Traci Carter (Committed to Marquette)

[Matrim55]

I love the optimism. But we need other players also. Adams and Enoch are great, and we're all happy we got them. And if Ali were still committed I don't think there'd be this much tension. But we need desperately another ball-handler, and either another big or a back-up wing.

We've struck out everywhere...and not to Kentucky, Duke, UNC, etc. Were that the case, I can live with that. That would mean we missed our primary target. Happens to us (and all schools) all the time. We're missing out on our third and fourth options to schools like VCU and Marquette.

Yup. If there's one thing our guys clearly suck at, it's getting onto a recruit late and trying to close the deal. We saw it with Perkins last year, and then with a bunch of guys - Mack, Clarke, Carter, to name three - this year. It doesn't seem to matter if we're playing catch-up (as we were for Mack and Perkins) or just getting onto the guy at the same time as the other schools (as we were with Clarke and Carter). We've lost all those guys to schools that collectively shouldn't even dream of being in the same conversation with us.

Hopefully the staff can take a long, hard look and figure that out. Though I honestly believe it'll be less of an issue for the 2016 & 17 targets, which we were able to evaluate and get onto earlier than with the 2014s and 15s.

The Ali thing was a complete ****-up, no arguments from me there. Hopefully it's a lesson well learned.

You've convinced me that we really need to wait until the 2016 class to get overly concerned. But we should be able to get our C and D options.

I guess. But Marquette isn't some scrub team. They're in the Big East, they had a top 10 class already, and they basically offered the kid the starting job. That's got to be a pretty compelling pitch.

 

[CallMeBruce]

And despite getting in late on a bunch of guys, we were widely considered the favorite to land them at one point, and then missed on all of them. I don't see how we can be picked as the favorite for Clarke, Mack, Jones, Stone, and Govan, get none of them, and have some people still saying that recruiting is fine.

 

[Matrim55]

And despite getting in late on a bunch of guys, we were widely considered the favorite to land them at one point, and then missed on all of them. I don't see how we can be picked as the favorite for Clarke, Mack, Jones, Stone, and Govan, get none of them, and have some people still saying that recruiting is fine.

Recruiting is fine. It's not great, but it's getting better every season.

Were you not around for all of Calhoun's misses? We regularly went into April without anything even approaching the class we have now.

 

[tzznandrew]

And despite getting in late on a bunch of guys, we were widely considered the favorite to land them at one point, and then missed on all of them. I don't see how we can be picked as the favorite for Clarke, Mack, Jones, Stone, and Govan, get none of them, and have some people still saying that recruiting is fine.

The fact that some recruiting services called us the "favorite" doesn't particularly play into it, for me. Kids and their handlers put out all sorts of information--sometimes contradictory--to suit their needs and/or egos.

Clarke, Mack, or Jones, though. We should have gotten one of them.

 

[Matrim55]

The fact that some recruiting services called us the "favorite" doesn't particularly play into it, for me. Kids and their handlers put out all sorts of information--sometimes contradictory--to suit their needs and/or egos.

Clarke, Mack, or Jones, though. We should have gotten one of them.

Agree. Seems we just got out-worked for Jones, in particular.

Another harsh lesson, but life is full of those.

 

[Stainmaster]

And despite getting in late on a bunch of guys, we were widely considered the favorite to land them at one point, and then missed on all of them. I don't see how we can be picked as the favorite for Clarke, Mack, Jones, Stone, and Govan, get none of them, and have some people still saying that recruiting is fine.

That's online gossip. Nobody has any way of confirming its accuracy.

 

[CallMeBruce]

That's online gossip. Nobody has any way of confirming its accuracy.

So all of that smoke means nothing? Surely you can't be that naive.

 

[Stainmaster]

Something else people are missing: recruiting is based on decisions made by 17 and 18-year old kids. From experience, I can assure you that these people tend not to be the most rational actors out there.

 

[Stainmaster]

So all of that smoke means nothing? Surely you can't be that naive.

