The sophomore played sparingly last year, but is ready to play a big role in the Huskies’ three-peat quest
No one would have blamed Jayden Ross if he had entered the transfer portal after his freshman season.
The No. 84 prospect in ESPN’s Class of 2023 Top 100, Ross averaged just 4.4 minutes as a freshman and less than a point per game. He didn’t play more than four minutes in any of UConn’s six NCAA Tournament blowout wins.
But Ross never really considered transferring, he said. Why leave a program sitting at the top of the sport?
“I was pretty much set on staying,” he said. “Just knowing [with] the guys going, the guys coming in, I would have an opportunity to play, and I also had that fire in me just because sitting and watching that, the way you want to be able to be a part of something as big as that. You don’t want to go somewhere where the level drops.”
Less than a month into Ross’s sophomore season, the faith he put in the UConn program is paying off.
The Bristow, Virginia native missed the Huskies’ season-opening win over Sacred Heart with an ankle injury, but head coach Dan Hurley piqued fans’ interest after the game when he said Ross would have started if he was healthy.
Though Hurley had talked up Ross in the preseason, the comment still came as a surprise. Out of the three non-Stephon Castle freshmen last year, Ross was last on the depth chart. Solo Ball played major minutes early in the season and Jaylin Stewart came on strong at the end of the year, but Ross never saw enough time to hit any sort of stride.
By the second half of his first game this season, it became clear that he’s made a jump, even if we don’t know yet how big that jump is. He scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half and showed off his range with a couple of threes.
In his third game, against East Texas A&M, he showed a playmaking ability that is reminiscent of Andre Jackson. Off an Ahmad Nowell steal and Tarris Reed pass, Ross had one of the best dunks of the college basketball season so far, throwing one down on the break over his Lions defender.
“I feel a lot more confident out there, knowing all the sets, knowing places to be on defense,” Ross said. “But I think the biggest thing for me right now is just to continue to stay on that route, continue to get better every single day.”
That’s what Hurley stresses with all his players. He knows guys like Ross, who didn’t get the minutes last year that their talent level may have warranted, will take some time. It’s the price you pay for fielding one of the most dominant teams in modern college basketball history. But leaps from Ross, Ball, and Stewart are crucial if UConn is to have any hope for a three-peat.
“We gotta see growth,” Hurley said before the Huskies faced Le Moyne on November 13. “We don’t have to see March level, championship level, deep run in the NCAA tournament level defense. There’s a lot of teams that aren’t there. We just need to see growth.”
There’s reason to believe that growth will continue. Hurley called out Ross’ size and ability to both drive and shoot as reasons he fits the UConn mold.
“He’s going to get a lot better,” Hurley added. “Guys like Solo, him, in particular Liam [McNeely], some of these guys are just going to have to eat some growing pains, but I think the upside of that…is what’s going to give this team a high ceiling as the season progresses. So we have to invest in Jayden Ross.”
Growing pains, upside, high ceiling — it all sounds great. And it could all pay off massively in 2025-26. But Hurley needs to see significant growth right away. He knows that.
“If it doesn’t happen this year, the season’s gonna suck,” he said.