UConn targeting its next class

Men’s basketball staff entering critical time for recruiting

The UConn men's basketball staff is about to enter a crucial recruiting period.

Starting next week, UConn coaches will bounce around the country for roughly three weeks attending prominent AAU tournaments looking for future Huskies.

This summer takes on added importance for head coach Dan Hurley, who's rebuilding a program that's struggled through two straight losing seasons.

"Our emphasis is 2019, 2020 recruiting, which is huge for this program to get the quality of talent and quality of character that led this program to the great heights that it's been at," Hurley said recently. "That's been our focus."

Hurley and his experienced staff already laid the groundwork. They're primarily targeting recruits in the Northeast where their connections are the strongest.

Several high school players from the Class of 2019, including center Kofi Cockburn (Middle Village, N.Y.), forward Akok Akok of Putnam Science Academy, guard Jalen Gaffney (Columbus, N.J.) and forward Precious Achiuwa (Bronx), recently took unofficial visits to Storrs.

The new UConn staff has received a positive response on the recruiting trail so far.

"We've been really well-received as a staff," assistant coach Tom

Moore said Monday. "The staff has a lot of experience, especially in the Northeast. There's an excitement level to us being here and we're trying to capitalize on that the best we can right now.

"We've been grateful the amount of kids willing to come up for unofficial visits so far. We're hoping to have more of them in August and slant toward official visits when the students come back in September.

"... We feel pretty confident in our ability to identify the right types of kids that will fit in Dan's system. The question is, can we get them? These next two recruiting classes are important to us."

UConn has five scholarships open for next season. The goal is to secure four players by the end of fall signing period, according to Moore.

The Huskies are looking to land both frontcourt and backcourt players.

"It's mostly across the board with the five of them," said Moore, referring to the available scholarships. "Sort of a Noah's Ark class, but only one of each instead of two each."

Finding the right player for Hurley's system is more important than any recruit's ranking.

Hurley's reputation — and his family's — certainly carries enormous weight in the region. He believes the UConn basketball brand is still strong despite the program's downturn.

He's confident in his recruiting pitch.

"The biggest selling points for us are obviously history, tradition of the program and the player development piece," Hurley said after a grueling team workout last month. "The more kids that we can get on visits when you're out on the court doing what we're doing, serious players are impressed by that type of work. Players that like to get better, they see an environment like that and say, 'Wow, I'm going to be challenged every day and I'm going to get better in a competitive environment like that.'"

Recruiting can be a challenge under normal circumstances. UConn has an extra burden of dealing with negative publicity from an ongoing NCAA inquiry and nasty contract battle between the school and former coach Kevin Ollie.

Judging from the reaction on the recruiting trail, it hasn't been a roadblock.

"People haven't brought it up to us," Moore said. "Our concern is how much other schools are bringing it up to them. We have no control over that so we can't let it affect us or bother us. We have a lot of positive things to sell about UConn. That's our focus."

News and notes

• The UConn players will begin a second summer session on Monday. Graduate transfer Kassoum Yakwe will be on hand. He didn't attend the first session.

The four hours of practice time per week will take place before coaches head on the road to recruit each Wednesday this month.

"We've been maximizing our four hours," Moore said. "You can have a total of eight weeks. We did three weeks the first summer session and will do five weeks the second summer session.

“The kids' attitudes have been awesome. They really have embraced the tempo, intensity and pace of practice."