Previewing UConn: An Overhauled UConn Roster Looks to Get Back to Dan Hurley's Offensive Roots

Four years into his tenure as the head coach at UConn, Dan Hurley looked like he had a team that was ready to break through come March. Connecticut hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2016 (two years removed from the program’s fourth national title), and the 2021-22 group had three five-game winning streaks last year on their way to 23 wins.

Their first five-game winning streak was capped with a 115-109 double overtime win over an outstanding Auburn team at the Battle 4 Atlantis in late November. That game served as a coming out party for sophomore center Adama Sonogo, who scored 30 points against a pair of first round draft picks in Jabari Smith Jr. and Walker Kessler. Kessler may have been the best shot blocker in the country last season (4.6 bpg), while Smith was the third overall pick.

The second five-game streak came against the bottom half of the Big East (Georgetown, DePaul, Butler twice, and in overtime versus St. John’s), and they entered the postseason hot — winners of six of their final seven regular season games. That included an exciting 71-69 win against Villanova in late February which marked their first victory over the Wildcats in the Dan Hurley era (ironically, Hurley was ejected in the first half and watched his team come back from four down with 45 seconds left to steal the victory).

The Huskies seemed to have a world of momentum heading into March (their only loss in their last seven regular season games came by two points in Omaha against a hot Creighton team on March 2), but their season ended in the same, abrupt manner it had a year prior — a loss in the Big East Tournament semifinals followed by an upset in the first round of the NCAAs.

Falling to 10th seeded Maryland in the 2021 Tournament was excusable for UConn supporters, but a 70-63 loss to 12 seed New Mexico State was a tougher pill to swallow.

That was a wild day of basketball in Buffalo, NY. After Providence knocked off South Dakota State in a close game, and 12th seed Richmond upset Iowa, New Mexico State won its first NCAA Tournament game since 1993 when they bounced Connecticut, then Vermont took Arkansas down to the wire to close the night out.

A bit of a mass exodus followed in Storrs. Both leading scorer RJ Cole and eventual second round NBA draft pick Tyrese Martin bypassed their extra year of eligibility to turn pro. Neither of those moves was a surprise.

Four of the top five scorers from last year’s team are gone (Cole, Martin, Isaiah Whaley, and Tyler Polley), while Hurley also saw the departures of Akok Akok, Jalen Gaffney, Rahsool Diggins, and Corey Floyd Jr.

The veteran Akok started seven games last season, but never found his way into consistent minutes upon returning from an achilles tear. Connecticut will see him twice next year, as he is headed to Georgetown.

Many had Diggins, a freshman on last year’s team, pegged as a future backcourt star. The former top 50 player out of Philadelphia barely played last season, and is off to play for UMass and their new head coach Frank Martin.

Floyd’s case is interesting. He enrolled at UConn a year early, and redshirted as a freshman last season, but transferred to a Providence team with a backcourt that was seemingly deeper than that of Connecticut at the time of his transer. PC pursued Floyd out of high school, and his father played for the Friars, but it was still somewhat surprising to see him join a Providence team that was loading up on combo guards.

UConn also lost an experienced guard in Jalen Gaffney, who is now at Florida Atlantic. Gaffney started 15 games in his career, but failed to make a big impact over three years.

That left Hurley with a critical spring ahead of him. Hurley spoke, with some measure of pride, last year about how his team was one of the few that didn’t dip into the transfer portal prior to the 2021-22 season.

This year it was essential that he did so, and he landed a couple of pieces that should fit in well around Sanogo, who will be a leading candidate for Preseason Big East Player of the Year (and should get some All American mentions).

East Carolina transfer Tristen Newton is the headliner. He is a 6’5 guard who averaged 17.7 points, 5.0 assists, and 4.8 rebounds on 88% shooting at the free throw line and 33% from long range at East Carolina last year.

He was very impressive on tape against Cincinnati in the American Athletic Conference Tournament last season (we have a majority of his possessions — makes, misses, turnovers, assists — here) in scoring 26 points to go along with nine rebounds and six assists.

Newton gets to the free throw line often, finds his way to the rim with consistency, has range beyond the 3-point arc, and has a knack for making difficult mid-range shots. His game should translate quite well to the Big East.

Newton will also help give Connecticut terrific length among their projected starting five.

Sanogo is a physical force at 6’9, Newton will run the point at 6’5, and both Andre Jackson (6’6), and Jordan Hawkins (6’5) have been billed as the next Connecticut stars since first stepping foot on campus.

