Late Additions to Hurley’s Roster?
The Story: The men’s basketball team has one open scholarship, but it could be looking to add two players to the team. That means we could see one defection and at least one, and maybe two, additional new faces as part of a class that is already considered No. 18 in the nation.
THE ROSTER MAKEUP: According to Hearst Connecticut Media, the Huskies are possibly looking to bring two players aboard. Hurley has said he won’t ask a player to leave the program, so if a player leaves, it will be of his own choice. The Huskies are in the mix for several players, including high schoolers, grad transfers who will be eligible immediately and even transfers who have to sit out.
WAITING ON PRECIOUS: The Huskies are in the mix for New York prep star Precious Achiuwa, who played this past season at Montverde Academy in Florida. Achuiwa is a top-10 prospect in this class and scored a game-high 22 points in the McDonald’s All-America game. He is also considering North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis and others, but UConn still believes it has a shot. Achiuwa figures to be a one-and-done player and is projected as a lottery pick in the NBA Draft in 2020. When will Achiuwa make a decision? Well, it’s almost May, so we imagine it will be soon.
GRAD TRANSFER OPTIONS: The Huskies are in the market for a player eligible immediately and are actively looking for help. One transfer who visited, UNLV’s Joel Ntambwe, is testing the NBA draft waters and will go through that process before figuring out where to land. UConn is also in the mix for Howard guard R.J. Cole, who played for Bobby Hurley Sr. at St. Anthony’s and averaged 21.6 points per game last season. Cole is a 6-foot-1 guard and met with Hurley over the weekend.
ATTENTION GRABBERS: Remember when UConn used to routinely bring in some of the top recruiting classes in the nation? The players didn’t always pan out, but the headlines and highlights were there. Hurley already has three four-star players joining in Akok Akok, James Bouknight and Jalen Gaffney. Adding Achiuwa would certainly push that class ranking even higher — and, more importantly, get the Huskies the quality talent needed to get them back into the NCAA tournament.
Herbst: ‘Athletics Central to This University’
The Story: Outgoing president Susan Herbst spoke with Jeff Jacobs about her time at UConn, her views of the athletic department and what happened with the state’s flagship team. It’s an enlightening read and one that addresses many issues affecting college athletics.
CONSEQUENTIAL PRESIDENCY: During Herbst’s tenure, the Huskies saw the Big East disintegrate, the ACC and Big 12 rebuff UConn and the football and men’s basketball programs suffer hard times and coaching changes. Herbst told Jacobs that UConn’s athletic future was on her mind nearly every day of her time serving as president. Despite her efforts, she leaves the school with a gaping hole in its budget and shut out of the big money of college athletics.
“I can assure our fan base that nearly every single day of my life as president of UConn, I have either thought or worked on our conference situation,” Herbst said. “If you did a cross section of my brain, where UConn is in the conference landscape is an embarrassingly large chunk. Every day. It’s relentless. I believe athletics is central to this university.”
ON FOOTBALL: Herbst remains adamant that the school should continue to support high-level football, but criticized the location of Rentschler Field. UConn’s off-campus home is one of the furthest rides of any FBS team to its home field and that has come at a cost. Herbst is firmly in the camp that the stadium is “wrongly placed” and thinks it should be on campus. This is notable to us at The UConn Daily because we believe the same, and also because it could potentially lay the groundwork, eventually, for an on-campus stadium decades from now.
ON GOING BACK TO THE BIG EAST: Many people have complained that UConn should go back to the Big East in hoops and other sports and figure out football. This is a non-starter for Herbst, and we would assume the same for incoming El Jefe Thomas C. Katsouleas, currently at Virginia. Herbst compared UConn’s football struggles to that of Northwestern, which was a Big Ten doormat for years before Rutgers joined the league.
OUR TAKE: Herbst knew what UConn needed and where it wanted to go and kept her eye on the ball. She just swung for the fences and missed. In the end, athletics was good in the short term with national titles in men’s basketball, women’s basketball and field hockey and NCAA tourney berths for baseball and men’s soccer. Long term? It is going to haunt Herbst. This was the one big loss of her time at UConn.
We give Herbst a break here because we firmly believe there’s nothing she could have done about it. Herbst did many things for the school, including moving a regional campus to downtown Hartford (terrific by the way) and adding dorms at the Stamford campus as well as elevating UConn academically. Athletically? UConn didn’t meet its long-term goals and is left out of the big time for what we would term arbitrary and petty reasons. How much does that fault lie with UConn administration and staff? This was set in stone before Herbst arrived in Storrs and her only failure is she saw the problem and couldn’t pull off the proper solution.
Morning Reads
EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM: How did Geno Auriemma land 2020 recruit Nika Muhl? Outright hustling his way to Croatia to see her. (Meriden Record-Journal)
WNBA A SIDE GIG: It could have been worse for Breanna Stewart. Imagine if she tore an Achilles tendon it at the end of the WNBA season and had to sit out her European season? That’s the flat out truth of the matter: The WNBA is nothing more than a part-time summer job. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
FALL FROM GRACE: We all know next season will be a bit more trying for the women’s basketball team. Right now, it doesn’t look like it will be one of the best teams in the country. (ESPN)
FOOTBALL ADDS SEVERAL WALK-ONS: UConn is taking two in-state players as walks-ons: St. Luke’s cornerback Juan Rosario and St. Thomas More quarterback Miles Foerster. They won’t be scholarship players initially but won’t have to try out for the team. (Hartford Courant)
DAVIS USHERS IN NEW ERA: Former UConn tight end Tyler Davis is the first tight end at Georgia Tech in many years as the triple-option offense run by Paul Johnson had no need for the position. Georgia Tech had not recruited a tight end in 11 years. That is not a typo. (Macon Telegraph)
WE’RE NO. 1…28: The Orlando Sentinel likes to rank every college football team and has the Huskies ranked No. 128 to begin the year. (Orlando Sentinel)
WNBA ON CBS SPORTS: Speaking of the WNBA, the league did sign an agreement for games to be on CBS Sports Network. (Associated Press)
ROADSHOW RETURNS: Danny, Geno and Randy are headed back on the road next month. The second annual UConn coaches roadshow will begin May 21 in Mystic. (Hartford Courant)
ESPN+ THE FUTURE: We’re very much a pro-streaming newsletter, but with people already paying extra on their cable bills for ESPN and additional tiers of programming, as well as for other online services, ESPN+ is emerging as the distribution model of the future. (Hartford Courant)
GAME POSTPONED: The baseball team’s game against CCSU was rescheduled for next week because of bad weather. It will face Rhode Island tomorrow. (UConnHuskies.com)
DOUBLEHEADER CANCELED: Likewise, the softball team’s doubleheader against Hofstra, set for today, was canceled and will not be made up. (UConnHuskies.com)
