After much anticipation on his decision, Tristen Newton announced Wednesday morning that he’s staying at UConn for his fifth season instead of leaving for the NBA draft. Newton was the starting point guard on the National Championship winning Huskies this past year and has elected to use his extra year of eligibility from COVID-19.
The fifth year saw a dip in production coming from ECU to UConn, but that’s expected when you transfer from a bottom half of the country team to the national champions. He still managed to post good stats, notching 10 points per night to go along with 4.7 assists and 4.5 boards.
He seemed to only get more comfortable as the season went on too. After posting a 22 point triple double against Buffalo and playing well at the PK85, Newton had a lot of trouble putting things together and staying aggressive as the Huskies slumped.
Come mid-January, Newton began to find his groove a bit earlier than his teammates did, emerging from his rough stretch. This culminated in his triple double in a home blowout over No. 10 Marquette, a sign that he and the team were back. After that, Newton put forth some type of impact on every game, particularly as a passer.
As the NCAA tournament came around, the guard put his best foot forward, a big piece in getting the Huskies to the Final Four. Once at the biggest stage, he thrived, posting seven points, eight assists and five rebounds in the semifinal and 19 points, 10 boards and four assists in the championship game, warranting his placement on the All-Final Four team.
In Storrs next year, Newton projects to keep his role as the starting point guard. He has a similar play style to incoming freshman five-star Stephon Castle, so it’ll be interesting to see how the two do together on the court. With all the old pieces out and the new ones in, having Newton back presents senior leadership that could take the young team back to the promised land. Until then though, UConn country awaits today’s draft decision of Andre Jackson Jr., the team’s glue guy.
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