Photo courtesy of deadspin.com
Welcome to Reign in the Forecast, a show created by Jen Ryu, Glenn Cully, Zachary Arzano, and Ben Heacox, where we talk about the ins and outs of UConn Athletics. In Episode 1: UConn Men’s Basketball, the four hosts look back and review the previous season and introduce the new class for the 23–24 basketball season. Listen in to hear how we think the team is going to do this season and which players you should be looking forward for.
Transcript:
Welcome to Rain in the Forecast, where we discuss all things UConn Men’s basketball. Hi, I’m Jen, I’m Zach, I’m Ben, I’m Glenn. And welcome to our show. Um, dating back to 1999, no other Division One men’s basketball program has won more national championships than the University of Connecticut, who won its fifth national championship back in April. That’s more than Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas, and has unarguably propelled them into blue blood status. Head on, coach Dan Hurley warned you in January 2020 after a tough loss against Villanova. But did anybody listen? No. Now the Huskies are back like they never left equipped. With a top five recruiting class coming into stores, the Huskies are ready to defend their title. Let’s review the last season and all of its glory and also take a look in the next season and see what’s upcoming for the Huskies. So when you’re talking about last season success, you have to mention and you have to start at Adama Sonogo. He was our leading scorer. He’s taken a huge leap since his freshman year here. And not only did he lead Connecticut in scoring with 17.2 points per game, he was the most outstanding player in the NCAA Tournament on our run to the national championship. Um, another huge key to our success was Jordan Hawkins. Jordan Hawkins, our second leading scorer. He was selected in the first round of this year’s NBA draft to the New Orleans Pelicans. Despite averaging one less point per game than Sonogo at 16.2. A lot of his shots came from distance and were able to create a lot of opportunities down low for Sonogo. Um, at his volume, he was arguably the best three point shooter in the country. He’s the best three point shooter in the country. No debate, just for what it’s worth. And, if I were to put one more big three to the success and the people that we had, leave it’d be. Andre Jackson I mean, when you define a Swiss Army knife, when you talk about a jack of all trades, it’s know, seven points per game might not jump off the page, but his ability to playmake, defend, really one through five and to really run the fast break opened so many opportunities for this team. Yeah, they were really good players. Um, when I watched the Final Four last year, definitely Sonogo and Hawking stood out to me. And I know that Hawkins is the cousin of, um, I think it’s angel. She’s the, um, right? She was the, uh, MVP for the women’s basketball and LSU. So they got good blood going down there. Just Andre Jackson. Um, how his athletic ability just awes people. Um, and he’s much more than an athlete like Zach alluded to, um, his passing, um, his vision was just huge for us. Shout out that boy, Joey California. Uh, we’re going to miss him too. Spark plug off the bench. Real, uh, Hooper Floater gang. Three, points galore, the likes. So going to miss Joey. Yeah, he doesn’t get the glory. He wasn’t a starter. He wasn’t getting huge minutes. But being able to come off the bench and having someone to be able to shoot with that clip is so helpful to a team that you’re struggling. You have five minutes of bad offense, which you see all the time in March Madness. And for your 7th, 8th guy to be able to come in and hit two or three huge threes in a row, that could completely change the outlook of a game. And we saw it do that in March Madness. So let’s talk about the fan base because that was all the craze last year. Um, so the UConn Husky fan base, uh, is claimed the top spot in the nation for sports fan. Um, according to an article by NBC Connecticut, I think the university hosted a watch party in Gamble Pavilion for the National Championships so students could watch a lot of what was going on in Houston. And I think this is an unfortunate thing, but there was some after game riots where a lot of campus property was destroyed. Uh, many students and non students, just fans got arrested and people got injured. Um, though we did see the community gathering together for something. So I guess in a way, it was kind of good con. Huskies is known to be one of the best sports fans in the nation. Um, every single game the student section is packed. And I think for basketball, there’s like a game tradition, uh, where the marching band comes out, do their little dancy dance, and then they have the newspaper entrance during their home