NCAA Basketball: Top 25 frontcourts for 2020-21 season

The move back to the Big East and expected continued emergence of James Bouknight towards college basketball stardom are certainly giving Huskies fans plenty of excitement ahead of the 2020 season.

However, the success of Dan Hurley this summer expanding the team’s frontcourt talent cannot go without mention and specifically how deep the UConn program is this year. The hopes to compete and contend with the Villanova(s) and Creighton(s) of the Big East and nationally will depend on the consistency of this group to complement its backcourt.

Led by sharpshooter Tyler Polley, the UConn frontcourt has a lot of dynamic aspects that make it a formidable group to face. Polley knocked in two triples a game last year, but his season was ended early with a knee injury. As he’s been fully cleared for action as of this week, the Huskies are happy to regain another reliable (40.5%) perimeter threat to spread teams out defensively.

Freshman Akok Akok was a strong frontcourt option for the Coach Hurley last season, but the Huskies were forced to find replacements for him as well when he tore his Achilles. Akok was near the top-10 nationally in blocks per game, before his injury occurred, and one of the better rebounding threats on the team.

Coach Hurley states shortly after the season ended, a mid-season return would be the projected return date. However, the delay to the season’s start may work in his favor to miss a minimum number of games in 2020. His defensive presence would be a huge boost for UConn.

This places the pressure squarely on the shoulders of veterans Josh Carlton and Isaiah Whaley. Both Carlton and Whaley were not among the team’s top-scoring threats, but their presence was more notable fighting for rebounds and defending the rim. Carlton and Whaley May have been forced into more minutes to account for the injuries entering the season, however, Coach Hurley managed to sign a talented pair of bigs to increase the frontcourt depth on next year’s team.

Freshman Adama Sanogo and Javonte Brown-Ferguson will look to be crack the rotation early in the season. Sanogo is a top-100 player that reclassified late in the recruiting cycle and may need several games to adjust before attempting to take over the starting role.

However, he is more than capable of being a reliable rim protector and rebounder. Brown-Ferguson will likely take a longer time to crack the rotation, especially if Polley and Akok return sooner than normal. Redshirt freshman Richie Springs is another talented player looking to crack the lineup and may have a slight edge in filling Akok’s role with the team, as a rangy defender.