Last March, after UConn crashed out of the men’s NCAA tournament in the first round for a second straight season, coach Dan Hurley convened a meeting of his team’s returning leadership at its practice facility once the team came back to Storrs. That group featured the Huskies’ three young stars: Adama Sanogo, Andre Jackson Jr. and Jordan Hawkins.
The message: Be in a different position at that same time the following year.
“Coach told us they were gonna build guys around us that could build a championship team,” Hawkins recalled following the team’s Sweet 16 win against Arkansas. “They [were] going to push us all summer.”