Dan Hurley explains choosing between UConn centers Donovan Clingan, Adama Sanogo

UConn head coach Dan Hurley has a great setup with at his five position with star big man Adama Sanogo and trusty freshman reserve Donovan Clingan.

Sanogo is the straw that stirs the drink of the Huskies team as the team leader in points and rebounds. But Clingan, the 7-foot-2 center, has been an excellent backup for when Sanogo needs a rest.

“Sometimes it’s matchups,” Hurley said. “Sometimes it’s guys got it going. It’s feel for the game. Foul trouble. There’s all those things that come into play.”

Sanogo was first-team All-Big East this season for the Huskies, the second consecutive year he has earned the honor. He currently averages 17.1 points and 7.1 rebounds on 60.2% shooting per game for UConn.

“When you have a center like Adama that has gotten better on the ball screen game but he’s a guy you could throw the ball in the low post to and the other team has to seriously think about trapping because he’s very hard to guard one-on-one in the post. He’s a physical positional rebounder and defender. He takes away your team’s low post offense because he’s hard to score on because he gets such great leverage, and we can bury you with him in the low post.”

Despite playing only 13.1 minutes per game, Clingan is fifth on the team in scoring with 7.1 points per game and 5.7 rebounds. He also has the best field goal percentage among regular rotation players at 65.5% and leads the team with 68 blocks.

His play earned him a spot on the Big East All-Freshman Team.

“Then you’ve got to deal with the 7-foot-2 guy [that] comes in who is just a ball screen and roll, and the 7-foot-2 guy is rolling to the rim and he’s a lob threat that teams can’t deal with because of the size. And now obviously it gets them to think paint. Now it opens up the 3-point line,” Hurley said.

Dan Hurley studied Matt Painter for best way to utilize Donovan Clingan, Adama Sanogo

One program that has had two high-level centers at the same time is Purdue, which last season had Zach Edey and Trevion Williams.

The talent for both players is evident when they were playing pretty much by themselves. Williams was an All-Big Ten first team member in 2021 while Edey is the favorite for each of the National Player of the Year awards this season.

But they had to sacrifice minutes and points when rotating last season. Looking at how Matt Painter did it with those two players gave Dan Hurley some ideas for how to work with Donovan Clingan and Adama Sanogo.

“I think what makes it work so well is why I tried to study a lot of Matt Painter, one of the best coaches in the country when he had Williams and he had the two-center attack,” Hurley said. “We really this summer tried to go to school on what some of that great coach was doing and that was really helpful.”