minutes available for transfers? But now all of a sudden once Hurley doesn't get one, the returning players aren't good enough

 

[superjohn]

What? You asked me when was the last time we had 11 guys who could each conceivably play ten minutes or more. Now you are asking me about the ranking of the player considered to be the 12th man?

I don't see where you are going with this; and I don't pay much attention to rankings anymore because they've seldom correlated with what we end up with. Same reason I don't start assessing our players until I see them wearing our uniform and playing in our games.

Listen, I love the @Scrappy3 -level optimism, but every spring and summer for decades we hear about going ten-plus deep and it never happens.

And it isn't a given that all the players will improve; some do, some don't. As we say, progress is not linear. Assuming that everyone improves is not a safe bet.

Assuming that all the players are at full health is not a safe bet. Assuming that the incoming freshmen will each be ready to contribute at a level commensurate with their rankings is not a safe bet.

We know that Hurley was looking to improve the team through the transfer portal or otherwise. I am happy that Whalley and Polley are returning, but to act like standing pat was the plan all along is delusional imo.

The plan worked out better than we expected. We got Whaley and Polley back which is better than I think just about anybody could've expected. We would only be adding one more player, no way was Hurley carrying over 13 scholarship players.

 

[bendm]

you're both trying really hard to paint an optimist into a corner...it's kinda sad

What? Last I knew this team still had Polley. #168.

i obviously meant when was the last time the 12th man on our roster was an incoming frosh that was a top 65 recruit.... if you dont think that speaks to depth then agree to disagree, but i certainly wasnt comparing the recruiting rankings of 5th year seniors and freshmen.

What? You asked me when was the last time we had 11 guys who could each conceivably play ten minutes or more. Now you are asking me about the ranking of the player considered to be the 12th man?

how do you not see the correlation? if a top 65 frosh is the 12th man on the roster that means the other 11 guys are all really good players and getting more minutes....

there are only 3 players (cole, whaley, sanogo) pretty much guaranteed to get ~25mpg, with a lot of parity between players 4-11. given the above, it's very realistic that springs gets 10 mpg next year.

 

[8893]

Haven't you been posting all off-season about how there's no minutes available for transfers? But now all of a sudden once Hurley doesn't get one, the returning players aren't good enough

Ah, no. Try again, sparky.

This is what I posted when Kadary Richmond announced:

So if he is leaving Cuse because he wants to be guaranteed a starting position, I presume the school that is the successful bidder for his services will have to offer that?

Which I presume is something we can't do?

And I was roundly criticized for it by many here who claimed that there were more than enough minutes for him to showcase himself at UConn (which wasn't even my point, which was more about what I thought was Hurley's stated practice of never promising a starting position but instead saying it had to be earned).

A few weeks later, when it was reported that neither he nor Locke were interested in us because of concern about available playing time, I merely noted the inconsistency with the responses I had received to the above post about Richmond.

To be clear: I am not the one who decides whether there are minutes available or whether there is a need. I am merely commenting on what Hurley has said and done in this respect.

The pretzel logic of the legion of posters on this board who construe every fart from this guy as a stroke of genius from the master carpenter is comical to watch. What that we all could have such adoring and forgiving fans with such short memories.

 

[8893]

you're both trying really hard to paint an optimist into a corner...it's kinda sad

i obviously meant when was the last time the 12th man on our roster was an incoming frosh that was a top 65 recruit.... if you dont think that speaks to depth then agree to disagree, but i certainly wasnt comparing the recruiting rankings of 5th year seniors and freshmen.

how do you not see the correlation? if a top 65 frosh is the 12th man on the roster that means the other 11 guys are all really good players and getting more minutes....

there are only 3 players (cole, whaley, sanogo) pretty much guaranteed to get 25mpg, with a lot of parity between players 4-11. given the above, it's very realistic that springs gets 10 mpg next year.

Now this is impressive: directly contradicting yourself in the very next paragraph of the same post. Kudos!

 

[bendm]

Now this is impressive: directly contradicting yourself in the very next paragraph of the same post. Kudos!

there's 0 contradiction there. cant really diagnose your disconnect besides stubbornness.

 

[TRest]

you're both trying really hard to paint an optimist into a corner...it's kinda sad

i obviously meant when was the last time the 12th man on our roster was an incoming frosh that was a top 65 recruit.... if you dont think that speaks to depth then agree to disagree, but i certainly wasnt comparing the recruiting rankings of 5th year seniors and freshmen.

how do you not see the correlation? if a top 65 frosh is the 12th man on the roster that means the other 11 guys are all really good players and getting more minutes....

there are only 3 players (cole, whaley, sanogo) pretty much guaranteed to get ~25mpg, with a lot of parity between players 4-11. given the above, it's very realistic that springs gets 10 mpg next year.

I looked up Sid Wilson today after seeing the AG portal news, did you know he was a top 75 prospect in high school? Rankings are meaningless once they show what they got in college. We don't have 11 guys that are presumably better than the 65th ranked freshman coming in, we have a bunch of guys with various flaws and strengths. None of whom seem to be a natural scorer.

 

[bendm]

We don't have 11 guys that are presumably better than the 65th ranked freshman coming in

we have 11 guys that are all going to contribute more and get more minutes this year than the 65th ranked frosh and nba talent that is samson johnson. check back in with me after the season.

 

[navery12]

Ah, no. Try again, sparky.

