Hurley believes he’s built a UConn roster that can make deeper run in March

When the final buzzer sounded, the UConn men’s basketball team stood in sorrow. On the court at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, Adama Sanogo slowly moved alongside RJ Cole toward the front of the scorer’s table where they were to be met by Teddy Allen and the New Mexico State Aggies – the force that just ended UConn’s season in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Andre Jackson Jr., who was on the bench for the game’s final 27.5 seconds, reached down to the floor, mustering the energy he needed to get off his seat – the first chair next to the coaches – and follow his teammates.

Jordan Hawkins, out for the final four games of the season with a concussion, wore a sweatsuit and didn’t stand before the TV camera cut to Dan Hurley exchanging a painful “good game” with Aggies coach Chris Jans.

A year earlier, it was the same feeling for a similar core at Mackey Arena in Indiana. Twice, in a row, Hurley’s Huskies were ousted by a double-digit seed in the first round.

By the time “Teddy Buckets” finished his postgame interview on the court with TNT’s Evan Washburn, the Huskies were long gone.

“Just wish I had the opportunity to coach these guys longer,” Hurley lamented in the press conference that followed. “It’s a special group, it’s a great group.”

“It’s just sad.”

Cole and Tyrese Martin left for the pros – Martin selected by Golden State in the second round of the NBA draft and traded to Atlanta– Cole is playing in Greece. Tyler Polley graduated and is playing on a different Greek team. Isaiah Whaley graduated and signed a G League contract. Walk-on Matt Garry graduated. Jalen Gaffney (FAU) and Rahsool Diggins (UMass) transferred. Akok Akok and Corey Floyd Jr. joined Big East foes Georgetown and Providence, respectively.

“Once everybody transferred out, it hurt me, honestly,” said Jackson, who’s emphatically embraced his increased leadership role as a co-captain. “I felt like a lot of guys left us, but I felt like it also made us stronger. Because everybody that chose to stay really wanted to be a part of this team.”

“Everybody that chose to stay” really only consists of seven names, just three of them rotation players.

Building

Jackson, the two-way playmaker on the court and galvanizing leader off of it. Hawkins, the sophomore expected to break out as an elite three-level scorer. Sanogo, the multi-skilled big man.

Starting there, the Huskies had to build.

“What we saw was the fact that we had one of the best big guys in the country that didn’t have enough space to play in last year. Which I think, as well as not having a viable backup center option, really hurt Adama’s performance down the stretch in March,” Hurley said in October. “So we looked at the roster and knew that we need to bring in shooting and skill but it needed to be veteran shooting and veteran skill because we felt like we had a team that was ready to win.”

So, Hurley and staff hit the transfer portal.

Former East Carolina guard Tristen Newton was first to announce his commitment to the Huskies. As Hurley looks for a second scorer, preferably someone to provide 12-13 points per game to compliment Hawkins, he said, the staff is urging Newton to be more aggressive on offense.

About a week after Newton made his announcement, on April 21, 38.7% three-point shooter Nahiem Alleyne chose to leave Virginia Tech to join the Huskies. Alleyne caught Hurley’s eye when he made a transition three-pointer in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year that fell through the net with 1.4 seconds to go, sending the Hokies to overtime against Florida – he finished with a game-high 28 points in the loss.

Then less than a month later, Hassan Diarra, a third guard, wanted to get closer to his home in the Bronx – he played high school hoops at Putnam Science Academy under coach Tom Espinosa. An all-around player and a skilled perimeter defender, the Texas A&M transfer has competed with Newton for the starting point guard role.

In mid-June, Joey Calcaterra, nicknamed “Joey California,” transferred in from San Diego. Calcaterra, a graduate student and another guard known for his shooting ability brings “unbelievable intangibles,” Hurley said.

Tack on scholarship freshmen Clingan and Alex Karaban, and Hurley had his auxiliary unit.

“We knew we needed to bring in older pieces,” Hurley said. “We knew what we were losing, we knew what we were returning. We knew we had an Andre, we knew we had a Jordan, we knew we had Adama. And then obviously Samson (Johnson) and Donovan and Alex.”

