UConn basketball....

[Mooch82]

Some were upset because we were involved with Knight, Selby, Joseph, and Irving at point guard and we also struck out on CJ Leslie and Doron Lamb. Napier reclassified and didn't have their reps but he had a major rep as a scorer and was around 60th in the class once he reclassified. It was a strange class because Bazz and Olander were reclassifications, Giffey was overseas (would have been top 100 if he played in the states) and we gave Bradley a scholly based off of a game he played against Drummond. Roscoe had a major rep and was like 30th in the country. Jeremy Lamb was a major late riser and was top 100 in the country.

I was excited about Roscoe, Giffey, and Napier, I also thought Olander would be better than he turned out to be.

That class had way more acclaim than this class, not at all in the same stratosphere. Only comparison is we missed out on some of the top guys and had to got down the list a bit. 2010 we went a little bit down the list, this year we have gone all the way down to the bottom of the list. Not in any way comparable classes or situations.

Ha...wrote my post before I read yours and made a lot of the same points. Our recollections are very similar.

 

[superjohn]

Eh, I don't think the perception was nearly as bad as you're making to out to be. Roscoe was a top 35 player, and you're neglecting to even mention Lamb, who was ranked around 70 but was fast rising and thought to be extremely underrated (which proved to be accurate). Napier was ranked around 60 in the 2012 class and then reclassified, so it's tough to say where he would've been in 2011, but my recollection is the expectations were much higher than an "Austrie type" (again, proved to be true). Niels was a foreign player so wasn't ranked but Fran Frischilla was quoted as saying he'd be a top 100 player if he was ranked. Even Mike Bradley checked in at #100 in Scout's rankings. So we basically had 4-5 top 100 players in the class as well as a local kid (Olander) and a foreign project with upside (Wolf). I'd give my left nut....hell, both my nuts...for that right now.

Ha, we have pretty much the same recollection. Funny we typed out almost the exact same things at the exact same times. Would give anything for that kind of class today.

 

[champs99and04]

My $.02:

First, this thread is all the things wrong with the internet, and I say that as somebody who thinks very highly of this board in general. There are a lot of thoughtful opinions that not absorbed because everything is always about winning the argument. I like to be right, too, so I certainly understand how this goes. I'm no different. When somebody disagrees with me, I read the retort first with my ego and then I'll go back with my brain later to try to figure out how to assuage things. But ultimately nobody is keeping score - I've said some really intelligent things and been wrong and I've said some really dumb things and been right. So honestly, I don't care whether you're hyper positive guy or hyper negative guy...just be original.

Myself, I've been pretty damn positive about the direction of this program since the day Ollie took over. I think he has all the tools to be not just a good coach, but a Hall of Fame coach. The idea that we could even be having these conversations was sacrilege to me one year ago, much less three years ago when he could have run over my sister without drawing my slightest objection.

But things started to change two years ago and they became even more pronounced this year. The origin of that change was at first notable only to depraved souls like me who would dig through the game tape, compare sets, and decipher statistical models. He was getting out-coached. And he got out-coached a lot last season even as extenuating circumstances - the injuries, the erratic play of our seniors, more injuries, etc. - blurred the bluntness of it. Truth be told, I think Glen Miller was the first to realize it. And you can say what you want about him, but he's been around a lot of basketball and coached a lot of teams. A lot more than Ollie.

After the season, I was thoroughly dissatisfied the performance of the coaching staff. But I chalked it up to a bad year. I chalked it up to some combination of stubbornness, luck, and inevitable growth. The Purvis, Facey, Brimah era, to me, represented, in Ollie's mind, an epiphany of sorts - he wanted to play his way, and he wanted to do it with his players. Enter Jalen Adams, Christian Vital, Terry Larrier, Alterique Gilbert, Juwan Durham, Vance Jackson, etc. I was sure that somewhere beneath the rubble of that disastrous season was a sprouting flower that Ollie would laugh maniacally about all off-season. If I saw it from the upper bowls he must have seen it from the bench. Jalen Adams, over the span of about 20 Hartford hours, became great. That made a lot of the other problems seem a lot less daunting.

Then one quiet Friday a couple weeks later, that vision blew to a million pieces. Enoch, I think, was the first to go. Then Jackson left, then MAL...then Durham. In the middle of all this, Glen Miller was fired.

The alarm from all of that did not derive from their cost of replacement so much as it did from the foreboding optics. Here were a couple of top 50 type big men with an opportunity to play for a powerhouse program with an all-American point guard walking out the door. It almost seemed...audacious.

