STORRS — Jayden Ross did not come to UConn thinking he was a finished product. He reached a little above the other schools recruiting him to let Dan Hurley coach him up.
“I appreciate all the schools that reached out to me and looked into my game,” Ross said after a practice last week. “The only mindset I had looking at my recruitment is, the right school found me and I’m here now.”
Ross, a Virginia native, played at Long Island Lutheran, the program that developed another player, Kentan Facey, for the Huskies a decade ago. Coach John Buck’s practices, like Hurley’s, are known to be grueling and aimed at making players better. Ross was ready for it, embraces it.
“I expected everything I’ve seen coming into the program,” he said. “That’s why I committed here. Last year, my high school, I played under Coach Buck and he prepared me for such intense practices. He pushed us just as hard every single day. The intensity has been a little bit of an adjustment, but I expected Coach Hurley to give 100 percent every day and push us, and that’s something we really want because we want to be the best players we can be. That’s why we’re all here, that’s why (UConn) won the national championship last year.”
He averaged 18.5 points and 8.6 rebounds for Team Melo on the AAU circuit. At Long Island Lutheran, he averaged 11.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals to help his team win a state title. Still, he was considered a three-star recruit, ranked around the 150 mark, for whatever those things mean. Penn State, Virginia Tech, Temple and George Mason were among his suitors; UConn got in and got him.
Ross, 6 feet 7, is working to add bulk and muscle to a lanky frame. He says he has gained about 15 pounds, and is up to 201, with a goal of getting to 210, which he will need to stand up to the physical nature of Big East play. But in the practices, during the trip to Europe, he showed he can be just as quick and agile with the added weight. If he is a “work in progress,” he has advanced from “project” status.
“Jayden has fit in great,” Hurley said. “He has been a surprise in a way. He has always been a great prospect, huge upside, but he’s worked his way into the rotation. I don’t know that when we recruited him, we talked about year two, year three, but he looks like a guy that’s going to help us potentially this year.”
Jayden Ross slams it home! @UConnRivals pic.twitter.com/xWrcWUPKzy
— Stratton Stave (@strattonstave) October 13, 2023
During the trip to Europe, Ross averaged 6.7 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.3 steals, shooting 41.2 percent in significant minutes. Then on First Night, there was no dunk contest, but Ross and Solomon Ball, who were once teammates at Saint James School in Maryland, staged an informal challenge. Ross executed a 360-degree spin before throwing it down, delighting the big crowd.
“First time in that kind of environment in front of that many people,” Ross said. “Just getting to step on the court for the first time, it gives you an idea what the games will be like. It was just a warmup to see what it will be like playing on front of that many people.”
But for most of his early months at UConn, Ross has been grinding behind the scenes. The freshmen, Ross, Ball, Stephon Castle, Jaylin Stewart and Youssouf Singare, comprise a top-five recruiting class working to find roles among players returning from the national championship team.
“It makes life a lot easier when you have somebody (like Ball) who you have known for a long time is going through the same difficulties and learning experiences,” Ross said. “Even with all the freshmen, we’ve all gotten pretty close. The coaches have been pushing us hard every single day, and when you get pushed like that, to your max, it get easier and we’re learning every day.”
Hurley will harp on Ross for off-ball defense, ball watching, getting back cut, defending the screen the screen, ball security, all the things he has been trying to build over the last five seasons. Ross welcomes all of it; he signed on for UConn’s culture, and as he glances up at the former Huskies on the wall at the Werth Center.
“Knowing that they won a national championship, you know they’ve got the blueprint,” Ross said. “They know what it takes. My role is just being the best teammate I can be. Obviously, I’m not going to be coming in, shooting every shot, playing iso(lation) ball. Creating plays for each other, running the wing is something I’m looking at playing this year. Just coming in, being a pest on defense, is something they’re trying to instill for us. … The coaches see, when they recruited me, obviously I am not at my best right now. I have a lot of potential, so if they push me evert single day then I can reach my maximum potential.”
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