SG Bruce Brown (Miami Commit)

[formerlurker]

Pretty bizarre. Brown would be perfect as a back-up for Purv his freshman yr before stepping in. I don't buy that this is because of Diallo--losing an elite '16 because of an elite '17 seems silly and risky.

N0n-believers over there...

 

[Tenspro2002]

If we end up with Hamidou and Mamidou dibs on the "Dou Duo" nickname

I thought of that last week but forgot to post it. Kudos to you.

 

[pnow15]

Recruiting seems to be a lot like meeting woman: You have to show up and hope someone likes you.
(Unless of course you have ESPN marketing your brand 24/7)

 

[husky99]

http://zagsblog.com/recruiting/bruce-brown-excited-for-st-johns-visit/

 

[PradaMane]

Its hilarious the hate Bruce is receiving in this thread. Now all of a sudden Diallo is a better player. Anyone with eyes knows Bruce is a more impact recruit in 2016.. Take off the homer goggles for once

 

[Gurleyman]

Its hilarious the hate Bruce is receiving in this thread. Now all of a sudden Diallo is a better player. Anyone with eyes knows Bruce is a more impact recruit in 2016.. Take off the homer goggles for once

How can they be homer glasses when neither player is here?

Personally, if I'm projecting a team built around Adams his sophomore and junior years (assuming he plays three and is as good as we hope), I'd like recruits with good shooting range to spread the floor. We had good shooting around Kemba in 2011 and Bazz in 2014 - bad shooting around Dyson/Kemba in 2010, and Boat in 2015. We had to go 3 guards in 2012 to get enough shooting on the floor and didn't always have all 3.

I personally don't know if Diallo will be a better shooter - or better prospect - than Brown. But if we have two similarly rated prospects and like someone's range/touch better, I don't find it alarming that we would be leaning towards the shooter. But I also wouldn't understand backing off Brown unless we really felt comfortable with our other targets, or if we thought Brown wasn't going to come (which his comments would seem to refute). There's no reason to consider Brown a chemistry/attitude/academic issue as far as I can tell.

 

[Fishy]

I personally don't know if Diallo will be a better shooter - or better prospect - than Brown. But if we have two similarly rated prospects and like someone's range/touch better, I don't find it alarming that we would be leaning towards the shooter. But I also wouldn't understand backing off Brown unless we really felt comfortable with our other targets, or if we thought Brown wasn't going to come (which his comments would seem to refute). There's no reason to consider Brown a chemistry/attitude/academic issue as far as I can tell.

The imaginary narrative is popular here.

They're either very, very confident in their ability to land another play or they're setting themselves up for a fall.

You'd hope it was the former, but past experience means we can't dismiss the latter.

 

[mauconnfan]

Its hilarious the hate Bruce is receiving in this thread. Now all of a sudden Diallo is a better player. Anyone with eyes knows Bruce is a more impact recruit in 2016.. Take off the homer goggles for once

I don't think there's any way of telling which will be a better player in 2016-17 for any program. The one thing that makes me wonder about Brown's recruitment is his idea that teams would want him as a "1". I saw nothing that led me to believe he'd be a solid 2 for sure never mind even close to a "1". Chris Mullin said he could be Russell Westbrook - I like Chris and loved his game but that's blowing some serious smoke. I get they say some things that kids want to hear but c'mon.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Brown would be a great get, but so would diallo. We need shooters. You can always find slashers

 

[Askgreek]

I don't think there's any way of telling which will be a better player in 2016-17 for any program. The one thing that makes me wonder about Brown's recruitment is his idea that teams would want him as a "1". I saw nothing that led me to believe he'd be a solid 2 for sure never mind even close to a "1". Chris Mullin said he could be Russell Westbrook - I like Chris and loved his game but that's blowing some serious smoke. I get they say some things that kids want to hear but c'mon.

I agree with mauconnfan. Brown's quotes in the recent past continue to talk about playing PG and playing with the ball in his hands. Not to merge threads with the Ali de-commitment, but if I recall correctly, Prince also made similar comments about wanting to play the 1 and/or play with the ball in his hands, shortly after the de-commitment.

I think a lot of these guys see James Harden, Westbrook, etc. on the pro-level, who are more in the mold of Wing guards that are asked to play a lot of point for their teams. Again, I don't have any insight beyond reading the quotes and suspecting that this is the case.

KO and staff have Adams/Gibbs for this year and are recruiting some serious talent at the PG position (Gilbert, etc.) for next year. As we all know, they like to play two of these guys at the same time on the floor. Our wings need to be able to shoot, and slash to the basket after our PGs set them up. They are not necessarily expected to create for others off the dribble. I think DHam had to do a lot of that last year because 1) he has the talent to do it and 2) we only had one other player on the team who could create (Boat) and so he had to take on a lot more of that responsibility. I expect DHam to still do a lot of that this year (especially with the forwards), but, I hope, it won't be forced upon him as much as this past season and it should be more natural in the flow of the offense.

