Why didn't UConn recruit Xavier's Desmond Claude? | The Boneyard

Why didn't UConn recruit Xavier's Desmond Claude?

HooperScooper

HooperScooper

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Not me asking. Dave Borges asked Hurley. He got an answer. He didn't get, "Don't shake your --- head at me ." Lol

"You see his talent, you see his physicality, that big wing guard," Hurley recalled.



www.nhregister.com

Is CT's Desmond Claude recruit that got away from UConn men's basketball? 'None of us get them all'

UConn men's basketball team missed out on Connecticut's Desmond Claude of Xavier, but it's worked out well for both sides.
www.nhregister.com www.nhregister.com

I'd post the alternate access but Webpage archive doesn't work for me on this computer.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
HooperScooper said:
Interesting after seeing Floyd at PC. Do you think UConn would have developed Floyd better?
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He’s developed pretty much not at all, so by default, I think they would have. His stats this year are rough (14% from 3!). Corey listened to the wrong people. He’s still only a sophomore, so there’s time to figure it out, if not at PC then maybe as a grad transfer.
 
Last edited:
HooperScooper said:
Not me asking. Dave Borges asked Hurley. He got an answer. He didn't get, "Don't shake your --- head at me ." Lol

"You see his talent, you see his physicality, that big wing guard," Hurley recalled.

But, the Huskies had 6-4 guard Corey Floyd Jr. redshirting at the time, and had big plans for Floyd as a wing in the coming years. So Claude didn't get much of a look. Or "not really at all," according to Claude.

"In recruiting and building a culture, we don't mislead recruits or recruit the same types of players in terms of skillset," the sixth-year UConn coach explained. "We looked at Corey, at the time, as that type of player that we already committed to in the program. We believed in him."

"Obviously, things don't always work out," Hurley added. "Corey's not with us and Dez is playing well at Xavier. He hurt us a lot last year when we played them, he played really well. He's a tremendous player with a great future."

"None of us get them all right," Hurley shrugged. "We had the right intentions."

Interesting after seeing Floyd at PC. Do you think UConn would have developed Floyd better?

www.nhregister.com

Is CT's Desmond Claude recruit that got away from UConn men's basketball? 'None of us get them all'

UConn men's basketball team missed out on Connecticut's Desmond Claude of Xavier, but it's worked out well for both sides.
www.nhregister.com www.nhregister.com

I'd post the alternate access but Webpage archive doesn't work for me on this computer.
Expand ...
I'm sure we would have developed Floyd a little better, but I just don't think he's very good so I'm sure we'd have wanted him to transfer by now anyway.

With Claude I think the timing just didn't work out even if Hurley did realize Floyd wasn't UConn caliber (and by all accounts he wanted him to stay, so I don't think that's the case here). He committed 1/20/22 which was halfway through his redshirt year. And would have needed to build the relationship before that, so likely would have needed to make that decision before Floyd ever got to campus which is tough
 
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X has to be pretty happy with how Claude has been playing, but he has so much more opportunity there than he'd ever have had here. Chances are he'd have been coming off the bench here, and he's the #1 option there. He's averaging 2 more shots a game this year than anyone on our team. Credit to him for sure, he's really stepped up to make up for some of the scoring they're missing from losing Freemantle and Hunter.
 
Brian said:
Insert Ryan Gomes video here
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That analogy is in the article.

The question could have been posed to UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley something like this: "Dan, recruiting is hardly an exact science, but what does Claude do that just blows you away now that maybe no one saw ..."

Sound famililar? Substitute the "Dan" with "Jim" and the "Claude" with "Gomes," and that's the exact question late New Haven Register columnist Dave Solomon asked Jim Calhoun 20 years ago, pondering how UConn had missed out on recruiting Waterbury's Ryan Gomes. Calhoun famously responded with an expletive-laden rant that remains viral to this day.

Would Hurley react similarly when broached on the subject of New Haven's Desmond Claude, who wasn't heavily recruited by the Huskies and is now one of the Big East's leading scorers as a 6-foot-6 sophomore guard at Xavier?

Nope, not Hurley's style. As wild and animated as he can be on the sidelines, Hurley rarely, if ever, gets that worked up in press conferences.
 
