Hurley on Richie Springs and virtual recruiting
Richie Springs was a bit of a mystery man for the UConn Huskies last season, but that should change this winter.
With Akok Akok (Achilles’ tendon) likely out until the Big East portion of the season and Sid Wilson transferring, the door has opened for the 6-foot-9 Springs to earn some minutes.
The 18-year-old forward was hoping that chance would come last season, but he ran into academic issues and ended up redshirting, which at least permitted him to practice with the Huskies.
“We are excited about Richie,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. “I think right now he probably helps us much more at the four spot than he could at maybe a small ball ‘five’ type of five man.”
The return of seniors-to-be Josh Carlton and Isaiah Whaley plus the addition of incoming freshman Javonte Brown-Ferguson gives the Huskies good depth at the center spot, but UConn will enter the season a little thin at the four with Akok out and Tyler Polley returning from an ACL injury.
Springs, who played at The MacDuffie School with UConn guard James Bouknight, at least has a season under his belt of training and practicing with Hurley and company.
“Richie is young and he’s developing a little bit physically, but he does one thing that is very hard to teach and that’s rebound out of his area and tracks the ball,” Hurley said. “He does that incredibly well on the offensive end and he can do it well on the defensive end.
“He’s a quick jumper, he’s very athletic and the (sitting out a season) was really good for Richie just like it was really good for Akok.”
Springs didn’t even join the Huskies until last August after he decided to forego a postgraduate season at Brewster Academy and reclassify for 2019. He committed to UConn on Aug. 6 after taking a campus visit, but missed all of the summer workouts since he had yet to decide and was still playing with the PSA Cardinals.
NEW WAY TO RECRUIT
With Wilson’s departure, the Huskies have one remaining spot to fill on next season’s roster. How they are able to do it during the pandemic has been a bit of a challenge.
Instead of bringing recruits or transfers on campus, Hurley and his staff have had to rely on virtual visits.
“The first couple of them are pretty surreal,” Hurley said. “I would say this, all programs are obviously different.
“For us, the strength of our recruiting is when we get kids on campus with unofficials and official visits,” he added. “We’re not the fastest talkers, we don’t have the best necessarily sales pitch to kids, but where we win is when they step on campus, they meet us, they spend time around us and they get a feel for how our players feel about what we do together.”
Of course, trying it over teleconference makes it a harder thing.
“We try to give them the information that they would get over the course of unofficial or official visits,” Hurley said. “We try to present that to them on a Webex or Zoom over the course of multiple visits with kids we are serious about.”
The frequency of the calls have depended on whether the Huskies are pursuing someone for next season or 2021.
“If it’s a kid for next year, once every couple days and if it’s a 2021 we may do it once every couple weeks,” Hurley said. “We just give them an overview of who we are.”
While the Huskies want to add another player to the current roster, Hurley said they remain open to how they do it, either with a transfer or 2020 recruit.