St. John's Grad Transfer - Darien Williams Considering UConn > Landed @ Nevada

[Huskybass]

I think Enoch shot up in the rankings after holding his own at Pangos versus Zimmerman. He is projectable but was way more of a project than thought. Which shouldn't have been a surprise considering he wasn't even very good at Norwalk. Some guys look the look but something has to be said about actually playing basketball.

Honest question: wasn't he skilled enough in high school to be the Gatorade Player of the Year in CT?
If so, I would think he showed some real skills, at least at the offensive end. I was always amazed at how lost he was on D though. I do wish him well, he seems like a nice kid.

 

[CTBasketball]

Williams is more foul prone than any of our bigs last year. How is this a good move? Can we find some mid-major grad transfer that at least has a pulse?

 

[TRest]

We've had an awful year, we've seen apparent starters and our top recruit walk away and now we have gaping roster holes and our Plan A's to fill those holes are apparently going elsewhere.

If you took the name UConn off of this hootenanny, there isn't a single person here who would be complimentary of the head coach's efforts or optimistic for the team's prospects in the upcoming season.

The machine is bleeding to death.

yada yada yada I can't hear you yada yada yada/

fack it, we need the five fouls.

 

[Walker11]

Honest question: wasn't he skilled enough in high school to be the Gatorade Player of the Year in CT?
If so, I would think he showed some real skills, at least at the offensive end. I was always amazed at how lost he was on D though. I do wish him well, he seems like a nice kid.

I didn't know that. I think he put up like 12 and 9 at St. Thomas More. I still think he is skilled but finishing through the 6'6-6'7 centers in HS hasn't translated to finishing through actual college centers. Everything looks good and natural, the ball just didn't fall through the tin. I do think he will be a high level offensive player as a SR but he just wasn't ready. He needed another year at STM and/or a redshirt year.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

The machine is bleeding to death.

Not sure if coincidental, but these are literally the lyrics to Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed You! Black Emperor (my avatar) and the lyrics are pretty fitting to how I feel about the basketball program right now.

The car is on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows

The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death

The sun has fallen down
And the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles

 

[Fishy]

Not sure if coincidental, but these are literally the lyrics to Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed You! Black Emperor (my avatar) and the lyrics are pretty fitting to how I feel about the basketball program right now.

Nope, not coincidental.

Pulled the quote right from "The Dead Flag Blues."

 

[huskyharry]

Experienced player, averaged 3.8 ppg, 2.6 rpg while shooting 54% from two and 73% from the line in only 11.6 minutes per game. One season in JUCO, he shot 41% from three. Last season showed some improvement over the previous season when followed a year when he needed surgery on both shoulders, so he is likely getting stronger and improving his game as he continues to recover. 6'8" and 235!
The foul rate and photos suggest that he is not afraid to mix it up. What is NOT to like!

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Experienced player, averaged 3.8 ppg, 2.6 rpg while shooting 54% from two and 73% from the line in only 11.6 minutes per game. One season in JUCO, he shot 41% from three. Last season showed some improvement over the previous season when followed a year when he needed surgery on both shoulders, so he is likely getting stronger and improving his game as he continues to recover. 6'8" and 235!
The foul rate and photos suggest that he is not afraid to mix it up. What is NOT to like!

I mean not that we have the luxury to really pick and choose at this point, but we'd like to think a player who barely played at St. john's wouldn't be an option for us. But maybe he can be a diamond in the rough, who knows.

 

[pj]

Nope, not coincidental.

Pulled the quote right from "The Dead Flag Blues."

Great plagiarists think alike!

 

[businesslawyer]

Neither of the bigs we are losing were top 50. Rankings aside, Steve/Juwan combined for 20 minutes a game this year and contributed 5 points and 4 rebounds with sub 50% shooting. I don't see why guys like Williams and Cobb couldn't surpass that kind of production easily.

Their production was far, far worse than the numbers. You have to factor in that their inability to contribute came on a team that after 4 games never had more than 8 scholarship players suit up, and at times played with only six.

