u/jpviolette

No big surprises:

• Demary and Mullins will need to be very good for UConn to contend nationally.
• How well Hines/Khamenia can fill the Reed/Karaban roles will also be very important.
• The freshmen (Landrew/County) will probably need to contribute to the rotation.

Minor surprise:

• They dismissed Machowski and Amosov almost completely. I don't expect them to contend for starting roles but think 1 or both could be rotational players depending on how the season unfolds.

I don't expect Hines to be their best player but I do suspect he will be the most indispensable. I expect Giltay to give them 10-12 competent minutes per game, but Hines has quite a bit more size with a higher ceiling. Compared to other positions:

• Demary should be 1 of the top PGs in the nation next season, but there are indications that County could be an above average replacement pretty quickly.
• Mullins should be 1 of the top SGs in the nation next season, but Machowski, Ross the Elder, and Landrew could all prove to be capable of playing that role.
• While I expect Ross and Khamenia to start, Landrew, Machowski, and Amosov could surprise me.

A few thoughts:

• The video seems to equate "early entry" with "1 and done"; I'm not sure that's what he means. It literally could mean anyone who enters the draft before their senior year, but after decades of seeing players leave school before graduating that seems a little off. Hurley might be lumping Landrew in with players who left for the NBA after 2 seasons, like Bouknight, Hawkins, and Clingan.
• While I'm not convinced that the sizes UConn's roster webpage lists are absolutely true (and weights could change during a 6 month season), we know that things can get physical in Big East play. Outside of the 5s on the roster, the heaviest players appear to be Amosov (6'8" and 236 lbs) and Landrew (6'6" and 236 lbs). If they can learn to use their size/strength, they could give UConn a different way to play when they get into the game.
• I'd agree that shooting 3s at a 34% clip isn't terribly impressive, but Landrew will be in much different situations at UConn. The offense is designed to get players open, opposing defenses won't be able to key in on him, and he's probably just scratching the surface of what he'll eventually be able to do on a basketball court. I'm not fretting over 34% shooting at this stage.

I think I'd be happier with the rules if they weren't constantly in flux, where things change as soon as there's an intersection of at team's immediate needs and a clever lawyer.

It's impossible to know (right now) where County falls on the real-deal/hype spectrum. There's certainly a disconnect between what coaches say and what reality is^(1). And even if County is great in practice, we only need to look at Ross the Elder as a warning that practice success might not translate into immediate on-court success. We had been hearing about Ross's great practices for 2 years before he started to make an impact in his junior season.

What's unquestionable though is that UConn needs him to be playable if they want to be an elite team this season. This is especially true given that Demary's head-of-the-snake defense sometimes (but not always) gets him in foul trouble. If County can just play competitive defense and bring the ball upcourt^(2), that alone would be good enough to lock down the backup PG job.

If County is close to as good as the hype, I could see UConn using him and Demary together for stretches of the game, especially when Mullins goes to the bench. Last season Demary shot well enough to be a SG, so even if County's perimeter shooting isn't great right away, they could probably slide Demary to the 2 for some stretches^(3).

[1] I remember Hurley complaining early in the 2024-25 season when UConn wasn't ranked #1 even though after the season he acknowledged that he knew the team had fatal flaws. At this time of year, I expect his comments to be more motivational than confessional.

[2] Some of us had nightmares in 2024-25 after watching UConn try and dribble upcourt whenever Diarra was on the bench.

[3] I'm not sure that works better than teaming Demary with Machowski, though there may be instances where County's athleticism/ball-handling are more important than Machowski's shooting.

Some thoughts:

1. I saw Hines listed at 6'10" and 265 pounds. The video said he played at 285 lbs. last season, suggesting he's in much better shape this summer and might be playing at ... 265 lbs. I'm not terribly familiar with his conditioning last season, like whether he started the season at 285 lbs. and slowly worked his way into shape. Or maybe he's going to play at about the same weight but more of it will be muscle this season.
2. Barring injuries, I think we all expect Demary, Mullins, and Hines to start. Many also expect Ross and Khamenia to start, though probably with less conviction than their expectations for the 1st 3. And although we can safely assume County will be the backup PG, we don't know whether he'll also be competing for minutes against the wings, where Landrew, Machowski, and Amosov^(1) will all be competing for time. Right now it looks like they've got 4 bench players to spread across 3 positions, which probably makes for some very competitive practices.

[1] I'm not sure whether Ross the Younger belongs in this conversation too.

I didn't know that the natural choice for Demary was probably football.

