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Welcome back Kevin Freeman ! / Kimani promoted

the Blades

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From Courant: " Hunter’s departure will leave Hurley with a key post to fill. Taliek Brown could be a candidate if Hurley promotes from within. Brown, director of player development, filled in when Hunter was ill in 2019. "

UConn assistant Kenya Hunter takes leave of absence due (Nov. 2019)...
" UConn assistant coach Kenya Hunter will be away from the team for an indefinite amount of time while dealing with a medical issue, the school announced on Wednesday.....former Husky star point guard Taliek Brown will be elevated to an on-court coaching position during Hunter’s absence. "


 
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What UConn needs is a proven big man coach. They finally landed a bunch of good young bigs who need to be coached up. Is Clyde Vaughn available?
 
What UConn needs is a proven big man coach. They finally landed a bunch of good young bigs who need to be coached up. Is Clyde Vaughn available?
True...Kenya seemed to fit that role ( even though he was a 6-3 guard when he played for Duquense), along with recruiting the DMV area. So that seems to be the resume requirements, but in DH I trust.
 
How bad does this hurt recruiting?
2 players total...1/13 of the current team (Javonte Brown-Ferguson) and one player from 2021 class according to 247 sports. That's the number of commits Kenya was the lead on since he's been at Uconn.... Adams, RJ, AJ, and Tyrese Martin seemed to be Hurley leads. The rest of the players and commits were lead by...Kimani Young (4 + maybe Springs another NY kid ?), and Tom Moore (2)...plus the 3 SR's from that :eek: other guys staff.

As far as this year and the 2021 commits... it was one each Moore (Diggins), Young (Samson) and Kenya was the lead on Hawkins.

But DH is the closer ....can't lose him !
 
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May the best candidate get the job. I have no preference as long as they can work with and develop the bigs!
According to the guy who hired him at Penn St....that's exactly what K-Free has been for him. To bad KF got passed over by Ollie twice for the 2 mental midgets, who couldn't help KO save his job... SMH !

Dom Amore : UConn's Kevin Freeman gets his coaching break ...
“I took my time with this hire,” says Chambers, in his eighth season as head coach at Penn State. “I needed somebody with great core values. I wanted a winner. I wanted someone with great character, and I needed somebody who could really teach and develop my big men. And I wanted somebody with great relationships in the Northeast corridor who could help us recruiting.”

So if it's one of the two Zags mentioned, it's either a big mans coach ( from the B1G) with deep Uconn roots or a guy who played SG for Harvard ( and loss by 29 to Kemba & Co. his JR year at Uconn ) but grew up in the DMV area ( recruiting).....
 
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What I like and respect about Kevin Freeman is that he is a player who learned how to "stay in his lane." I remember a game his freshman year against Indiana, which I think UConn lost, in which he was trying to do a lot of ballhandling on the perimeter and transition and had some TOs. He eventually developed into an excellent, gritty undersized power forward on a national championship team and double Big East champion team his last two years. He played with center Jake Voskuhl, and arguably they were the best "dirty work" 4-5 tandem in UConn history. I would argue Voskuhl was the most fundamentally sound 5 in UConn history and highly underrated, as attested to by the fact that he lasted 10 years in the NBA. I had always thought Jake would be a great coach, and I think his father was a coach, but I did some checking and Jake is now a CEO of his own energy company in Houston and has moved on from basketball. I would say from playing with him for 5 years, Freeman knows what good fundamental play at the 4 and 5 look like.

I will never forget the Elite 8 game against Gonzaga in the 1999 NCAA tournament. Gonzaga gave UConn as much of a test as Duke did in the finals and UConn could not pull away from this team that was just starting an amazing 21 year run as a college basketball powerhouse mid major. Gonzaga had a 5'9" guard who was killing UConn with penetration. In the last 2 minutes though, the game was decided by the boardwork of Freeman and Voskuhl as UConn slowly pulled into a 5-6 point lead. After the game, I heard some Gonzaga players interviewed and they said, "we were right with them to the last couple minutes, and then we could feel them crashing the boards extra hard." That was what won that game. Freeman, and Voskuhl, doing some good old fashion dirty work and cleaning the glass.
 