Jackson is as high level of an athlete as you’ll find, but he has taken more of a secondary role offensively through two seasons (he put up 6.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.1 assists as a sophomore). Jackson and Martin were a punishing pair of wings on the glass last year.

The progression of Jackson and Hawkins could determine how high this team climbs. Hawkins came to UConn from powerhouse DeMatha Catholic and was universally considered a top 50 player in the class of 2021 due to his scoring ability. An ankle injury slowed him early last season, while a concussion plagued him late in the year.

The Connecticut press has a way of turning their young players into stars before they’ve fully arrived, and Hawkins has the local PR machine backing him this offseason. His best game a year ago came on a big stage — 16 points on 3-3 shooting from deep in the win over Auburn. That was one of seven games in which he scored in double figures as a freshman.

The fifth starter is likely to be Virginia Tech transfer Naheim Alleyne, who started over 80 games while shooting 38% from his career from beyond the 3-point line. Alleyne is said to be a high character player and a terrific teammate.

Improving their accuracy from beyond the arc is a focus for Hurley, who said his team is looking to revert back to the four-out one-in offense that led to his success as the head coach at URI. If they can surround Sanogo with shooters, opponents will have some tough decisions to make.

The Huskies finished 81st in the nation in 3-point percentage last year — up from 175th, 215th, and 171st in the previous three seasons under Hurley.

UConn also welcomed transfer guards Joey Calcaterra and Hassan Diarra. How much Calcaterra (a grad transfer who played at San Diego) plays will depend on how well he shoots the ball, while the 6’2 Diarra is a Queens native and played at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut before going to Texas A&M for the past two seasons. Diarra was a 15-20 minute per game player for Buzz Williams. He should bring toughness and playmaking off the bench.

The Huskies will hope for a jump from 6’10 sophomore Samson Johnson, who teamed with Sanogo at the Patrick School in New Jersey during his prep days. He was the 57th rated player in the class of 2021 per 247 Sports, and the ninth rated center in the country. Johnson didn’t see many minutes last season due to the depth of the frontcourt, but he has a massive, 7’5 wingspan.

The freshman class is highlighted by two potentially terrific talents that hail from New England. Providence made a big push for 6’8 scorer Alex Karaban out of Southborough, MA. A scorer capable of cashing in from beyond the arc, or taking his man in the post with an array of moves, Karaban exploded onto the prep scene in leading New Hampton to their first ever New England Class AAA title with an amazing performance in the title game when he was just a sophomore. He joined UConn last January and redshirted during the second semester. Karaban is a swing forward who could see time at either forward spot.

It seems as though 7’2, 265 pound Donovan Clingan has been set to go to UConn for years. That time is finally here, as Clingan, a Bristol, CT native who averaged over 30 points, 18 rebounds, and six blocks per game as a senior, is another talented, highly-regarded freshman.

There will be all sorts of new faces in Connecticut next season — and some very talented ones — but this team will revolve around Sanogo, who was named 1st Team All Big East last year, and one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year award.

Despite missing four weeks last season with an abdominal strain, Sanogo, a native of Mali, finished with nine double doubles

He had some monster games last season: 18 points and 16 rebounds at Seton Hall, 26 points, 18 rebounds, and six blocks versus St. John’s, 24 points and 15 rebounds against Marquette, and 20 points and 16 more boards in a rematch with the Hall in February.

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It’s somewhat hard to believe that Hurley is now entering his fifth season at UConn. His fifth year at Rhode Island brought a breakthrough that included a bunch of firsts for him — his first time leading a team into the AP top 25, his first conference tournament champion, and his first NCAA Tournament qualifier. Hurley went 51-18 over his final two seasons at URI (years five and six), where the Rams peaked at #16 in the AP poll during his final year there.

His last URI team went on a 16-game winning streak at one point, and when they knocked off Trae Young and Oklahoma in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament, it marked the second consecutive season in which URI won a Tournament game.

It also marked the last time Hurley has won in the Big Dance.

There’s a lot to like on paper with this group. Few teams will have the girth to match up with Sanogo, while Newton and Alleyne were crucial spring additions who bring a lot of experience and necessary long distance shooting.

As noted earlier, the ceiling of this team could hinge on Jackson and Hawkins becoming the stars so many pegged them to be in high school and early in their UConn careers.