The Quality Of Our New Commits Bouknight & Gaffney | The Boneyard

The Quality Of Our New Commits Bouknight & Gaffney

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So I admittedly don’t follow recruiting but I just watched tapes of our new guards and whoa! We know they don’t miss on the tapes but the skills they present are amazing. We now have guards that can shoot? Both have good handles and are creative around the rim, but Gaffney just opens your eyes. Guards like this would give quality bigs a place to want to be, and I know there are several we are targeting. No matter how good a coach Hurley is he can’t win without real talent, and it looks like he’s really getting it.
 
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So I admittedly don’t follow recruiting but I just watched tapes of our new guards and whoa! We know they don’t miss on the tapes but the skills they present are amazing. We now have guards that can shoot? Both have good handles and are creative around the rim, but Gaffney just opens your eyes. Guards like this would give quality bigs a place to want to be, and I know there are several we are targeting. No matter how good a coach Hurley is he can’t win without real talent, and it looks like he’s really getting it.
Cannot overestimate how critical it is/was for him to hit the ground running and start getting legit recruits back to UConn. I think some of the expectations need to be tempered a bit as he hasn't coached a game here yet, but in terms of initial impressions, especially given the mess he was handed, it's downright amazing he and the staff have been able to bring in two top 100 guys and be in the thick of it for a few others. Let's hope we can quickly put the last two disastrous seasons far in the rear view mirror quickly......this is a GREAT start!!
 
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Both seem to be underrated and continuing to get better by the month. In my opinion Bouknight has potential to one day be an nba player. Gaffney looks great too but I haven’t seen as much of him. Gaffney actually looks like the type of kid that may continue to grow after 18. Both should make an immediate impact and stay around for 3 or 4 years.
 
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Gaffney is a 3/4 Star guy, Bouknight a 4. No one can predict the future of these guys for sure, but what you have to like is this: the staff identified them as guys they wanted, and then did. Three official visits, two verbals.

You can’t assume that they’ll outplay their rankings or that they’re currently underrated, but I love that they obviously fit the vision the staff has and that they got them.
 
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The program is pointed in a fantastic direction. The infrastructure is strong. Look at the coaching staff from top to bottom, studs. They will make sure UConn is top shelf again. A band with all that talent makes great music. So stoked for the future.
 

RayIsTheGOAT

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I always worry we overhype recruits. Largely because we do.
But the key is that we got these two guys over some big name schools. And that we are in it with other big guys with big offers. That should tell us all we need to know about the direction of this program. Especially with Hurley's track record of winning and maximizing talent.
 
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The scouting services have blown it on Gaffney, kid is going to be bigtime. They don't even have his size right, 247 lists him at 6'0 150 lbs. He's about 6'3 and weighs more than that.
If he is as athletic as hes being billed drawing comparisons to Westbrook hes going to be an absolute steal for us. This class is starting to remind me of that `11 class in a sense. I mean this class is going to be highly rated but they might be better than theyre being rated like in `11.
 
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The scouting services have blown it on Gaffney, kid is going to be bigtime. They don't even have his size right, 247 lists him at 6'0 150 lbs. He's about 6'3 and weighs more than that.
Couldn't agree more. Sometimes you have to look at the offer list, and not the ranking. Gaffney had offers from Florida, Clemson, Xavier, St Johns, Pitt, etc.
 
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My sources say the same He's going to try really hard to fill that last spot.

Realistically, who is a possibility to commit in the next week or so? Kofi will want to take multiple OVs, precious taking his sweet old time. Assume Akok is sending signals he’s ready to pick? Or is there some thought we could / would also get / take Wong
 

Jaybo

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People will disagree. I’m not totally impressed yet. The two recruits aren’t that high above what Ollie was pulling with akinjo and Matthews. Again my opinion.i do believe Hurley can do a lot more with these two then Ollie and staff could of. Development makes a huge difference. What will impress me would be landing any one of akok, kofi or precious on top of the two they already landed. I hope for at least one. But hope Hurley can pull in any combo of the two.
 
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People will disagree. I’m not totally impressed yet. The two recruits aren’t that high above what Ollie was pulling with akinjo and Matthews. Again my opinion.i do believe Hurley can do a lot more with these two then Ollie and staff could of. Development makes a huge difference. What will impress me would be landing any one of akok, kofi or precious on top of the two they already landed. I hope for at least one. But hope Hurley can pull in any combo of the two.

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People will disagree. I’m not totally impressed yet. The two recruits aren’t that high above what Ollie was pulling with akinjo and Matthews. Again my opinion.i do believe Hurley can do a lot more with these two then Ollie and staff could of. Development makes a huge difference. What will impress me would be landing any one of akok, kofi or precious on top of the two they already landed. I hope for at least one. But hope Hurley can pull in any combo of the two.
Then why not celebrate?
 
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People will disagree. I’m not totally impressed yet. The two recruits aren’t that high above what Ollie was pulling with akinjo and Matthews. Again my opinion.i do believe Hurley can do a lot more with these two then Ollie and staff could of. Development makes a huge difference. What will impress me would be landing any one of akok, kofi or precious on top of the two they already landed. I hope for at least one. But hope Hurley can pull in any combo of the two.

You’re right, I also was very impresssed that after proving to manage games/develop players horribly, all while putting a sub par, uninspired product on the court, Ollie was able to get players like Akinjo to commit.
 

RayIsTheGOAT

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People will disagree. I’m not totally impressed yet. The two recruits aren’t that high above what Ollie was pulling with akinjo and Matthews. Again my opinion.i do believe Hurley can do a lot more with these two then Ollie and staff could of. Development makes a huge difference. What will impress me would be landing any one of akok, kofi or precious on top of the two they already landed. I hope for at least one. But hope Hurley can pull in any combo of the two.
This isn't an outrageous take. Gaffney and Bouknight are nice. Great, actually. Obviously if the flood stops here, and we miss on Kofi, Akok, Achiuwa, Mitchell, etc., then there is a possible cause for concern.

But the celebration on here more has to do with the trend of the program, the excitement, buzz, momentum, etc. after actually seeing the fruits of Hurley+co.'s labor (which was lacking towards the end of the previous regime). And you said it yourself, we already have a massive upgrade on pure coaching. We should simply be happy about where this program is now, compared to March 9 in Orlando.
 
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People will disagree. I’m not totally impressed yet. The two recruits aren’t that high above what Ollie was pulling with akinjo and Matthews. Again my opinion.i do believe Hurley can do a lot more with these two then Ollie and staff could of. Development makes a huge difference. What will impress me would be landing any one of akok, kofi or precious on top of the two they already landed. I hope for at least one. But hope Hurley can pull in any combo of the two.
The difference is so night and day it's not even funny, if you can't see that I don't know what to tell you.
 
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What scares me is that we still have 3 open scholarships. This is only the beginning.

It scares me too. Why don't we have FIVE 4/5 star recruits yet? What have these guys been doing?
 
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Couldn't agree more. Sometimes you have to look at the offer list, and not the ranking. Gaffney had offers from Florida, Clemson, Xavier, St Johns, Pitt, etc.

Obviously not as telling, but I also like to gauge reaction from competing fan bases. SJU and Xavier fans were very upset about missing on Gaffney. I take that to be a good sign.
 
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It scares me too. Why don't we have FIVE 4/5 star recruits yet? What have these guys been doing?
. Kentucky and Duke don’t even have multiple 5 star recruits yet. What do you mean “what have these guys been doing?”
 

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