UConn still has four open scholarships for next season but likely won’t fill all of them. | Page 3 | The Boneyard

UConn still has four open scholarships for next season but likely won’t fill all of them.

8893 said:
Hmmm, sounds a bit like Corey Floyd, Jr.

Awkward Season 4 GIF by The Office
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Think he wants start now
 
bendm said:
would it help if you accept that alleyne is probably going to start and we need a 20 mpg CG off the bench instead? odds are alleyne is not coming here to be the sixth man after averaging over 30 mpg on a tourney team.

with our last rotation spot we just need someone who will contribute more than floyd would have next year. femi definitely will. i think an upperclassman diarra will too.
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Alleyne is definitely starting. He didn’t leave 30 mpg at Va Tech to play 20 here.
 
bendm said:
would it help if you accept that alleyne is probably going to start and we need a 20 mpg CG off the bench instead? odds are alleyne is not coming here to be the sixth man after averaging over 30 mpg on a tourney team.

with our last rotation spot we just need someone who will contribute more than floyd would have next year. femi definitely will. pretty confident an upperclassman diarra will too. diarra just makes too much sense with his connections.
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We need another starter.
 
aburks41 said:
Can someone talk me in to Diarra or Femi? As I see it, we have room for 1 more likely starter (assuming Alleyne is the 6th man). I don’t think either of those guys are fit for that role. We need an immediate 25MPG impact guy. I feel like we could do much better than Diarra or Femi if we are offering a starting spot. They would be good bench pieces though. I know Femi started at Pitt, but Pitt stinks so that’s not really saying that much…
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I’m not sure you should assume Alleyne is the sixth man. Even if he is, it would mean he’s behind Hawkins, and not behind a transfer we don’t have yet. As I see it, our two most likely starting lineups are:

Newton, Alleyne, Hawkins, Jackson, Sanogo
Or
Newton, Hawkins, Jackson, Johnson, Sanogo

In either scenario, we’re not looking for another starter. If we’re going to start Newton, Alleyne, and Hawkins (and in either scenario, really), then we definitely need two guards who can play meaningful minutes off the bench. Castle and Femi/Diarra would fit. I’m not necessarily advocating for either. I’m just saying the role they’d be coming to fill would be off the bench.
 
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superjohn said:
We need another starter.
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This is what I think too. I’m not convinced Alleyne or Johnson are locked into getting starter minutes (depending on the lineup). Because if Castle reclasses, he is starting day 1. If Castle doesn’t reclass, then we are still looking for a day 1 starter.

Donald Carey should be our #1 portal target right now
 
Hungryhusky99 said:
The starting lineup is set whether we like it or not.
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Why? The overwhelming consensus here when Alleyne transferred was that he was the perfect 6th man. And I am not sold on locking Johnson in to the 4 spot from day 1. We are definitely still looking for another starting guard.
 
aburks41 said:
Why? The overwhelming consensus here when Alleyne transferred was that he was the perfect 6th man. And I am not sold on locking Johnson in to the 4 spot from day 1. We are definitely still looking for another starting guard.
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I don't think that was the overwhelming consensus.

ToolzieFan said:
I’m not sure you should assume Alleyne is the sixth man. Even if he is, it would mean he’s behind Hawkins, and not behind a transfer we don’t have yet. As I see it, our two most likely starting lineups are:

Newton, Alleyne, Hawkins, Jackson, Sanogo
Or
Newton, Hawkins, Jackson, Johnson, Sanogo
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Toolzie's summary was accurate. These are the two scenarios as it stands now. And more people think option 1 is more likely that 2 based on Hurley's 4 out & 1 in comments.
 
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aburks41 said:
Why? The overwhelming consensus here when Alleyne transferred was that he was the perfect 6th man. And I am not sold on locking Johnson in to the 4 spot from day 1. We are definitely still looking for another starting guard.
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He is the perfect 6th man, but I don’t think he would’ve signed up for that. Borges’ article also literally says we are looking for a guard who will start out on the bench and potentially earn a starting spot in future years.
 
bigknight3 said:
I don't think they was the overwhelming consensus.



Toolzie's summary was accurate. These are the two scenarios as it stands now. And more people think option 1 is more likely that 2 based on Hurley's 4 out & 1 in comments.
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I don’t see how Johnson starts until he shows he can play defense. He finished the season that way.
 
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Hungryhusky99 said:
He is the perfect 6th man, but I don’t think he would’ve signed up for that. Borges’ article also literally says we are looking for a guard who will start out on the bench and potentially earn a starting spot in future years.
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It really doesn't matter what he signed up for. Remy Martin played 33 mpg for Arizona State, was preseason Big XII player of the year and ended up being the 6th man and playing 21 a game for Kansas. It wasn't what he signed up for either, but it worked.

