Big East Basketball: 2022 offseason grades for each team

Connecticut Huskies – Grade: B+

The Huskies did lose most of its backcourt this offseason but did land four transfers, led by star guard Tristen Newton. He’s one of the best guards from the portal and should slide into the lead guard role. Nahiem Alleyne, Hassan Diarra, and Joey Calcaterra are solid role players as well and big man Adama Sanogo coming back gives them a star in the Big East.

What prevents them from getting an “A” is a lack of a power forward pickup this offseason to replace both Tyler Polley and Isaiah Whaley. If Samson Johnson isn’t ready for big minutes, UConn’s frontcourt will have depth concerns that could force them to use four-guard lineups to make things work.

Creighton Bluejays – Grade: A

The top recruiting class in program history a year ago is all coming back, set to all have breakout campaigns. But the big offseason signing for them was Baylor Scheierman, a 6’6 wing from South Dakota State who was the Summit League Player of the Year. He put up some big stats (16.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 4.5 apg) on 51% shooting overall and 47% shooting from deep.

He’s the missing piece on the roster that already has guards Ryan Nembhard and Trey Alexander in the backcourt, as well as Arthur Kaluma and Ryan Kalkbrenner in the frontcourt. For a team that didn’t have to do much anyways this offseason, they made a huge splash in the pickup of  Scheierman that very well could give them the best preseason ranking in program history.