HooperScooper said:
Not me asking. Dave Borges asked Hurley. He got an answer. He didn't get, "Don't shake your --- head at me ." Lol

"You see his talent, you see his physicality, that big wing guard," Hurley recalled.

But, the Huskies had 6-4 guard Corey Floyd Jr. redshirting at the time, and had big plans for Floyd as a wing in the coming years. So Claude didn't get much of a look. Or "not really at all," according to Claude.

"In recruiting and building a culture, we don't mislead recruits or recruit the same types of players in terms of skillset," the sixth-year UConn coach explained. "We looked at Corey, at the time, as that type of player that we already committed to in the program. We believed in him."

"Obviously, things don't always work out," Hurley added. "Corey's not with us and Dez is playing well at Xavier. He hurt us a lot last year when we played them, he played really well. He's a tremendous player with a great future."

"None of us get them all right," Hurley shrugged. "We had the right intentions."

Interesting after seeing Floyd at PC. Do you think UConn would have developed Floyd better?

www.nhregister.com

Is CT's Desmond Claude recruit that got away from UConn men's basketball? 'None of us get them all'

UConn men's basketball team missed out on Connecticut's Desmond Claude of Xavier, but it's worked out well for both sides.
www.nhregister.com www.nhregister.com

I'd post the alternate access but Webpage archive doesn't work for me on this computer.
Expand ...
Silly question from Borges and he should know better. The list of kids throughout the years that couldve came here but didnt because we didnt pursue or any one of a thousand reasons that went on to success is a long list. It happens. What also happens far more is we miss on a guy everyone is hard on and we end up settling for another guy and it works out great. I remember this board a few years ago going on and on about Omuriyie and we missed out and ended up settling for a project big man. That guy we settled for was Adama Sanogo.
 
TheChamps990411 said:
Silly question from Borges and he should know better. The list of kids throughout the years that couldve came here but didnt because we didnt pursue or any one of a thousand reasons that went on to success is a long list. It happens. What also happens far more is we miss on a guy everyone is hard on and we end up settling for another guy and it works out great. I remember this board a few years ago going on and on about Omuriyie and we missed out and ended up settling for a project big man. That guy we settled for was Adama Sanogo.
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Sanago was not a project, he was a top 40 recruit and reclassified is my recollection. Was a stud from the beginning
 
Definitely not as fun as the last time that question got asked, but a good answer lol

You can tell when Hurley is holding his tongue in interviews. He typically makes passive aggressive comments or jabs. Didn’t see that here, so the respect is real

And of course no regrets. The 2022 offseason led to a national championship for us, and now Claude has a huge role where he’s performing well at X
 
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HooperScooper said:
That analogy is in the article.

The question could have been posed to UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley something like this: "Dan, recruiting is hardly an exact science, but what does Claude do that just blows you away now that maybe no one saw ..."

Sound famililar? Substitute the "Dan" with "Jim" and the "Claude" with "Gomes," and that's the exact question late New Haven Register columnist Dave Solomon asked Jim Calhoun 20 years ago, pondering how UConn had missed out on recruiting Waterbury's Ryan Gomes. Calhoun famously responded with an expletive-laden rant that remains viral to this day.

Would Hurley react similarly when broached on the subject of New Haven's Desmond Claude, who wasn't heavily recruited by the Huskies and is now one of the Big East's leading scorers as a 6-foot-6 sophomore guard at Xavier?

Nope, not Hurley's style. As wild and animated as he can be on the sidelines, Hurley rarely, if ever, gets that worked up in press conferences.
Expand ...
On the other hand, nobody asked him that immediately after a loss to X where Claude lit us up. That might generate a different response.
 
I was worried Claude might develop into a player we shoulda been recruiting. But perimeter players who can’t shoot are generally a turn off for me. You have to be a special talent to get away with it, an athlete like Andre Jackson, or a one and done caliber player like Castle meet those expectations. Claude isn’t that special, he’ll put up volume scoring stats that trick some people into thinking he's very good.

All that being said, he’s a solid player, and I’m sure had we recruited him, we’d find a contributing role for him.
 