This is what I posted when Kadary Richmond announced:

And I was roundly criticized for it by many here who claimed that there were more than enough minutes for him to showcase himself at UConn (which wasn't even my point, which was more about what I thought was Hurley's stated practice of never promising a starting position but instead saying it had to be earned).

A few weeks later, when it was reported that neither he nor Locke were interested in us because of concern about available playing time, I merely noted the inconsistency with the responses I had received to the above post about Richmond.

To be clear: I am not the one who decides whether there are minutes available or whether there is a need. I am merely commenting on what Hurley has said and done in this respect.

The pretzel logic of the legion of posters on this board who construe every fart from this guy as a stroke of genius from the master carpenter is comical to watch. What that we all could have such adoring and forgiving fans with such short memories.

Fair enough, I see your point with Kadary now. I guess we just have very different reads on Hurley's comments this offseason

 

[8893]

None of whom seem to be a natural scorer.

Fret not, all of them are obviously going to improve in that respect and develop into natural scorers during the off-season, just like always.

 

[8893]

Fair enough, I see your point with Kadary now. I guess we just have very different reads on Hurley's comments this offseason

In fairness, I deserve a fair amount of blame for putting any stock in what Hurley says at this point. I believe his public comments have proven to be less than worthless most of the time.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Martin is starting. Gaff has done absolutely nothing to be penciled in as a starter before him. And then our bench has no one who’s averaged over 5ppg in a college season. We need a scorer if we want to take the next step. I’m not as comfortable going into next season with Cole and Sanogo as 1a and 1b options. Cole improved drastically over the season but he won’t get as many looks without Bouk there. Teams will force someone to make a play and we have no one who has shown they can consistently.

 

[Vuce]

Yeah people get bent over Hurley’s statements. Tune that out and watch the results. Every year has been better than the previous one since he’s been here. The success won’t be linear but I like the trend in recruiting and on the court. Really looking forward to next year to simply see the improvement and getting back to games in person and support the kids as a fan

 

[3rdbass]

your concern is understandable but hopefully everyone returning will increase their scoring and/or fg%.

i think this is our best lineup assuming everyone plays up to expectations: sanogo as a 15ppg guy; whaley diversifying his game; polley back to 40% from 3; gaff the wildcard but reason for optimism in year 3; cole improving to 15 ppg on 40% fg overall.

that's a really good starting lineup that fits well together.

then you have digg/hawk/aj/martin/akok/springs off the bench all getting solid PT. maybe hawk or aj or akok are starting by january who knows.

I hope we aren't seeing Polley playing tbe 3 much as that will mean that Jackson hasn't picked up his game much. I rather see polley come in as a 4 off the bench. Also i dont see Gaffney staying on the floor long with Hawkins now on the team.

 

[TRest]

we have 11 guys that are all going to contribute more and get more minutes this year than the 65th ranked frosh and nba talent that is samson johnson. check back in with me after the season.

Because of Samson's position and rawness. We aren't going to be magically better with a year of seasoning on some of these guys. Watch the game tapes from when Bouk was out, we had nobody that could go get a bucket.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I like how this post has rocketed up to the top of the thread chain while taking a sharp turn away from its Title now that there's high confidence that Watts isn't transferring to UConn. It coincides with the seeming disappearance of the Assistant Potential Coach Opportunity thread, which went pretty far afield just before the actual Job Posting was taken down.

Key West looks like it might be wrapping up nicely, though Underrated Cities still has legs, even if its offshoots have already been jettisoned to the Travel forum.

Coming up from behind, we're about 48 hours from post time at Churchill Downs.

 

[mauconnfan]

don’t think Dan is salivating over the transfer market right now, nor Watts. Think he’s content with what he has

This will mean that both the freshman will need to be good and impactful (this is for 8893) immediately. Otherwise we will see WAY too much of Cole and Gaffeny on the court together and that scares the hell out of me. Hopefully Diggins and Hawkins are ready because we need more dynamic guards to be really good.

 

[navery12]

Because of Samson's position and rawness. We aren't going to be magically better with a year of seasoning on some of these guys. Watch the game tapes from when Bouk was out, we had nobody that could go get a bucket.

As I've said before, this has been the conversation every offseason on this board about replacing the scoring that leaves. We couldn't replace Jalen Adams and then Vital stepped up, then wouldn't replace Vital and Bouknight stepped up. Now we can replace Bouknight, and someone will step up. My money is on Jackson becoming that go to guy

 

[8893]

I like how this post has rocketed up to the top of the thread chain while taking a sharp turn away from its Title now that there's high confidence that Watts isn't transferring to UConn. It coincides with the seeming disappearance of the Assistant Potential Coach thread, which went pretty far afield before the Job Posting was taken down.

Key West looks like it might be wrapping up nicely, though Underrated Cities still has legs, even if its offshoots have already been jettisoned to the Travel forum.

Coming up from behind, we're about 48 hours from post time at Churchill Downs.

This sounds like the short-lived but eminently enjoyable Boneyard week in review post.

Who did that and whatever happened to it anyway?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

As I've said before, this has been the conversation every offseason on this board about replacing the scoring that leaves. We couldn't replace Jalen Adams and then Vital stepped up, then wouldn't replace Vital and Bouknight stepped up. Now we can replace Bouknight, and someone will step up. My money is on Jackson becoming that go to guy

I think (hope) Jackson will take a big step forward this season but I'm skeptical that your go to crunch time scorer can be a guy who has literally no semblance of a jump shot, and can basically only score at the rim.