Who's Next???

[Skies17]

PG and Center are a must for this class. I'm a little concerned that Ali's commitment might hurt our chances with top wing targets (Boatwright, Bacon, Malachi Richardson). Personally I believe we'd easily get both Ali and a wing on the court at the same time at the 2 and 3 (a la Calhoun at the 3 this year), but they may view playing time as unfavorable. Given how many bigs we're looking at, could we end up with two bigs and a point? And is Ollie looking to keep the 3-guard, stretch 4/wing, and center like this season or go back to the classic UConn 2-guard, wing, 2 big strategy?

 

[upstater]

PG and Center are a must for this class. I'm a little concerned that Ali's commitment might hurt our chances with top wing targets (Boatwright, Bacon, Malachi Richardson). Personally I believe we'd easily get both Ali and a wing on the court at the same time at the 2 and 3 (a la Calhoun at the 3 this year), but they may view playing time as unfavorable. Given how many bigs we're looking at, could we end up with two bigs and a point? And is Ollie looking to keep the 3-guard, stretch 4/wing, and center like this season or go back to the classic UConn 2-guard, wing, 2 big strategy?

But, what makes you think Ali is less desirable than any of those guys?

 

[Skies17]

But, what makes you think Ali is less desirable than any of those guys?

I don't - in fact I prefer Ali over the Wings from what I've seen so far. I just don't see Boatwright, Bacon, or Richardson looking at the rotation of Cassell, Samuel, Calhoun, Hamilton, and now Ali and saying I could see myself getting decent minutes there, and elite guys like that won't want to ride bench. It seems more likely to me that a few bigs would see Facey, Nolan, Brimah, and Lubin and say I could come in and compete. Of course this is all just speculation about 2 years from now, but it seems like this is the UConn trend to recruiting ... we take guys who stay for 3-4 years (with a few exceptions) but aren't top guys out of HS. Then elite guys look at an established rotation and don't see themselves getting minutes. I love developing guys like Shabazz who end up killing it Junior and Senior years and definitely prefer it over becoming Kentucky/Duke/Arizona/UCLA/UNC/Kansas who's lineups are almost entirely Freshmen and Sophomore, but the UConn style to recruiting keeps us from reeling in the top talent IMO