And I think that's the word. There is a distinct foulness about all of this - from hardly getting a look from any noteworthy grad transfers to being unable to replace them with high school kids - that is incompatible with reality. Something had to be up that wasn't meeting the eye.
By the time various rumors had circulated to my inbox Sunday night, I had kind of already put the pieces together. This was confirmation of something I had already suspected, and while none of this merits rehashing on a public forum, there is enough at this point in the way of smoke to qualify that other component as something extremely pertinent to the long-term health of the program.

That's where a lot of the gray comes in, though. Nothing that I heard is scandalous or capable of assassinating character. It's nothing that can't be rectified and maybe it already has been.

In the meantime, though, we're in an awkward position, if only because we are applying a precedent to a situation that may not have one. And that's kind of where I'm at. If everybody is on board here like they were in the past, I'm still optimistic about the future, optimistic about Adams, Vital, Gilbert, and Larrier as the cornerstones for the next couple years. I'm optimistic that Chill will resurrect our recruiting and that UConn basketball will role into the third decade of the millennium as strong as before.

I love Kevin Ollie and that will be true whether he coaches here or not. I have no thirst to see him replaced and no interest in finding a scapegoat for something that doesn't need one. He doesn't owe me anything and I'm sure I can say the same for most on this board. But he does owe something to Jalen Adams and it is about time he starts to do right by the kid who passed up a chance to play at Kansas or Louisville to play for you. Right now, he's the one getting screwed more than anybody. That needs to stop or we will have to find somebody else to stop it.

 

[jrazz12]

My $.02:

First, this thread is all the things wrong with the internet, and I say that as somebody who thinks very highly of this board in general. There are a lot of thoughtful opinions that not absorbed because everything is always about winning the argument. I like to be right, too, so I certainly understand how this goes. I'm no different. When somebody disagrees with me, I read the retort first with my ego and then I'll go back with my brain later to try to figure out how to assuage things. But ultimately nobody is keeping score - I've said some really intelligent things and been wrong and I've said some really dumb things and been right. So honestly, I don't care whether you're hyper positive guy or hyper negative guy...just be ****** original.

Myself, I've been pretty damn positive about the direction of this program since the day Ollie took over. I think he has all the tools to be not just a good coach, but a Hall of Fame coach. The idea that we could even be having these conversations was sacrilege to me one year ago, much less three years ago when he could have run over my sister without drawing my slightest objection.

But things started to change two years ago and they became even more pronounced this year. The origin of that change was at first notable only to depraved souls like me who would dig through the game tape, compare sets, and decipher statistical models. He was getting out-coached. And he got out-coached a lot last season even as extenuating circumstances - the injuries, the erratic play of our seniors, more injuries, etc. - blurred the bluntness of it. Truth be told, I think Glen Miller was the first to realize it. And you can say what you want about him, but he's been around a lot of basketball and coached a lot of teams. A lot more than Ollie.

After the season, I was thoroughly dissatisfied the performance of the coaching staff. But I chalked it up to a bad year. I chalked it up to some combination of stubbornness, luck, and inevitable growth. The Purvis, Facey, Brimah era, to me, represented, in Ollie's mind, an epiphany of sorts - he wanted to play his way, and he wanted to do it with his players. Enter Jalen Adams, Christian Vital, Terry Larrier, Alterique Gilbert, Juwan Durham, Vance Jackson, etc. I was sure that somewhere beneath the rubble of that disastrous season was a sprouting flower that Ollie would laugh maniacally about all off-season. If I saw it from the upper bowls he must have seen it from the bench. Jalen Adams, over the span of about 20 Hartford hours, became great. That made a lot of the other problems seem a lot less daunting.

Then one quiet Friday a couple weeks later, that vision blew to a million pieces. Enoch, I think, was the first to go. Then Jackson left, then MAL...then Durham. In the middle of all this, Glen Miller was fired.

The alarm from all of that did not derive from their cost of replacement so much as it did from the foreboding optics. Here were a couple of top 50 type big men with an opportunity to play for a powerhouse program with an all-American point guard walking out the door. It almost seemed...audacious.

And I think that's the word. There is a distinct foulness about all of this - from hardly getting a look from any noteworthy grad transfers to being unable to replace them with high school kids - that is incompatible with reality. Something had to be up that wasn't meeting the eye.
By the time various rumors had circulated to my inbox Sunday night, I had kind of already put the pieces together. This was confirmation of something I had already suspected, and while none of this merits rehashing on a public forum, there is enough at this point in the way of smoke to qualify that other component as something extremely pertinent to the long-term health of the program.

