Deep roster pleases UConn coach Hurley
The UConn men’s basketball team’s frontcourt is crowded, and that’s encouraging.
There’s not necessarily going to be enough room in the lineup on a given night for each member to play a significant role, despite each having either the experience or potential to contribute.
“It’s the way it should be,” coach Dan Hurley said Thursday. “It should be hard to get on the court at UConn.”
The Huskies came out of summer workouts healthy. UConn’s first practice is set for Tuesday. The team is allowed 30 practices in advance of the Nov. 9 opener against Central Connecticut.
After returning to the NCAA Tournament last season, UConn returns every key player besides lottery pick James Bouknight, welcomes a fourplayer freshman class, and expects to contend for a Big East championship.
“We look good,” Hurley said. “Deep team. The question is, can our key three players play at a near allconference level?”
Hurley was referring to point guard R.J. Cole, wing Tyrese Martin and power forward Adama Sanogo.
“And I’d throw Isaiah (Whaley) in there, too,” he said. “And how much can Akok (Akok) help us? You know who’s really talented
is Samson Johnson. I don’t know when the light switch comes on. Does it come on sometime this year? Beginning of sophomore year? Middle of sophomore year? That guy has enormous, NBA-level, athletic talent. When stuff slows down for him, he’s special.”
Johnson, a 6-foot-10, 200-pound freshman, and Akok, a 6-9, 200-pound redshirt junior, are lined up to initially compete for playing time in the third slot up front.
Sanogo had an encouraging — great at times, but inconsistent — freshman season in 2020-21. He beat out senior Josh Carlton, starting 20 of the 23 games, averaging 7.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 17 minutes. Sanogo (6-9, 240) was fifth in the Big East with a .554 field goal percentage, and his 21 blocks were second on the team.
Whaley (6-9, 230), now a fifth-year senior, has become a dependable force up front. He had a team-high 62 blocks last season and was the only UConn player to start all 23 games last season, averaging eight points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks.
That leaves Johnson and Akok, who played sparingly last season through the final phases of recovery from a torn Achilles’ tendon. Johnson might have the most talent, but he’s inexperienced and raw, enduring the bumps of a college basketball landing and the general growing pains of acclimation to the program.
Of Johnson, Hurley said, “To get minutes in the frontcourt, he’s got Adama, who we think can be one of the best players in the Big East. And we’ve got Isaiah, who is an invaluable place. And he’s probably competing with Akok to get on the court. It’s hard to play four frontcourt players, especially when you may go small at [power forward] in games where you’re having a hard time matching up. He’s in an interesting spot. We’ve just got to keep the blinders on and get him to keep developing, because he’s special.”
Akok sustained a torn Achilles’ tendon in February 2020 and was cleared to play after just 11 months of rehab. He wasn’t quite prepared to make the impact he did as a freshman, though, finishing last season with averages of 1.3 points, 0.4 rebounds and 4.1 minutes in seven games. As a freshman, he averaged 5.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 28.1 minutes in 25 games (24 starts).
Akok has looked markedly better — physically and psychologically, in how he’s reacting to the game — during summer workouts.
“He’s back,” Hurley said. “He shouldn’t have played last year but it was all him and his stubbornness. He should have just taken the year and just practiced and worked on his stuff. But [his will] is awesome. But the program is so different than the one he last played in. We’re so much more talented.”
The last team Akok was an integral part of, in 201920, was still reliant on several players that the program was about to pass by — Sidney Wilson, Brendan Adams and Josh Carlton, to name a few.
Akok, Hurley said, “has got to level up. Since he’s been hurt, Isaiah has become a really good player and Adama is may be our best. Now he’s got to fight off this young up-andcomer who is just loaded with talent.”
Johnson and guards Rahsool Diggins, Jordan Hawkins and Corey Floyd Jr. are the newcomers, having the full offseason experience that last year’s freshman did not due to COVID-19 protocols and disruptions.
Hurley on Monday had Inky Johnson, a motivational speaker who lost use of his right arm to a college football injury at Tennessee in 2006, spend a day with the team. Johnson talked about building character, facing adversity, growth as a person.
“He nailed it with these guys, how some will make it big in basketball but most won’t,” Hurley said. “This basketball thing has got to — the experience, the education, the character building — prepare you for the next 20-50 years or else you really messed up. I preach that because I know how valuable basketball was in my career. … Most of these guys aren’t going to hit the lottery with the playing part, but bringing in somebody like that, another voice preaching that … the culture of basketball doesn’t really lend itself to that type of mindset. It lends itself to, if things aren’t going well, leave immediately and go somewhere else because the situation is wrong and it’s not me.”
Former Ohio State football standout Maurice Clarett continues his close ties to the program, too — talking and texting with UConn players and coaches often, and showing pride in his affiliation with the school on social media.
The Huskies have two players committed for next season — 6-9 forward Alex Karaban of Northborough, Mass., and 7-footer Donovan
Clingan of Bristol Central. Hurley, according to a tweet from Clingan’s father, Bill Clingan, attended one of Clingan’s early-morning workouts Thursday morning.
UConn had to play catchup in recruiting it’s 2019 and 2020 classes. Last year’s process was complicated by the pandemic. Now, in the marathon job of making UConn basketball what it should be, Hurley enters his fourth year as coach at something of a symbolic starting line.
“Busy,” Hurley said. “A lot of recruiting going on right now. Getting ahead with [class of 2023]. Love the guys we have committed. And it’s the first time I feel like we’re not behind. We’re maybe ahead. When you get in, you’re so far behind in recruiting. You’re behind in two classes. So now it’s like the first time you feel like you’re caught up — or even getting ahead.”