Silas Demary Visit

[Gurleyman]

Excellent point.

Newton was also what I call an elite closer. A guy who can take over a game in the closing minutes, score on-ball, get to the rim and convert on the free-throw line if fouled.

In his last season at UConn, Newton had a 47.4 FT Rate (186th in the nation) and hit 81% of hit FTAs.

Last year, Demary's FT Rate was 48.2 (186th in the nation) and he made 80.4% of his FTAs, so there's a huge similarity there and in UConn's system, he'd be a capable PG with elite closer potential.

Demary's 3.1 APG looks low for a PG, but Georgia was just 285th in the nation w/ a 47.8 A/FGM ratio. When Newton was at East Carolina, their A/FGM ratio was 63.1%, which was 5th in the nation, so there were many more opportunities for Newton to dish to his teammates.

Hurley's offensive system moves the ball beautifully, so if Demary ends up at UConn, which I would love, he'd have career highs in assists, for sure.

Yeah - if Demary wants to come, we take him. I don’t think that’s even a question. His versatility as a defender and his ability to get to the line are things we are lacking. We need pieces - he’s a good catch and shoot guy as well.

My gut is we would still need another perimeter piece. Putting someone in our system isn’t necessarily going to give them skills they don’t have. Spencer averaged 3 assists playing off the ball, because he was a skilled and instinctive passer. Hawkins and Ball averaged 1.5 because they aren’t instinctive passers - they are always looking for slivers of daylight to score. Spencer was more of a triple threat. Same system, different skills. Mahaney came in without point guard numbers and the system didn’t help. Some of it was his ability to handle ball pressure - but a lot of it was he just wasn’t good at it. He could make the right reads, but his lobs were poor, and if he tried to thread the needle, it was deflected. That can’t always be coached into someone. Georgias system might weigh assists down a bit, but if you have a knack for passing, you’ll have games where you get 5,6,7 just by doing what you do. You can get 3 a lot of days just leading the break or in hit ahead passes.

I still think if we get Demary, we need to find a good passing point guard too as a bench piece. Or maybe a good passing four who can be a hub in our offense. Everyone is focused on the lack of size in our current roster construction, but the lack of passing worries me. It was a problem this year and if Alex goes, we lost all of our guys who did it well.

But I don’t know for sure. Maybe those skills are there and will be drawn out with good catch and shoot guys and a low post finisher. If he commits, I might watch a couple games. Good and bad.

 

[boog204]

If he doesn’t pick us it only about the bag. Am I doing this right?

Yep... That's how it works. Kind of refreshing, actually, to have that instead of baseless attacks on a player's character, which was a BY go-to in the past.

 

[nomar]

At the end of the portal ESPN is going to put out their list of top transfers and it's going to be the biggest names from the biggest teams and by January there's going to be a bunch of guys running college basketball and there's not going to be much overlap between the two lists. It seems like that's what's happened the past few years. I can't get really invested in any of this when (a) I've never seen most of these guys play and (b) it just seems impossible to predict who's going to blow up when they go somewhere new.

True to a large extent but I will say that if you look at posts from 3 years ago, you'll see a bunch of people here identifying Newton as the clear #1 target.

There are definitely fewer "busts" with the portal players than with freshmen--especially among transfers from other high majors. There are always surprises, good and bad, but you mostly know what you're getting.

 

[jibsey]

This sounds strange to say but even with this great class coming our entire next season is going to come down to Hurley’s portal class this year. That is no disrespect to anyone but with the wrong or insufficient acquisitions we will have a hard ceiling.

 

[husky99]

This sounds strange to say but even with this great class coming our entire next season is going to come down to Hurley’s portal class this year. That is no disrespect to anyone but with the wrong or insufficient acquisitions we will have a hard ceiling.

I agree with most of this... reed is really important to the equation

 

[HuskyBoi]

This sounds strange to say but even with this great class coming our entire next season is going to come down to Hurley’s portal class this year. That is no disrespect to anyone but with the wrong or insufficient acquisitions we will have a hard ceiling.

Nothing wrong with this statement. We need some ready guards, scoring ones, and ones that can bail us out. The amount of times we got ran down by the shot clock for example and heaved a terrible shot without the ability to make space on an isolation was alarming

 

[upstater]

I agree with most of this... reed is really important to the equation

Losing Diarra, Karaban, Samson and McNeeley is going to be a huge loss. Look at those names. All of them are not perfect but most are better than their potential replacements.