I suspect that is why some of our recruiting has been a bit hot/cold. Both player and team are much better off knowing exactly their role before they enroll with the team. We are never going to tell a kid what he wants to hear, just to have him commit. Sometimes there may be miscommunication through the process and the result usually is the player and/or team going in different directions. I see this as a good thing. We can't get everyone. We just need to try and get the guys that fit our team puzzle best.

We all know that our MO has been two PG's on the floor at the same time which has helped produced some of our best seasons. Let's hope history repeats itself again soon.

 

[Gurleyman]

The imaginary narrative is popular here. They're either very, very confident in their ability to land another play or they're setting themselves up for a fall. You'd hope it was the former, but past experience means we can't dismiss the latter.

Similarly, I don't think the "fall" narrative holds up any more. If folks are still trying to use the Clarke/Jones/Mack effort to get a wing one class behind Hamilton as a cautionary tale, that worked itself out just fine. Hamilton didn't leave after one year or transfer - he's still here, and we ended up with Larrier to come in behind him (and Omar), who probably wouldn't have come if we already had an heir apparent on the wing in place. Certainly possible that one of those other three guys ends up a better college player than Larrier, but all four of them were ranked in the 30-45 range and Larrier comes in with a fair amount of experience under his belt, which could be a good thing if Purvis and Hamilton both go.

I agree that you don't want to have to look to the transfer market in May as heavily as we did this year, since you are out of fallback options at that point if you miss those targets, but ultimately if you get it done, you get it done. Next year's team doesn't have a single obvious personnel weakness with the way it's constructed (doesn't mean it will all come together - but there's no glaring need on paper). Looking ahead to 2016-17, we have some frontcourt personnel in place (Facey, Diarra, Larrier, Enoch) but definitely have to address backcourt/perimeter needs around Adams (can't count on Purvis still being here or Cassell being worthy of heavy minutes). If we happen to feel comfortable with Diallo, our next priority needs to be Gilbert or someone like him, or else Adams is in the role of this year's Boat. We can't overload our backcourt with guys who can't play the 1 or be secondary ballhandlers/creators like we did this year. But if we back off Brown and don't get these other targets, then we have to go back to being spring vultures again or find a late bloomer, which admittedly you would hope isn't a consistent strategy.

 

[Brochacho]

Its hilarious the hate Bruce is receiving in this thread. Now all of a sudden Diallo is a better player. Anyone with eyes knows Bruce is a more impact recruit in 2016.. Take off the homer goggles for once

Bump.

 

[PradaMane]

Bump.

Bruce is a top 2o in scoring in eybl leading his team to the best record in the division. I think you may want to try again.

 

[mauconnfan]

Bruce is a top 2o in scoring in eybl leading his team to the best record in the division. I think you may want to try again.

So if for some reason, and no one knows, Ollie and staff like Diallo better than Brown they should talk to you first? I mean there's something going on there which we may never find out but if ll is true and they've backed off, we need to trust our staff.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Bruce is a top 2o in scoring in eybl leading his team to the best record in the division. I think you may want to try again.

That doesn't mean that "anyone with eyes knows he's the better prospect." I like Brown a lot, but I think Diallo is better.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Bruce is a top 2o in scoring in eybl leading his team to the best record in the division. I think you may want to try again.

I think we all agree that Brown is a very good player and we'd be lucky to have him. The only reason you're getting flack is because of how aggressively you claimed that he is better than Diallo, who sounds like he's heading to 5-star status pretty soon.

 

[david]

Bruce is a top 2o in scoring in eybl leading his team to the best record in the division. I think you may want to try again.

I would prefer Diallo over Brown just from what I've seen of both of them

 

[uconnever]

I would prefer Diallo over Brown just from what I've seen of both of them

Me 2 please

 

[husky99]

Both kids are hot this spring. Give me either or both

 

[Tampahusky]

I think Brown is a better player now but Diallo has more upside. Both are good.

 

[Drumguy]

I think we'd be happy to have either or both. People have way too much time on their hands to worry so much about this.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Let's just end up with one...

 

[Chief00]

Quite frankly, take the best players you can sign who have the right attitude - then figure things out.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

I know im digging back a bit, but i think Brown is a great choice if Diallo doesn't reclassify, or even if he does for that matter seeing as we have some upen schollies. Whats the word on Diallo, is he leaning to reclassify or no?

 

[UConnSwag11]

Quite frankly, take the best players you can sign who have the right attitude - then figure things out.

This