who was the 1 recruit that got away calhoun years..

[EnochRoot]

The "1" recruit who got away? That's hard to say, but Marcus Camby played HS ball in Hartford, CT. Letting him get out of Connecticut to UMASS was an existential blow to what Calhoun was building.

I'm thinking it cost Camby/UConn one, maybe two rings.

That's all I got.

 

[Fishy]

Donyell was one of those that sort of fell into our lap.

Nooo….that was a hard, hard recruitment.

We swiped him from under Boeheims nose while he was busy picking it. ‘yell to cuse was pretty much a done deal.

Nope. Family did not like Jim Boeheim. (There’s a story about some of the Syracuse shenanigans for another day.) Maryland and Billy Hahn were the competition.

Yep, Best was another big miss. Ollie was a good point guard but Travis Best was on a whole other level.

Yep. And then we had to sweat out Ollie’s standardized tests to see if he could become eligible.

Randall Jackson/Wayne Turner

Bill Curley

The is a correct answer.

Camby

No reputable school could have gotten Camby past admissions and administration. It was….bad bad.

I thought Durant was big. That class could have also brought Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson if I recall. I think once sticks committed Durant felt slighted.

We were always second for Durant, it seemed. First, we were second behind UNC and then when they dropped out and we looked like we would get him, he visited Texas and that was that.

Lawson and Ellington were never happening.

Kevin Garnett.

Never a chance. The stories about Garnett coming here were fiction.

 

[Travelman6]

Calhoun said Durant told Rudy Gay he was going to commit to UConn.

“He was going to come,” Calhoun, who had led UConn to NCAA titles in 1999 and 2004 ahead of the Durant recruitment, said in a phone interview after he made similar comments Saturday on Sirius NBA Radio. “He didn’t tell me personally, no. He told Rudy that.”

He added: “That summer [2006], he and Rudy Gay went to France, I believe it was, with Nike, and as he got off the plane [in the U.S.], he told Rudy, ‘I’m going to see you. I’m going to see you. I’m going to room with you.’ So they made their plans to be together.”

Jim Calhoun says Kevin Durant was 'coming' to UConn before he committed to Texas | Zagsblog

By ADAM ZAGORIA What if Brooklyn Nets […]

www.zagsblog.com

Huh? Gay was gone by that point. He didn't come back for his Junior year.

But Durant would have joined a team that was otherwise 17-14 (6-10 in the BE). Maybe they beat West Virginia and/or Marquette early on, and from there perhaps the entire season's trajectory changes. Maybe +5 wins to get to 22-9, maybe even 25 wins if they had beaten Marquette, but impossible to say for sure. Texas was 25-10 that year and lost to 5-seed USC in round 2.

 

[rip7774]

I think there was a story Durant committed to all 3 schools in his final 3.

I followed recruiting heavy back then (less life responsibilities ) and never got the sense we led or led big at the very least. UNC was hot at the time and cleaned our clock that class, landing Ellington and 1-2 others we liked so I never felt we we’re going to beat them and always felt Barnes was one of those shady coaches masquerading as some virtuous guy.

Obv our class ended up just fine with Sticks a big time pickup, Dyson and Hasheem in the spring I believe & others.

 

[alexd]

Nooo….that was a hard, hard recruitment.



Nope. Family did not like Jim Boeheim. (There’s a story about some of the Syracuse shenanigans for another day.) Maryland and Billy Hahn were the competition.



Yep. And then we had to sweat out Ollie’s standardized tests to see if he could become eligible.



The is a correct answer.



No reputable school could have gotten Camby past admissions and administration. It was….bad bad.



We were always second for Durant, it seemed. First, we were second behind UNC and then when they dropped out and we looked like we would get him, he visited Texas and that was that.

Lawson and Ellington were never happening.



Never a chance. The stories about Garnett coming here were fiction.

I remember a story in "husky blue n white" about Ray Allen and Garnett being friends and that IF KG was actually going to go to college, we had a as good a shot as anyone.

