You could justify a wide, wide range of preseason rankings for UConn just based on returning players, before even getting into how much incoming players will help.
1. What do we get out of the Center position. Was Whalley's end of season performance an aberration or what we're getting going forward? If the former, can a leaner Carlton go back to how he finished his Soph year and improve on that? And if we're thin at the 4, can they play together effectively?
2. Tyler Polley almost certainly will play this year, but does he have full confidence in the knee? And if so, is he the player we saw in his last game, or just a spot up 3 specialist who has to fight for minutes with Bouk playing the 3 for large portions of the game.
3. What of Akok? I still doubt he can be the athlete he was the first half of last year, but even if he is the undeniable truth is the team played better without him than it did with him because the offense we got with a smaller lineup more than offset the loss of Akok's defense.
And that's even before getting into whether Hurley has made the right bet on Cole and how much Springs and the true frosh give us. So rank us 15 or rank us 50 -- no reason to get upset about it. More question marks than usual about how many good pieces we have and how well they will fit together. I just hope there is a season and we get to see.