It means something to people on message boards who obsess over smoke in the absence of real information. Hence why every time a crystal ball pick is made by some shmo with a computer, it's two pages of discussion minimum.

 

[Dove]

Should I start a The Official Eat A Bullet Thread?

 

[CallMeBruce]

It means something to people on message boards who obsess over smoke in the absence of real information. Hence why every time a crystal ball pick is made by some shmo with a computer, it's two pages of discussion minimum.

So you think it's perfectly likely that the prevailing opinion on all of those situations was wrong, and that we were never the favorites for any one of them?

 

[Stainmaster]

So you think it's perfectly likely that the prevailing opinion on all of those situations was wrong, and that we were never the favorites for any one of them?

Perhaps we never were. We're a UCONN board full of people who think very highly of the program and who would have no problem backing up one report saying we were a favorite and letting it snowball.

 

[tzznandrew]

We were definitely leading, at some point, with Prince Ali. The rest is mere surmise. There may be some fire where there is smoke in some cases, but we can never be sure of that sort of stuff.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Perhaps we never were. We're a UCONN board full of people who think very highly of the program and who would have no problem backing up one report saying we were a favorite and letting it snowball.

Except it wasn't "one report" in any of those cases. It was the widely-held opinion among a large portion of the analysts who actually track this sort of thing. You can say they aren't reliable, but when you go from an overwhelming favorite for several top targets to getting none of them, the most rational explanation is that you're doing something wrong.

 

[3rdbass]

Perhaps we never were. We're a UCONN board full of people who think very highly of the program and who would have no problem backing up one report saying we were a favorite and letting it snowball.

Well that is not a good development because when we had JC we were definitely one of the favorites to get the top recruits we wanted and definitely the backups. Next year will be a big year for Ollie both on and off the court in my mind if he is going to continue to coach us past the 2016-2017 season.

UCONN will not suffice with two more seasons like this one and if Ollie misses more than he hits in 2016. like he has in 2015. We could be looking at 3 real bad seasons in terms of UCONN basketball which is unheard of since JC started coaching.

 

[CTBasketball]

Recruiting is fine. It's not great, but it's getting better every season.

Were you not around for all of Calhoun's misses? We regularly went into April without anything even approaching the class we have now.

For every Calhoun miss he turned a sub-100 rated player into an NBA prospect. The only atrocious year I can remember was the class with Darius Smith.

It's not like we're losing recruits to Kentucky, Kansas, and Duke anymore. We're consistently losing recruits to VCU, Gonzaga, Virginia Tech, Providence, and now the floor mat of the Big East, Marquette.

 

[Stainmaster]

Well that is not a good development because when we had JC we were definitely one of the favorites to get the top recruits we wanted and definitely the backups. Next year will be a big year for Ollie both on and off the court in my mind if he is going to continue to coach us for more than two more years.

UCONN will not suffice with two more seasons like this one and if Ollie misses more than he hits in 2016 like he has in 2015 that is definitely not out of the realm of happening to us.

Ollie will improve as a recruiter. The question is whether or not the fan base is patient enough for that to happen. I'm afraid that we will need multiple 5-stars in 2016 - otherwise, people will start calling for KO's head and championing other coaches to take his place.

 

[bmo22]

There's been a lot of talk on here about the lack of ball handling next year. While this is true, Ollie and the staff can make it work with Samuel and Adams. I would love to see them run the Flex or an offense of that sort. Far less ball handling or thread-the-needle passing needed. The press should be broken by passing and staying out of the corners as opposed to ball handling as well.

There's no doubt recruiting has hurt us the last few years, but I also think both the staff and players have become too reliant on our lead guards creating offense and bailing the team out late in the shot clock.

I'm all in on KO as UConn's coach for years to come. I love the job he did his first two years and I think he'll bring in great talent with more experience. But believe it or not there are a bunch of team locked in to the NCAA tournament as at-large bids who have less talent on their rosters than UConn. Sometimes you have to adapt your style of play to the talent you have.

Now let's win 4 games this week and forget about all this.

