Four starters on UConn’s Men’s National Basketball Championship team were among the most 120 players are invited To Chicago next week to practice before scouts in the NBA and J-League collect both of them.
The official list of NBA Draft Combine invitees released Tuesday included UConn’s “Big Three” Jordan Hawkins, Adama Sanogo and Andre Jackson. These workouts will take place at Wintrust Arena, home of DePaul, the WNBA Chicago Sky, and the Chicago Marriott Marquis starting Monday and running through May 21.
Point guard Tristen Newton was among about 45 players invited to the G League Elite Camp Saturday and Sunday and he could earn his way to an invitation to the NBA Draft Combine.
Newton and Jackson both left the option on the table to return to UConn for another season and will have until May 31st to make a decision.
“There is no downside[to players auditioning for the pros while retaining college eligibility]. There is no one,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Pellas told The Courant.
“They can try it out and see how it’s evaluated. It’s a good experience for them, so I don’t see the downside. But if you know – like Kyle Filipovsky At Duke – if you knew you were coming back, he probably wouldn’t want to do that. Why risk injury – anything can happen. But overall, this is nothing but a positive thing from my point of view.
Filipowski, one of Duke’s 7-footers, is in a similar draft situation to Donovan Clingan at UConn. Both have decided to return to college for their sophomore season and should be projected as high-quality draft picks in 2024.
Bellas shared his thoughts on UConn’s professional prospects with The Courant:
Jordan Hawkins
A sophomore guard, Hawkins’ greatest skills are well documented. The Gaithersburg, Maryland, has one of the better hitting shots in the draft and could find the perfect fit in a league that greatly values shooting ability.
“I think he’s probably the best prospect at the moment [from] This is the UConn team because it got fired,” Bilas said.
Hawkins made nearly three three-pointers per game during the 2022-23 national championship season. He raised his percentage from outside the bracket from 33.3% as a freshman to 38.8% last season, while finishing second on the team in scoring with 16.2 points per game. Hawkins performed during the NCAA tournament, shooting all three at the clip at 50% (21-for-42 over six games).
“Maybe because they wore the same uniform in college, it reminds you a little bit — it’s not a perfect comparison — but it evokes images of Ray Allen with the way he shoots and moves so well off the ball. The quality of his shots is really high, and I think 85% of his shots are rated As “high value” – he doesn’t take bad photos.
“He’s a great shooter and I think he’s going to prove to be very valuable, not just in the draft, but in his next years in the NBA.”
So, when will the “Hawk” be picked up?
“He blew me away as a middle-of-the-first-round player,” Bellas said, though he said he hasn’t backed up his draft prospects yet. “He’s definitely a first-round talent and not one of those crazy athletes. There are so many guys out there that come out of the lottery picks, that you could classify them as world-class athletes — and that’s not his strength.
“His strength is the skill of being able to really shoot the ball — and that’s a very valuable skill. I mean, a lot of guys in the NBA are specialists. And I’m not just talking about superstars, it goes beyond specialists — but, I think Jordan has the ability to shoot.” On it, he shoots it through range, and he can make mid-range shots. He’s a valuable piece because of his shooting ability.”
Hawkins is rated at 13 MVP available in the ESPN draft.
With the help of a business professor at UConn, Adama Sanogo is one step closer to his dream of building schools for children in Mali
Adam Sanogo
UConn coach Dan Hurley recently compared Sanogo, the Final Four’s most outstanding player, to Golden State Warriors center Kevon Looney.
The two stand at 6-foot-9, though Sanogo is about 30 pounds heavier, and play the same traditional style underneath. Not a 3-point shooter, Looney emerged in the Warriors’ first-round playoff series against the Sacramento Kings and in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals as he averaged over 18.8 rebounds over six games.
Adama Sanogo can really help someone too… 🤔 # The NBA https://t.co/H0Hoz9FX56
– Dan Hurley (@dhurley15) April 30, 2023
“I know these front desks get caught up in asking, ‘What are you measuring? “What’s your sector?” And all the analytics, but there are players like Kevon Looney, I don’t know where he would be recruited in the NBA world today, but he’s an invaluable member of a team that might win a championship,” Hurley said in a can.
Sanogo led the Huskies with over 17 points and 7.2 rebounds per game during the 2022-23 season. In the NCAA tournament, Sanogo posted 19.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game with four double-doubles.
Bellas thinks the comparison is fair.
“(On the set) they’ll look at his overall productivity and I certainly think how he works against players with a long length, because he’ll see a lot of those on the set,” Bellas said. “I think he’s got a lot of ability and some real flair there because he’s a dominant low-position presence at the college level. UConn runs what I would call a pro-style offense, so it shouldn’t be too big of an adjustment.
“I think sometimes guys go to the combine thinking they have to do something different, show something different, and I’m not sure if that’s true with Adama Sanogo. I think if he goes and plays the way he usually plays, people will see that he has a lot of value in Impact on winning.
ESPN rated Sanogo as 87 MVP available In the draft, ninth place is better.
Andre Jackson Jr
One of the most eye-catching players in college basketball last season, Jackson has established himself as an elite player who can influence the game in many different ways.
However, his only hit is a well-documented deep shooting struggle (his 3-point shooting percentage dropped from 36% as a sophomore to 28% as a junior) — almost a must in today’s NBA world.
“There may be a place, but it’s not a solid place like a player who can shoot,” Bellas said. Andre Jackson brings a lot of things to the table. He’s an excellent defender, he’s one of the best transitional passers in college basketball, so he has a lot of tools to bring, and he can protect a lot of positions. So he’s a valuable piece, but his value would be much greater if Reliably drop a surround shot.
“Because he can be played on a drive and you don’t have to stretch for him, you can recover late on. So that’s a limiting factor as an offensive player. And so any player can shoot and you can play five-to-five with him on the ground – I mean, Draymond Green is an example now. He’s not a shooter. Reliable – I actually thought he was a more reliable shooter earlier in his pro career than he is now – That doesn’t mean he’s not a great value piece, he is, but he would be more valuable if he was more than a perimeter scoring threat “.
Jackson was ranked as an ESPN Top 30 player in the draft and is projected to fall behind in the first round or as early as the second round in several Mock drafts.
Derry Newton
After compiling an impressive 19 double-double points in the most important game of his college career, Newton was invited to the G League Elite Camp to test out his pro chances.
In his first and only year at UConn after transferring from East Carolina, Newton immortalized himself as the only player in UConn basketball history, men’s or women’s, to record multiple triple-doubles in the same season. The 6-5, 190-pound player finished the year averaging 10.1 points, 4.7 assists, and 4.5 rebounds per game. He shot 37.4% from the field, 36.6% from behind the three-point line and turned the ball over 3.4 times per game.
Bellas believes Newton could “absolutely” make the G League roster, but that may not be enough for him to give up an extra season in college where he’ll be a fifth-year veteran.
“There are a number of guys who can do that (make a G League team), but I don’t think that’s where he ultimately wants to be,” Bellas said. “It’s nice to announce the draft and then see how you do in the consolidation. If you do well, you might as well stay in, or if you don’t, you can always come back. So I don’t think there’s any downside to having a look at that.”