HARTFORD — Na’jai Hines and Oskar Giltay, the new duo of big men, were both vital transfer portal pickups for the No. 4 UConn men’s basketball team. Both Hines and Giltay had their hands too far in the cookie jar during the team’s first two exhibition games.
Giltay fouled out of the first game against Syracuse and picked up four fouls in the second contest against No. 6 Michigan State. Hines was called for three fouls against Syracuse and fouled out against the Spartans. They responded during Tuesday’s exhibition against Purdue by showing far more discipline than in the first two matchups.
Both centers had the assignment of Purdue’s center Daniel Jacobsen, who comes in at a towering 7-feet-4-inches. Jacobsen has a five-inch size advantage over both Hines and Giltay; however, that didn’t seem to faze them. Jacobsen in the first half picked up just one rebound and three points compared to the 10 points and seven rebounds combined from UConn’s bigs.
They both showed up to the challenge as they finished the night, combining for 21 points, 10 rebounds and only five fouls. Both centers got the UConn crowd on its feet after they had numerous stops on the defensive end and several slam dunks offensively.
Hines earned the start and couldn’t get the opening tip over Jacobsen. At first, it appeared that Hines was going to lose the matchup overall, as the Boilermaker center scored his first shot over Hines after backing him down to the rack. On the other end, Hines attempted to do the same, but his shot was sent back effortlessly by Jacobsen. Just a minute later, Hines picked up his first foul, which was an avoidable one as Jacobsen got the Seton Hall transfer to leave his feet early. This forced Dan Hurley to shift to his backup in Giltay at the 16:30 mark.
Giltay came in and was a force right away, making two post hooks with ease, one of which over Jacobsen and the other over the forward Caden Pierce. Although it cannot come up in the box score, Giltay performed an amazing seal screen to give Colben Landrew a walk-in layup. Giltay checked out of the game at the 10:59 mark, finishing the brief stint with four points and no fouls.
During Hines’ second appearance in the first half, he picked up his second questionable foul that was up at midcourt, a blocking foul on one of Purdue’s guards. He finished the half with four points and four boards.
Giltay finished the first 20 minutes scoring six points on three-of-four shooting and three rebounds, again without fouling. He was aggressive offensively, finding mismatches quickly, one of which was set up by a thunderous rejection that put the Huskies on a fast break.
Hines looked much more comfortable in the second half, despite a rougher first couple of minutes. Hines was scored on by Jacobsen, then missed a heavily contested shot. Although it was not the best start, he followed it up a few minutes later with a ferocious putback slam after a missed three-pointer by Braylon Mullins. He followed it up on the ensuing possession, threading a pass from the top of the key to Landrew, who was cutting for a backdoor layup that extended UConn’s lead to 16.
Hines checked out of the game for three minutes and when he checked back in, he threw down a slam, resulting in an and-one.
Tuesday’s win proved that the Huskies have two dominant big men; they just need to stay out of foul trouble. The championship-winning teams UConn has seen have had reliable centers, who Hurley has referred to as two-headed monsters. Hines and Giltay have the potential to anchor another UConn team that can make a deep run in March.