By ADAM ZAGORIA
Nick “Stretch” Ongenda, a 6-foot-10 forward from Little Rock (AR) Southwest Christian, flipped to DePaul from Western Kentucky on Monday in the wake of a coaching move.
Marc Hsu moved to Dave Leitao’s staff at DePaul from Western Kentucky, and Ongenda then followed. Hsu replaces former Cornell head coach Bill Courtney.
Ongenda will reclassify and play for DePaul in 2019-20.
“Nick is a great addition to our roster for this season and he provides our team length and additional athleticism to the frontcourt,” said Leitao. “Adding a player of his caliber in July to our group of incoming players continues to add versatility to our roster that we set out to do last fall with the recruiting class and transfers to our program.”
A native of South Africa, he averaged 14 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Lions. Before reclassifying to the 2019 class, Ongenda was ranked No. 59 in the ESPN 100 and No. 106 by 247Sports for 2020. In the recruiting rankings for 2020, Ongenda is ranked among the nation’s top 30 centers and the top recruit from the state of Arkansas.
Ongenda joins DePaul’s nationally-ranked recruiting class of Markese Jacobs, Oscar Lopez and Romeo Weems along with transfers Carte‘Are Gordon and Charlie Moore. That group joins a returning core of BIG EAST Most Improved Player Paul Reed as well as Jaylen Butz, Devin Gage as DePaul looks to improve on its 19-win season a year ago.
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