Top 25 team next year?? Maybe not | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Top 25 team next year?? Maybe not

So most of you guys aren’t worried if Newton and Jackson stay in the draft? What are your expectations for next year? I’d like to get to the point where we are a consistent top 5 team, we have a good recruiting class coming in but it’s not like they are all 5 stars. People being concerned about next year doesn’t diminish the accomplishments this year.
 
ibleedhuskyblue said:
This place is the absolute worst.
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Might I step in an point out that this is a thread where one guy said something stupid & like 30 people are responding with "hey that's stupid"

Just to keep "this place" in perspective
 
Patience is necessary until AJ and TN decide their future landing spots. Mistaken clairvoyance is expecting that decision next week.
 
navery12 said:
Nope, it was still a dumb response. Nothing this offseason has been unexpected. The only thing close to a surprise was Alleyne transferring instead of just going overseas, but it never made sense for him to come back
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Agree to disagree- think Alleyne was coming into his own the last 15 games of the season & was getting critical minutes by the end of the season.
 
JohnnyJr said:
So most of you guys aren’t worried if Newton and Jackson stay in the draft? What are your expectations for next year? I’d like to get to the point where we are a consistent top 5 team, we have a good recruiting class coming in but it’s not like they are all 5 stars. People being concerned about next year doesn’t diminish the accomplishments this year.
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Not even remotely concerned. If one or both come back we're one of the best teams in the country and favorite to repeat. If they're both gone we're still a top 25 team all year and should make the Sweet 16 at a minimum
 
navery12 said:
Not even remotely concerned. If one or both come back we're one of the best teams in the country and favorite to repeat. If they're both gone we're still a top 25 team all year and should make the Sweet 16 at a minimum
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I’d agree with most of that idk if we’re a sweet 16 team if they both go. Outside of Karaban idk what we have for three point shooting
 
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wingsfan055 said:
I doubt if we'll be at top 25 team next year especially if Jackson leaves which is more and more likely. No one could have predicted all of the outflow of talent and nothing coming in from the portal so far. Depending on freshman to perform as hyped is a very risky proposition.
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This is just ridiculous.
 
JohnnyJr said:
So most of you guys aren’t worried if Newton and Jackson stay in the draft? What are your expectations for next year? I’d like to get to the point where we are a consistent top 5 team, we have a good recruiting class coming in but it’s not like they are all 5 stars. People being concerned about next year doesn’t diminish the accomplishments this year.
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Consistent top 5 team? That is a pretty impossible standard. No program has done that in last 30 years. Consistent top 25 … sure but not top 5. Between one and dones, and portal, every good program experiences talent loss.
Even if everyone stays in NBA draft we have 8 players who were top 100 prospects coming out of high school on the team.
Castle- top 10
Ball- top 40
Clingan, Karaban- top 50
Diarra, S Johnson, Stewart, Ross - top 100

The program is in great shape. It might be be a rough start to next year with so many new players, but by the end of the year this will be a great team.

There is a good chance, Hurley adds one more player from portal, and a good chance one of the players in draft decides to return.
 
EBonz30 said:
Agree to disagree- think Alleyne was coming into his own the last 15 games of the season & was getting critical minutes by the end of the season.
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He looked great the last 15 games of the season, and was crucial to us winning a championship. That's why I always expected he'd move on, he needed a bigger role than what we could offer next year
 
I think they are too 25. Got a lottery pick in Clingan who might be early favorite as an all America candidate. Karaban is going to get more shots, and they have Castle.

Guard depth is short. So if Newton and Jackson don’t return, or only 1, I am assuming they go get another guard.
 
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JohnnyJr said:
So most of you guys aren’t worried if Newton and Jackson stay in the draft? What are your expectations for next year? I’d like to get to the point where we are a consistent top 5 team, we have a good recruiting class coming in but it’s not like they are all 5 stars. People being concerned about next year doesn’t diminish the accomplishments this year.
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The offseason isnt nearly over yet. Newton and/or Ajax may decide to return. The coaches will find a new portal shooter or 2 (we knew nothing of Joey before the day he committed). I expect at least 4 of the freshmen to make varying degrees of impact.

The coaching staff has shown that they can find players, coach them up, and get them to play together. They've shown they can take the parts, and make the whole more valuable.

I agree, they aren't all 5 stars, but neither were Karaban or Clingan, or Sanogo, and Hawkins, or Napier, Lamb, Okafor, and Gordon for that matter. I dont believe there was a single 5 star in the final 4 this season (maybe 1 depending on which service).

Consistent top 5 is a tough goal. We weren't even that THIS YEAR ! The goal has to be to start with a good base of players, and make them their best by March. I believe our coaches and players can do that.

Again, the offseason isnt nearly over !
 
ibleedhuskyblue said:
The offseason isnt nearly over yet. Newton and/or Ajax may decide to return. The coaches will find a new portal shooter or 2 (we knew nothing of Joey before the day he committed). I expect at least 4 of the freshmen to make varying degrees of impact.

The coaching staff has shown that they can find players, coach them up, and get them to play together. They've shown they can take the parts, and make the whole more valuable.

I agree, they aren't all 5 stars, but neither were Karaban or Clingan, or Sanogo, and Hawkins, or Napier, Lamb, Okafor, and Gordon for that matter. I dont believe there was a single 5 star in the final 4 this season (maybe 1 depending on which service).

Consistent top 5 is a tough goal. We weren't even that THIS YEAR ! The goal has to be to start with a good base of players, and make them their best by March. I believe our coaches and players can do that.

