Shabazz Napier - 2nd PG on a NC team as a freshman, made huge plays. rea Very solid player. Junior.
Roscoe Smith - good for 10 boards a game, shot showed improvement this year toward the end, tenacious. Very solid player.
Niels Giffy - Shown stretches of being an excellent team player - does a bit of everything. German. Very solid.
Tyler Olander - Low ceiling, has probably reached it - solid as a role player, plus 5 fouls.
Omar - High level recruit - already showing signs of having a great attitude.
DeAndre Daniels - Huge work ethic. System believer. High upside. Great motor. Very solid potential.
Boatright - Fractured but excellent freshman year. The kind of "I will win, and you can't stop me" attitude that allows a team to play above a level it could otherwise achieve.
Guy from HC - will likely provide solid back-up minutes at the point.
Wolf - may improve enough by October to be enough of a defender to allow us not to get killed by opposition centers.
Assuming no defections - every guy returns the next year.
2013-2014 could be a very solid, no superstars but everybody solid, type of team that makes a deep tourni run.
We have a very real need for one more big man, by which I mean 6/10 or over with size.
But here's the thing - and I'm borrowing/stealing this from some other poster - all of the head cases (Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, AO), sub par talent (Trice, Niagara kid, etc.), and NBA talent that didn't seem to bring a killer attitude (Lamb AD), are gone.
We're starting fresh.
Whether we play in the tourni next year or not is not critical.
We're back. We're back to what JC used to make UConn what it is - Every guy on the roster plays hard, and with heart. Every guy will play for the team first. Every guy buys in.
I'm looking forward to it. The housecleaning appears to be complete.
That is your very real, very thick, silver lining.
