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Welcome to the 2023 Husky commits (New FAB 5 -now OFFICIAL)

the Blades

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Welcome to the 1st Husky of 2023-

Stephon Castle (Rivals profile) ...SG/PG....6-6/205.....Covington, GA...
ranked #25 in the country by Rivals and # 27 by 247 sports ( # 4 shooting guard) for the class of 2023.
The 6-foot-6 prospect from Covington, Georgia, visited UConn on Nov. 6, but there was no Crystal Ball prediction about his decision entering his announcement. Also mentioned by CBS, that this is the first time Coach Hurley has expanded his recruiting out of the NE/DMV footprint to the south.
Rivals:
" Castle currently comes in as the No. 25 overall prospect in the 2023 Rivals150. After watching him again recently, that might not be high enough. At 6-foot-6, he’s a legitimate point guard that can run a team and he’s now playing with the confidence that he can score with the best of them.... Castle is the type of player that other top prospects will want to play with because of his unselfish style of play and ability to make guys around him look really good."


He announced live on CBS Sports:

 
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Also interesting: Stacey Castle ( his dad) was an AAU teammate of Kimani Young and played at Wake Forest and UCF, where he graduated in 1996 after averaging 11.4 points per game as a senior.

Steph on twitter:
 
2 other Uconn commits for the Xavier game,2023 Stephon Castle (#23 by Rivals) and 2022 Donovan Clingan (#36 by Rivals)"

Here's Steph's commitment video-
 
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Here's a recent AAU look. One thing I noticed at first glance is he seems the opposite of AJ's push.
( which would be a nice blend). Plays under control and has a calming pace, kinda like the big Nova guards, in the 4 out - 1 in, that they use. RJ likes it too !

 
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I really do not like that the kid is having to be rushed because the team literally has no guards coming back at all other than AJ. It is a panic move. Experienced transfer portal bodies are needed.
 
every coach in college sports is gonna have to scramble.
It's going to be a big time scramble by Hurley to fill out this backcourt. He literally needs at least 3 guards. What makes it a bigger scramble is that with the transfer portal, you really do not know what is going to be out there. We have seen some very talented point guards come on the market in the last week or two, but who knows what they will do and whether they will come to UConn. It's like a game of musical chairs, in which you hope a chair is left when the music stops playing. The Floyd transfer really caught me by surprise, much more than Diggins or Gaffney. Diggins and Gaffney reasonably could have concluded, based on their usage, that Hurley had no confidence in them, and that they would likely be recruited over as a result. In the case of Floyd, he has not even seen the Court yet.

I hope Kimani Young has not been hired away by UMass because right now Hurley needs every able bodied coach on staff to hit the recruiting trail, and hit it hard........

As for the bigger picture of transfer portal "free agency", it is creating a chaos and instability in college sports which is at the same time concerning, and fascinating. It does open up amazing possibilities if you have building block players and need to fill a few holes. Unfortunately, UConn has a gaping hole in the backcourt in terms of experienced guards, so the concern is just being able to fill out the roster. You would rather have a situation like the UConn women in which the top 4 guards all come back next year and you maybe need one deep bench guard who will come in and be willing to be accept a role as a practice player who gets scrub minutes. But now in college hoops, the scrubs do not want to be scrubs any more, they want to go somewhere and play.
 
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As for the bigger picture of transfer portal "free agency", it is creating a chaos and instability in college sports which is at the same time concerning, and fascinating. But now in college hoops, the scrubs do not want to be scrubs any more, they want to go somewhere and play.
So true, or maybe to the place where a coach will lick their ego and tell them everything they want to hear, even though it could probably be BS. So the coaches who spin the BS the best are gonna win in this new free agency CHAOS ! ...Like you said with Floyd he hasn't even played a minute. And he certainly doesn't seem to be a scrub. But I guess the Triston Newton visit and Castle rumblings have scared him away from whatever comp may come in. That's the way it certainly looks right now.
 
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or maybe to the place where a coach will lick their ego and tell them everything they want to hear, even though it could probably be BS. So the coaches who spin the BS the best are gonna win in this new free agency CHAOS !

Stacey Castle ( his dad) was an AAU teammate of Kimani Young and played at Wake Forest and UCF, where he graduated in 1996 after averaging 11.4 points per game as a senior.

Not to say Steph is reclassifying. But speaking of coaches telling players the truth, WOW !...bring it on Papa C :

 
Looks like alot of upside...still growing into his body. He was under 6' 0" as a highschool FR as he mentions above, now up to 6" 7" ......
PS- Not to confuse them, Jayden is #11, his brother Jacob is #13 a 6-5 class of 2025.

 
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One more and more video on----
“Jayden is still adjusting to a large growth spurt during the 2020-2021 school year,” said Saint James School coach Kevin Breslin said. “He was a 6’0 dangerous spot up shooter with range and a shifty handle. Those skills gave him the foundation to be a great high school player but the added length has made him a terrific college prospect who plays above the rim. He’s humble and hardworking and has the right attitude to put it all together.”

 
Welcome to the next Husky commit of 2023 !

Solomon Ball ......CG...6-3/185......Leesburg, VA

4 star/ top 50 recruit who will play at Brewster Academy this fall (Prep home of former Husky Jalen Adams) Has a 45' in Vert and 6-'10" wingspan who plays well above the rim for a PG, as he's gained height and and LBS in the last year. Was teammate of previous Uconn commit Jayden Ross on Team Melo AAU and in HS.

 
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FWIW, 247 Sports ( they rank Castle a 5 star) has now added Stewart to their team rankings and it puts Uconn as #3 in the country. Rivals has no ranking yet, for what could be the last Uconn get for 2023 ( 7-0 center) Youssouf Singare....but 247 now ranks him as a 4 star. Like Sanogo he's also from Mali, with YS arriving in 2019.

 
It's an impressive class. I can't recall the last time UConn had a recruiting class rated #3 nationally. I don't think Ollie's ballyhooed 2016 class was rated that high. Calhoun had some real good classes but not sure any one class was rated that high. With some of the holdovers on the current team, this really positions UConn to be a consistent top 20 team for some years ahead.
 
It's an impressive class. I can't recall the last time UConn had a recruiting class rated #3 nationally. I don't think Ollie's ballyhooed 2016 class was rated that high.
Correct.....It included three 4 stars and two 3 star players, all but one who never finished their career/spent 4 years at Uconn. They were #9, though the entire class turned out to be flawed rankings wise. As the player that turned out to be the best of them all was the lowest ranked Vital (a 3 star at #145), who finally got it his senior year as Hurley coached him up and CV become an all AAC first team.

 
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In case you guys are wondering about that pic of Solomon Ball, it was in fact taken at Brewster Academy and the lake you see in the background is Lake Winnipisaukee. As a kid my family vacationed there and I went there many years. In fact, in the summer of 1977, I saw Star Wars which came out that summer, while vacationing at Lake Winnipisaukee. I remember waiting in a line spanning 2 blocks with my father and sister but we eventually did get tickets. The only other time in my whole life that I waited for an hour or more to buy tickets for a movie was Blair Witch Project which I saw in the summer of 1999 with my sister while visiting her in Denver, Colorado, where she then lived.

Blades thanks for stimulating a fond childhood memory.
 
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