Transfer Portal Starting to Load (do NOT mention ANY current UConn player until Apr 9)

[Huskyforlife]

Hurley has mentioned he wants big guards. Great player but not a fit

He’s a fit anywhere, you gotta make it work around an offensive engine like that.

 

[auror]

Trilly said he’s hearing smoke about Braden Smith yesterday. We’d be insane to not reach out, you surround that guy with defense.

This has to be his agent making a leverage play. No chance he leaves.

 

[Stinger92860]

We may need 2 PGs

 

[Hunt for 7]

If the state of Utah became the hoops capitol of the world because of money I’d have to find another sport.

Well buckle up because they are very well funded all three schools BYU, Utah and Utah St are all in the tourney. And BYU will continue to have older 3rd and 4th year players as some will have redshirt years for time spent away from the team on missions. Now throw all the money and conference money at that structure which as we know going back to Danny Ainge has always been one that could put very good teams together you have a pretty good recipe.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Swartz rocking a -2.71 just as reference. Jayden Ross is our lowest ranked defender with a -0.38.

This shows the analytics are off then.

We've already went over the film on this. And more than one film person verified Ross defense is perfectly fine. (To which all the critics stopped responding afterwards).

 

[GampelGladiator]

Refusing to accept transfers is a dereliction of duty by Shaka and therefore violates employment contract resulting in firing for cause.

 

[Samoo]

Watched them a few weeks ago. He's nasty. Yes please.

He's from Tuscaloosa so Alabama may have the advantage if he does enter. Also, could consider entering the draft.

 

[RuffRuff]

Refusing to accept transfers is a dereliction of duty by Shaka and therefore violates employment contract resulting in firing for cause.

Will be fascinated to see how stubborn Painter and Shaka stay to their format going forward. Stick to the traditional route and their future success may suffer quickly.

 

[Horatio]

My overall productivity at work plummeted on Friday and that’ll last til the tournament is over and until next years roster is final. It’s been overwhelming since the transfer portal stuff started a couple of years ago. A continuous 24 hours of college basketball coverage, watching games, checking in here and watching the portal activity.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

This shows the analytics are off then.

We've already went over the film on this. And more than one film person verified Ross defense is perfectly fine. (To which all the critics stopped responding afterwards).

That has absolutely zero to do with the point I was making. This was not about Ross at all.

 

[Scrutineer]

I refuse to believe that there is a real human named Treysen Eaglestaff who scored 51 points and then flamed out for his 12-21 Summit League team

I watched his game against Alabama. They lost 97-90 but he had them in the game and ahead till late. Had 40 points on 15 for 30 on FG's, 8 for 18 from three and 2 for 2 on FT's in 35 minutes. Had 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 foul and 4 TO's.
He's a Native American from North Dakota and it was a home game that Alabama scheduled to honor Grant Nelson.
I paid no attention to his defense as it was fun to see how he kept them in the game and Alabama couldn't stop him. But doesn't everyone score on them?

 

[Scrutineer]

The names we’ll be looking for, one down:

•Obi Agbim
•Bennett Stirtz
•Trey Eaglestaff
•Tarence Guinyard
•Donovan Dent

Here’s a BIG guard

We may not be interested, depending on what the personal reasons were that led to his missing the second half of the season.

 

[Scrutineer]

Articles speculating on Eaglestaff potential landing spots based on roster needs and his skill set. Kentucky(as already mentioned above)/Bama/Oklahoma.. Early short list prior to March Madness limitations being lifted. Always interesting how congratulation line handshakes present opportunities for staff to plant some seeds-in the portal era of hoops.

I watched Oates to see how warmly he greeted Eaglestaff. Nothing out of the ordinary as I recall but it was cordial.

 

[willie99]

I like the fact that we can't speculate about UConn players transferring, that's a good policy

Buttt, we can say they suck, they're horrible, they're a mistake, they shouldn't see the floor, someone else should get their minutes, they're a recruiting miss, they don't belong here..... but nothing about transferring

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

That has absolutely zero to do with the point I was making. This was not about Ross at all.

My apologies. I’m more so responding to the reply by Ruff then who dug into Ross and was also a part of that conversation

 

[boog204]

Trilly said he’s hearing smoke about Braden Smith yesterday. We’d be insane to not reach out, you surround that guy with defense.

Kentucky people think he's already lined up...

 

[Hurleyman216]

I know stating some of the obvious with Duke given their natural advantages. Had hoped the portal might neutralize some of their advantages and would level the playing field (because I hate Duke), as they seemed committed to just doing the same old build through Burger Boys routine. Rather than wait out a lot of his home grown guys like Roach & Mitchell, took the proactive and cleaned house to accelerate to the year over model by adding in portal upgrades and better roster fits. What's it's generally saying is that continuity (which is an advantage for many programs that can't recruit at that level), means jack, talent wins. With some of the super old guy COVID advantages dying off (which Pearl is reaping off of), that Duke model looks more and more sustainable. Not many can do what they are doing - although what's interesting is that Samson is bringing in a killer class this year, really a first for him after being more of a developmental guy. I consider him one of the smarter coaches out there.

Pearl is trying to hold onto the old guy recipe bringing in JUCO's at this point, which aren't docked eligibility any longer. Now that is an interesting angle.

I think all we can do is a bit of what Hurley is doing with this Frosh class - get the absolute best class you can, hold onto your 2-3 best returners and go grab really great portal gets. My concern this year is some of those really great portal players are going to be hot commodities, so I'm wondering how we fair.