That's where a lot of the gray comes in, though. Nothing that I heard is scandalous or capable of assassinating character. It's nothing that can't be rectified and maybe it already has been.

In the meantime, though, we're in an awkward position, if only because we are applying a precedent to a situation that may not have one. And that's kind of where I'm at. If everybody is on board here like they were in the past, I'm still optimistic about the future, optimistic about Adams, Vital, Gilbert, and Larrier as the cornerstones for the next couple years. I'm optimistic that Chill will resurrect our recruiting and that UConn basketball will role into the third decade of the millennium as strong as before.

I love Kevin Ollie and that will be true whether he coaches here or not. I have no thirst to see him replaced and no interest in finding a scapegoat for something that doesn't need one. He doesn't owe me anything and I'm sure I can say the same for most on this board. But he does owe something to Jalen Adams and it is about time he starts to do right by the kid who passed up a chance to play at Kansas or Louisville to play for you. Right now, he's the one getting screwed more than anybody. That needs to stop or we will have to find somebody else to stop it.

Another mic drop post. Well done

 

[mauconnfan]

I think it's nice that you've made new friends.

Not trying to make friends Waqy just trying to remain as positive as possible with the hand dealt.

But you got a like from one of the 3 stooges you can be proud now. It looks good on you.

 

[upstater]

Eh, I don't think the perception was nearly as bad as you're making to out to be. Roscoe was a top 35 player, and you're neglecting to even mention Lamb, who was ranked around 70 but was fast rising and thought to be extremely underrated (which proved to be accurate). Napier was ranked around 60 in the 2012 class and then reclassified, so it's tough to say where he would've been in 2011, but my recollection is the expectations were much higher than an "Austrie type" (again, proved to be true). Niels was a foreign player so wasn't ranked but Fran Frischilla was quoted as saying he'd be a top 100 player if he was ranked. Even Mike Bradley checked in at #100 in Scout's rankings. So we basically had 4-5 top 100 players in the class as well as a local kid (Olander) and a foreign project with upside (Wolf). I'd give my left nut....hell, both my nuts...for that right now.

Hard enough to rehash this since this board wasn't even around back then. No chance of finding any of those posts. I will say people have a pretty revisionist history of what went down in 2014 here, especially when people in this thread are writing about the talent Ollie was given by Calhoun, because there are threads in 2014 bemoaning the talent, especially Daniels.

I wasn't even comparing the two classes. I mentioned that classes have been criticized heavily before to not only turn out alright, but to vastly exceed expectations.

The posters on the Boneyard collectively came into 2011 bemoaning the talent on the team. We were expecting less than a tourney finish from them.

Several of our more prominent and good posters ripped into that recruiting class. Unless they want to go on record, I'm not going to name people. Nor did I have a crystal ball thinking that the class was going to be good. I just accepted that it wasn't a great class.

 

[imno1]

@Stairmaster @mauconnfan @UConNick @LStudfellow ALL BONEYARD 1st Team

If only Ollie and staff could recruit like this

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

He's using faulty information to claim that he's right. Or are you gonna tell me you'd rather have Stephen F. Austin's incoming class than the one we have now?

You miss the point of the argument EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Fine, you don't agree with the ranking service. The point is, we are at the same level as those crap schools.

Does it really matter if we are a few spots ahead? We don't have a single 5 or 4 star recruit coming in on an already decimated roster that is likely to lose its best player.

So fine argue about the merits of the recruiting service while our program continues its slide into obscurity as we can't land any impact recruit or transfer despite having incredible amounts of playing time available.

For someone who sits on his high horse all the time, you sure are really awful at understanding the point that posters are making when you continuously call them out.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

oh and the optimists here don't just make things up to fit their narrative? when you have people here whose only reason for keeping Ollie is because he won a title, it's hard to have any sort of rational argument.

If your "only reason for keeping Ollie is because he won a title," please Like this post.
Don't be shy.
Dou're be snarky.
We need greater clarity before we can join together and root for UConn basketball as a community of fans.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

But if one conveniently chooses to selectively ignore all of these facts, it makes it easier to support one's position that Ollie is clueless and should be coaching AAU ball.

Would all people who believe that "Ollie is clueless and should be coaching AAU ball" please Like this post.
Don't be shy.
Don't be snarky.
We need clarity to come together yada yada yada.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

To anyone Liking the above two posts, you do realize I'm requesting only that you Like it if you agree with what is quoted, right?

