Big East Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season
Projected Starters:
Guards – RJ Cole-JR* and James Bouknight-SO
Forwards – Andre Jackson-FR, Akok Akok-SO, and Adama Sanogo-FR
Bench – Josh Carlton-SR, Tyrese Martin-JR*, Brendan Adams-JR, Isaiah Whaley-SR, Tyler Polly-SR, Jalen Gaffney-SO
It is hard to get past the fact that since 2014-15 UConn did not finish better than 5th in the American Athletic Conference. Year over year Kevin Ollie and now Dan Hurley was picking up big-time recruits and it just never translated to winning. Let’s be real here.
Even the 2013-14 National Championship team was not some juggernaut that had the rest of the country shaking in its boots. They got hot and won the title as a seven seed. UConn hasn’t been a feared college basketball program since Jim Calhoun left nearly a decade ago.
Those are the facts that make it hard to believe in the Huskies as they begin their journey in the new Big East. But when you look at the roster enough times it becomes hard to deny just how good these guys look on paper.
Let’s start in the backcourt. In 66 games at Howard, RJ Cole put up 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists per game. If he is able to get half those points and keep his rebounds and assists at similar levels, Cole immediately becomes a difference-making point guard in the Big East. There is definitely going to be a learning curve, but that type of production is hard to ignore.
Cole is exciting, and he joins a guard rotation that is highly skilled and looks ready to transition to the Big East. If you talk to UConn fans, James Bouknight (13.0 Pts, 4.1 Reb, 1.3 Ast) is the guy Hurley is building this program around. The sophomore is an NBA type talent and he got that type of attention coming off an All-AAC freshman season. He decided to stay knowing he had some work to do to be a first-rounder and the type of talent the Huskies had around him in season one in the Big East.
The backcourt is deep and talented. While two underclassmen are expected to start there is loads of experience coming off the bench. If the 6’6 Rhode Island transfer Tyrese Martin gets his waiver that’d be the icing on the cake, but even before him Jalen Gaffney (3.9 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 2.1 Ast), a former AAU teammate of Bouknight who is expected to take a huge leap in his sophomore season, and junior Brendan Adams (7.4 Pts, 2.2 Reb, 1.1 Ast) are already two of the better back-up guards in the conference.
The backcourt looks strong, but Dan Hurley deserves a lot of credit for what he has done to get the Huskies ready for Big East play in the frontcourt. He signed 6’6 and top-50 small forward Andre Jackson last October, which was a big get, but the late May signing of the No. 14 center in the 2020 class, Adama Sanogo, is what really has UConn looking Big East ready.
Sanogo immediately becomes one of the best big men in a conference that lost multiple star frontcourt players like Romaro Gill, Paul Reed, Tyrique Jones, and Omer Yurtseven. He is also likely the starter at center on a team loaded with forwards and centers.
Akok Akok (5.8 Pts, 5.5 Reb, 0.4 Ast), Josh Carlton (7.8 Pts, 6.1 Reb, 0.7 Ast), Isaiah Whaley (6.0 Pts, 5.0 Reb, 0.6 Ast), and Tyler Polley (9.5 Pts, 3.2 Reb, 0.6 As) join Sanogo in what will be one of the deepest and more dangerous group of bigs in the nation. Akok, Carlton, and Whaley average a combined 16 rebounds per game and Polley is the Huskies best 3-point shooter at 41%. These guys can be a matchup nightmare if Hurley can figure out minute distribution appropriately.
In two seasons in Storrs, Dan Hurley has won 16 and 19 games while playing in the AAC with similar talent, so how can they be projected a Big East title contender? That’s the reason they are only predicted 5th here, but again, on paper, the 2020-21 Huskies look like they can be really good. We won’t know until they do hit the court, but adding the MEAC Player of the Year Cole to a lineup littered with almost exclusively top-200 recruits should have the Big East on notice.