When you have Scheyer as your coach, you need to hit the portal every year and get 5 star recruits because to be honest, he hasn’t shown the ability to develop players and he still has yet to make any noise in the NCAA tournament. When you have the best coaching staff in the country which I believe we do, the high school recruits are far more important to the program. To fully take advantage of our staff’s strengths we want to build a program around guys who have been coached in our system. The portal is going to be used to plug holes. If we’re taking more than 2-3 portal guys per year it means that we whiffed on some recruits coming out of HS.

Time will tell what the best formula is overall, because so far UConn is the only team to win a championship in the NIL era.

 

[RuffRuff]

When you have Scheyer as your coach, you need to hit the portal every year and get 5 star recruits because to be honest, he hasn’t shown the ability to develop players and he still has yet to make any noise in the NCAA tournament. When you have the best coaching staff in the country which I believe we do, the high school recruits are far more important to the program. To fully take advantage of our staff’s strengths we want to build a program around guys who have been coached in our system. The portal is going to be used to plug holes. If we’re taking more than 2-3 portal guys per year it means that we whiffed on some recruits coming out of HS.

Time will tell what the best formula is overall, because so far UConn is the only team to win a championship in the NIL era.

The staff put a lot of emphasis on development going into this year, and it didn't work. We didn't see near the leaps we hoped, or the synchrony of the offense we saw the last two years. Would think there is now a strong realization that it's more about the talent, than the system itself. How they adjust, or don't, will be fascinating to see play out.

 

[husky429]

When you have Scheyer as your coach, you need to hit the portal every year and get 5 star recruits because to be honest, he hasn’t shown the ability to develop players and he still has yet to make any noise in the NCAA tournament. When you have the best coaching staff in the country which I believe we do, the high school recruits are far more important to the program. To fully take advantage of our staff’s strengths we want to build a program around guys who have been coached in our system. The portal is going to be used to plug holes. If we’re taking more than 2-3 portal guys per year it means that we whiffed on some recruits coming out of HS.

Time will tell what the best formula is overall, because so far UConn is the only team to win a championship in the NIL era.

This year is probably going to be a heavy portal year. When you whiff in recruiting like we did on a number of guys, it's good to have the portal as a backup option.

Not every guy will develop... I think we probably needs 1-2 more positive developmental stories to really make a splash this year. DC, AK, Tristen, etc. were all positive in that regard this year. We really only had Solo this year. Maybe Samson Johnson, maybe Stew.

 

[Hurleyman216]

This year is probably going to be a heavy portal year. When you whiff in recruiting like we did on a number of guys, it's good to have the portal as a backup option.

Not every guy will develop... I think we probably needs 1-2 more positive developmental stories to really make a splash this year. DC, AK, Tristen, etc. were all positive in that regard this year. We really only had Solo this year. Maybe Samson Johnson, maybe Stew.

Agreed, I'd personally like to see both Solo and Stewart back next year because I do still think Stewart has a ton of upside potential. Nowell and Abraham are unknowns although I did hear that one of those two (won't mention which one) did not put in the work in practice and meet the expectations of what it takes to play at UConn. I still have hope Nowell can become a good option for us once he's healthy. While Mahaney may have been a "whiff" in the portal, he's played better of late and would love to keep him as a back up SG to Solo.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

I watched his game against Alabama. They lost 97-90 but he had them in the game and ahead till late. Had 40 points on 15 for 30 on FG's, 8 for 18 from three and 2 for 2 on FT's in 35 minutes. Had 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 foul and 4 TO's.
He's a Native American from North Dakota and it was a home game that Alabama scheduled to honor Grant Nelson.
I paid no attention to his defense as it was fun to see how he kept them in the game and Alabama couldn't stop him. But doesn't everyone score on them?

Him being a Native American got me to wondering if the CT tribes and the casinos could get involved with UConn's NIL programs or is that not allowed due to gambling?

 

[businesslawyer]

Will be fascinated to see how stubborn Painter and Shaka stay to their format going forward. Stick to the traditional route and their future success may suffer quickly.

This. Painter hasn't been to a national championship game for almost 12 months now, and Shaka hasn't been ranked since what -- last week?

Yes, I do know that the college hoops world is changing, and that we live in a society that wants instant conclusions on everything, but could we allow things a little time to play out? Because I'll tell you this -- if every staff is following the same strategy, those with less resources are likely to lose.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Him being a Native American got me to wondering if the CT tribes and the casinos could get involved with UConn's NIL programs or is that not allowed due to gambling?

Free room and $250k marker for any visit?

I’ve been trying to figure out what is/isn’t allowed in NIL-Land for two years now and so far I’m still coming up empty.

 

[RuffRuff]

This. Painter hasn't been to a national championship game for almost 12 months now, and Shaka hasn't been ranked since what -- last week?

Yes, I do know that the college hoops world is changing, and that we live in a society that wants instant conclusions on everything, but could we allow things a little time to play out? Because I'll tell you this -- if every staff is following the same strategy, those with less resources are likely to lose.

Of course we have to let it play out. Simply some light anticipatory banter ahead of what's to come. You make a good point on strategies and that not every program can follow the same given economics. That said, you should at least explore those resources afforded to you when other programs are clearly benefitting, I would think.

 

[husky429]

Him being a Native American got me to wondering if the CT tribes and the casinos could get involved with UConn's NIL programs or is that not allowed due to gambling?

They're not the same tribal nation. Why would they care?