Unless (around early October?) Hurley starts talking about using Ross and Landrew as his starting forwards, I'd still lean towards Khamenia as the starting 4. But if Ross and Landrew continue to impress, they'll both be big contributors (either as starters or key reserves).

At this point in the year, almost everything is highly speculative. And when there are 10 new players on the roster, the speculation is on steroids. Having said that, there's nothing crazy in this video. There could be a world where Amosov plays a bigger role than Machowski and the freshmen, or where Landrew starts over Ross, but the video's prediction that Ross starts and Landrew/County are the most impactful bench pieces is probably a little more probable.

We could debate about whether it's the most important thing, but 1 thing that caught my attention was when he said they would try to get more in transition this upcoming year.

I realize that UConn's methodical offense that uses much of the shot clock has advantages, especially in wearing down opponents who are forced to play defense through extended offensive sets. Having said that, UConn sometimes struggled to score, and thus I sometimes envied teams that got a higher percentage of easy baskets.

If UConn changes, I wonder how much the departure of Luke Murray plays into it. He seemed to get at least some of the credit for devising UConn's offense, and perhaps UConn will be a little less inclined to run offense and more likely to push pace without his presence. Still, given the success UConn's had the last 4 seasons, I'd expect any changes to offensive philosophy to be ... nuanced. While the offense sometimes seemed to be doing things the hard way, 2 natties and 1 championship game loss in the last 4 years shows they were doing something right.

UConn's senior 1st round NBA picks will be difficult to replace; this video discusses filling the Karaban hole, and Khamenia and Amosov appear to be the leading candidates to do this. (I'm actually optimistic that they'll have the athleticism/shooting to do the job, though replacing the intangibles of knowing what to do and when to do it will be harder to replace.)

I guess the 1st thing to keep in mind is that the video is discussing the practice highlights that UConn chose to share. If someone's struggling in an area, it's probably not going to make it into that sort of video.

Having said that, I suspect that UConn's success next season will be most dependent on how well (in some order) Mullins, Demary, and Hines play, so hearing that Mullins and Hines seem to be thriving in practice is a good sign. (As the most experienced of the 3, I think we know what Demary will bring to the table even if he's not featured as much in these videos.)

It's also encouraging that County and Landrew don't appear to be out of their depth and thus could provide important depth next season.

Though his UConn career was short, his NBA career was 1 of the longest for a former UConn player.

Listening to Demary talk about his ankle injury last postseason, it's easy to think that last season's roster construction was impressive. Had Demary's ankle and Ball's wrist both been healthy, it's not a stretch to think they could have won their 3rd title in 4 years.

First of all, it's not at all surprising that Hurley said this about 1 of his players, and someone he's got a vested interest in seeing do well.

Second, Demary was very good (when healthy) last year, and we probably all expect at least some improvement this coming season.

Finally, exactly where pundits put him on the PG pecking order is less important than whether UConn can win a title with him, and last season's effort suggests they can.

Some thoughts:

• I doubt we're going to see Hines play 30 mpg. The position takes both a physical toll and lends itself to foul trouble. Last season Reed averaged 27 mpg and 3 fouls/game; if Hines averages 25 mpg and 3.5 fouls/game, UConn should be in a position to win a lot of games.
• It's great that County seems to be practicing well, but it's a long way from autumn. If there's any part of his game that opponents can target, it could prevent him from playing a big role next season. If he carves out a role, he probably has enough upside to give UConn 1 of the best backcourts next season.
• At this juncture, I'm skeptical that next year's team will be better than last year's team. Reed and Karaban were big contributors who logged a lot of minutes last season, and replacing them will be very difficult. While Mullins (and to a lesser extend Demary/Ross) will probably improve, the bench will probably be quite a bit less experienced than last year's bench. (I might buy that next year's team has a bit more potential; I'm just not sure it's all going to come together to realize that potential.)

Spoiler alert: UConn is 1 of the 4 picks.

As someone who interpreted Ball's perimeter shooting struggles to a (basically) season long wrist injury, I'm skeptical that he should/could reinvent himself as a righthanded shooter. But if he enters the 2027-28 season able to drive to the right and finish at the rim with his right hand, that probably could be a valuable additional tool in his offensive arsenal.

Yet another take on the Amosov addition.

I have to admit that I too thought of Furphy when wondering where Amosov fits in. I certainly don't consider that to be a prediction, but Furphy was at least a cautionary tale when projecting where a hot international player fits on the team, especially when UConn had a pretty solid roster before his addition.