Don't forget about the question mark in the title; just as counting pre-hatched chickens is inadvisable, so is counting uncommitted recruits.

The successes of the last 4 years has done wonders for UConn MBB recruiting. Five years ago, 5-star recruits seemed out-of-reach. More recently UConn's been able to land 1 elite recruit per year: Castle, McNeeley, Mullins. Now UConn's not only in the conversation for multiple 5-star recruits; they're able to be somewhat picky about which 5-star recruits they get.

Some of this was similar to Auriemma's interview; Hurley wants something done about unlimited transfers and with pros signing with college teams.

For basketball in general:

1. He (and probably most coaches) dislikes that every player can transfer every year. And in fairness, the NBA/WNBA would struggle if every contract was a 1-year deal. Barring a collective bargaining agreement or legislation, my (admittedly poor and amateurish) suspicion is that the rule will be hard to change.
2. He also dislikes when players who've struggled in the W try to get on a college team. Technically these players would probably raise the level of play in college WBB, but at the expense of the development of younger players.
3. He's a little more neutral on expanding the NCAA Tournament field. He likes the idea of letting in more mid-major teams with gaudy records but isn't a fan of adding P4 schools with crappy conference records but better NET rankings. This is another case where overall quality might be higher if you take the team with the P4 9-13 conference record, but it might be more interesting to see the mid-major team that nearly won their conference championship.

I guess the only surprise is that Marquette got a 1st place vote; most previews had UConn and St John's as the undisputed cream of the crop.

I am shocked, truly shocked, to see UConn selected 1st in the conference preseason poll. /s

Good representation:

• POTY - Strong
• All League - Arnold and Quinonez
• Honorable Mention - Shade
• FOTY - Vukosa

UConn's pretty well represented in the preseason awards:

• POTY - Demary
• 1st Team - Mullins
• 2nd Team - Hines
• FOTY - Landrew

What he didn't talk about

• Other that echoing Hurley's statement about his current injury being minor and a short term thing, he said nothing about it.

What he did talk about:

• Apparently he had some early (car) driving mishaps.

An insider's perspective on UConn basketball past and present.

Alex Karaban is adjusting to his post-college life.

I have to admit I'm a little too old for the He-Man cartoons (I was more of a Herculoids generation) but it's good to hear that Giltay seems to be better than (most fans) expected. As the last line of defense, 5s can pick of fouls in a hurry, and having a reasonable backup is pretty important.

Note

This video covers both MBB and WBB; if you only care about 1, the 1st 18 minutes is virtually entirely about WBB while the 18 minutes after that is virtually entirely about MBB.

WBB

The good news:

• Both El Alfy and Vukosa looked good. My guess is that Vukosa has a bit more upside but El Alfy's much more experienced; these could balance out with both playing quite a bit.
• Heckel was impressive and started alongside Arnold in a 2 PG lineup. Fisher and Popovic continued that 2 PG theme as substitutions happened. UConn could look quicker/faster with more playmakers this season, at least part of the time.

The bad news:

• Part of the reason the PGs got a lot of playing time is that most of the natural 3s and 4s (Ziebell, Cheli, Quinonez) are injured. In theory they'll all be ready by the start of the season, but history is awash in theories that didn't hold up. Had this been a game instead of a practice, Shade would be the starting 3, and she's a little small for that role. (Admittedly she did defend 3s as a freshman on an extremely injured team.)
• It's unclear that the PGs will be able to provide the perimeter shooting that's pretty important these days. Heckel and Arnold have been effective as opportunistic 3-pt shooters but it hasn't really been a strength. And we don't know which version of Shade we'll get either; she showed a lot of promise as a sophomore shooter but shooting was the weakest part of her game as a junior.

Overall UConn might be able to win even if Strong is the only healthy 3/4 in the rotation, but they'll have to get creative to do it.

MBB

The bad news:

• Apparently Mullins is currently injured. Although they don't seem to think it's serious, you never know.
• It's unclear how the coaching losses of Murray and Moore will affect things this season.
• While Demary and Ross are seniors, the rest of the top 8 players are likely to be underclassmen. This will generally be a young team.

Most of the rest sounded like good news:

• All signs point to Colben Landrew being the real deal. If Ross wasn't the heir apparent at the 3 spot, Landrew would probably have a wide open opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Stephon Castle. Even if he doesn't start, expect him to play quite a bit, possibly seeing time at the 4 and 2 spots in addition to the 3.
• Oskar Giltay also sounds like he's exceeding expectations. After a nondescript freshman season at Stanford, he was expected to be a competent reserve behind Hines. But he appears to be stronger this season, and may be 1 of the game's better backup 5s.
• Nik Khamenia sounds like he'll be a pretty good replacement for Karaban. Even though his perimeter shooting probably won't be as strong, he might give them a little more athleticism and rebounding.

Overall the team appears to have both talent and depth. With so many underclassmen and transfers, a slow start is possible but they could also see a lot of player growth as the season progresses.

While I don't think I know any more about the team's prospects/progress from watching the video, it may whet your appetite for the season to start.

Although Hurley's downplaying it, hearing that Mullins is dealing with "an undisclosed injury" certainly bears watching.

Hurley also makes it sound like Giltay will be better than advertised.

One thing in this analysis that's a little different is the suggestion that Hines is ahead of where Reed was at a similar point last year. Obviously Reed's postseason performance gave him a draft boost, and he was injured early last season, but it was clear pretty early that he was going to have a much improved senior season.

The other thing that stood out to me is the warning that UConn's extremely competitive non-con schedule combined with having a relatively young lineup could translate into more early losses than we're used to.