Hurley ready to build
Huskies looking to fill roster with big man, talent
Developing a strong, family-like culture in his first year at UConn has been a blessing for Dan Hurley.
And in a way, a bit of a curse, too. To the point where no player wants to leave the program, even if doing so might lead to more playing time at another school.
A year after three players and the top incoming recruit departed Kevin Ollie’s program, Hurley took over the reins in March, 2018 and famously kept the Huskies’ entire, flawed roster intact.
A 16-17 season ensued. However, no players have sought to leave the program since the season ended a month ago. And that’s fine with Hurley, who has stated numerous times over the past year that it’s not his style to run players off a team. He didn’t do it at Wagner or Rhode Island, and had no intention of doing so at UConn.
However, with a selfimposed reduction of one scholarship for next season, it puts the Huskies in a bit of a recruiting bind.
If UConn had three or four scholarships to play with, it could fill them with, for instance, a junior-college transfer here, a grad transfer there, a regular transfer who’d have to sit out a season here, a
talented freshman there.
Alas, the Huskies currently have just one scholarship to fill. They’ve already got 6-foot-9 Akok Akok, who spent the second semester as a walk-on (impressing everyone in practice), and will soon welcome four-star guards Jalen Gaffney and James Bouknight, both of whom plan on enrolling in summer courses in early June.
The Huskies docked themselves a scholarship due to violations committed during Ollie’s tenure, leaving them with just 12 instead of 13 next season.
That doesn’t mean UConn will end up with just one scholarship to fill, however. One more could open up. The Huskies are still beating down the recruiting path, looking to fill two spots. Ideally, they would be a transfer (almost certainly a big man) who’d have to sit a season or, perhaps, receive an NCAA waiver to play right away, along with a premium talent who could help immediately this season.
UConn had UNLV transfer Joel Ntambwe on campus for an official visit a couple of weekends ago, and are clearly intrigued by the 6-foot-9 forward’s talent. Hurley recruited Ntambwe two years ago while still coaching Rhode Island, and former UNLV (and UConn) assistant Andre LaFleur predicts that Ntambwe will be “a pro in two years.”
As it stands now, Ntambwe would have to sit out a year as a transfer.
However, he has guardianship living in New York, and it’s possible he could apply for a waiver to play right away as Sid Wilson tried to do two summers ago. Wilson was unsuccessful, but the NCAA seems to have become more generous with granting waivers over the past year.
Meanwhile, L.J. Figueroa, a 6-foot-5 wing who averaged 14.4 points per game last season as a freshman, is transferring out of St. John’s in the wake of Chris Mullin’s departure as head coach. The Lawrence, Mass. native would also have to sit out a season, unless he was able to secure a waiver. Figueroa is an all-AAC type talent, right off the bat.
On Wednesday night, another intriguing name popped up when Howard point guard R.J. Cole entered his name in the transfer portal. Cole, who averaged 21.4 points per game as a sophomore this past season, would also have to sit one year to play two. But he will almost certainly generate interest among high-major programs, and UConn will be one of them: Cole played at St. Anthony’s High in New Jersey under Hurley’s father, Bob Sr.
Of course, there’s still five-star forward Precious Achiuwa, a McDonald’s All-American in whom the Huskies have devoted plenty of recruiting hours. However, while it appeared UConn had as good a chance as any to land him a few months ago, those chances now appear to be lessening. North Carolina appears to be his likely landing spot, though Achiuwa also recently visited Memphis, and Kansas is still strong. He has not visited UConn, and while his lengthy recruitment has been as unpredictable as any, a commitment to the Huskies seems unlikely at this point.
Moving forward, Hurley & Co. will start investing heavily in the Class of 2020. The Huskies will have at least two, and possibly three or four scholarships to fill, and they’d like to do so with premium talent — transfers, freshmen or a mix of both.
Coupled with a group including Gaffney, Bouknight and (possibly) Akok, along with possibly one or two top-notch talents coming in this season, that would provide Hurley with the batch of talent he needs to kick his rebuild of the program into high gear.
JIMMY V REDUX?
UConn is expected to be one of the four participants in the 2019 Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, per a source. It doesn’t look like the Huskies will play Syracuse, as they did at the event two seasons ago, but rather an undisclosed Big 12 team.
The Huskies will also host Florida, play three decent teams in the Charleston Classic, and play at Villanova next season, among other nonconference games. It’s unlikely UConn will schedule one of its former Big East rivals for this upcoming season; that will more likely happen in 2020-21.