We are not, in this spring recruiting period, going to find bigs who were as well thought of coming out of high school as Enoch or Durham, nor are we going to sign bigs that have the potential upside that they have. But replacing not just their upside but the actual production they gave us on the court -- that is not going to be that difficult. It just requires bodies, because that is all Enoch and Durham gave us.

 

[Mooch82]

Williams is more foul prone than any of our bigs last year. How is this a good move? Can we find some mid-major grad transfer that at least has a pulse?

Nothing to lose though unless you think we have 5 other guys willing to come here next year. Nice thing about grad transfers is they don't take a scholarship for the following season, so if you aren't using all 13, very little risk.

 

[Matrim55]

Chillious just followed him on Twitter.

 

[auror]

Chillious just followed him on Twitter.

How did we know who we were recruiting before we could stalk people's Twitter?

 

[tcf15]

 

[intlzncster]

Chillious just followed him on Twitter.

Got a feeling Chillious is gonna be following a lot of dudes in the future. He seems like a cast-a-wide-net machine gun style recruiter. Which I'm down with.

 

[intlzncster]

How did we know who we were recruiting before we could stalk people's Twitter?

Insiders

 

[Com'rGordon]

Got a feeling Chillious is gonna be following a lot of dudes in the future. He seems like a cast-a-wide-net machine gun style recruiter. Which I'm down with.

I love it if this is true, I never understand why coaches will take so much time and focus so much on one guy.. Thats what Nebraska does while meanwhile Creighton is going after everyone they like and then end up with Marcus Foster and Kaleb Joseph.
Seems like you focus all on one guy and then it turns out to be a Hami or Diamond Stone type of scenario and you're left scrambling. Make your relationships with a bunch of good players, see what relationships stick and go from there.

 

[champs99and04]

I love it if this is true, I never understand why coaches will take so much time and focus so much on one guy.. Thats what Nebraska does while meanwhile Creighton is going after everyone they like and then end up with Marcus Foster and Kaleb Joseph.
Seems like you focus all on one guy and then it turns out to be a Hami or Diamond Stone type of scenario and you're left scrambling. Make your relationships with a bunch of good players, see what relationships stick and go from there.

I mean, this is exactly what people KO criticized people for his first couple years - casting a wide net.

Bottom line is the bottom line. Strategies are described as successful or not after we find out whether the results were successful. I would imagine that it varies based on coaches. Calhoun struck me as the type who could hone in on a couple of guys and build a nucleus with them. Ollie is still in that feel-it-out process, I think. Ideally, the addition of Chill gives us the luxury to have the best of both worlds - Chill casts the net and KO closes. There were some rumblings that Miller maybe didn't keep in contact with certain players like he should have. No idea whether that's true, but it would make sense.

Hell, I'm pretty sure Ollie got an in-home with Jabari Parker at one point. I would think that's an allocation of resources that is more tempting for a younger coach (not saying he was wrong to make that visit, but you can see how philosophies change over time).

 

[willie99]

we have 5 open spots, we're not going to fill them all with the cream of the crop (we probably don't even want to)

we want to have a few spots open for the 2018 class, taking a couple of grad transfers is not a problem, it's actually a good thing, even if they're only a projected roll player

we need to chill people, we're going to be fine

 

[mauconnfan]

we have 5 open spots, we're not going to fill them all with the cream of the crop (we probably don't even want to)

we want to have a few spots open for the 2018 class, taking a couple of grad transfers is not a problem, it's actually a good thing, even if they're only a projected roll player

we need to chill people, we're going to be fine

Well stated willie but you need to get one thing right from here on in....

it's we need to "Chill" people, new regime!

 

[ctchamps]

we have 5 open spots, we're not going to fill them all with the cream of the crop (we probably don't even want to)

we want to have a few spots open for the 2018 class, taking a couple of grad transfers is not a problem, it's actually a good thing, even if they're only a projected roll player

we'll be fine people, we have Chill

FIFY

 

[3rdbass]

Wasn't Williams also visiting this weekend? Any news where we stand with him. Not really sold on him as I think we can find a body like his other places.

 

[TopDogs]

 

[Ts5034]

I would not be surprised if he commits within the next 24 hours.

 

[mauconnfan]

I would not be surprised if he commits within the next 24 hours.

But would you be surprised if he didn't commit in the next 24 hours?