Summer reading
A look at where UConn fits in the Big East
While the Power Five conferences panic and fret about football, who’s coming and going, and why the heck USC and UCLA are in the Big Ten, the Big East can sit back and concern itself with its bread and butter: college basketball.
There’s still nearly three months until Big East Media Day, four months before the college basketball season kicks off and about five months before Big East Conference play begins. But it’s never too early around these parts to take a look at the 2022-23 Big East men’s basketball conference.
1. CREIGHTON: The Bluejays will deservedly be a near-consensus top-5 preseason pick. Creighton brings back the Big East’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year (Ryan Kalkbrenner) and Freshman of the Year (Ryan Nembhard), its best player in Arthur Kaluma, and one of the nation’s best portal pick-ups in South Dakota State’s Baylor Scheierman — the “Larry Bird of the Summit League.” And we’ve seen first-hand how good a coach Greg McDermott is.
But don’t take our word for it. Take Dan Hurley’s: “Their freshmen played great at the end of the year, they return all those young guys. Obviously, you could never underestimate the value of a guy like (Ryan) Hawkins or (Alex) O’Connell – older, veteran guys who were really good two-way players. But with the young guys, and the big addition with the transfer that was pretty well-publicized what his options were there, I think it’s got a chance to be maybe Greg’s best team.”
Best Ryan: With Hawkins gone (though not before teaming with R.J. Cole and Tyrese Martin to win the 3x3 national championship), we’ll take 7-footer Kalkbrenner, so dominant against UConn on March 3, over point guard Nembhard, who was terrific before a season-ending injury.
Key: Health. Nembhard broke his wrist in late February and never returned, Kaluma missed significant time earlier in the season, Shareef Mitchell missed almost the entire season, and Kalkbrenner had to miss the
narrow, NCAA tourney second-round loss to eventual champion Kansas.
2-7: Take your pick. We’ll try to sort it out, anyway.
2. XAVIER: We’re bullish on the Musketeers. Jack Nunge is another 7-footer who killed UConn last year, Colby Jones is a first-team all-Big East candidate, and if Zach Freemantle can get back to his sophomore form … And say what you want about sketchy Sean Miller, who returns to where he began as head coach in 2004, but he’s a big upgrade from Travis Steele, a nicer guy, but not a very good coach.
Nutmeg state: Xavier has run the gamut on Connecticut products in recent years — Bloomfield’s Tyrique Jones (2016-20), allBig East as a senior, and walk-on Zak Swetye (201822) of Darien, who played exactly four minutes his entire career. Now comes New Haven’s Desmond Claude, a 6-foot-5 point guard and four-star recruit out of Putnam Science Academy who could push for starter’s minutes.
Key: Freemantle averaged 16.1 points two years ago, suffered a preseason leg injury and never seemed to fully recover as his scoring average plummeted to 10.1 ppg. If he can get back to form, watch out.
3. UCONN: Plenty of questions here. Can Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson step up as doublefigures scorers? Can Tristen Newton make the transition from AAC to Big East? How big an impact can freshmen Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban have? Will the Huskies have enough perimeter shooting to open things up for Adama Sanogo, the likely preseason Big East Player of the Year who is one of the best certainties the Huskies have.
A lot to lose: Yes, the Huskies replaced their four transfers with arguably much better talent. But let’s not forget they lost All-Big East point guard R.J. Cole, NBA draft pick (and All-Big East snub!) Tyrese Martin, Isaiah Whaley and Tyler Polley to graduation. That’s a lot of production.
Key: Hawkins has been compared to Ray Allen and James Bouknight. He doesn’t have to be either, but it’s clear the staff is counting on him to emerge as a go-to scorer. Said Greg McDermott: “Jordan Hawkins was one of my favorite young players last year. Sanogo inside, I think, is a difference-maker on both ends of the floor. Danny does a great job. They’re going to play physical, tough, hardnosed defense."
4. VILLANOVA: The Wildcats have earned the right to be picked higher on pedigree alone, but sorry, there are big questions here. The biggest, of course, is how they respond to the retirement of Hall of Fame head coach Jay Wright and graduation of two-time Big East Player of the Year point guard Collin Gillespie — both veterans of two national championships and 21 seasons at ’Nova (O.K., the latter only seemed that way with Gillespie). Can former assistant Kyle Neptune keep the culture going? How much can they get from Justin Moore, who tore his Achilles in the Elite Eight against Houston? Cam Whitmore may be ’Nova’s first lottery pick since Tim Thomas, and anyone at the JCC Classic in Trumbull in April saw how good Mark Armstrong is, but how effective can freshmen be in a man’s league like the Big East?
Hello, old friend: Villanova is in the same bracket as UConn in November’s PK85 Challenge, and though they’ll likely be placed on opposite ends of the bracket, that still means the teams could face each other three times in the regular season. Four times overall if they meet in the Big East tournament. And five times if they meet in the Big Dance.
Key: Moore’s health. Reports are that he could be back by January, but as we learned with Akok Akok, torn Achilles can take much longer than that. If you told us Moore would be a productive player for the better part of the Big East season, we’d have the Wildcats higher.