I don't think we know who will start. I don't think the staff knows. I don't think the same players start at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. It's going to take some tinkering to figure out our best lineup, and it may need to be situational. Start Alleyne vs St. Johns, start Johnson/Karaban vs Georgetown or Creighton.

As for Castle, if he expects to start then he probably shouldn't come early. He's not Kobe. He's not a one and done if he reclasses.
 
HuskyHawk said:
It really doesn't matter what he signed up for. Remy Martin played 33 mpg for Arizona State, was preseason Big XII player of the year and ended up being the 6th man and playing 21 a game for Kansas. It wasn't what he signed up for either, but it worked.

I don't think we know who will start. I don't think the staff knows. I don't think the same players start at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. It's going to take some tinkering to figure out our best lineup, and it may need to be situational. Start Alleyne vs St. Johns, start Johnson/Karaban vs Georgetown or Creighton.

As for Castle, if he expects to start then he probably shouldn't come early. He's not Kobe. He's not a one and done if he reclasses.
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Sure he can play himself out of that role, but I am talking about the starting lineup to start the year which is going to impact the rest of the recruiting cycle whether you think it should or not. Remy started the season out as a starter, but that is an entirely different situation. All I am saying is that if you don't think Alleyne was promised a significant role to come here you don't understand how this all works. If we were truly after someone better than Alleyne we would've been linked to them by now.
 
Hungryhusky99 said:
Sure he can play himself out of that role, but I am talking about the starting lineup to start the year which is going to impact the rest of the recruiting cycle whether you think it should or not. Remy started the season out as a starter, but that is an entirely different situation. All I am saying is that if you don't think Alleyne was promised a significant role to come here you don't understand how this all works. If we were truly after someone better than Alleyne we would've been linked to them by now.
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There is still room for one more 25MPG guard before we move on to filling out the 5-10MPG bench pieces though. 25MPG means starting caliber guard in my mind. I feel like we can find someone better than Femi or Diarra for that role.
 
Hungryhusky99 said:
Sure he can play himself out of that role, but I am talking about the starting lineup to start the year which is going to impact the rest of the recruiting cycle whether you think it should or not. Remy started the season out as a starter, but that is an entirely different situation. All I am saying is that if you don't think Alleyne was promised a significant role to come here you don't understand how this all works. If we were truly after someone better than Alleyne we would've been linked to them by now.
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Yeah this is how I see things at this point. If Ramey/Rudi Williams were out after Alleyne committed, no starter quality transfer is coming. We haven’t been linked to anyone else in that tier anyway.

Given where we are now I’d love Odukale, but haven’t heard anything on that front, so I’m not expecting that to happen.
 
aburks41 said:
There is still room for one more 25MPG guard before we move on to filling out the 5-10MPG bench pieIces though. 25MPG means starting caliber guard in my mind. I feel like we can find someone better than Femi or Diarra for that role.
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This isn't true unless you want Johnson and Karaban to get less than 15 min each.

This is how I see it:
uconnprojection23.png


(From Hoop-Explorer)
 
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aburks41 said:
There is still room for one more 25MPG guard before we move on to filling out the 5-10MPG bench pieces though. 25MPG means starting caliber guard in my mind. I feel like we can find someone better than Femi or Diarra for that role.
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I think Femi is about as good as we can hope for at this point, but I would love to be wrong.
 
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auror said:
This isn't true unless you want Johnson and Karaban to get less than 15 min each.

This is how I see it:
uconnprojection23.png


(From Hoop-Explorer)
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Slating Karaban and Johnson for 35 minutes seems high to me. Johnson looked very raw last year in the limited minutes that he played, and we don't know anything about Karaban. I'd be more on the conservative side for their minutes, mostly because I think Jackson is going to be spending a lot of time at the 4
 
aburks41 said:
Slating Karaban and Johnson for 35 minutes seems high to me. Johnson looked very raw last year in the limited minutes that he played, and we don't know anything about Karaban. I'd be more on the conservative side for their minutes, mostly because I think Jackson is going to be spending a lot of time at the 4
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Some of those guys are going to end up playing more than 30 so it goes both ways. The point is we already have a lot of guys who are going to get a lot of minutes. It is not a very easy job to sell a kid to come into this situation.
 
aburks41 said:
Slating Karaban and Johnson for 35 minutes seems high to me. Johnson looked very raw last year in the limited minutes that he played, and we don't know anything about Karaban. I'd be more on the conservative side for their minutes, mostly because I think Jackson is going to be spending a lot of time at the 4
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And as I keep pointing out, Hawkins was just as raw in his early limited minutes. He played 398 minutes. Johnson played 68 minutes. The first 68 minutes Hawkins played were at least as bad, and defensively, worse, than Johnson's. He played out of it and got much better. I expect the same of Johnson. He didn't get that opportunity because Whaley, Polley and Akok soaked up the minutes. Some of Johnson's time was actually as a 5 when Sango and then Whaley were hurt.