I'm hoping I don't get Likes because you like the post itself. That would defeat my purpose. I'm hoping to demonstrate that nobody really feels like what the quoted passage says. I'm trying to bridge the gap by smoking out the hyperbole. If you're in sympathy with that ambition, then Like THIS post.

You know, clarity, coming together, fandom, good basketball.

It COULD happen.

(Feel free to Unlike elsewhere as appropriate)

 

[boog204]

To anyone Liking the above two posts, you do realize I'm requesting only that you Like it if you agree with what is quoted, right?

I'm hoping I don't get Likes because you like the post itself. That would defeat my purpose. I'm hoping to demonstrate that nobody really feels like what the quoted passage says. I'm trying to bridge the gap by smoking out the hyperbole. If you're in sympathy with that ambition, then Like THIS post.

You know, clarity, coming together, fandom, good basketball.

It COULD happen.

(Feel free to Unlike elsewhere as appropriate)

Ahh, misinterpreted a little bit then... I'm in the camp that despite the awfulness of last year and some of the dissension around the program, we owe it to KO to keep him around for one more year. If he had not won in 2014, then I would support a change now. But we know from 2014 that the dude can coach and it would be silly to jettison him based off of one bad (really bad) year. He deserves the shot to try to make it right.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

PS - I'm imagining that the above posts will not succeed as I would hope. I predict they'll be misinterpreted or mischaracterized. As to what appear to be two sides unwilling or unable to get together around where they supposedly agree, and @UConnNick & @JMick came pretty close a bit above, I offer something paraphrased from near the end of the credits to Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy":
" Clerks wasn't as good as people said it was, and Mall Rats wasn't as bad as people said it was."

 

[mauconnfan]

 

[boog204]

PS - I'm imagining that the above posts will not succeed as I would hope. I predict they'll be misinterpreted or mischaracterized. As to what appear to be two sides unwilling or unable to get together around where they supposedly agree, and @UConnNick & @JMick came pretty close a bit above, I offer something paraphrased from near the end of the credits to Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy":
" Clerks wasn't as good as people said it was, and Mall Rats wasn't as bad as people said it was."

I feel like both sides are actually pretty close. I don't think the anti-KO are saying "fire him immediately" and I don't think the pro-KOs are saying he's "coach for life." Both sides know there are definite issues. Both sides want those issues addressed. And, I think both sides are in somewhat agreement that if we go 16-17 next season, with transfers, and increased toxicity, that a change needs to come. The issue is that both sides are just pursuing their arguments to such extremes that there are "camps" that have developed when really most are feeling the same way. We want to see UConn return to being UConn. If KO wins 25, then the "bashers" will say that things seemed to have been remedied. If we win 15 than the apologists will say that the negative pattern is now legit.

 

[superjohn]

Hard enough to rehash this since this board wasn't even around back then. No chance of finding any of those posts. I will say people have a pretty revisionist history of what went down in 2014 here, especially when people in this thread are writing about the talent Ollie was given by Calhoun, because there are threads in 2014 bemoaning the talent, especially Daniels.

I wasn't even comparing the two classes. I mentioned that classes have been criticized heavily before to not only turn out alright, but to vastly exceed expectations.

The posters on the Boneyard collectively came into 2011 bemoaning the talent on the team. We were expecting less than a tourney finish from them.

Several of our more prominent and good posters ripped into that recruiting class. Unless they want to go on record, I'm not going to name people. Nor did I have a crystal ball thinking that the class was going to be good. I just accepted that it wasn't a great class.

What's the point of even bringing up that class when on paper it was a million times better than this class? And bringing up a player like Daniels who was like the 10-15 ranked recruit in the country? You say you aren't trying to make a comparison but it doesn't make sense to bring up a class littered with top 100 players when our current class has no players who come close to fitting that bill.

 

[upstater]

What's the point of even bringing up that class when on paper it was a million times better than this class? And bringing up a player like Daniels who was like the 10-15 ranked recruit in the country? You say you aren't trying to make a comparison but it doesn't make sense to bring up a class littered with top 100 players when our current class has no players who come close to fitting that bill.

It is clear what my point was. I said it twice. I guess I'll say it again.

I am not comparing the 2 classes. Instead, I am saying that classes are reviled by people sometimes, only to see those classes end up panning out.

For instance, Lamb was the 43rd ranked shooting guard: ESPN Basketball Recruiting - Player Rankings

He was #85 according to 247 sports.

