NEW YORK — Kemba Walker won his NCAA championship as the point guard at UConn in 2011.
Shabazz Napier led the Huskies to the title in 2014.
Now Ryan Boatright is next up.
“Ain’t no getting around that,” Boatright, UConn’s lone senior, said Wednesday at the American Athletic Conference media day at the New York Athletic Club.
“I know it and everybody else knows it, that it’s my turn to lead the team. My main thing is winning another championship and I know that it’s gonna take everybody on my team from me all the way down to the practice players to do that.”
Boatright was named the American’s Preseason Player of the Year, while freshman wing Daniel Hamilton was named the Preseason Rookie of the Year. SMU’s Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy, Memphis’ Shaq Goodwin and Austin Nichols and Tulsa’s James Woodard joined Boatright on the first team,
UConn received 6 of 11 first-place votes and narrowly edged out SMU for the preseason No. 1 ranking in the conference poll.
But after the Huskies beat Kentucky last year to win the NCAA championship in head coach Kevin Ollie’s first year as coach, Boatright says he couldn’t care less about preseason polls.
“All we worried about is getting back to the Final Four, winning games, winning another championship,” Boatright said. “Everything else, it doesn’t matter.”
Boatright said as soon as the team returned from North Texas last April, they began focusing on preparing for another title.
“Soon as we got back we was talking about winning another championship,” Boatright said. “We won Monday night, it started Tuesday, getting your mind mentally prepared.”
Still, Boatright said he considered heading to the NBA but opted to remain on campus after speaking with Ollie.
Boatright knew the Lakers were interested in bringing Ollie in to coach the team and he was concerned his coach might leave for the NBA.
“Me just knowing as a person, it’s hard to turn down $12 million for a year,” Boatright said. “I didn’t have to ask him about it, I knew he was thinking about it. It’s $12 million.”
Added Boatright: “Honestly, if he would’ve left, I probably would’ve turned pro.”
Boatright said Ollie told him, “I’m not even thinking about it. You know I’m UConn made.”
“Once he told me that,” Boatright said, “I knew I was coming back to school.”
Ollie has a slightly different recollection of the conversation with Boatright.
“I don’t remember it went down that way,” he said. “I just remember I wasn’t talking about no Laker job, or Cleveland job or anything like that. I was recruiting.
“I remember bringing him into the office and going over all the information that I got from every general manager and the NBA does a great job [giving] back definitive information on where you’re going to get drafted at. And I gave him that information, he talked to his family…and he decided to come back. I was very pleased that he came back, I think he’s going to have a wonderful year.
“And I think he’s going to improve his draft stock. I think he’s going to improve as a basketball player, but most importantly he’s going to improve as a man.”
Now it’s Boatright’s turn to try to win an NCAA title as the point guard at UConn.
He’s got next.
OLLIE VISITS TUCKER, TALKS RECRUITING
Ollie used his visit to the New York area to stop in and see 6-7 2017 wing Jordan Tucker of Archbishop Stepinac in White Plains.
Now Tucker will take an unofficial to UConn on Sunday.
“He really likes me,” Tucker said. “He said I have a lot of talent.”
Tucker holds offers from UConn, Syracuse, Arizona and Villanova, among others.
UConn will also host 2015 big man Diamond Stone on an official Thursday. The 6-10 Stone is also considering Maryland, Oklahoma State and Wisconsin, where he visited last weekend.
“We got some official visits coming up,” Ollie said.
The Huskies are also in the mix for 6-5 Boo Williams guard Chris Clarke, who announces Thursday for either UConn, Creighton, Virginia Tech or Tennessee.
UConn is also in the final three for Roselle (N.J.) Catholic point guard Isaiah Briscoe, who’s down to UConn, Kentucky and St. John’s.
Ollie said recruiting had definitely opened up since winning the NCAA title
“They’re not hanging up the phone on me,” Ollie said.
FREE THROWS
Ollie said junior guard Omar Calhoun of Christ the King has a strained MCL and will miss 2-4 weeks. “I think he’s going to be back, hopefully in time for the season to start,” Ollie said.
AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE PRESEASON POLL
1. UConn
2. SMU
3. Memphis
4. Cincinnati
5. Tulsa
6. Temple
7. Houston
8. USF
9. UCF
10. East Carolina
11. Tulane