5. ST. JOHN’S: Big East scoring runner-up Julian Champagnie is gone, but the Red Storm boast two of the best players in the league in point guard Posh Alexander and DePaul transfer David Jones. If Illinois transfer Andre Curbelo can get back to his freshman form, Mike Anderson has the talent to make some noise.
Shoulda been at UConn, Pt. I: Freshman A.J. Storr, for the name alone. Can you imagine all the bad jokes and puns from sportswriters? In truth, he was never really pursued by the Huskies, but the national top-100 recruit is one of Anderson’s best gets yet.
Key: Curbelo, a New Yorker, seems tailor-made for the Johnnies. But will they get the 2020-21 Curbelo, the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year backing up Ayo Dosunmu, or 202122 Curbelo, who was burdened by injuries and shot 37.4 percent from the floor? And if the former, can he mesh with Posh?
6. SETON HALL: Dan Hurley knows how good a player was Shaheen Holloway, who starred at Seton Hall after replacing Hurley as point guard 25 years ago. The world learned how good a coach he was last year, leading Saint Peter’s to a Cinderella run to the Elite Eight. UConn fans know how good Kadary Richmond (!) and Alexis Yetna can be, and Big East fans could soon learn how good transfers Al-Amir Dawes (Clemson) and Femi Odukale (Pitt) can be. There’s a lot to like here.
Name game: Jaquan Sanders and Jaquan Harris are both 2022 recruits who stayed committed to Seton Hall after Kevin Willard fled for Maryland. Jaquan Harris is also the brother of grad guard Jamir Harris. And freshman Tae Davis is the brother of Louisville transfer Dre Davis. Got all that?
Key: Holloway pushed all the right buttons to lead Saint Peter’s miracle run. Now, he steps up several levels. “He’ll do great,” Hurley promised. “It’s just great to see a guy from the New York/New Jersey area do so great in basketball.”
7. PROVIDENCE: The Friars weren’t “lucky,” as the analytics geeks suggest, in winning so many close games last year, earning their first-ever Big East regular-season title and advancing to the Sweet 16. They just had a lot of tough, clutch players. By the same token, it’s worth wondering whether PC can repeat such success with a totally new (if talented) batch. Jared Bynum is back after coming out of nowhere to rank as one of the Big East’s top scorers, Ed Croswell replaces Nate Watson as the (likely) starting center, and the talented newcomers hail from programs like Kentucky, Louisville … and UConn. And Big East and Naismith Coach of the Year Ed Cooley has proven he can meld a team together in no time.
Shoulda been at UConn, Pt. II: Corey Floyd Jr. was slotted for at least 10-15 minutes per game at UConn, if not more, and his transfer was the only one of the Huskies’ four that surprised the staff. The son of a former Friar now joins a roster with perhaps even more competition in the backcourt. Odd.
Key: Kentucky transfer Bryce Hopkins may be a four-man who thinks he’s a three, but could find himself earning big minutes at the latter if bigs Ed Croswell and Clifton Moore can play together.
8. MARQUETTE: Justin Lewis’s 11th-hour decision to enter the NBA Draft did two things: paved a clearer path for Adama Sanogo to win Big East Player of the Year, and really hurt the Golden Eagles’ chances of a second straight trip to the Big Dance. Apparently, the latter is more concerning to Marquette fans. One thing is certain: This is Shaka’s team now. Only one remnant of the Wojo years (Oso Ighudaro) remains.
Milwaukee’s best?: Big East All-Freshman pick Kam Jones is the top returning scorer at 7.4 points per game.
Key: Point guard Tyler Kolek, a Rhode Islander, dazzled with the ball and was the Big East assists leader. But he’s got to cut down on the turnovers and really needs to shoot better (28.1 percent from 3).
9. BUTLER: Like Sean Miller, Thad Matta returns to the school where he got his first shot as a head coach. Matta led Ohio State to a pair of Final Fours in 14 seasons before leaving the post five years ago for health reasons.
BMOC: Greg Oden, the 7-footer who led Ohio State to the national championship game and No. 1 draft pick whose career was derailed by injuries, is the Bulldogs’ director of basketball operations.
Key: The Bulldogs have been worse than just bad the past couple of seasons. They’ve been boring. Maybe Matta can pep things up.
10. DEPAUL: Big East scoring leader Javon Liberty-Freeman graduated, and last year’s best overall player David Jones is now at St. John’s. Coulda done without that. Still, there’s young talent here (top-50 recruit Zion Cruz was a huge get), and Tony Stubblefield won more Big East games last year than Dave Leitao had won the prior two seasons.
Block party: Nick Ogenda and Yor Anei were the program’s first duo to each block 40 shots in a season last year.
Key: As always, patience. It may not happen this year, but DePaul seems on the upswing with recruiting and Stubblefield at the helm.
11. GEORGETOWN: Nowhere to go but up for Patrick Ewing & Co. after a winless Big East season.
Shoulda been at UConn, Pt. III: O.K., in truth, Akok Akok’s transfer to Georgetown was probably best for both parties, especially since the starting power forward position with the Hoyas could be Akok’s to lose. Hard not to root for the kid who’s been through so much.
Key: Win a league game. With Qudus Wahab returning after a season at Maryland, top returning scorer Dante Harris and four-star recruit Denver Anglin (who was a top UConn target), there’s some talent here.