NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Biggest winners and losers from 2019 classes

No. 3 Loser – UConn Huskies

When Dan Hurley arrived at UConn to replace Kevin Ollie, the expectation was that the program would turn around, especially on the recruiting trail. And he did bring in a top-25 recruiting class in his first haul, including a pair of top-100 guards Jalen Gaffney and James Bouknight. The Huskies also got a commitment from transfer RJ Cole, who averaged 25 ppg this past season at Howard. He’ll be eligible to play in 2020-21.

The perimeter for UConn will be in very good shape next season, despite the absence of leading scorer Jalen Adams. Upperclassmen Alterique Gilbert and Christian Vital will lead the way along with the incoming guards. The problem, which has been this way for several years now, is the frontcourt production.

Forwards Josh Carlton and Tyler Polley combined to average 17.4 ppg and 8.5 rpg as starters and did improve as sophomores. But they’ll have to improve in a big way to help bring a team who finished under .500 back to contending for the NCAA Tournament in 2020.

The reason why UConn made the wrong side of this list is that despite Hurley’s efforts, the program failed to upgrade their frontcourt this offseason. They will have top-100 forward Akok Akok in play after sitting out the second half of last season but failed to bring in anyone else. The Huskies tried but couldn’t land recruits such as Kofi Cockburn, Tre Mitchell, Qudus Wahab and others.

It’s hard to see UConn being good enough to go back dancing and until they can improve their frontcourt, the program will have a low ceiling. Coach Hurley was able to bring in some talent but it was for the backcourt, where the priority really should’ve been in the frontcourt. And they’ll really need to find some big bodies soon, with a pending move to the Big East after next season.