 

[3rdbass]

I agree with most of this... reed is really important to the equation

And Ball!

 

[BFieldHusky]

This sounds strange to say but even with this great class coming our entire next season is going to come down to Hurley’s portal class this year. That is no disrespect to anyone but with the wrong or insufficient acquisitions we will have a hard ceiling.

This is true for 95 percent of teams.

 

[jibsey]

Scenario. Hurley nails the portal. Now that doesn’t guarantee anything by itself but….if we have some productive freshman diamonds, and Solo and Reed excel, then what if Alex returns?
#7.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Losing Diarra, Karaban, Samson and McNeeley is going to be a huge loss. Look at those names. All of them are not perfect but most are better than their potential replacements.

I'll go on record right now Diarra's and Johnson's replacements will be as impactful, one of Karaban or McNeeley will be a push and one will be a downgrade.
2-1-1.

 

[Chin Diesel]

This sounds strange to say but even with this great class coming our entire next season is going to come down to Hurley’s portal class this year. That is no disrespect to anyone but with the wrong or insufficient acquisitions we will have a hard ceiling.

Your statement will be true of every title hopeful every year going forward until they change something up with rules and regulations.

 

[bendm]

I agree with most of this... reed is really important to the equation

Worried you’re even mentioning Reed in this context without also mentioning Ball.

 

[upstater]

I'll go on record right now Diarra's and Johnson's replacements will be as impactful, one of Karaban or McNeeley will be a push and one will be a downgrade.
2-1-1.

You're underrating what Karaban and Diarra provided. Samson worked so well within the defense.

 

[3rdbass]

You're underrating what Karaban and Diarra provided. Samson worked so well within the defense.

We are going to really miss Samson on the high hedge and the help defense with blocks. Some Boneyarders really underestimated his impact this year.

 

[CTBasketball]

We are going to really miss Samson on the high hedge and the help defense with blocks. Some Boneyarders really underestiated his impact this year.

I disagree. Yes we blew ball screens up but he struggled to get back and defend the post.

 

[husky99]

Worried you’re even mentioning Reed in this context without also mentioning Ball.

No. Do not read into. Ball is very important also

 

[3rdbass]

I disagree. Yes we blew ball screens up but he struggled to get back and defend the post.

He did a lot better than Reed and his defense against smaller guards was really good by end of the year.

 

[RuffRuff]

We are going to really miss Samson on the high hedge and the help defense with blocks. Some Boneyarders really underestimated his impact this year.

He played amazing down the stretch. Went out at the top of his game.

 

[Mazhude]

As Shakespeare rolls in his grave.

The bard abides...

 

[Griffman]

I'll go on record right now Diarra's and Johnson's replacements will be as impactful, one of Karaban or McNeeley will be a push and one will be a downgrade.
2-1-1.

McNeeley is most likely going to be a lottery pick so it’s not going out on a limb to predict his replacement will be a downgrade and best of luck to the coaching staff to find someone comparable to Karaban in the portal. I agree we’ll find an impactful defensive minded, tough playmaker/shot creator in the portal as an upgrade in the backcourt.

 

[buddy]

This one feels like an uphill battle. We've rarely been involved with kids drawing this kind of crowd in the portal, so will be curious to how it plays out. We can likely offer him things the others can't (having two PGs drafted last year, building up Newt to an AA), so if it's development & a showcase system, we have the advantage. If it's highest bidder or flashiest brand, likely not.

St John's "insider" on "X" says that they have landed him and he is just pulling a Cooper Flagg visit to UConn.

 

[gsmooth]

St John's "insider" on "X" says that they have landed him and he is just pulling a Cooper Flagg visit to UConn.

Didn't Cooper visit UConn first and then Duke in that order? I don't know where Silas Demery is going, and he might not know either, but Silas visited St. John's and then UConn. It's not the same thing as Cooper.

 

[Umami Zen]

Pitino being Pitino-Playing liar's poker

 

[Chin Diesel]

You're underrating what Karaban and Diarra provided. Samson worked so well within the defense.

I care about production, impacts and wins. If Hurley and his staff cannot upgrade two of the four you mentioned, and push on one of them, next year's team will be just as maddeningly inconsistent as this one and also not play beyond the first weekend.