Big East Preseason Player of the Year Adama Sanogo working on his 3-point shot ; more from Media Day

UConn big man Adama Sanogo came to the United States from Mali about five years ago. He started playing club basketball two years prior and on Tuesday, was named the Big East preseason player of the year.

“With all the great players in the Big East, I’m honored that I was picked as preseason player of the year,” Sanogo said. “I will try to live up to the honor this season.”

The Huskies are expecting Sanogo, the first UConn player to receive the honor since Rudy Gay in 2005, to improve beyond the nearly 15 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks he averaged per game on his way to a first team all-Big East selection in 2021-22.

“He works harder than anybody, honestly, and he works intentionally,” Sanogo’s co-captain Andre Jackson Jr. said at Big East media day Tuesday. “He works on the right things. You go and see him in a game, he’s doing the same exact thing he’s working on in practice and pre-practice in the morning before he gets there.”

Still getting comfortable with the English language – the fourth he’ll be fluent in before long – Sanogo is a leader by example.

That’s all the team needs having Jackson by his side – the role of a vocal leader is already filled.

“It’s one thing where just an incredible player gets an award, but when a talented player with his level work ethic, his level competitiveness, his perfectionism – when he gets an award, you almost feel like there’s one for the good guys,” Hurley said Tuesday.

Sanogo is the seventh Husky to receive the preseason player of the year award, following Corny Thompson (1981), Donyell Marshall (1993), Richard Hamilton (1998), Khalid El-Amin (1999), Emeka Okafor (2003-04) and Gay.

For this season, Sanogo has worked on adding another dimension to his game. To counter opponents’ paint-packing defensive strategy, the Huskies have worked on improving at the three-point arc across the board – which includes developing a shot for the 6-9, 245-pound big.

“He shoots the ball well, like a lot better than a lot of people think,” Jackson said. “If he can stretch the floor along with all the other things that he does, he’s gonna be a force to be reckoned with, honestly.”

Hurley said the staff wants Sanogo to shoot two, maybe three, threes in the first half – “unless he maybe really bricks the first one bad, then maybe wait and try one on the other end of the court,” Hurley joked.

Sanogo has never shot a three in a game as a Husky.

Improving from three-point range was one of the main focuses this offseason after UConn finished 91st of 350 college basketball teams in terms of three-point percentage last year (35.15). Hurley and his staff brought in shooting help in the form of freshman Alex Karaban and transfers Joey Calcaterra from San Diego and Nahiem Alleyne from Virginia Tech.

Still, the plan to develop shooters revolves around Sanogo’s proven ability in the paint.

“Once we start stretching the floor and we have Adama’s presence on the inside, it’s gonna be hard to stop because you can’t send a double, there’s gonna be an open shooter,” Jackson said. “If you do send the double somebody’s gonna hit the shot.”

No. 4? No problem

UConn was ranked fourth behind Creighton, Xavier and Villanova in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll that was released Tuesday. Last year, the Huskies entered the season No. 2 behind Villanova and used it as motivation.

This season there will be a bit of the same.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to go out there and play the games, so I’m not really concerned about where we’re at in the rankings. I think it’s going to change at the end of the year anyway,” Jackson said. “I don’t think that really changes anything, any of the goals and dreams for this team either. I think we have the best team in the Big East.”

The goals and dreams: a national title. Something the UConn men haven’t achieved since Jim Calhoun won his third at the school in 2011.

“We’ve been contenders in this league since we’ve gotten here. And we’re just all about, as a program, taking that next step and going from a contending program where we’re playing at the top of the league to a team that can break through and win a championship and play our best basketball in March,” Hurley said.

Expectations on Jordan Hawkins brew confidence, not pressure

Hawkins has been named in nearly every preseason conversation about UConn as a young player who is expected to make a leap this season – Hurley even said he thinks Hawkins could be a first-round NBA draft pick once the year is over.

For Hawkins, a quiet kid by nature – opposite coach Hurley, there is no pressure “at all” that comes with the expectations.

“I’m just in the gym,” he said, “just working on my craft.”

From Dematha Catholic High in the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia area just outside Washington D.C., Hawkins is used to Hurley’s tough-love coaching style. His coach at Dematha, Mike Jones, had a similar style, and Hawkins’ dad, he said, was also very hard on him, all three pushing him to new limits.

As far as the jump? “I just look at it as producing as much as I can for this team,” he said.

Hawkins averaged 5.8 points, 2 rebounds and .5 assists in 14.7 minutes per game last season while shooting 35% from three.

Akok Akok finding his way at Georgetown

Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing likes what he has seen so far from Akok Akok, the 6-9 transfer from UConn, where he didn’t get much playing time after recovering from his Achilles tear.

“He’s been doing well, he’s been practicing hard, he’s been laser-focused on trying to get better. He’s a great rim protector, knocking down his shots. He’s been cutting, finding ways to score. We expect great things out of him,” Ewing said.

Cutting, moving without the ball to get open, was a skill Akok has long needed to improve upon to complement his 3-point shooting.

“He’s been improving on the things he hasn’t been doing well, and that’s cutting, learning how to cut,” Ewing said. “Learning how to get an opportunity to get his shot off, doing pick-and-rolls and not just spotting up, finding other ways to get open.”

Creighton’s McDermott likes being No. 1

Greg McDermott, whose Creighton team was picked No. 1 by the coaches, wants more.

“[The players] aspire to be conference champions and national champions and so do I,” McDermott said. “So does every coach and player that is in this building. Sometimes people have success and they relax. We had some success last year, some unexpected success, and these guys haven’t relaxed. They continue to go to work, continue to improve, and as long as we’re making daily progress, let the expectations be what they are.”

Big East: Basketball first

Big East commissioner Val Ackerman spoke forcefully about protecting the interests of a basketball-first conference in a football-driven world.

“While football in this country is a force,” Ackerman said, “basketball is the connective tissue that binds all sports, so we plan to work with all our colleagues in Division I to make sure that basketball, both men’s and women’s, has its own growth and management strategies apart from football, that the sport continues to thrive regardless of whatever governance or legal changes come our way.”

Ackerman said she is intrigued by some ideas she has heard on this front, including summer league play and tournament expansion, but that they are complex and will require vetting.