 

[alexd]

What's really fun is despite all this, we have 5 titles.
And if Cuse hadn't rented Carmelo for that one season...

 

[Dove]

There was a kid who went to Purdue that JC wanted bad. Cuonzo Martin.

I still remember hearing Arnold Dean interviewing Brunson and Best on his show. It seemed liked those kids wanted to come here.

 

[ElGreco]

Billy Curley

Absolutely the correct answer. JC often said that.

 

[ElGreco]

This, UConn would've won a national championship or two before '99 if they got Camby and probably would've had one of the best teams ever.

We had the opportunity but showed little interest - he had an injury in HS and grew dramatically after that if I remember correctly.

 

[Palatine]

Never a chance. The stories about Garnett coming here were fiction.

I read about it in Calhoun's book. Of course, that doesn't mean it's not fiction.

 

[RichZ]

This and if he kept Anthony Harris home there was potentially a ray Allen donyell Harris camby line up and rings 1&2.

Harris was a head case whose collegiate career turned out to be 3 years of disaster, and finally a decent, but not spectacular senior season. Not getting him was a probably a win in the long run.
Syracuse 1 year. Scored a total of 63 points spread out over 18 games.
Mashalltown Community College ??
Haiwaii 2 years -- finally had a decent season as a senior.

 

[RichZ]

Obviously all second hand

The cars and the women?

 

[Dogdeacon]

There was a kid who went to Purdue that JC wanted bad. Cuonzo Martin.

I still remember hearing Arnold Dean interviewing Brunson and Best on his show. It seemed liked those kids wanted to come here.

Didn't Cuonzo Martin come to UConn, but then had an incident at summer school (something about a girl and someone going thru a window like Eddie Murphy in Bevery Hills Cop) & was kicked out.

 

[Husky25]

Calhoun did not F up by not taking Ryan Gomes. No one could have predicted his ceiling as a high school junior, not even Gomes, himself. Caron Butler was head and shoulders above Gomes in every aspect of the game and Okafor was the 2002 class's project. Gomes was a fall back option and only enters fans' collective consciousness because he came out of Waterbury. If Gomes goes to UConn in 2002, they don't win the National Title in 2004.

Still, the rant was fantastic.

 

[UofCT]

Tobias Harris

 

[gsmooth]

Calhoun did not F up by not taking Ryan Gomes. No one could have predicted his ceiling as a high school junior, not even Gomes, himself. Caron Butler was head and shoulders above Gomes in every aspect of the game and Okafor was the 2002 class's project. Gomes was a fall back option and only enters fans' collective consciousness because he came out of Waterbury. If Gomes goes to UConn in 2002, they don't win the National Title in 2004.

Still, the rant was fantastic.

Correct. Most fans don't consider the bigger picture ramifications in hindsight of picking up a certain player just because they had a good game against UConn. Also, Phil Martelli, who was the coach of St. Joseph's at the time and whose team started out undefeated for 20+ game in 2004 said he saw the same thing that Calhoun did when looking at Ryan Gomes. Phil said he saw a fat and out of shape player.

 

[TheHorde]

Calhoun did not F up by not taking Ryan Gomes. No one could have predicted his ceiling as a high school junior, not even Gomes, himself. Caron Butler was head and shoulders above Gomes in every aspect of the game and Okafor was the 2002 class's project. Gomes was a fall back option and only enters fans' collective consciousness because he came out of Waterbury. If Gomes goes to UConn in 2002, they don't win the National Title in 2004.

Still, the rant was fantastic.

I don’t think the criticism came from saying Butler and Okafor shouldn’t have been recruited over Gomes. Calhoun ran out of scholarships. The debate is over whether one of the other guys on the roster should have been prioritized.

 

[HooperScooper]

Huh? Gay was gone by that point. He didn't come back for his Junior year.

Yes, the article mentions that. Maybe just one of Calhoun's exaggerations.

