Why Dan Hurley, UConn men are ‘betting heavy’ on development of sophomore class
As Dan Hurley and the UConn staff reached out to players in the transfer portal, conducted Zoom interviews and then official visits, narrowing down a list that fit the program’s needs and its culture, they were careful not to make a move that would neglect those who were already part of the operation.
Keeping the rest of the touted 2023 class that came in called the “Fab Five” was a top priority after headliner Stephon Castle and the rest of the Huskies’ starting lineup declared for the NBA Draft.
Castle, with Donovan Clingan, was determined one of the top six draft prospects who will have his medical results from the combine sent to teams with top-15 picks. All five of UConn’s starters were among the 78 invited to the combine, the league announced Friday night.
With that much talent, most of it more experienced, it wasn’t easy to work freshmen Jaylin Stewart, Solo Ball, Jayden Ross and Youssouf Singare into the rotation. Any of them could’ve left and found more minutes elsewhere, but both sides remained committed.
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“I spoke through (the media) throughout the season about not wanting them to leave. Our staff reached out to their families and let them know and we met with the players a bunch about not wanting them to leave,” Hurley said. “Great players are one uniform guys. The greatest players, they wear one uniform in college so we want those guys to be one-uniform guys.”
Hurley expects all of them to compete for an upgraded role once the team reconvenes in the first week of June.
Singare, a 6-foot-10 center, figures to have the most challenging path to the rotation behind returning senior Samson Johnson and junior portal addition Tarris Reed Jr., who played his first two seasons at Michigan. A valuable light-hearted personality in the locker room, Singare could still earn a raise in minutes as the third option.
“Solo Ball, maybe our biggest nonconference win of the year, he was a critical player in the Carolina game. One of our biggest victories in the Big East season, Jaylin Stewart played huge for us down the stretch of that Marquette game at the Garden,” Hurley said. “And then going into the season last year, Jayden Ross was kind of one of the names we talked about and NBA teams were asking about when practices are over.”
Ross ended up being the one who saw the court the least out of that trio.
Ball, who will compete for backcourt minutes with freshman Ahmad Nowell, fifth-year Hassan Diarra and junior transfer Aidan Mahaney, had his number called early after Castle suffered a knee injury in the second game of the year. He started the Huskies’ next 10 games and had his season-high 13 points in that Jimmy V Classic matchup against North Carolina at Madison Square Garden, shooting 5-for-8 from the field and 3-for-6 from beyond the arc.
But once Castle fully recovered and the backcourt was established with Diarra stepping up as the sixth man, Ball quickly fell out of the rotation.
It was pretty much the opposite story for Stewart, who had a late high school graduation in Seattle which forced a delayed start to his college adjustment period. He came along late in the season and was called on to help out in the frontcourt that was missing Clingan to a foot injury. By the end of the year he was a reserve for Karaban and stepped up with eight points in 11 minutes (4-for-4) of the Big East Tournament semifinal win over St. John’s and then with three consecutive 3-pointers that broke open the championship game against Marquette.
He and Ross will be part of a frontcourt/wing rotation that could include Karaban, should he decide to withdraw from the draft. UConn also has a touted pair of freshman forwards coming in, Liam McNeeley and Isaiah Abraham, who each have great positional versatility.
“I think Jaylin and Solo have a chance to make a huge jump like you’ve seen the freshmen-to-sophomores make for us, look at some players we’ve had that’ve made those huge jumps, I think we expect that, I think they expect that,” Hurley said. “And again, they had moments this year when they flashed big-time ability for us. We’re projecting what they’re going to be next November and we’ve seen it on a daily basis. And then I see a guy like J-Ross, it was gut-wrenching decisions based on who was in the rotation this year and their talent across the board is impressive. That’s why we valued them the way we did with only adding what we felt we absolutely needed to add.”
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With his length and athleticism at 6-7, it was Ross’ shooting ability that particularly impressed the coaches last fall, which wasn’t necessarily what they expected coming in. He saw action in the early buy games but was just 1-for-8 combined from the field in the first three outings. He didn’t play more than 10 minutes again until the 43-point blowout of Xavier on Jan. 28, in which he contributed a rebound and an assist, 0-for-2 from the field with two fouls, in 11 minutes.
As it stands now, UConn could potentially go as many as 10-deep with its rotation like it did during the 2022-23 championship season – and Hurley believes those three will be a big part of it.
“This is gonna be an incredibly deep and talented team, maybe a little bit young, but the talent is gonna be impressive together out there,” Hurley said. “Obviously we’re betting heavy on Solo Ball and Jaylin Stewart and Jayden Ross, as well as the incoming freshmen, that they’re going to really be able to help what we’ve added from the portal thus far.”
