Terry Larrier made official on Tuesday what we’ve suspected for some time: this season will be his last at UConn. He had intimated as much as far back as this summer, though had not explicitly stated his intentions until he met with the media on the day before the Huskies’ Senior Night.
Larrier will earn his degree this spring. Had he wanted, he could have transferred to another university and been immediately eligible as a graduate transfer. Instead, he will begin his professional career.
Some thoughts…
This doesn’t change a whole lot for UConn going forward. The team has far too many flaws and, even if Larrier stayed, the Huskies were unlikely to compete for anything meaningful next year. Technically, Larrier’s departure brings the team down to the exact scholarship limit for next season, though more transfers and early exits are likely.
Here’s a tweet from Aaron Torres:
“As I said weeks ago on my podcast, a source told me a ‘mass exodus’ was expected from the program this off-season. Assuming there is a new coach in place in the next few week’s, that guy’s No. 1 job will be to re-recruit most of the guys still on the roster.”
A lot of UConn fans are (not unreasonably) worried about living through another offseason of wholesale changes. But this season has demonstrated that there is nowhere close to enough talent on this roster. I think Sid Wilson is capable of stepping into the starting lineup and being better than Larrier right away, but otherwise you’re counting on the 95th-ranked recruit (James Akinjo) and a lot of player development in a system that doesn’t really develop players. Replacing much of the current roster with new players is likely a good thing. Honestly, the team can’t get a whole lot worse.
Larrier wasn’t a great fit for this team. It’s unfortunate because he’s clearly talented, but not in the ways UConn needed. He’s a very poor defender, an inefficient scorer, a bad rebounder and allergic to the foul line — all characteristics that are true of the team as a whole. How many of those issues are a result of him spending so much of his UConn career on the bench (after the transfer, and after his knee injury), we’ll never know. It’s really too bad that Larrier wasn’t put in a better position to succeed in Storrs.
It’s time for Terry to make some money. He’ll be 23 this offseason — probably too old to develop much more against college players and certainly too old to be taken on as a project by NBA teams. I’ll never begrudge any unpaid college athlete from jumping at the opportunity to collect a paycheck, and definitely not one who’s abandoning a shipwreck (or whatever Kevin Ollie metaphor belongs here).
Larrier could be a good pro! His game should translate better to some of the low-contact, open-space overseas leagues than it did in the AAC. If paired with the right teammates who can alleviate some of the issues detailed above, Larrier playing in transition and as a spot-up shooter could be fun. I imagine he’ll have a fairly lucrative and successful next decade.
All eyes are now on Jalen Adams. Much of the same rationale that informed Larrier’s decision can apply to Adams as well. It’s uncertain that his game will improve given another year at UConn. The team will likely be very bad. He’s getting older and isn’t getting a whole lot of praise from NBA scouts these days. He may decide he’d like to start getting paid for his work too instead of doing it for free in front of 5,000 people in Gampel Pavilion. Unlike Larrier though, there is no one waiting in the wings to adequately replace Adams. Even if Adams comes back, Alterique Gilbert’s chronic exploding shoulders could lead to serious depth issues at the guard spot at any moment (next thing you know Antwoine Anderson is playing 30 minutes per game). If Adams does choose to return, it should help ease the transition from the worst stretch in recent UConn history to (hopefully) better days ahead.
Incoming wing recruit Emmitt Matthews recently broke his wrist and will miss the end of his high school season. He seems like a nice player with a good motor and some potential. The injury isn’t super concerning in the long-term, but if UConn wants to be successful, it really needs to find a wing to pair with Wilson that can produce right away. The most expedient option is probably a grad transfer — we’ll write up some option at some point.
Best of luck to Larrier. It couldn’t have been easy playing on such awful teams (UConn is 13-17 in games that Larrier played — might be 13-20 by the time it’s all over), but he never lashed out, aired grievances or represent himself off the court as anything other than a committed student-athlete. He returned to the court after breaking his face. That’s something. I really hope he kills it overseas and gets something good out of this experience.
