What if we had actually gotten our 1st choice? | The Boneyard

What if we had actually gotten our 1st choice?

stick

stick

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Imagine what would have happened if we actually got our 1st choice of a recruit.

My top 3 in order

1 Isaiah Fox/Jamal Sampson – We missed out on both targets in the fall. Funnily enough, pretty sure that Arizona could have easily had Emeka Okafor but they didn’t recruit him and instead opted for Fox and Sampson went for 1 uninspired season at Cal.

2 Brandon Jennings – I believe we were heavy favorites for him at one point and he was a top 3 recruit. Jennings had a connection to Marcus Williams. Everyone was shocked he committed to Arizona and JC pivoted heavily to his backup option of Kemba. He didn’t qualify and went overseas.

3 Brandon Knight/Cory Joseph/Josh Selby/Doron Lamb – I have no idea what happened with Knight as we were supposed to be in the driver’s seat at one point. Joseph was the one I really wanted and I believe we came in 2nd. Shabazz really wanted to come to Uconn and I believe he re-classified and accepted the offer in the spring before Selby decided. Doron Lamb was in the same class and I think Uconn had a legit shot, but he decided to wait till spring and Jeremy Lamb signed in the fall.

Any others.
 
Who did we get instead of Ed Davis ? I remember he was on the cover of Husky Blue & White, and it seemed like 5 minutes after i got it in the mail, he committed to UNC. Didnt that also happen to another recruit ? Was it Jennings ?

Edit: Just looked through 24/7. Was Majok or Okwandu the backup ?
 
i wanted brandon knight. and who was the other explosive guard from kentucky? around the ashton-langford yrs
 
My absolute favorite...

Ray Allen instead of 6'5" guard Stais Bozeman, who committed to UConn in the fall of '92, decommitted over break, and wound up at Cal.

Allen was a late riser who was largely ignored by the ACC despite being right in their backyard (only Clemson offered). Rick Pitino and Kentucky got involved late, and we had to sweat out an on-campus visit to UK, but in the end he loved Calhoun more.
 
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stick said:
Imagine what would have happened if we actually got our 1st choice of a recruit.

My top 3 in order

1 Isaiah Fox/Jamal Sampson – We missed out on both targets in the fall. Funnily enough, pretty sure that Arizona could have easily had Emeka Okafor but they didn’t recruit him and instead opted for Fox and Sampson went for 1 uninspired season at Cal.

2 Brandon Jennings – I believe we were heavy favorites for him at one point and he was a top 3 recruit. Jennings had a connection to Marcus Williams. Everyone was shocked he committed to Arizona and JC pivoted heavily to his backup option of Kemba. He didn’t qualify and went overseas.

3 Brandon Knight/Cory Joseph/Josh Selby/Doron Lamb – I have no idea what happened with Knight as we were supposed to be in the driver’s seat at one point. Joseph was the one I really wanted and I believe we came in 2nd. Shabazz really wanted to come to Uconn and I believe he re-classified and accepted the offer in the spring before Selby decided. Doron Lamb was in the same class and I think Uconn had a legit shot, but he decided to wait till spring and Jeremy Lamb signed in the fall.

Any others.
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Marcus Williams father, Kelly, was an assistant coach for the So-Cal All-Stars where Marcus and Brandon both played. Kelly spent a lot of time at UConn when Marcus was here. I asked him about Brandon during his recruiting frenzy and Kelly was very confident about him coming to UConn. Surprised a lot of people.
 
Mr. Wonderful said:
My absolute favorite...

Ray Allen instead of 6'5" guard Stais Bozeman, who committed to UConn in the fall of '92, decommitted over break, and wound up at Cal.

Allen was a late riser who was largely ignored by the ACC despite being right in their backyard (only Clemson offered). Rick Pitino and Kentucky got involved late, and we had to sweat out an on-campus visit to UK, but in the end he loved Calhoun more.
Expand ...
 
Mr. Wonderful said:
My absolute favorite...

Ray Allen instead of 6'5" guard Stais Bozeman, who committed to UConn in the fall of '92, decommitted over break, and wound up at Cal.

Allen was a late riser who was largely ignored by the ACC despite being right in their backyard (only Clemson offered). Rick Pitino and Kentucky got involved late, and we had to sweat out an on-campus visit to UK, but in the end he loved Calhoun more.
Expand ...
Wow. I forgot about Bozeman.
 
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Mr. Wonderful said:
My absolute favorite...

Ray Allen instead of 6'5" guard Stais Bozeman, who committed to UConn in the fall of '92, decommitted over break, and wound up at Cal.

