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Dan Hurley has his UCONN Huskies on track for another incredible March Madness run. After winning the national championship in dominant fashion last year, his squad projects as a No. 1 seed when the Selection Sunday field is revealed.
But while the head coach is currently focused on the task at hand, he’s already got an eye towards a potentially ominous future. Will he be able to keep his roster intact after the NCAA Tournament?
Hurley suggested that others will come calling in an attempt to pry players away from Storrs.
After winning the Big East title over the weekend, he made that insinuation with freshman forward Jaylin Stewart being the player in question.
“If someone doesn’t tamper him out of our program, all that s—’s going on right now – it’s crazy – he’s going to be a future star here,” he said after the game.
Stewart is a former 4-star recruit, rated as the top player from the state of Washington in the 2023 class. Despite playing his high school ball on the West Coast, he opted to head east and join Hurley’s national title winning bunch.
That move has paid off thus far with UCONN cruising to a 31-3 overall record. Much of that success, however, has been accomplished without the need for Stewart to play max minutes.
With the Huskies possessing depth and experience at the small forward position, Stewart has been used in a reserve role.
He’s seen action across 31 contests but failed to make a start in Year 1 as he’s averaged 8.9 minutes and 2.6 points per game. Still, he saw his role begin to grow towards the end of that Big East championship run.
In the final two games of the conference tournament, Stewart played a combined 22 minutes, scoring 17 points on 88% shooting. That included going 3-for-4 from three-point land in his final outing.
After seeing the forward flash those abilities at the D1 level for the first time, Dan Hurley believes outside suitors will do their best to persuade him to leave UCONN with the offer of more playing time.
Meanwhile, the transfer portal window is set to open the day after Selection Sunday.
Wildly unreasonable that the transfer portal in college basketball opens tomorrow – the day after Selection Sunday. Really unfair to the programs & players that had good years & still playing meaningful basketball. We can’t wait 3 more weeks? Just stupid.
— Chris Spatola (@Chris_Spatola) March 17, 2024
Have teams already started contacting the freshman? Based on Hurley’s comment, it would seem so!
This is the world college basketball coaches now live in. We’ll see if Jaylin Stewart stays put in Storrs this offseason, or if another school is able to swipe him from UCONN.