Tyler Polley is the 32nd ranked small forward: ESPN Basketball Recruiting - Player Rankings

I made the same point about Daniels. He was actually a top 10 ranked recruit in some places. But the posters on here killed him during his junior year. The revisionist history on here is funny when you realize the actual things people were saying at the time.

That is my point.

 

[intlzncster]

Ha, we have pretty much the same recollection. Funny we typed out almost the exact same things at the exact same times. Would give anything for that kind of class today.

Ha...wrote my post before I read yours and made a lot of the same points. Our recollections are very similar.

And then you did it again. superjohn, at least try to pretend you are not on two accounts...

 

[intlzncster]

My $.02:

First, this thread is all the things wrong with the internet, and I say that as somebody who thinks very highly of this board in general. There are a lot of thoughtful opinions that not absorbed because everything is always about winning the argument. I like to be right, too, so I certainly understand how this goes. I'm no different. When somebody disagrees with me, I read the retort first with my ego and then I'll go back with my brain later to try to figure out how to assuage things. But ultimately nobody is keeping score - I've said some really intelligent things and been wrong and I've said some really dumb things and been right. So honestly, I don't care whether you're hyper positive guy or hyper negative guy...just be ****** original.

Myself, I've been pretty damn positive about the direction of this program since the day Ollie took over. I think he has all the tools to be not just a good coach, but a Hall of Fame coach. The idea that we could even be having these conversations was sacrilege to me one year ago, much less three years ago when he could have run over my sister without drawing my slightest objection.

But things started to change two years ago and they became even more pronounced this year. The origin of that change was at first notable only to depraved souls like me who would dig through the game tape, compare sets, and decipher statistical models. He was getting out-coached. And he got out-coached a lot last season even as extenuating circumstances - the injuries, the erratic play of our seniors, more injuries, etc. - blurred the bluntness of it. Truth be told, I think Glen Miller was the first to realize it. And you can say what you want about him, but he's been around a lot of basketball and coached a lot of teams. A lot more than Ollie.

After the season, I was thoroughly dissatisfied the performance of the coaching staff. But I chalked it up to a bad year. I chalked it up to some combination of stubbornness, luck, and inevitable growth. The Purvis, Facey, Brimah era, to me, represented, in Ollie's mind, an epiphany of sorts - he wanted to play his way, and he wanted to do it with his players. Enter Jalen Adams, Christian Vital, Terry Larrier, Alterique Gilbert, Juwan Durham, Vance Jackson, etc. I was sure that somewhere beneath the rubble of that disastrous season was a sprouting flower that Ollie would laugh maniacally about all off-season. If I saw it from the upper bowls he must have seen it from the bench. Jalen Adams, over the span of about 20 Hartford hours, became great. That made a lot of the other problems seem a lot less daunting.

Then one quiet Friday a couple weeks later, that vision blew to a million pieces. Enoch, I think, was the first to go. Then Jackson left, then MAL...then Durham. In the middle of all this, Glen Miller was fired.

The alarm from all of that did not derive from their cost of replacement so much as it did from the foreboding optics. Here were a couple of top 50 type big men with an opportunity to play for a powerhouse program with an all-American point guard walking out the door. It almost seemed...audacious.

And I think that's the word. There is a distinct foulness about all of this - from hardly getting a look from any noteworthy grad transfers to being unable to replace them with high school kids - that is incompatible with reality. Something had to be up that wasn't meeting the eye.
By the time various rumors had circulated to my inbox Sunday night, I had kind of already put the pieces together. This was confirmation of something I had already suspected, and while none of this merits rehashing on a public forum, there is enough at this point in the way of smoke to qualify that other component as something extremely pertinent to the long-term health of the program.

That's where a lot of the gray comes in, though. Nothing that I heard is scandalous or capable of assassinating character. It's nothing that can't be rectified and maybe it already has been.

In the meantime, though, we're in an awkward position, if only because we are applying a precedent to a situation that may not have one. And that's kind of where I'm at. If everybody is on board here like they were in the past, I'm still optimistic about the future, optimistic about Adams, Vital, Gilbert, and Larrier as the cornerstones for the next couple years. I'm optimistic that Chill will resurrect our recruiting and that UConn basketball will role into the third decade of the millennium as strong as before.

I love Kevin Ollie and that will be true whether he coaches here or not. I have no thirst to see him replaced and no interest in finding a scapegoat for something that doesn't need one. He doesn't owe me anything and I'm sure I can say the same for most on this board. But he does owe something to Jalen Adams and it is about time he starts to do right by the kid who passed up a chance to play at Kansas or Louisville to play for you. Right now, he's the one getting screwed more than anybody. That needs to stop or we will have to find somebody else to stop it.