 

[3rdbass]

Ollie will improve as a recruiter. The question is whether or not the fan base is patient enough for that to happen. I'm afraid that we will need multiple 5-stars in 2016 - otherwise, people will start calling for KO's head and championing other coaches to take his place.

Do you really think the fanbase will settle for 3 seasons of 15-19 wins and trips to the NIT? We have higher expectations than that and no matter how much success KO had in his first two season there will be uproar on firing KO and reestablishing UCONN as a player in the NCAA college basketball landscape.

Anyone would be naive to think otherwise. I'm not naive to think he should be fired because of one bad season but 3 will definitely warrant it especially if recruiting gets worst next year and there are no signs of improvement in the near future.

 

[CTBasketball]

There's been a lot of talk on here about the lack of ball handling next year. While this is true, Ollie and the staff can make it work with Samuel and Adams. I would love to see them run the Flex or an offense of that sort. Far less ball handling or thread-the-needle passing needed. The press should be broken by passing and staying out of the corners as opposed to ball handling as well.

There's no doubt recruiting has hurt us the last few years, but I also think both the staff and players have become too reliant on our lead guards creating offense and bailing the team out late in the shot clock.

I'm all in on KO as UConn's coach for years to come. I love the job he did his first two years and I think he'll bring in great talent with more experience. But believe it or not there are a bunch of team locked in to the NCAA tournament as at-large bids who have less talent on their rosters than UConn. Sometimes you have to adapt your style of play to the talent you have.

Now let's win 4 games this week and forget about all this.

The only player capable of running a play, Ryan Boatright, is graduating. Have you watched any games this year? 99% of the time our offense is street ball because the players do not listen to KO's plays, or KO doesn't run plays for them.

 

[7774]

I got a kick out of this. Take yourself more seriously.

I guess that's a no, huh? Shocking, another blowhard who only talks a big game. . . .

 

[Excalibur]

Recruiting is fine. It's not great, but it's getting better every season.

Were you not around for all of Calhoun's misses? We regularly went into April without anything even approaching the class we have now.

Only at the very end, and we had pretty solid plan B's and C's. We're missing out on the plan B and C guys at this point, and it's a disturbing trend.

 

[Marty Jackson]

If Ollie cannot recruit three star kids in the season AFTER winning a national championship, then what does the future hold? I mean realistically its over, right? the team will be worse next year, the conference situation isn't getting better, and then Hamilton and brimah leave. With no impact players coming in (Adams replaces Boat)?

If Ollie really had NBA options and decided to stay, he made a horrific mistake considering everything that's happened on and off the court. He will never be in demand like that again.

until he wins his second National Championship...

 

[James]

KO has gotten his biggest targets two years in a row ( hamilton/adams), but his misses on this class have been brutal. Not really butthurt about carter as he doesn't seem like an impact prospect, but missing out on wings like jones/mack/clarke stung quite a bit.

 

[Stainmaster]

Do you really think the fanbase will settle for 3 seasons of 15-19 wins and trips to the NIT? We have higher expectations than that and no matter how much success KO had in his first two season there will be uproar on firing KO and reestablishing UCONN as a player in the NCAA college basketball landscape.

Anyone would be naive to think otherwise. I'm not naive to think he should be fired because of one bad season but 3 will definitely warrant it especially if recruiting gets worst next year and there are no signs of improvement in the near future.

Our recruiting is not great right now, but it's trending up. I don't get how people weren't joining the doomsday bandwagon when Facey was the crown jewel of his class. Landing Adams and Enoch is an improvement from the past two years, and if Brown reclassifies, that still holds. Next year's class will be better still as KO gets more involved with these kids from the get-go and improves his pitch. Our recruiting is not "getting worse" by any measure. We missed even more of these kids last year. Robinson, White, Perkins, McLaughlin, Larrier...the list goes on.

I don't think that missing on Clarke/Jones/Mack/Carter/whatever prospect we're all crying over is going to ensure 3 seasons of low win totals and NIT trips. The problem is when fans see that happen once, they think it's permanent. Some are convinced that KO's never going to be able to recruit to their standard. Our recruiting will improve, it isn't at the level at which it needs to be quite yet but that will change. There is already talk on this board of firing KO because of dissatisfaction with the best class he's brought in yet, which is what I disagree with.

