How could Tony set minds at ease? Is it (1) promise PT/role, (2) pay a 7-figure NIL bag, or (3) somehow signal a large offensive change.
Or, in other words, how did Hurley and Oats get over the hurdle and get Castle and Clowney/Miller into the program? I think itâs some combo of 1 and 2.
(Iâm using a lot of self control to not turn this into a âthis is why we should have focused more on offense in the last several yearsâ tangentâŚ)
Amazingly, Hurley got Castle into the program before heâd even made the tourneyâŚ
Was just reading why UConn for Castle:
âIt was really just the coaching staff and the culture that they have there,â Castle said. âThere arenât any pro teams in Connecticut so basketball is the biggest thing out there. Itâs not a football school, itâs a primary basketball school. The way the coaches push their playersâŚthey donât pick favorites and they push everybody the same way so they can all reach their highest potential and I really liked thatâŚI feel like they can help me get to the NBA, which is my main goal.â
âThey were real with me,â Castle said. âThey told me that Iâm a one, maybe two-year playerâŚtheyâre going to build around me and theyâre gonna try to win this thing in the tournament.â
From an On3 article
Edit - thereâs an interesting tension in Castleâs quotes between âme, me, meâ and â team, team, teamâ that all great coaches have to deal with. On one hand, itâs crazy to say UConn built around Castle, but itâs sorta true! I think, unfortunately, Tonys marketing materials are not quite built right for those kinds of guys.
Just thinking about on-court/roster fit with Ament, thereâs an obvious hole in the 2025-26 roster for âlong-armed defenderâ to get a bunch of minutes, basically the gap Warley will leave defensively. And, there may be a hole for âguy who does things with the ball,â though that would probably mean that our 2024-25 season went slightly sideways.
And at UVA thatâs countered with âhow many upperclassman former 3-stars are you going to have to come off the bench behind because they âknow the defense betterâ?â Power and Saunders will already have a ton of 3/4 minutes locked up in 2025-26, and as many as a half dozen backcourt players projected to return as well. Would Ament play over many of them right away for 3-spot minutes? Maybe, even probably. But Bennettâs reputation for favoring lower-ceiling vets, fair or not, is out there and working against us.
Levels of promises, or even near-promises, I highly doubt any 5-star would ever see out of Tony.
Bottom line, literally every single one of these tired arguments has been trotted out for Kon and Power and Stevenson and Keels and many others over the last 5-10 years, and it always turns out the same way. But hey, you want to argue why youâd send your potential Lottery Pick kid to play for Bennett over Hurley, knock yourself out.
(Posting a lot here, sorryâŚ) I think Jarin is the best way to think of this. He kinda sucked for most of the year. All the sawft stuff we saw in his recruitment and most of his Bama season. But then he played a key role in getting Bama to the final 4.
I raise Jarin because with some OAD guys â we all have the reaction that theyâd play anywhere. But would Tony have let Jarin play over RD here and there? Let him play some Center? Found a way to keep him warm / keep him engaged?
I think all the points here are very valuable but I want to play a bit of an optimistic role and briefly point out two things that will be helpful for us in this recruitment and theyâre fairly related. First, I think it is very helpful to have sent Trey Murphy to the league after one year. While Murphy wasnât a traditional one and done by any means, there are at least parallels. He wasnât the best defender and had some interesting roster/role around him and yet we still featured him extensively and got him into the league as a borderline lottery pick.
Second (and relatedly), it is helpful that weâve taken a bunch of big guards and wings and put them into the NBA. Essentially, we can pull together a bunch of Brogdon, Hunter, Anderson; Murphy, and maybe even a little bit of Jerome tape and show Ament that we can feature really talented players in our offense in ways that are conducive to going to the NBA. I think it can mitigate some of the concern that others have mentioned that itâs really hard to get a sense for how CTB could shepherd a player like Ament into the league
Agree, and let me TLDR my thoughts: Tony has a lot to sell to Ament, but will he sell it? Does he want to sell it?
There is zero chance CTB would have played Jarin. Our best comp got redshirted and left for Crieghton haha.
Fortunately for us, Ament is a clearly elite prospect, which oddly helps us here I think
I fully agree itâs a valid question. I think Ament being excellent may work in CTBs favor in the sense that when he offers his blunt evaluation itâs going to be closer to âyouâre really good and youâre going to playâ vs. âyou are really good at some things but will need to do XYZ to see the floorâ
Yep. I think weâd have a tougher time with guys in the 10-30 range than with one of the top 1,2, or 3. Thatâs not to say we have it easy with the upper elites, we donât. But itâs easier for the reasons you mentioned.
But none of this matters because I donât think Tony wants to sell Ament on coming to Virginia.
In all seriousness, what will sell some elite guys is 1) how impressive a coach is and gelling with the coach, 2) the coach straightforwardly acknowledging how good the prospect is (e.g., âI know you want to be in the league in 1 or 2 years and we want to help you achieve thatâ).
Tony is great at number 1, but with a specific type of player. I think Tony would have no problem with number 2, if the guy was good enough, like Ament.
Edit: I see you clarified
Just answering @haneyâs question from above lol
Agree with the basic insight that Tonyâs way could work better with a 1-5 guy than a 10-30 guy, because the 1-5 guy will get better feedback from Tony on short term prognosis.
But, the issue is, with those guys, (1) youâre competing against 3 or 4 bluebloods, plus lots of SEC cash, for those guys, as compared to 1 or 2 blue bloods, and lesser Sec cash, and (2) @zh00s âs point about % works the other way, too. You have to over promise some of the 10-30 guys in order to show youâre serious about making OADs. (I think we perhaps rightly see Tony not doing that as a good or honest thing, but it just means we donât have any OAD results to show off).
Yeah I agree 1000%. This is not appealing for a 6â8 4 whoâs ranked 75th in the nation like Cam Ward. Itâs very appealing for a guy who can step in, start at the 3(which is the biggest hole on the roster next year in my opinion), and play with a veteran group that should be primed to make a run at an ACC title and hopefully the second weekend at least in the NCAA tournament.
I heard Marquette has started to turn up the heat on Cam Ward now too. Scholarship total be damned.
Lol. How is that even workable before the current season has started? Itâs one thing to try to plan for anticipated attrition, but this is one step beyond to telehgraph kicking out 1-2 people currently on the roster who have eligibility in 2025-26.
Isnt 2 scholarship addition next season?
Thinking back, Shaka has been willing to oversign in the past. You donât see it done often anymore. But if thereâs a coach/team who might legitimately be able to pull off having more than 13 real scholarship quality players, itâs them. Heâs made a lot of recruiting hay from avoiding transfers, and he manages his roster in such a way that itâs not intimidating to HS recruits. There are always several projects and happy to be there depth pieces.