Again, the offseason isnt nearly over !
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I don’t doubt this program or Hurleys ability to develop players in the slightest. Pretty much all those players you mentioned developed over years. I’d be worried about being too reliant on freshman and not being able to find people in the portal. We need more than a Joey c type player to replace Hawkins.

Maybe top 5 is a stretch but top 10 I don’t think is. The other “blue bloods” have that type of expectation.
 
JohnnyJr said:
I don’t doubt this program or Hurleys ability to develop players in the slightest. Pretty much all those players you mentioned developed over years. I’d be worried about being too reliant on freshman and not being able to find people in the portal. We need more than a Joey c type player to replace Hawkins.

Maybe top 5 is a stretch but top 10 I don’t think is. The other “blue bloods” have that type of expectation.
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I agree about being too reliant on freshmen, but this is the highest rated class we've ever had. Maybe not 5 stars all, but right behind dook and uk. Our 4th highest rated recruit is at #80 on espn. That's right where Napier, and Lamb were.

What makes you think we won't find anyone in the portal ? What has this staff shown that implies that they won't find what they want in the portal ? Don't forget, we're upset about timberlake, but it's just as likely that they have already been talking to someone new for weeks now, and we just dont know about it. We only know what we know, and i would guess that's about 25% of what's actually going on.

Replacing Hawk: We will have the freshmen, transfers, and the rest of the 23 roster. We had no real replacements for Cole and Martin at this point last year either.

Top 10 (maybe 15) is a reasonable ask. I think we're there even with what we have now. It may not be perfect, and we will lose some games, but that happened every time we won a title.
 
....just think of how pissed off the rest of the College Basketball world will become at UConn and Hurley when we repeat next year while returning only one single player on the roster with even 600 minutes of experience and only 3 players with more than 100 minutes of college basketball experience.

What APR style non-sense are they going to create to bring us down this time?! ;)
 
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We will be ranked highly to start the season regardless. I’m ok with 5 national championships for now. next goal is a “new” big East tournament championship
 
Honestly, after a championship run,
I 'll be okay. The guys are taking advantage of a potential financial boon and I can't blame them.

If we have to rebuild, there are enough pieces to be competitive and that all anyone can ask for.
 
7774 said:
Regardless of what we're going to be next year, it's pretty insane to have us ranked 4th if that's actually what they think our starting line up will be. All 3 of those freshman would have to be Karaban/Clingan good to even remotely have a shot.
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I was thinking the same. A projected starting lineup of 3 freshmen and 2 sophomores are the #4 team in the country? Seems to be a big stretch.
 
HooperScooper said:
I was thinking the same. A projected starting lineup of 3 freshmen and 2 sophomores are the #4 team in the country? Seems to be a big stretch.
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Alabama who was the #1 team for much of the year and the #1 overall seed started 3 freshman, 1 sophomore, 1 junior, so it's not crazy to think it's possible
 
Castle has been projected as a starter next season from well before the BE regular season began this past year.

I don't think it's a stretch to believe we can get an average of ten to twelve minutes a game from each of Ball, Stewart and Ross. We have very large expectations for both Clingan and Karaban and the belief is that Johnson will be able to contribute quite a bit. Anything from Singare will be a bonus and I personally believe that it is 50/50 for both Jackson and Newton to return.

Next season will be enjoyable. There won't be any guarantees of a title but I don't believe there ever have been. If we win it all, great!!!! I believe we can have an enjoyable season even if we fall short of that.
 
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navery12 said:
He looked great the last 15 games of the season, and was crucial to us winning a championship. That's why I always expected he'd move on, he needed a bigger role than what we could offer next year
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Just a slight nuance which I know you know. If both Tristen and Andre don't come back he could have had that bigger role at UConn. But the staff, not knowing what is going to happen with those two players, couldn't guarantee it to him. So he entered the transfer portal with their blessing.

It's the proper way of treating people championship or not.
 
ibleedhuskyblue said:
I agree about being too reliant on freshmen, but this is the highest rated class we've ever had. Maybe not 5 stars all, but right behind dook and uk. Our 4th highest rated recruit is at #80 on espn. That's right where Napier, and Lamb were.

What makes you think we won't find anyone in the portal ? What has this staff shown that implies that they won't find what they want in the portal ? Don't forget, we're upset about timberlake, but it's just as likely that they have already been talking to someone new for weeks now, and we just dont know about it. We only know what we know, and i would guess that's about 25% of what's actually going on.

Replacing Hawk: We will have the freshmen, transfers, and the rest of the 23 roster. We had no real replacements for Cole and Martin at this point last year either.

Top 10 (maybe 15) is a reasonable ask. I think we're there even with what we have now. It may not be perfect, and we will lose some games, but that happened every time we won a title.
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I’d feel more comfortable if they got a SG who can hit some threes. I don’t know much about who’s left in the portal I thought most top players had committed. I’m sure Hurley has plans but all we’ve heard about is Timberlake
 
Assuming we keep the team together as currently constructed and Newton and Jackson both go pro, my wishlist:

1. 3/D wing
2. Backup PG
3. Defensive/rebounding backup 5 - Whaley lite if you will.

I think our freshmen are fantastic and would love to watch them flourish and grow. Obviously if our three open spots had gone to Timberlake, Newton and Jackson as some expected we would be much stronger. But if the freshmen play significant minutes and improve like we saw Clingan and Karaban do last year we could have a dangerous team.


I think we are a wire to wire top 25 team.
 
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