UConn's 2023 Recruiting class:
#9, #44, #56, #113, #139
2022:
Unranked, Unranked, #73
2021:
#55 (NBA Player now), #58, #62, #100, #118
At what point do we STOP it with...can he recruit the best.
- Thread starter DrH. Lecter
- Start date
#9, #44, #56, #113, #139
2022:
Unranked, Unranked, #73
2021:
#55 (NBA Player now), #58, #62, #100, #118
I agree. UK will help him recruit better players than he ever could have at BYU. The name and history, the NIL, the NBA players… a ton of intangibles will make recruiting easier for Coach Pope than he ever had before. I do not want eight McDonalds All Americans. I really don’t! Give me some talent with athleticism, players with basketball IQ, and a coach to direct the team that wants to win every damn game. I’ll take that every day and twice on Sunday. Our former coach became lazy and gave up on that some time ago.
My problem with that is it will not win championships.. You still need a few 5* players as a center piece! Roster full of lower rated players will make you miss tournaments!
If he could recruit good players at BYU I think he will be fine recruiting here.
It is a legit question. The question will be answered soon, one way or another. Hopefully, he and staff are ace recruiters from the portal and otherwise. GO CATS !!
The recruits all signed a code of honor agreement
- Maintain an Ecclesiastical Endorsement, including striving to deepen faith and maintain gospel standards
- Be honest
- Live a chaste and virtuous life, including abstaining from sexual relations outside marriage between a man and a woman. Living a chaste and virtuous life also includes abstaining from same-sex romantic behavior.
- Abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea, coffee, vaping, marijuana, and other substance abuse
- Participate regularly in Church services
- Respect others, including the avoidance of profane and vulgar language
- Obey the law and follow campus policies, including the CES Dress and Grooming standards
- Encourage others in their commitment to comply with the Honor Code and Dress and Grooming standards.
If by “5*” you mean 5-star freshmen, then I definitely disagree with that. I think making freshmen the center piece of your team is a recipe for failure, not championships. It was extremely difficult, and unwise in my opinion, to purposely rely on freshman a decade ago. In the age of the transfer portal and NIL I think it’s a fool’s errand. If you do it when you have other options – like a top program always has – then I think it’s a marketing or ego thing, because I don’t think it’s about winning CBB games.
I might be wrongly assuming what you meant, because it is possible to have players that were listed as five-star recruits that are around for a number of years, even a senior season (e.g., Josiah James at TN). But by that 2nd or 3rd college year, how you were ranked by a recruiting service coming out of high school is irrelevant and probably doesn’t correlate strongly with who is the centerpiece of a championship team. By that time, you’re either a good productive CBB player, a bench piece or a practice player regardless of how you were ranked as a high school recruit.
I think a freshman (5* or otherwise) probably shouldn’t be more than a 4th or 5th offensive option if your team expects to seriously compete for a title most years. But I actually think OAD 5-star freshmen are completely unnecessary, if not harmful, to blue-blood title contending CBB programs.
If Pope can recruit 50% as good as Cal, we will be ok because I assume he can coach 90% better than Cal.
I trust a Rhodes Scholar to surround himself with qualified individuals and delegate responsibility.
I agree, I would still like him to get some top tier players who may stick around 2 years to fill out the roster though.
I definitely want to recruit talent but I won’t miss the Klutch 5 stars who under deliver and dip.
Tubby recruited well until he made it clear Saul was his pg. Dramond Green was committed to UK when Tubby left.Tubby got a little lazy but never had a losing season and never missed the tournament.
No kidding, bipolar is a terrible thing. Experience over MDAA's all day long. Mix a few in there from time to time.
Negative is the most relevant force on here.
Take it out of the equation and it'll look like a defeated Goodyear Blimp.
Yes they were top recruits. You guys really are young huh?
I was referring to talent! Top talent! Whether that's AD for 1 year or Lamb for 2 years. You get the best talent available and play the ones who win the games. I'm not 5* crazy, but know that it takes talent to win championships.
So yes pope needs to target the best freshman along with the portal, if the freshman play better then your jr/sr you play them. If they are a top 10 pick like Dilly you allow them to play and then enter the draft. But you go after the very best like cal did, but you don't play favorites! Player who plays best plays!
Everybody take note….as with most things it isn’t black and white. You want the best recruits but you also want to be able to keep them around. That was Cal’s biggest failure. What is the point of getting terrible recruits and keeping them around. You might get lucky with a few diamonds in the rough but usually they will flop.
Pope has to recruit the best AND keep some around especially if they need another year.
Pope has to recruit the best AND keep some around especially if they need another year.
He doesn’t have to have a roster as loaded as Kal’s but at minimum it has to be full of top high level transfers or 4 star or better players. Hes shown zero ability to even get a 4 star player in his career. Most of his players are 2 and 3 stars. Thats mid major as hell.
People keep wanting to point to UConn as the example of not having to be loaded but they had multiple nba players on both last year and this years team. Including a 5 star. Same with Oates at Bama. He hasn’t been rolling out a bunch of 3 star scrubs and making magic. Hes had very good classes both in high school and the portal.
Wish we could have just traded Kal for Musselman straight up instead of being in this situation.
People keep wanting to point to UConn as the example of not having to be loaded but they had multiple nba players on both last year and this years team. Including a 5 star. Same with Oates at Bama. He hasn’t been rolling out a bunch of 3 star scrubs and making magic. Hes had very good classes both in high school and the portal.
Wish we could have just traded Kal for Musselman straight up instead of being in this situation.
Good. Set those expectations up, get on the high horse. UK will be amazing next season.
Anybody that has ever coached at any level with success knows that the first ingredient in a successful team is talent. If we get these players from BYU we are going to have a very long season. They cant compete with the athletes in the SEC. He must get the players everyone was screaming for Cal to get.
It wasn't just Saul.
Tubby got soooooo X's and O's that he cared precious little who was out there as long as they'd run his plays and he wasn't much on managing any personalities so if he was pressured or fell into a real haul next thing you know it is Team Turmoil.
Based upon what. What has Pope won at any level. Quit worrying about Cal he is gone. Cal got talent for sure and he won a lot of games just not the important ones. He obviously isn't a great x and o coach but Barnhart's lack of support was the problem.
Imagine where we would have gone last year with Hunter Dickenson instead of UGO. Kid wanted 1M guarantee. If he gets it he is here playing. We are easily a final four team with a chance to win it all. Now that Cal is gone Barnhart somehow has the money but he didn't then. What could have been.
People didn't like Tubbys style of play because it was more fun watching Rick's team. But Saul was definitely the icing on the cake.
We didn't have it because everyone was done with Cal. Nobody was giving him a cent. I disagree on Hunter D.
