Hartford Basketball: In-depth look at Hawks senior forward Hunter Marks

Expectations for Hunter Marks in 2021-22

Hartford is a team that should be expected to compete near the top of the America East again this season. It isn’t going to matter how many wins they have in the regular season because the America East is a one-bid league every year, provided one team doesn’t go undefeated. Since an America East team isn’t going to go undefeated the team that represents the conference in the tournament is going to be the team that wins the conference tournament.

Marks isn’t going to be one of the guys considered for the conference player of the year unless he improves his offensive game drastically. The big man is going to be a workhorse and play a ton of minutes and likely start every game he plays. You can pencil him in for his usual output of around 10 points and about five rebounds. He will likely secure around 1 block per game as well. I do expect his shooting numbers to turn around and he get back to around 30% from deep. That will be a huge help for a Hartford offense that struggled mightily at points last year.

There were over 1,500 players in the transfer portal at one point this year and Hartford has yet to have a single player transfer out. They are going to have the bulk of their roster back this season and that is going to mean good things for the Hawks. Marks is likely going to see his role increase this season.

His role is going to increase likely because he is going to force the hand of coach Gallagher because something tells me he is going to have a bounce-back year on offense and is due for his best year ever. Even with that don’t expect Hartford to light the nets on fire as under current head coach Gallagher they are known for their defense.

They will score enough to keep them in games and win a good number of names, but they play slow and like to muck the game up. None of that is going to change heading into this season.