sevenfornine says:

does the redshirting of akingbade indiciate a lack of success in hobbs’ ability to recruit a big man for next season

To answer that question in one word, no. Will Dempster asked Hobbs about redshirting Akingbade yesterday after the game. As you see in the Hatchet story, Hobbs did not say he had no one at that position. In fact, my sources tell me that we do have a very good big man coming into the program.

Hobbs said, “when we look out at our team next year we don’t have any experience coming back at that position.” He never said that he has no one. Experience is half the battle in college basketball.

In addition, it is tough to question the recruiting capability of Hobbs. He was UConn’s primary recruiter for his eight seasons during the program’s hayday. As the GW media guide flaunts, Hobbs brought in people like Ray Allen, Caron Butler and Emeka Okafor. Now, Roland Houston is in charge of the recruiting but when Hobbs walks into a room with a recruit and has a NCAA championship ring on, it’s tough to ignore that.