 

[Stainmaster]

Also, keep in mind most people's "expectations" involved Diamond Stone, which tells me all that I need to know.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

PG: Adams
SG: Purvis
SF: Hamilton
PF: Facey/Enoch
C: Brimah

We need another ball handler. As @mauconnfan pointed out, Cassell and TSam aren't capable of being dependable dribblers, let alone decision-makers.

Most of all we need a KEA type player signing.

Someone with swagger that can play the PG spot. Someone who will come in and lead.

This team needs another guard(to go with Adams) that is a leader next year regardless of class rank. Right now Boat has no one to pass the torch to. (Hopefully Adams is that guy).

I know I am asking a lot(probably the impossible). Don't know if he is out there but it would solve a lot of problems.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

We're severely lacking quality depth in our recruiting.

Hamilton is a stud and all signs point to Adams being one as well.

Cassell and Lubin are guys that should never sniff the floor of a good UConn team and while Enoch in time should be a player, he's a project.

Nolan, Samuel played great ball in the tournament but they should be complimentary pieces - not guys we have to rely on for big minutes.

There is a definitely a problem with recruiting and refusing to acknowledge it does us no good.

Same argument with the titles. Yes we won two titles which mean everything, but our regular seasons since 2009 have shown a definite downturn as well.

 

[3rdbass]

Our recruiting is not great right now, but it's trending up. I don't get how people weren't joining the doomsday bandwagon when Facey was the crown jewel of his class. Landing Adams and Enoch is an improvement from the past two years, and if Brown reclassifies, that still holds. Next year's class will be better still as KO gets more involved with these kids from the get-go and improves his pitch. Our recruiting is not "getting worse" by any measure. We missed even more of these kids last year. Robinson, White, Perkins, McLaughlin, Larrier...the list goes on.

I don't think that missing on Clarke/Jones/Mack/Carter/whatever prospect we're all crying over is going to ensure 3 seasons of low win totals and NIT trips. The problem is when fans see that happen once, they think it's permanent. Some are convinced that KO's never going to be able to recruit to their standard. Our recruiting will improve, it isn't at the level at which it needs to be quite yet but that will change. There is already talk on this board of firing KO because of dissatisfaction with the best class he's brought in yet, which is what I disagree with.

There was obvious reasons why Kelis Fisher was our best recruit a couple years ago with the probation and a new coach. Now that Ollie has established himself and the sanctions are a thing of the past we need to see better recruiting. I'm willing to give this year a pass due to the carryover of not being on the radar of some of those kids until we won the NCAA last year but if next year our recruiting is worst than we have a reason for real concern.

Like others have said we need a top notch recruiter with AAU connections to get us in better standing with recruits. I have faith in KO but 2 more years of this and my faith will be tested to it's limits.
Do you really think we will be better next year with the players we have and that are coming in? I think we have a great chance of being worst or at least the same as this year due to not enough talent on the team or at least parts that will work together(no inside post game and not enough ball handlers and no true point guard).

 

[MuchoDogYears]

To stay e a top program must bring in 2 stars a year. Over 4 years, ideally 8 stars are on the roster. The other 5 scholarships can go to "projects", from which hopefully 1 or 2 develop into "stars" to replace the stars who leave early for the NBA.

Ollie has brought in 1 star (Purvis) and 3 projects in this years sophomore class, 1 star (DHam) and 1 project in this years freshman class, and the incoming 2015 class has 1 star (Adams) and 1 project...or 2 stars depending on your point of view. Brimah is the only project on the current team that so far has developed into a star. Either Calhoun or Facey have the potential to, but their time is running out. TSam, Nolan, Lubin will never stars. Jury is out on Cassell,

Bottom line is Ollie does need to ramp things up. Target must be to bring in 2 stars a year starting in 2016, and do it every year. 1 star a year recruiting will bring us NCAA bubble teams.