Palatine said:
Whenever I hear Hurley talk about players that buy into the outside noise, I think he is talking about Floyd.
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I think Floyd was listening to too much inside noise being nailed down on the bench next to Andy.
 
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HooperScooper said:
Not me asking. Dave Borges asked Hurley. He got an answer. He didn't get, "Don't shake your --- head at me ." Lol

"You see his talent, you see his physicality, that big wing guard," Hurley recalled.

But, the Huskies had 6-4 guard Corey Floyd Jr. redshirting at the time, and had big plans for Floyd as a wing in the coming years. So Claude didn't get much of a look. Or "not really at all," according to Claude.

"In recruiting and building a culture, we don't mislead recruits or recruit the same types of players in terms of skillset," the sixth-year UConn coach explained. "We looked at Corey, at the time, as that type of player that we already committed to in the program. We believed in him."

"Obviously, things don't always work out," Hurley added. "Corey's not with us and Dez is playing well at Xavier. He hurt us a lot last year when we played them, he played really well. He's a tremendous player with a great future."

"None of us get them all right," Hurley shrugged. "We had the right intentions."

Interesting after seeing Floyd at PC. Do you think UConn would have developed Floyd better?

www.nhregister.com

Is CT's Desmond Claude recruit that got away from UConn men's basketball? 'None of us get them all'

UConn men's basketball team missed out on Connecticut's Desmond Claude of Xavier, but it's worked out well for both sides.
www.nhregister.com www.nhregister.com

I'd post the alternate access but Webpage archive doesn't work for me on this computer.
Expand ...
We talked about 50/40/90 shooters in another thread. Corey Floyd this year is shooting 36/15/64. Remember when people thought that Floyd, Diggins, and Akok leaving was a death-knell for Hurley as a coach?

At least Hurley has the self-awareness to acknowledge when he's made a mistake and re-stocked with better talent.
 
TheChamps990411 said:
Silly question from Borges and he should know better. The list of kids throughout the years that couldve came here but didnt because we didnt pursue or any one of a thousand reasons that went on to success is a long list. It happens.
Expand ...
Why? I hear what you're saying. There could be hundreds of recruits you could ask that question about. But this was a local kid who also plays on a team in our conference. Hurley apparently answered the question honestly and we learned a little about his thinking on recruiting. Isn't that we want from the local reporters?
 
HooperScooper said:
Why? I hear what you're saying. There could be hundreds of recruits you could ask that question about. But this was a local kid who also plays on a team in our conference. Hurley apparently answered the question honestly and we learned a little about his thinking on recruiting. Isn't that we want from the local reporters?
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Just saying, this type of question didnt go well with JC lol!
 
Fan1978 said:
Sanago was not a project, he was a top 40 recruit and reclassified is my recollection. Was a stud from the beginning
Expand ...
Not at all what i remember. I could be wrong but do remember the expectations of him being much lower than Omeryrurie.
 
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Don't look now folks but Claude is kicking ass in Creighton. He has 18 points in the first half and he is working the pick and roll masterfully and getting downhill with ease.
 
gsmooth said:
Don't look now folks but Claude is kicking ass in Creighton. He has 18 points in the first half and he is working the pick and roll masterfully and getting downhill with ease.
Expand ...

This game on Sunday is not going to be easy.
 
I hope we’re recruiting Claude now. I love him.

Sanogo was a below the rim beast coming in. The only question was if the lack of hops would hurt him. Most thought he’d be a college beast and a euro pro.
 
Fan1978 said:
Sanago was not a project, he was a top 40 recruit and reclassified is my recollection. Was a stud from the beginning
Expand ...
But the guy Rutgers got was was more highly rated, and IIRC we went after him first.
 
Rico444 said:
This game on Sunday is not going to be easy.
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Yes it will be difficult. Hopefully Clingan works himself into game shape with the week off because Xavier will force the pace of the game.Xavier has won 3 in a row and the last time they lost was when they played UConn at the Cintas Center.
 
businesslawyer said:
But the guy Rutgers got was was more highly rated, and IIRC we went after him first.
Expand ...
I want to say we were on both but Sanogo was still not reclassified when Cliff committed. I could be wrong
 
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