This board gives up on highly rated recruits far too quickly, while embracing guys who have never played a minute as if they are NBA all stars. It's mind boggling. You have to throw out the lack of minutes for freshmen as an indicator of ability until this absurd extra Covid year is gone. Thank God Cole and Martin moved on. The 2022-23 UConn team would be much better if Whaley and Polley had.
 
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Rico444 said:
Karaban isn't coming in here and starting right away as a true freshman.
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Probably right. But like Akok before, he's not quite a true freshman. He's been practicing with the team since January. Meanwhile, Johnson is a Sophomore.

It's a good problem to have, but yes, somebody is going to get squeezed to the bench who could probably start. It won't be Newton or Sanogo, and almost certainly won't be Jackson. Aside from that, who knows?
 
CTBasketball said:
So who’s getting benched?

Jackson, Newton, Karaban, or Hawkins?
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My guess is Karaban, but I am big fan of his so if he does end up starting over Alleyne that is fine with me. I am just saying what I think is going to happen not necessarily what I want.
 
HuskyHawk said:
And as I keep pointing out, Hawkins was just as raw in his early limited minutes. He played 398 minutes. Johnson played 68 minutes. The first 68 minutes Hawkins played were at least as bad, and defensively, worse, than Johnson's. He played out of it and got much better. I expect the same of Johnson. He didn't get that opportunity because Whaley, Polley and Akok soaked up the minutes. Some of Johnson's time was actually as a 5 when Sango and then Whaley were hurt.

This board gives up on highly rated recruits far too quickly, while embracing guys who have never played a minute as if they are NBA all stars. It's mind boggling. You have to throw out the lack of minutes for freshmen as an indicator of ability until this absurd extra Covid year is gone. Thank God Cole and Martin moved on. The 2022-23 UConn team would be much better if Whaley and Polley had.
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Oh you mean to tell me it took the freshman getting some real minutes under his feet to improve? Who thought that can happen. Diggins looked terrible in his 5 garbage minutes of the season against Georgetown so there's no way he can ever be a solid D1 PG.

Completely agree with Whaley and Polley, especially Polley. We invested far too much in a guy who was just a streaky shooter. Those minutes could've gone to Hawkins, Akok, and Johnson and we would've been MUCH better for it. It's not like Tyrese and AJ didn't prove to be really good in that 4 spot. Better rebounders, defenders, all that.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Probably right. But like Akok before, he's not quite a true freshman. He's been practicing with the team since January. Meanwhile, Johnson is a Sophomore.

It's a good problem to have, but yes, somebody is going to get squeezed to the bench who could probably start. It won't be Newton or Sanogo, and almost certainly won't be Jackson. Aside from that, who knows?
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Barring injuries, the starting lineup to begin the season is almost assuredly going to be Newton, Alleyne, Hawk, Jackson, and Sanogo. If it's not that lineup, I would imagine it's because Samson played his way into the starting lineup and Alleyne will be the first guard off the bench playing 25+ minutes.
 
aburks41 said:
Slating Karaban and Johnson for 35 minutes seems high to me. Johnson looked very raw last year in the limited minutes that he played, and we don't know anything about Karaban. I'd be more on the conservative side for their minutes, mostly because I think Jackson is going to be spending a lot of time at the 4.
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Freshman minutes at UConn under Hurley (mpg):
Akok 28
Bouknight 26
Gaffney 19
--
Sanogo 17
Jackson 16
Hawkins 15
--
Adams 13
Johnson 5
Diggins 5
Springs 3

I put them into buckets. Transcendent talents get 25+ minutes as freshmen (Bouknight). Freshmen that are really needed at their position due to roster and/or talent issues get 15-30 minutes (Akok, Gaffney). High quality freshmen who earn their way onto the court despite more experienced veterans in the way get around 15 (Sanogo, Jackson, Hawkins). Raw freshmen get 5-15 min, depending on what we need at the position.

I expect Johnson's "rawness" and team's depth in frontcourt put him basically 1 year behind. He'll be at that 15-20 mpg mark this season, barring injuries. With his pseudo redshirting experience and team need, Akok played 28 mpg. I don't expect Karaban to be that high because the overall talent level is higher, but I don't expect him in the 5-15 bucket either because he's too skilled and his shooting too valuable. I would be surprised if he wasn't in the 12+ and more likely around 15 min.

So I could see 30 instead of 35, but we're then talking 12-17 min for all backup guards outside of Newton/Alleyne/Hawk, definitely not 25. And it might be 2 backup guys spitting those mintues, not just 1.
 
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