"I couldn't imagine coaching Donovan for 5 years": Dan Hurley compares 7'1" Ryan Kalkbrenner to Zach Edey and Donovan Clingan

Dan Hurley praised Bluejays' Ryan Kalkbrener before the UConn Huskies face Creighton on Saturday. The coach pointed out how the 7-foot-1 senior will be facing UConn's 5th set of bigs, commending the program for being able to hold on to him.

Hurley compared Kalkbrenner's unique skillset to Donovan Clingan, saying that he poses unique disruptions for the opposing teams. With that, he points a finger at the center's low mock draft rankings, saying that he is in a similar situation to that of Zach Edey last summer.

"We're literally on a fifth tandem of centers and it's just a rare player of his caliber," Dan Hurley said (Timestamp: 3:40). "I couldn't imagine coaching Donovan (Clingan) for five years or Adama (Sanogo).

"It's incredible for Creighton and their program to have a guy that should have been a first-round pick by now and gone. We shouldn't be still dealing with him but we are. I'll say the same things about him I said about Zach Edey last year when there was so many questions about where he was going to go in the draft, people didn't even have him mocking."

"And for how Ryan Kalkbrener is not a first-round pick, it blows my mind. He should be easily a top 20 pick, this guy causes rare problems for you defensively like Donovan did for us with other teams."

Kalkbrenner is one of the most efficient players. His 66.67% shooting ranks fifth on the NCAA leaderboard. The center is leading the Bluejays with 17.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.9 blocks (4th in the nation).

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Ryan Kalkbrenner's stats against Dan Hurley's UConn

Ryan Kalkbrenner has faced the UConn Huskies nine times in the last four years, winning seven of the contests. He averaged nearly seven points on 40% shooting while coming off the bench in his freshman season, matching up against Josh Carlton and Adama Sanogo.

He dropped four points in his first start against Dan Hurley's squad, following it up with his sophomore season-high 22 points a year later. Kalkbrenner faced his only loss to the Huskies while scoring nine points and facing Donovan Clingan for the first time in 2023. But redeemed himself in February with a 12-point winning outing.

UConn and Creighton battled twice last season (1-1), where Kalkbrenner's 12 points helped the Bluejays defeat the then-No. 1 Huskies in February. With that, Ryan Kalkbrener has averaged 10.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks with 61.2% shooting success against Dan Hurley's rosters.