games when the opposing team comes out. So the Yukon fan base is definitely going very strong, and we are looking for another great year for the Huskies and to bleed blue. Yep. So, uh, looking ahead to this upcoming season for the Huskies, we’re going to do a quick breakdown of what the lineup is going to look like before we start to look ahead to the schedule, uh, in terms of what the roster construction is like this year. Our starting five is going to be Stefan Castle. He’s our number one recruit this year. Dog at point guard. Tristan Newton’s going to be running the two this year at shooting guard. Uh, he was our point guard last year, but he was a transfer from East Carolina, where he’s originally a shooting guard. So he’s a pure two going back to his original position there. Uh, at the Wings, we’re going to have Alex, uh, Karaban. He’s a returning player. He was a massive part of the team from last year. Started in pretty much every single game. Uh, I’ve seen him around campus. He added some muscle to that frame. So excited about him. Uh, we got Cam Spencer on the wing as well. He’s a transfer from Rutgers. We’ll get into what he did there in a second. Uh, and then lastly, we’d have Donovan Clingan running the five, uh, off the bench. We’d have Solomon, uh, Ball, Spark Plug, 6th man, uh, Hassan Diarra, returning point guard, off the bench, dog, defensive menace, disruptor, uh, the likes, uh, and then lastly, Samson Johnson for some big man depth. Um, yeah, so Stephon Castle, I’ve heard, is a walking bucket. Um, while he was in high school, uh, down in Georgia, I believe they played Duncanville, um, the high school down in Texas. They’re just a powerhouse athletically, uh, with their football, basketball, and he dropped 41. Um, so that’s a good sign. So hopefully he can bring that scoring prowess here to stores. So that’d be nice to see. I also think that after what I would consider being robbed of an elite recruit. When we had a top 15 recruit in Jalen Adams and we had to watch for four years as nothing changed and nothing got better. I think know now that we’re finally getting our superstar at the right time, coming off a championship with a good head coach, with a good roster, with a roster that’s been there before, I think we could finally see this recruit propel Yukon to what we’ve always claimed to be. Yeah, so I know, um, I’ve been looking at Donovan last season, um, especially because he’s really tall, um, but he was really overshadowed by, um, what’s his name? Sonogo last year. Uh, but I am hoping that he will step up. Um, I also do think he needs to step up to be one of the best players on the team. So I’m definitely looking forward to seeing him throughout the season. Some are scared, know it is only a second year player and what I would consider a rather heavy big man offense. But, I mean, he learned from quite literally, one of the best. Adama was half his height with half the post moves, doing a lot more down there. So if Donovan could put on the muscle, stay calm down there, not get antsy, not turn it over, I think that he could very successfully fill the shoes that, uh, Sonogo left him. Let’s go into predictions. Hot takes. So, um, what do we all think about this upcoming season? So, if I had to say one thing that I think is a lock for this upcoming season, it’s going to be that Donovan fills Adama’s shoes really well. I don’t see how Donovan doesn’t average. I’m going to say 15 and eight this year. I like those numbers. That’s what I was going to say. Because all I’m saying is Adama did not have a lot of the physical tools that Clingan has at his disposal. And if that jump shot is falling like I’ve been seeing at training camp, Lord help the Big East. In terms of one of my guarantees this year, uh, my guarantee is that we will win either the big east regular season or the big east tournament. Uh, we’ve been knocking on the door of both for too long with too good of a roster, • uh, to not follow through on it. Last year, we were pretty garbage in the first half of conference play, and I don’t see Hurley not m making that a point of emphasis leading up to it. This year. Uh, I think we come out hungry, and I don’t see us not taking home one of those. I like that you said that. And if we’re talking about hot takes, mine is going to be even if Newton is moving over to that, too, I still don’t think we’re going to know the get to the basket, shoot the ball, too that you’re expecting. Um, but I am really excited to see the new freshman class, um, take their positions. I’m going to hope that they don’t burn out midseason. All right, well, that was the episode for today. Bye. Say bye, girls win the national championship this year. Yeah, that, too. You guys should say bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening.
