3/24/2024 basketball Edit

Hotly Pursued Center Cliff Omoruyi on UConn's Transfer Portal Radar

Zach Smart • UConnReport

Hoops Recruiting Analyst

UConn Basketball transfer guard Cam Spencer (14.5 PPG, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists 48 percent FG, 44 percent 3FG) has relished his role as a deadly three-point shooter and emotional leader this season.

Spencer, who has expanded in every component of his game while putting up well rounded numbers in his fifth collegiate season, has been an integral ingredient in UConn's NCAA tournament run and recent Big East tournament championship.

Tristen Newton, one of the most dynamic passers in college basketball who has shown NBA 3-point range and a prolific scoring acumen, is also playing the best basketball of his life. Newton is averaging 15.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 6.1 assists while quarterbacking a high powered offense known for its fluid ball movement, as he piled up 19 assists in the final two games of the Big East tournament.

Both players have been highly productive mainstays for a UConn team that has gone 32-3 following a thorough, 91-52 bludgeoning of Stetson during the first round of the NCAA tournament's East Region. Both players were named to the First Team All Big East, with Newton recently named as a First Team All American.

And, both players are transfers--Spencer from Rutgers and Newton from East Carolina--who have found the most meaningful roles of their career under Dan Hurley.

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UConn has adapted to the current landscape of college basketball by thriving with proven, veteran experience and utilizing guys who have played at big stages before as end game deliverers and clutch scorers. While UConn hasn't prioritized the transfer portal at the same frantic rate as other Big East programs have and they continue to register its presence on the seemingly left for dead high school recruiting market, the Huskies have had success with the portal.

The success of Spencer and Newton, along with last year's national championship and the pursuit of back to back titles this season are intriguing selling points to any highly proven player entering its name in the portal. Though Hurley has his own beliefs about the transfer portal and is not in favor of it being open at this time of year, the Huskies are a viable basketball factory which has and will continue to nurture the development of transfer talent.

And so, as Rutgers transfer Clifford Omoruyi weighs the market following a productive senior season at Rutgers in which he averaged 10.3 points and 8.3 boards and 2.9 blocks, the Huskies have surfaced as a potential hardwood home for one of the country's most hotly pursued transfer bigs. A 6-foot-11, 240-pound behemoth, Omoruyi has a MMA fighter build that would be tailor-cut for the physical, black and blue marked Big East conference. As a rim protector and a thunderous, extravagant above-rim finisher and transition finisher, Omoruyi possesses the integral intangibles as a catch and post threat with rarefied athleticism at his size.

With his powerful finishing ability and how he embraces contact, Omoruyi would fill an immediate need for UConn as a traditional big. The Huskies have had success with transcendent interior talents such as Emeka Okafor, 7-foot-3 Hasheem Thabeet, 6-foot-9 bruiser Jeff Adrien, Josh Boone, Hilton Armstrong, and myriad others. This season, 7-foot-2 Center and local Connecticut product Donovan Clingan has been a consistent threat, as he is averaging 12.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks. Clingan is averaging 20.2 points and 12 rebounds during the last two games for the Huskies, as he is playing up to the potential he oozes of as a projected Top-10 2024 NBA draft pick.

With Clingan NBA-bound, there is the opportunity for a meaningful interior role for Omoruyi. Playing a prominent role on a program that has had as much success as anyone int the last two seasons should intrigue Omoruyi, who will bring a wealth of experience for his fifth collegiate season.

Since entering his name into the portal, Omoruyi has heard from the Huskies, Alabama, Oregon, USC, Kansas State, St. John's, Florida, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Miami, Villanova, LSU, Villanova, Georgetown, Auburn, and a handful of others.

UConn has several bigs it continues to nurture the development of. Youssouf Singare, a 7-foot-1 Center with high efficiency scoring, length, and shot-blocking, should adapt to a more significant role after playing sparingly as a freshman this season. Samson Johnson, a high-flying 6-foot-10 junior who has shown flashes (16 points against St. John's, 12 points against Xavier, 15 points and eight boards against Texas), should also be back and play a critical role in the trenches.

Yet today's college landscape is predicated on one-year stays and instant impact success from the transfer market. Omoruyi would add to a winning culture and solidify the frontine instantly while authoring an intriguing final chapter of his long career at UConn. He's slated for a visit to St. John's on Monday.

With St. John's bidding adieu to a veritable walking double double in 6-foot-11 center Joel Soriano, who recently played his final collegiate game, Omoruyi would have the opportunity to come in and fill an immediate void in New York City.