" When Kevin Ollie was fired and Dan Hurley hired in March, 2018, Freeman was the only staff member that Hurley retained. However, he left for Penn State in June 2018 — his first job as a coach in any capacity. "

 
" In his role as Penn State's third assistant, Freeman was credited by (head coach) Chambers with having helped to develop the Nittany Lions' bigs, particularly fifth-year senior forward Mike Watkins. " Give Kevin Freeman a lot of credit for that," Chambers said after a winning effort at Purdue's Mackey Arena in February. "Low post defense was good, he was rolling hard, he was catching things. He was finishing. He made his free throw. I couldn't be more happier for someone than Mike Watkins."

 
Some former Husky national champs, love it.....beside his old school Uconn roots...KF is a good connect to the players from Calhoun's last class (2011-12) to the current SR's (Josh, Isaiah and Tyler) that he worked with during his 2nd stop in Storrs.


 
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I didn't remember him being MOP of the 1999 Big East Tournament. I can't recall if it was 1998 or 1999, but in one of those Big East tournaments Rashamael Jones was huge off the bench. He was a guy who did a lot of damage in transition. I do remember Freeman's contributions in the 1999 NCAA West Regional final which were huge.
 
Huge decision. DH is showing more respect for the history of the program than Ollie did which is crazy. Good for Freeman, he will get snagged for a HC position within 5 years but it will be a great 5 years.
 
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Another former national champ Husky loving what DH's doing:


 
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That's an interesting article Blades, my take on it is I wonder if Hunter was offended by Kimani Young getting promoted (it seems that started being discussed right after Sanogo committed), and decided to go elsewhere where he could move into an associate head coach role and have that title. Clearly, titles may mean something if a program has success and if one guy sees another guy getting a title he wants, the reaction (in ANY business) is to go somewhere else where you can more easily get the title you want. That seems like the most likely reason why Hunter went to Indiana and Miller AND also negotiated into the deal the co-associate head coach thing. In this profession these guys are all angling to move up, get better titles and better pay, so we cannot really claim surprise when one guy feels maybe he should have been recognized more than someone else who got moved up instead. It is what it is, I wish both Hunter and Young success in their new positions.

Regarding Tyrese Martin, WTF? Another kid twisting in the wind on a transfer waiver. But I am not so bent on having him for this year, I just feel for the kid and him not knowing whether he needs to sit or whether he will play. It's not like the situation with Evie Westbrook last year for the women, whom UConn could have used. BUT- I like that she now has 2 years to lead this young group of Husky women because by all accounts she is a great leader and has been made a captain despite not having played a MINUTE of UConn basketball. When did that ever happen Blades? Tells you all you need to know about what Geno thinks of her ability to lead.
 
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Good points KSTW, plus Hunter has more of a history with the Miller family (Kenya Talks Relationship with Archie )
Also makes you wonder about Kenya's missed time last year, since no reason was given for him being away. Also even though he was supposed to be the lead on JBF's ( now just JB) recruitment, Hurley had no problem closing on his commitment with Hunter away for an extended time. So overall it seems like a win-win for both programs and better fits across the board, especially with Kimani who's doing major work getting his due.

I love that Freeman paid his dues for 7 years with the Huskies then got the needed work on the court and recruiting as a bigmans coach in the Big Ten, plus the stability he can bring as a Uconn ( New England/Longmeadow, MA) guy willing to work his way up the ranks.


As far as the DMV recruiting, on paper Kenya really only brought in one guy. So it may be important but now that the Uconn brand & culture is getting restored.... having certain area recruiters, is probably a little overrated as long as Uconn takes care of the NY/NE base, as always... and as Calhoun proved in the 90's and with 3 asst coaches from Norwich, CT (Howie) and 2 from MA (Leitao, Moore), being able to recruit the country is doable, once the brand is strong.

Also true on Martin... as a bunch of other players ( Akinjo, Nolley, Griffen, etc) are NCAA approved already.

PS ....good SC front page article is now up too.
 
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