The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Huskies have big basketball recruiting targets in mind
The final week of the summer’s live recruiting period kicked off on Wednesday, and UConn will be well-represented at major AAU tournaments in Las Vegas and Orlando over the next five days.
The Huskies will have two staff members in each city at all times. Head coach Dan Hurley will split his time between the two cities, as will assistant Kenya Hunter. Kimani Young will be in Vegas, at the Las Vegas Classic and Fab 48 tournaments, while Tom Moore will spend the week in Orlando.
UConn has cast a wide net of talented, Class of 2019 targets over the past few months, and just about every one will be at the two events: Precious Achiuwa, Tre Mitchell, James Bouknight, Akok Akok, Kofi Cockburn (who appears to soon be transferring from Christ the King High in Brooklyn to Oak Hill Academy), Isaiah Wong, Jalen Gaffney, AlAmir Dawes (whom UConn offered this past weekend) and Mark “Rocket” Watts.
A couple of newer names on the Huskies’ wish list are Qudus Wahab, a big man from Flint Hill School in Virginia, Anthony Harris of DeMatha High, Oscar Tshiebwe of Kennedy Catholic in Pennsylvania and Florida’s Omar Payne. Tshiebwe is thought to be a strong West Virginia lean, while UConn will have to battle Florida and other southern schools for Payne.
Achiuwa, Mitchell, Bouknight, Akok, Cockburn and Gaffney have all made unofficial visits to Storrs. Watts could be making an official visit as soon as next month, while Wong and Wahab may be making unofficials in August, as well.
NO UCONN AT GHPA
The Greater Hartford Pro-Am, one of the state’s best summer
sports traditions, is in full swing at the Sports and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford.
Stalwarts like Ryan Gomes, Roosevelt Lee and Danny Lawhorn are back, mixing it up with newer blood like KeAndre Fair, the Martin brothers (Chaylyn and Jaecee) and New Haven’s Joey Kasperzyk, who went for 50 on Monday night. Don’t be surprised to see Tremont Waters drop in for a few games at some point. Even Jim Calhoun’s got his University of St. Joseph players in the league.
Don’t expect to see too many — if any — current UConn players this summer, however.
Dan Hurley has no issue with the league and isn’t holding players back from participating. But he also wants his team to jell this summer during workouts on campus.
“He wants us to be closeknit, everybody stay together,” said Taliek Brown, recently hired as UConn’s director of player development. “I think Coach is just trying to have everybody on the same page, keep everybody focused, get ready for the season.”
It’s important to note that teams have a lot more time to work out with their coaching staff over the summer, thanks to some new NCAA rules. In the past, players could work out no more than two hours a week with oncourt instruction. That’s been bumped up to four hours a week over an eight-week stretch.