Another mic drop post. Well done

Yup, great post champs. Deserves more than a 'like'.

 

[superjohn]

It is clear what my point was. I said it twice. I guess I'll say it again.

I am not comparing the 2 classes. Instead, I am saying that classes are reviled by people sometimes, only to see those classes end up panning out.

For instance, Lamb was the 43rd ranked shooting guard: ESPN Basketball Recruiting - Player Rankings

He was #85 according to 247 sports.

Tyler Polley is the 32nd ranked small forward: ESPN Basketball Recruiting - Player Rankings

I made the same point about Daniels. He was actually a top 10 ranked recruit in some places. But the posters on here killed him during his junior year. The revisionist history on here is funny when you realize the actual things people were saying at the time.

That is my point.

Myself and Mooch have different recollections of the 2010 recruiting class but since you say people were ragging on and vilifying that class wouldn't it stand to make sense there would be a much stronger negative reaction around here in regards to this class since on paper it's putrid compared to the 2010 class?

 

[superjohn]

And then you did it again. superjohn, at least try to pretend you are not on two accounts...

Ha, I have a ton of different handles...need someone to give me likes.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Don't think I've heard this since it became a meme, so I clicked on it. I kept thinking of Belushi in a toga grabbing & smashing the guitar. Then again...

Elvis Costello - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I feel like both sides are actually pretty close. I don't think the anti-KO are saying "fire him immediately" and I don't think the pro-KOs are saying he's "coach for life." Both sides know there are definite issues. Both sides want those issues addressed. And, I think both sides are in somewhat agreement that if we go 16-17 next season, with transfers, and increased toxicity, that a change needs to come. The issue is that both sides are just pursuing their arguments to such extremes that there are "camps" that have developed when really most are feeling the same way. We want to see UConn return to being UConn. If KO wins 25, then the "bashers" will say that things seemed to have been remedied. If we win 15 than the apologists will say that the negative pattern is now legit.

And the 20-win season will either keep the divide alive or postpone things toward 2018-19. Good times!

 

[upstater]

Myself and Mooch have different recollections of the 2010 recruiting class but since you say people were ragging on and vilifying that class wouldn't it stand to make sense there would be a much stronger negative reaction around here in regards to this class since on paper it's putrid compared to the 2010 class?

Well, we were also in a different place. Big East, F4, going into sanctions. There was a dark mood.

I guess my main point, from being on the Boneyard over the years, is that there is a tendency to overreact. Yes, I get it. Things are dire, no recruit will commit here.

I actually expected this. And I said so. 2 months ago I said it will be hard to get difference makers to commit because, One, it is Spring and most of the good ones are committed, and Two, all the losing from last year will make kids think there will be less exposure and no tournament.

I get that. I expected it. I was also telling people this week that it was clear to me Wilson was headed to St. John's. Not surprised in the least.

But I found that in 2010, with Giffey, Wolf, Olander, Bradley, and an incredibly underrated (but lower ranked) Lamb, people were despondent, given the previous year's dysfunction. Napier came on after he was coaxed a year early out of prep, largely because of all the point guard misses. This place was a zoo back then.

Just like it was a zoo in 2014 with the team's play and the play of Daniels.

 

[UConnNick]

Well, we were also in a different place. Big East, F4, going into sanctions. There was a dark mood.

I guess my main point, from being on the Boneyard over the years, is that there is a tendency to overreact. Yes, I get it. Things are dire, no recruit will commit here.

I actually expected this. And I said so. 2 months ago I said it will be hard to get difference makers to commit because, One, it is Spring and most of the good ones are committed, and Two, all the losing from last year will make kids think there will be less exposure and no tournament.

I get that. I expected it. I was also telling people this week that it was clear to me Wilson was headed to St. John's. Not surprised in the least.

But I found that in 2010, with Giffey, Wolf, Olander, Bradley, and an incredibly underrated (but lower ranked) Lamb, people were despondent, given the previous year's dysfunction. Napier came on after he was coaxed a year early out of prep, largely because of all the point guard misses. This place was a zoo back then.

Just like it was a zoo in 2014 with the team's play and the play of Daniels.

I think upstater's point is it has sometimes been darkest just before the dawn in past UConn basketball history. Just when we think it's all going down the tubes for the foreseeable future, we have a team come along that totally refutes that mindset. Maybe that could be next season's team and maybe it won't be, but the point is well taken.