Allen was a late riser who was largely ignored by the ACC despite being right in their backyard (only Clemson offered). Rick Pitino and Kentucky got involved late, and we had to sweat out an on-campus visit to UK, but in the end he loved Calhoun more.
Expand ...

I have zero memory of Bozeman committing. Was the same year as Corey Benjamin saying his top five were "UConn, UConn, UConn, UConn, UConn"?
 
boog204 said:
I have zero memory of Bozeman committing. Was the same year as Corey Benjamin saying his top five were "UConn, UConn, UConn, UConn, UConn"?
Expand ...
I didnt remember this, so i did a quick search and found this article about Benjamin. Recruiting has really changed :). Check out these names.

www.courant.com

UCONN WAITS AS BENJAMIN’S PLANS CHANGE

UConn may be falling out of the chase for highly rated recruit Corey Benjamin of Fontana, Calif. Benjamin has canceled plans for an unofficial visit to the UConn campus this weekend. Benjamin, a 6-…
www.courant.com www.courant.com
 
Inyatkin said:
The 2011 point guards are the big one. We struck out over and over until we had to settle for a guy who ended up winning two NCAA titles.
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Thank you for riding the Josh Selby Experience

I remember in like that February or March, ESPN (they actually used to have really good recruiting content back then) put out an article where they projected where the top uncommitted players would go, and they picked us for Selby. I’m assuming that was before visit-gate.
 
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boog204 said:
I have zero memory of Bozeman committing. Was the same year as Corey Benjamin saying his top five were "UConn, UConn, UConn, UConn, UConn"?
Expand ...
I think he was the same class as Rip.
 
Mr. French said:
I remember the Knight/Joseph class well - we were heavily involved with multiple top PGs and I was convinced 1 was coming here. I also liked Joseph best.

None compares to Bazz. So happy.
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I remember being so depressed that we didnt get Knight, Selby, Joseph, or D. Lamb.
Then Baz committed, and i still wasnt thrilled. Then i saw him play, and i was fine.

Then we won 2 more titles. I was also fine.
 
stick said:
Imagine what would have happened if we actually got our 1st choice of a recruit.

My top 3 in order

1 Isaiah Fox/Jamal Sampson – We missed out on both targets in the fall. Funnily enough, pretty sure that Arizona could have easily had Emeka Okafor but they didn’t recruit him and instead opted for Fox and Sampson went for 1 uninspired season at Cal.

2 Brandon Jennings – I believe we were heavy favorites for him at one point and he was a top 3 recruit. Jennings had a connection to Marcus Williams. Everyone was shocked he committed to Arizona and JC pivoted heavily to his backup option of Kemba. He didn’t qualify and went overseas.

3 Brandon Knight/Cory Joseph/Josh Selby/Doron Lamb – I have no idea what happened with Knight as we were supposed to be in the driver’s seat at one point. Joseph was the one I really wanted and I believe we came in 2nd. Shabazz really wanted to come to Uconn and I believe he re-classified and accepted the offer in the spring before Selby decided. Doron Lamb was in the same class and I think Uconn had a legit shot, but he decided to wait till spring and Jeremy Lamb signed in the fall.

Any others.
Expand ...
The rumor I knew at the time was Calipari's pitch to Knight was that Calhoun was old, sick, and might not be alive throughout Knight's whole career. No idea if it's true, but have hated Calipari (even more) since
 
Not in anyone's top 5 but didn't we get Roscoe Smith after Josh Selby committed to Kansas?
 
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stick said:
This is probably in my top 5.
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Sanogo was my #1 target for that class. I might be remembering wrong but he was ranked in the 30s and climbing before he reclassified.
 
ZenConn said:
Not in anyone's top 5 but didn't we get Roscoe Smith after Josh Selby committed to Kansas?
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Think you might be misremembering, or thinking of the Shabazz reclass.

iirc Roscoe committed in January, and the Selby drama (along with Knight and Joseph) lasted well into the spring
 
I don’t know why I ever read a kansas board, but I remember the fans losing it after deandre daniels commited to uconn. he was a major target for a lot of schools. hey it was 2011 & my job sucked.
 
UConNick said:
Think you might be misremembering, or thinking of the Shabazz reclass.

iirc Roscoe committed in January, and the Selby drama (along with Knight and Joseph) lasted well into the spring
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Yes, it was well after our season ended and shortly after the tournament was over. JC had the possibility of SN and (I may be wrong here) Olander joining in the 2010-2011 academic year in hisback pocket but each was scheduled to do a post grad year and join for 2011-2012.

In what felt like a 15 minute stretch we heard about losing out everyone we were close to landing. As there was now more room than we anticipated, SN and (I believe, but could have this wrong) TO signed on instead of going post-grad.
 
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