Consider this a warning, a missive to the rest of the Big East. UConn is back and it intends to reclaim its throne.

It had been a quiet offseason for Danny Hurley and Co.

The Huskies had landed one piece since the season ended, in Rhode Island transfer wing Tyrese Martin, but whiffed on several top targets. They made major noise Tuesday morning, coming into Seton Hall’s backyard and landing four-star forward Adama Sanogo, a talented and skilled top-50 big man from The Patrick School (NJ), who most experts felt was going to be a Pirate or attend Maryland. Seton Hall seemed to have the inside track, considering its strong relationship with Sanogo’s high school. Newcomer Bryce Aiken played there. So did former Seton Hall star Angel Delgado and assistant coach Grant Billmeier. Sanogo also was a frequent attendee at the Prudential Center this past season.

It didn’t matter. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Sanogo is headed to Storrs and is reclassifying into the 2020 class, significantly improving an already strong freshmen class for Hurley. That group also includes four-star, top-75 wing Andre Jackson and three-star center Javonte Brown-Ferguson.

Considering UConn will return promising freshman guard James Bouknight and contributing forwards Tyler Polley, Josh Carlton and Isaiah Whaley — and add sit-out transfer point guard RJ Cole, a high-level scorer in two years at Howard — a top-five finish in the league would seem likely. A top-three finish isn’t out of the question.

Sanogo nearly picked Seton Hall, his high school coach Chris Chavannes said in a phone interview. A few weeks ago, Chavannes said Sanogo told him he was going to Seton Hall and was surprised when his star player told him about his change of heart. Sanogo said he felt UConn could help him get to the NBA quicker, perhaps thinking more of the Huskies’ lineage – Ray Allen, Rudy Gay and Kemba Walker are alums — than what they have done recently.

It makes you wonder if Sanogo would still be headed to Storrs had UConn not been getting ready to join the Big East. Jackson, the top-75 recruit, has said the new conference gave UConn a late boost in his recruitment that put them over the top. Would Sanogo have passed on the Big East and the Big Ten for the in-between AAC? It would seem unlikely. When the league added the Huskies, several coaches privately grumbled about the move, adding a public state school to a conference full of private Catholic institutions.

While it no doubt helps the conference to add a program of UConn’s ilk, improving its brand, northeast schools like Seton Hall, St. John’s and Providence may suffer. UConn can now land the kid it could not in the AAC. The conference opens doors that were previously closed. The Big East gave it a lifeline, an opportunity to return to relevance, to regain the swagger the program once had.

“From my own personal opinion, absolutely landing a kid like Adama who is highly ranked and going into the Big East, it could bring them back into prominence,” Chavannes said. “You’re making a little bit of a splash.”

Tuesday may just be the first ripple.