New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Eyes on the prize
Huskies focused on Aztecs, not their NBA draft stock
BOSTON — The NCAA Tournament is an opportunity for college basketball players to etch their name into the sport’s history with buzzer-beating shots, standout performances and, ultimately, celebrating to the strains of “One Shining Moment” on April 8 in Phoenix.
And improve their NBA Draft stock.
That’s the part that coaches (particularly Dan Hurley) and players don’t want to talk about this time of year. “Not even on my mind,” the latter will often tell you. But human nature would dictate otherwise, that such thoughts have to be creeping into players’ heads, what with mock drafts all over the Internet and reporters asking questions.
It’s burned teams in the past, many of them from Kentucky, even Duke. UConn men’s basketball teams haven’t been immune, either. The 2006 Huskies, with five soonto-be NBA draft picks, famously got popped by little ol’ George Mason in the Elite Eight. The 2012 team, with lottery picks-to-be Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb, had its thoughts on shaking David Stern’s hand and lost an opening-round bout to Iowa State.
The list of UConn players who have improved their respective stocks in March is much longer, from Rip Hamilton and Emeka Okafor to Kemba Walker, Shabazz Napier and Jordan Hawkins.
This year’s UConn squad has two players who will likely be sitting in the green room at Barclays Center on June 26, waiting for their names to be called as lottery picks. Two more could hear their names the following day, as the draft gets split into two nights this year.
Yet another could be straddling between the two rounds, potentially a first-round pick, possibly second-round ... possibly neither.
One thing is for sure: the Huskies’ minds aren’t on the NBA Draft right now. They are fully focused on San Diego State on Thursday (7:39 p.m., TBS) at TD Garden and, ultimately, becoming the first team in 17 years to repeat as national champions.
“Me and Coach haven’t talked about that at all,” freshman Stephon Castle said. “We’ve just been really focused on winning games. Our season’s been going great that way. Really just trying to play the best that I can while I’m here, and hopefully everything works out. Coach has been a great mentor for me leading up to this
point. But, we’ve been all super locked-in to the games coming up.”
“I don’t care about that at all,” Alex Karaban added. “I care more about UConn right now, what I can do with this program. Hopefully, the legacy is winning two national championships. I think that’s something that (would) stick with me forever, more than anything else in the future.”
Now, mock drafts should be taken with several grains of salt. Hurley regularly “mocks” them by pointing out that the sites are often manipulated by agents trying to make their prospective clients look better.
Indeed, the mocks are all over the place when it comes to UConn players. NBADraftRoom has Castle going No. 5 overall. NBADraft.net sees him going No. 9, USA Today No. 10. But then, ESPN.com doesn’t see the 6foot-6 freshman guard going among the top 15 lottery picks.
One Eastern Conference scout is enamored by Castle, seeing vast improvement since he first saw him at Damian Lillard’s camp last summer.
“I love Castle,” the scout said. “How many freshmen in the country compete and defend like he does? Not many.”
The scout noted that, while Castle’s jump shot is “suspect” (27.9 percent from 3), he sees the capacity of it improving. In fact, he already has.
“I saw him three times this year, spaced out, and each time he’s better,” he added. “I’ll tell you what, the way he competes defensively, for a freshman, that really elevated him with me. He’s going to be able to guard people early, which over the course of the first couple of years in the NBA will give him a way to get into his games until his offense comes around.”
“How good does the jump shot become?,” the scout continued. “Players in the NBA who were marginal shooters often become good shooters because they have good instruction and … they don’t have to go to class. Will he let someone tweak his shot a little bit?”
Clingan fielded questions from the media on Wednesday in a hallway outside the Huskies’ locker room at TD Garden. Somewhere down the hall was the locker room of the Celtics, Clingan’s favorite team. Jayson Tatum is his favorite player. He believes the Celts will win it all this season, probably beating Denver in the finals.
Could he be suting up for the Green next season? Doubtful, considering he’s a likely lottery pick. ESPN.com and Bleacher Report both have Clingan going No. 5 overall. USA Today has the 7-foot-2 center going No. 14; NBADraftRoom has him at No. 16. Oddly, NBADraft.net has Clingan going No. 42 overall ... to the Celtics. The scout, who spoke anonymously, admitted some concern over Clingan’s lower leg injuries this season. But though the big man has only attempted six 3-pointers this season, he hits them regularly, with good form, in pregame and practice.
“His stroke isn’t broken,” the scout noted. “I remember in warm-ups at the Garden, he knocked down a couple of 3’s.”
Perhaps no player can improve his stock more over the next couple of weeks than Karaban. NBADraft.net has him going early in the second round (ahead of Clingan!) at No. 38. NBADraftRoom doesn’t see him being drafted at all.
“I would venture to guess, when you talk to people who do what I do, that he’s going to be all over the board,” the scout said. “I think he’s very interesting. He was the best player (at one) game I was at. He can go inside, but he can stretch the floor with the 3.”
“I didn’t go into this year liking him,” he added. “When I saw him a year ago I thought, ‘He’s alright.’ But, I think he’s really interesting, because of his versatility and his ability to shoot the ball. He gets it off quickly.”
If the 6-8 sophomore lights it up over the next four games, he could play himself into late-first round position. Not that he’s worried about that.
“During the season, Coach never talks about stock, he never talks about NBA,” Karaban said. “He wants to focus on everything in the moment. He thinks those are distractions. We’ll see what happens.”
“He should test the waters, see what they think,” the scout said. “He’s a third-year guy, he redshirted one year, so he’s a little bit older, and that gets held against him. I would say, and I have said with people above me, if he enters, we should bring him in to work him out.”
Cam Spencer (”he’s got to shoot his way through the G-League to get to The League,” per the scout) and Tristen Newton have also generated some buzz, though most likely as, at best, late second-round picks.
“We do have several players on this team that are going to play in the NBA, are going to be drafted in the NBA, are going to be drafted in the lottery,” Dan Hurley noted.
And who knows? Maybe Karaban decides to return for another year. Maybe he gets Clingan, even Castle to join him and, if the Huskies win No. 2 this season, go for the first three-peat since John Wooden’s UCLA teams from 1971-1973.
But neither Hurley nor his players are thinking about any of that right now. After all, nobody wants another George Mason.