Dude, please give it a rest. With last season's guards and a young Red Auerbach on the sidelines, we would have been terrible too. He's got a deep and talented roster now at every position. Let's see how he does.
Liam McNeeley
- Thread starter Fred C. Dobbs
- Start date
Could be that McNeely relalized that the Hoosier team was going to completely turn over next year too.
This team has not completely turned over. I don't know where people are getting this idea. Again, we kept all our key players and our current key players all have more than one year of eligibility except Ballo.
Yes, read my post. He better win this year.
Also he put the roster together last year.
If he doesn't win this year, he might not have another chance for one good season.
On paper, this might be his best team he's had, especially at guard. This is his make or break season, IMO.
Hmmm, you'll probably be surprised how many new players UConn had in 23 and in 24. And, you really don't know if that success is because of the system, the players, or sheer luck. Most likely a combination of all three.
It's hard to pinpoint a system approach for Woodson because his teams so far have been so unbalanced towards interior vs perimeter. Is he really that inside oriented or was it a byproduct of having inferior talent at the guard spots and playing to his strengths like anyone would/should? Who knows.. We'll see more this year.
Last edited:
Hurley certainly had cohesion for the 24 team despite a lot of new talent. Just like FAU youre talking about bring in guys who understand what the expectations are. Back to back, by definition, is a cohesive system, not to mention they were winning the year prior too.
24 had a number of new players but adding guys like Cam Spencer to a title contender is cohesion.
Woodson has made "a good haul" out of a bad situation. I'll give him that. But you look at these guys and ask, which of them has ever won anything? Where is the leadership with this group?
As a point of compromise, I think I can say this group has the chance to move things in the right direction and may allow the future to build on it.
I am full on rooting for the team like I always do. Woodson can kiss my ass whether he wins or loses. He’s not going anywhere win or lose unless his big money buddies stop the money flow and Buckner gives his blessing.
What do you mean? Oumar Ballo came from a program that was one of the best in the country the last two seasons. Myles Rice lead his team to the tournament for the first time in 15 years. Luke Goode cam from an Illinois program that was highly successful in his 3 seasons there. Kanaan Carlyle is the only transfer that came from a "bad" program that lacked any kind of cohesion.
the only reason UConn is labeled with "cohesion" is that it worked in hindsight. Cam Spencer was an unknown coming in. Obviously he fit perfectly, but that's a testament to Hurley as a coach who willed it to happen. Cam Spencer was not better or more obvious a cohesive add than the guys we got this year, but they had a coach who insists on and demands the UConn culture and way be taken to heart by everyone... and it worked.
In what world would the IU staff stop communicating with a top 10 recruit. I can’t believe anyone would believe this.
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
Really makes no sense, as we were recruiting Derek Queen during that period and even made a few trips to Montverde. Hard to believe the staff wouldn't check on on Liam while there. I think it was his family that said that, so maybe they meant the staff hadn't talked to them, not Liam.
There's basically zero chance the staff stopped talking to him. I posted something a few weeks ago that had some quotes from Liam in it, that were dated about 2-3 weeks before the end of the season...our record was 14-12 or something at the time. Obviously its possible Liam was just being PC in that article, but there were specific things about his communications with the program in it.
They didn't like what they were seeing. Woody probably didn't like that they were wavering and/or questioning him and IU. They broke up.
Liam also committed pretty early, well before NIL packages blew up. Its obviously possible that became a factor as well, that they were "renegotiating" all that.
It’s all speculation, but this isn’t:
IU won 5 in a row starting in late Feb.
As bad as last season was, imagine had we not finished like that?
One can speculate as to what was going on behind the scenes. My speculation is that had we had a much worse close to the season we would have had more turnover. Kids are kids, can change their minds and it’s possible that things were being said by players before that win streak that possibly were getting to Liam .
I think it was a combination of a lot of things:
a) I think it became increasingly clear that Mgbako was going to be back for his sophomore season; I'm guessing that wasn't in Liam's mind before committing to IU. Not to say those two couldn't co-exist on the floor together, but lets be real, that directly cuts into LM's PT and role
b) Things got very toxic around IU basketball for a 3-4 week period in late January/early February. Woodson was going to be fired, the entire team was going to transfer, etc etc. Recruits aren't dumb and with much of IU's dirty laundry being aired over social media, I'm sure it played a factor. The day it was announced that Woodson would be back for year 4 was the most toxic and divisive I've ever seen. McNeeley de-committed the next day.
c) The offense was miserable last season and Liam would have been blind not to notice. Having second thoughts about playing in offense that Liam may not have felt tailored his skills could have been a dealbreaker.
All of these things are probably also true...lots of factors. My point is I very seriously doubt one of the main reasons was our coaching staff stopped communicating with them. And the only way I could see that as even a remote possibility, is if the McNeeleys started to question the program, the direction, the plan for Liam, etc... I could see Woodson not taking that overly well.
Hadn't thought about the Mgbako dynamic...that probably did play a role too.
So he didn't watch IU play BEFORE he committed?? Did Woodson become awful overnight?
He definitely watched them after he committed.
That doesn't seem unusual from the point of view that.... IU felt the need to give the coach, who is under contract, a "vote of confidence" and announced his return. This means that the coach is on very shaky ground and more of the same is not going to be tolerated. At the time IU had no other impact recruits at all, so McNeeley had to think that there was a chance his coach would be fired, perhaps MIDSEASON. Why enter a possible train wreck?
Thankfully, plan B seemed to at least snare some talent.
TMP can speak for himself, but his general point is that none of us message board warriors “know.”
So if we don't know something to be 100% true, then it invalidates the opinion?
People make opinions quite often based on partial information, hearsay and gut feeling.
but he acted like not knowing invalidated the other poster's opinion. You're missing the point.
Correct, and that's fine as long as it's presented that way. When presented as an undeniable fact, but based on the above, then it's nothing but bullshit and is generally biased towards whatever narrative that person wants to believe. Too much of that shit in our current society.
I may proven wrong but I think defensively, McNeely will be a liability on the perimeter. I think he's going to be hard to play at that end with Karaban. He's probably better suited off the bench. The announcement of Woody being retained didn't really matter.
Cam Spencer was one of the few Big Ten guys after '23 that looked like they could potentially make the NBA. He was a huge pick up for Hurley.
Maybe you did, but I don't think most thought of Spencer as anything but a "nice" player after his time at Rutgers. In fact, my impression was that maybe he wasn't the best locker room guy, or that concern existed. Don't think he was a really "hot" name in xfer talk then either, but maybe UConn locked him up early. Regardless, his reputation was way, WAY higher after a year at UConn than before.
I think both things can be true. Spencer was a nice player on a bad team (in a horrid offensive system) but showed signs of having a skill set that really complemented a team like UConn. I don't even know if Spencer was actually ever in the portal, think he graduated and just decided he was going to use his free COVID year at UConn. But agree talks of him being an NBA draft pick at Rutgers was definitely premature...he was a late 2nd rd pick as is even after the year he had a UConn.
With how the game has changed with the portal, unless we’re talking game-changing top 10 recruits, I’d rather bring in talented, experienced guys from the portal over high school grads. Same thing if we’re talking the NBA. Unless I had one of the top 8-10 picks, depending on what the draft pool looked like, I’d be trading draft picks for veterans all day long.