Clingan, at a towering 7-2, provides necessary relief for Sanogo off the bench as he continues to adjust to the speed and the intensity of the college game, though he’s not far off.

Samson Johnson, whose confidence grew during the second closed-door scrimmage as Karaban nursed his sprained ankle, was a teammate and friend of Sanogo at The Patrick School in New Jersey. With a 7-5 wingspan, Johnson excels slashing through the paint and collecting rebounds, and has a three-point shot that will help extend the floor.

Hurley has enjoyed the competition between Johnson and Karaban, a knock-down shooter with size, for the open starting frontcourt spot.

“We feel really good about the four,” he said Saturday. “And now it’s about these guys getting on the court and showing what they’re capable of in terms of production and making plays and being able to do things off script. Just showing up and then, because we do have depth I think at this point it’s like, show us what you can do and I won’t take you off the court.”

The Core

Jackson and Sanogo were the first two captains named by Hurley in his five years at UConn.

Jackson is not a No. 1 scorer – that’s for Hawkins, and he’s not a No. 1 rebounder – that’s for Sanogo, but he’s the one that makes the show go on.

“Andre is just our identity,” Hurley said. “He’s a tone setter and we just miss his toughness, we miss his his direction out there. He plays with force and we need him.”

After breaking his pinky finger in mid-October, Jackson will miss the first few games, likely able to return before the Phil Knight Invitational in Oregon over Thanksgiving weekend, if not earlier. Still a leader from the sideline, his absence on the court is as much physical as it is emotional.

Jackson is the one to galvanize the team, the first to make all of the new faces comfortable with Hurley’s demanding practices, and the one to make sure the late international additions (Apostolous Roumoglou and Yaran Hasson) are adjusting well.

“I mean, obviously, there’s the stress of not having an Andre to start things. Just because we return the three guys that we feel like these pieces fit beautifully around, the three returners. So just losing that driving force, losing that tone setter, that true galvanizing leader, is what gives me angst,” Hurley said.

But his co-captain, the Big East preseason player of the year, was who the roster was truly built around.

“When people sit in the paint it makes it harder on Adama, and they can double down on him,” Jackson said at Big East media day. “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 going to be an open shooter.”

The Huskies are expecting Sanogo 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 last season.

“(The roster) is going to take his game to another level,” Hurley said. “He’s very aware of the way he needs to play and the type of defenses he’s going to see. A truly great player elevates everyone’s game around him at both ends of the court, on the backboard and as a leader. It’s not about jump hooks and step throughs – true greatness is elevating everyone around you as a leader and as a player.”

Hawkins is expected to be an offensive star, and he’s a good defender, too. He showed his shooting capability during the Blue-White scrimmage Nov. 2, making pull-up mid-range shots look easy, contested threes smooth as can be. It all made sense why Hurley says the kid who averaged 5.8 points in under 15 minutes per game as a freshman could be a first-round NBA draft pick after this sophomore season.

Built To Last

In five years, Hurley has the Huskies back, almost to where the program was used to being – a competitive tournament team year-in and year-out.

He’s brought the Huskies to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons, but that first round win has proven elusive.

This roster was built to get over that hump.

“RJ (Cole) and Tyrese (Martin) and Tyler (Polley) – that group had done a lot for us and once that group was done, we took a deep dive into where we need to get better so that we’re more potent and harder to beat in tournament play. If you have a really deep team that can really shoot the three and go on scoring runs, you become a tougher team to beat during tournament play,” Hurley said. “So that was the design in terms of the way we put this thing together.”

The “thing” was put together for Sanogo to last through March. For it to be alright if Hawkins or Jackson has a slow night, because the supporting cast can make things happen, too. Hurley is confident in what he’s built, a roster that could go nine or 10 deep, and amidst that depth, players who have competed at the high-major D-I level.

“I feel like we knew that there were some blind spots with the returning team that we need to fill, and we need to fill with older players to take advantage of how good Adama is and how good Andre is at this point and obviously, Jordan, so we just knew we needed to bring in older guys that could give us a better chance to hit the ground running,” Hurley said.

“We feel like we have enough talent and if we can just get all these pieces working the right way, it’s potentially our best team.”