Climbing the board
UConn’s Sanogo, Jackson enhanced their status at combine
Could the UConn men’s basketball team have three players selected in the 2023 NBA draft? It’s not out of the question.
Andre Jackson Jr. and Adama Sanogo have finished their workouts and scrimmages at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. Sanogo put up better numbers in a pair of scrimmages; Jackson may have opened more eyes with his performances in drills.
Both players are hoping to be selected in the NBA Draft on June 22 in Brooklyn. Their teammate and fellow national champion, Jordan Hawkins, is a virtual lock to be selected in the first round, quite likely the lottery. Most mock drafts have Hawkins going somewhere late in the lottery, between picks 10 and 14. Oklahoma City at No. 12 seems like a potential landing spot — that is, if Orlando doesn’t take him at No. 11.
Either way, Hawkins is poised to be UConn’s 15th all-time lottery pick and second since Dan Hurley took over in 2018, joining James Bouknight (11th overall pick in 2021).
For Jackson and Sanogo, there is far less certainty. Jackson’s week got off to a good start. He posted one of the top vertical leaps (39.5 inches) of the 50 or so draft prospects at the combine, and more importantly, knocked down 16 of 25 3pointers. In his first scrimmage on Wednesday, Jackson finished with four points, and assist, a steal and two blocked shots in 17 active minutes off the bench.
On Thursday Jackson started, but shot just 1for-5 from the floor (0for-3 from 3) and finished with two points, two rebounds, two assists and a steal in 22 minutes. But he played his usual strong defense, and one of his as
sists was a beautiful, highlight-reel, behind-theback dime to Dillon Mitchell in transition.
Jackson seemed to generate enough buzz to put him in line to be a late first-round or early second-round selection. Either would likely offer enough money for him to go pro. Anything less than a guaranteed two-way contract (which would pay him about $600,000 but would force him to split time between the NBA and G-League) probably would sway Jackson to return to Storrs and look to repeat as national champions.
For Sanogo, it’s trickier. For the second straight scrimmage on Thursday, he put up strong numbers — 13 points, six rebounds and three assists, including a nifty backdoor pass for a layup to cutting teammate Seth Lundy. He drew praise from multiple NBA executives and other onlookers, including fivetime NBA champion Derek Fisher, who singled Sanogo’s play out during an interview on ESPN2 (although he referred to Sanogo as “Adam” Sanogo, not Adama).
Sanogo has proven throughout his career that he’s a dominant low-post player at the collegiate level, and never more so than when he earned Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors last month.
But he is considered undersized for the NBA, and that didn’t change in Chicago. Listed at 6-foot-9 on UConn’s roster, Sanogo measured in at 6-7 ¼ a the combine with no shoes on (though he did boast an impressive 7-1 1/4 wingspan. NBA executives have wanted to see him expand his game to the perimeter, and while Sanogo shot 35.6 percent from 3point range this past season, he only attempted one 3-pointer on Thursday, a miss.
Unlike Jackson, Sanogo has no intentions of returning to college ball, according to Dan Hurley. He has met with several NBA teams, including the Celtics and Nets, and will have the opportunity for individual workouts over the next couple of weeks. He has reportedly worked out for Oklahoma City.
Jackson told reporters he met with Phoenix, Milwaukee and the Knicks on Wednesday and had more scheduled for Thursday. He has worked out for Indiana, the Nets and Celtics, the latter of whom has been speculated as a potential landing spot with the No. 35 overall pick.
UConn hasn’t had three players taken in the same draft since 2006, when it had five players selected — Rudy Gay, Hilton Armstrong, Marcus Williams and Josh Boone in the first round, and Denham Brown in the second. The last time the Huskies had multiple players taken in the same draft was 2014, when Shabazz Napier was taken in the first round and DeAndre Daniels in the second.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that UConn could have three draftees this year. And with Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban likely to be selected in the next couple of years, we could look back at the 2023 national-champion squad as having five NBA draft picks.
As for Tristen Newton, who played well at the GLeague Elite Camp earlier in the week but wasn’t one of the eight players invited to the combine, he could still go pro, particularly if he can find a team to guarantee him a two-way deal, or return to college for a fifth year.