Steph is one I got wrong. And quite happy about it. Around about mid-January, after he had been back for six weeks or so from his injury, I saw the athletic potential, but didn‘t think he’d ever be a good college player. There were games when his jumper looked broke, his decision making wasn‘t great, and his defensive impact wasn’t evident yet. My thought was that he’d go on to be a good pro, but UConn wouldn't get the fruits of his development … they’d just have a raw freshman who didn’t know how to play yet, and that all of his potential would be realized at the next level, but we wouldn’t ever really see it here.
Kept those thoughts to myself (and family texts), fortunately. Otherwise, I’d have people bookmarking my tweets or posts telling me what an idiot I am. We ended up with a great college player, and I’ll never really think of him as a true one and done so much as a guy who just kept getting better after we recruited him, bought in to the team (and specifically the stopper role) completely, and accelerated his career path in the process.
He‘ll end up not being here long, but he’ll be a UConn guy forever.
