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This UConn men’s basketball newcomer reminds Dan Hurley of an old comic book character
- Story by
- This UConn men’s basketball newcomer reminds Dan Hurley of an old comic book character
STORRS – Since Dan Hurley's first national championship season, when he had the trusty Adama Sanogo starting at center and future lottery pick Donovan Clingan behind him, the "two-headed monster" has been a staple of UConn's roster construction.
After one graduates or leaves for the NBA, the next one steps up for their turn to start.
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It was Sanogo and Clingan, then Clingan and Samson Johnson to go back-to-back before Johnson moved into the starting role with Tarris Reed Jr. transferring in behind him in 2024-25. Reed entered the starting lineup as a senior and carried a heavy load to lead the Huskies back to the Final Four last year before he was taken in the first round of the NBA Draft. By then, his backup, freshman Eric Reibe , decided he would transfer across the country to USC.
So, with Dwayne Koroma's eligibility expiring, too, Hurley and his staff had to rebuild the center position from nothing.
They acted fast, signing Na'jai Hines from Seton Hall, a relatively known commodity from his strong freshman season in the Big East. A few weeks later, they added 6-foot-11, 240-pound Belgium native Oskar Giltay, who saw time in 32 games as a freshman at Stanford last year but averaged just 3.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in 14.6 minutes.
"I've been really impressed with Oskar," Hurley said this week. "Obviously we believe that Mr. Hines, when he gets where we need him to be, is going to be a real, massive problem for opponents. But you look around the roster, we've got two centers that we're really high on, especially what Oskar's turning into. … I love what Oskar's doing right now."
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UConn largely built its roster before the 5-for-5 rule was passed, when the pool of options in the transfer portal was considerably smaller. So the Huskies had to act relatively quickly to fill those center spots.
"When the NCAA told us what the rules were for putting a roster together, the players that were available to us based on who we were told were going to be eligible, based on the rules we were given by the NCAA that tell us what we can and can't do, we knew that second center at the minimum was gonna be a guy that was going to be potentially unproven," Hurley said.
"It just wasn't a lot of options. And out of those options, just watching Oskar's film, we felt like we absolutely had to get Oskar in here. We just felt the tools, athletic ability, more of a movement center than Na'jai, but rim protection, rebounding, as a guy that could do a great job defensively in the ball screen game with the way that we play it, and then can get off ball screens quickly at the offensive end to compliment Na'jai."
Meanwhile, Giltay had only known Hurley through TikTok compilations , videos that showed his sideline intensity – insanity, at times. But as the relationship grew, he connected with the role Hurley and his staff would be asking of him, one similar to what he had been used to while learning the game in Europe.
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"I think his numbers, his points per game and rebounds, were pretty low, but the analytics were very high," Hurley said. "The guy's about 25 pounds stronger… He literally looks like 'He-Man.' And the reason I know what He-Man looks like and what Oskar looks like is because I liked He-Man when I was a kid. He looks like He-Man, though, if you put a picture of him next to He-Man, and he's like jacked, he's got these wide shoulders. And the fact that him and Na'jai are both 19 years old, is that scary? I mean, we obviously, as coaches, see the upside."
