After performing so well in the Spring Game, Danny Russell announced his intentions to transfer to an Ivy League school. Personally, I was excited to see Danny Russell develop. He came from a very talent rich school in Florida and was starting to make an impact this spring.
So long Danny Russell. Good luck in the Ivies and in the future.
Over the past couple of weeks, the men’s basketball team have anxiously awaited the fate of Hasheem Thabeet. During the wait, Curtis Kelley and Doug Wiggins have announced their intentions to transfer. The team received some of the best news this past weekend when Hasheem announced that he would not be entering the NBA Draft. Despite economic hardships, Thabeet will stay at Connecticut for one more season. Thabeet, with the guidance of his mother, really made a sound decision. Staying one more year will make him one of the top players in next year’s draft and will allow him to further develop his skills (which are still raw).
Connecticut also sured up the commitment of Ater Majok, one of the top players in the 2008 class. I have yet to watch some of the highlight tapes of Majok but from what I hear, he is a talented (yet still a little raw but not as raw as Thabeet) player who should make an immediate impact for the Huskies next season. With this commitment, baring any further defections, it looks as if Nate Miles will not be in Storrs, CT anytime soon as the Huskies are full on scholarships.
With all this exciting news, the media is high on Connecticut now as well. Luke Winn from Sports Illustrated ranked the Connecticut Huskies #1 in the preseason. That is a lot of pressure for the Huskies who played well last season at times but have still yet to accomplish anything in the postseason. That being said it is time for this group of core players to step up and play some Connecticut ball!
The 2008 NFL Draft was a pretty good showing for the Connecticut Huskies. Two players, Tyvon Branch and Donald Thomas were drafted. Tyvon went to the Oakland Raiders in the fourth round, a little lower than expected, and Donald Thomas went to the Miami Dolphins in the 6th round.
Tyvon Branch looks to be a player who can make a pretty significant impact early in his career, specifically on special teams. Branch saw his stock soar at the combines but it did not directly transfer into the draft.
Donald Thomas’ story is a story of determination. Originally a walk-on at the University of Connecticut, he fought his way into the starting lineup and eventually into in the NFL! I think that Donald Thomas is one of the players who best represents the character of players we have at UConn. Randy Edsall really brings in some high character players. Even though Thomas was originally a walk-on, I really like how Edsall eventually awarded Thomas a scholarship. This team is really based on performance and performance alone.
Two other UConn players were also signed to free agent deal. Danny Lansanah signed a deal with Green Bay and Dan Davis signed with the Indianapolis Colts.
Thanks for all the hard play and good luck to these Huskies in the future! This can only bring more positive attention for recruiting as we can now start to claim to be putting more talent into the NFL. We need to continue to get our players drafted and hopefully get a high profile player in the first day….I think that is a strong selling point to some of these kids. We have a coach with professional ties and we need to use that to our advantage.
Jim Calhoun has announced that Curtis Kelly has announced his intentions to transfer in order to look for some more playing time. Kelly came in as a heralded recruit but quickly found himself on the bench and even losing minutes to Gavin Edwards. I think that this is just a good move for everyone involved. Kelly was not working out well at the University of Connecticut. He provided some spark off the bench at times but for some reason him and Calhoun just did not mesh well.
This opens up another scholarship spot just in time for Ater Majok’s visit on April 24, 2008….Could another addition to the team shortly 
Every once in a while I will do a Google News Search and see what comes up for UConn. A day or two a go, I came across a disheartening article about the game attendance for UConn’s two major sports — football and basketball. Hartford Business reports:
The rub for UConn’s football team, and also for its basketball teams, is that a better won-lost record has been greeted by smaller crowds in the 2007-08 season.
I was thinking about this as well because of the Spring Game. You read stories from other Universities were they pack their stadium with 90,000 for their Spring Game. I think we drew somewhere around 10,000. No obviously it is not a fair comparison in direct numbers but we are nowhere close to filling our stadium to capacity (40,000).
Coming from the SEC dominated, football obsessed South, I was surprised that UConn’s football stadium was almost a half an hour away from campus. As non-student fans may see this as a benefit, especially for ease of entry (since Storrs does not have that many entrances), Hartford Business see this as a negative:
“You don’t have a winning team and the team is separated from the campus,” Zimbalist said. “That will be a long-term issue for them. The football stadium is in East Hartford, half an hour from campus. That is very unusual. It is very risky for them to do that — dubious to do that. Normally, these college games are supposed to be university activities. It is supposed to be on campus.”
I understand what the State has tried to do with UConn football and basketball. They are trying to make it a state team but they are also selfishly trying to drive business to Hartford. Storrs is a special area where the sporting teams could become alive. I understand my viewpoint is very biased because generally I have no interest in the city of Hartford. It is also uneducated in some circumstances (I am not sure where a Division 1 football stadium could fit on campus). What do you guys think about this? I have been to Penn State games and it isn’t exactly easy to get into the Happy Valley either but people show up (would they still show up for UConn?).
That being said, there is really no excuse for us UConn fans as a whole. We all need to get ourselves in the stands and cheering louder than ever. Winning or losing, down huge or up huge, lets get people in the stands to represent the University of Connecticut.
(I understand that my blog post is not really connected to what the Article I link to is saying….I am just drawing some side concern on the subject)