Durant was born in Washington, D.C., and Gay grew up in Maryland and they were close friends. But it should be noted that Gay left for the NBA after the 2006 season so they could not have roomed together, as Calhoun suggested they wanted to, for the 2006-07 season.

 

[rip7774]

Tobias Harris

A lot of the reports dad was a nightmare. And his camp needed him to be the man day one. Terrible fit for team/culture guy like Calhoun.

We were hot and heavy early, I went to watch Tobias at Orlando Disney summer thing and ended up meeting JC and snapping a quick pic - my wife sent to a contact @ UConn and got it auto’d and still hangs on my man cave/office wall!

 

[Waquoit]

Curley would have fit that UConn team perfectly. The Sunday before he committed Bob Ryan wrote an article in the Globe saying that if he didn't go to BC, BC should give up basketball. I honestly think that had some effect.

 

[Husky25]

I don’t think the criticism came from saying Butler and Okafor shouldn’t have been recruited over Gomes. Calhoun ran out of scholarships. The debate is over whether one of the other guys on the roster should have been prioritized.

My hindsight is 20/20 as well.

This was for the class of 2002. The rant, and game that facilitated it, was in late January 2004. I forget what happened less than 2 1/2 months later.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Didn't Cuonzo Martin come to UConn, but then had an incident at summer school (something about a girl and someone going thru a window like Eddie Murphy in Bevery Hills Cop) & was kicked out.

Couldn't have been him.

While he was from a tough place (East St Louis), Martin was a model citizen. He really liked the school and JC but felt the program wasn't big enough at the time. JC had a similar situation a few years earlier with a kid (I believe his name was Perry Clark, may be wrong on his last name) who ended up at Ohio State (ironically we beat him in the NIT final).

At the time, with kids from where they were from, we couldn't compete with a quality B10 program.

The number is quite a bit higher than one on quality recruits that we just missed on. We could have gotten to where we are a bit quicker if we landed one or two but, all things considered I'm very happy with the results.

As an aside, not considering all the details (which could cover 20 pages) I don't believe that Camby and JC could have coexisted. HC wanted kids to demand the best from themselves. Camby wanted to be able to do what he wanted when he wanted.

 

[superjohn]

Couldn't have been him.

While he was from a tough place (East St Louis), Martin was a model citizen. He really liked the school and JC but felt the program wasn't big enough at the time. JC had a similar situation a few years earlier with a kid (I believe his name was Perry Clark, may be wrong on his last name) who ended up at Ohio State (ironically we beat him in the NIT final).

At the time, with kids from where they were from, we couldn't compete with a quality B10 program.

The number is quite a bit higher than one on quality recruits that we just missed on. We could have gotten to where we are a bit quicker if we landed one or two but, all things considered I'm very happy with the results.

As an aside, not considering all the details (which could cover 20 pages) I don't believe that Camby and JC could have coexisted. HC wanted kids to demand the best from themselves. Camby wanted to be able to do what he wanted when he wanted.

If you're talking Calhoun wouldn't be able to reel in Camby off the court and get him to stop hanging out with a couple of his criminal friends in Hartford that might be true but Camby was never a problem on the court. He was totally dominant, an awesome teammate, and always gave maximum effort. Maybe Calhoun wouldn't have been able to stop the off the court stuff and they would've gotten dinged for it but I have little doubt they would've cut down the nets at least once with Camby, he was the best player in the country. Camby and Ray Allen would've been one of the best duos in the history of college basketball.

 

[husky99]

The cars and the women?

I never say camby in cars. Bt the word of many people i worked with said it.. running joke at the school.. ie second hand

 

[Chin Diesel]

Absolutely the correct answer. JC often said that.

Yes.

Curley is the correct answer if we are actually using JC's words.
Gomes is the correct answer if you want the best JC comment.
Durant, Garnett, and others are correct if we want to fantasize.
Camby is never the correct answer.