It’s been a long time since we mailbagged. Consider the wait your punishment. Hopefully you’ve learned your lesson and will behave better in the future to ensure more frequent mailbaggings.
Remember: If your question wasn’t answered or you’ve been living under a rock and are just hearing about this, you can submit your questions here or on Twitter (@ADimeBack).
Phoenix Husky asks: Who does Uconn have the best shot of landing in 2019?
Best chance is almost certainly with Jaiden Delaire, a 4-star forward at Loomis-Chaffee. Indications are that UConn is his first choice. Best chance at a top player, though, appears to be Precious Achiuwa, a top-10 player nationally out of the Bronx. Recent rumblings have been trending very positively for UConn regarding Achiuwa, but this is still going to be a very tough player to land, as Kansas appears to also be very interested. If Hurley gets Achiuwa, it’s going to set a pretty incredible precedent for the level of talent we can expect going forward.
Zack asks: If you could pick one player from any past UConn team to put on the current roster, who would it be?
We get this question or one like it pretty much every season, and the answer is usually Emeka Okafor, because there aren’t a lot of players with that skill set, and his shotblocking ability alone is reason enough to want to add him to your squad. But this year, the player I would most like is Donyell Marshall. The roster is set for guards, but there are more question marks at the wing and in the front court. Yell gives you some of the things you get from Okafor in the front court on defense (he averaged 2.7 blocks per game in college), while also able to play facing the basket on offense. Plus, let’s be honest, Yell was a long and lanky 6’9″ in an era when the Big East was famous for bruisers down low. His game is much more suited to the modern stretch four, and I would love to see what he could do with some more room to groove. Also, he hit more than half his shots as a senior (48.7 career average from the floor) and I’d rather see Yell taking threes than Eric Cobb.
Kyle asks: Which UConn men’s sport do you think will make a Final Four/Frozen Four/CWS/BCS Bowl (since it’s clear no team from the American will ever make the CFP) first?
The obvious answer is Final Four because Dan Hurley is the new, shiny toy that we all wanted, and recent history shows that we will assume all new UConn coaches in any sport are world-destroying forces of nature until proven otherwise. (Also, we’ve been to multiple Final Fours this decade unlike the other teams on this list.)
But let’s break down exactly where each of UConn’s main men’s teams stand. These are ranked from “least likely” to “most likely” to reach the goal you outline above:
5) Football: Without rehashing the (definitely not tiresome) debate around the viability of the program, I feel pretty comfortable saying there is zero chance that UConn will be playing in a New Year’s Six bowl game in the next 6-8 years. The AAC regularly produces as many Top 25 teams as the old Big East, and often has one or two who are clearly above the rest who can contend with power conference schools. UConn’s not there now, it won’t be there next year, and probably not the year after that. I feel pretty confident Randy Edsall can get the program back to competence and bowl games in the short- and medium-term, but there is just a ton of structural stuff — recruiting, the lack of an automatic bid, really solid programs in the conference, fan apathy — that UConn will have to overcome to get to that level.
4) Men’s soccer: My own addition to the list. Soccer would be the most fun non-football/basketball sport to watch succeed, but the program seems to have stagnated since the switch to the AAC. Ray Reid’s put together a terrific program but they’ve really struggled to be nationally relevant the past few years. I’d love nothing more than for UConn to get to a College Cup because soccer rules, but I’m also aware that they’re not getting rid of penalty kicks in the NCAA Tournament, so.
3) Baseball: Jim Penders is the best program builder in the nation, and UConn’s the best positioned of any northern team to get to the College World Series. Being in the AAC is actually a plus for Penders, since it’s a strong top-5ish league every season. Finishing in the top four should mean that UConn gets to the tournament with regularity. But as we saw last week, you need a ton of pitching depth and a few fortunate bounces to get through every step of the marathon NCAA baseball tournament. And Penders is going to need to keep up his incredibly high success rate for turning raw freshmen into MLB prospects. (It would help if the Pittsburgh Pirates stop drafting all our good recruits, too. Jerks.) I bet UConn gets there at some point, but it’s difficult.
2) Men’s ice hockey: I am drinking the Kool-Aid here a bit, but UConn finally seems to be cashing in on its spot as a huge state school in a talent-rich region in an elite hockey conference. The Huskies punched above their weight to finish fifth in Hockey East last year, and while they lose a number of key guys from that team, they will have what is touted to be a top-five recruiting class coming in next season. While an NCAA Tournament berth might not come next season, it feels like the program is trending in that direction, and quickly. And once the Huskies get there, they’re only two high-variance games away from a Frozen Four. Gimme those odds.
1) Men’s basketball: Yeah, obvious answer stay obvious. Hurley should have all the resources he needs to rebuild the program, and the combination of Hurley’s Northeast connections and the UConn name still having some cache (this year’s high school seniors were middle-schoolers in 2014) means that the program is not at all far from being a nationally relevant team. If Hurley can hit on a couple of top targets in his first two full recruiting classes, it’s not out of the question that UConn could be a Final Four-potential team by year 3 or 4.
Michael asks: Who do you see breaking out this year?
We’ll cover this more in our annual preseason roundtable this fall (I said Vital last November). I guess the cool thing about having an unbearably awful season in 2017-18 is that there is no shortage of breakout candidates this year! It’s tempting to guess either Alterique Gilbert or Sid Wilson, but I’ve learned to temper my expectations of talented guys who’ve sat out a year (or more). I’ll guess Josh Carlton, the rare guy who exceeded my expectations last year. Although his ceiling seems somewhat limited by his own athleticism (or lack thereof), the skills he flashed make me optimistic that he can play meaningful minutes in a real offense. I’ll predict about 8 points and 5 rebounds in 27 minutes per game.
