Niels Giffey commits to UConn
by Kevin Meacham on Jun 18, 2010 1:16 PM EDT
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How many great people in history that you've heard of have been named Niels? I came up with one. Obviously, we all need a little more Niels in our lives.
Jim Calhoun has heard your pleas, and as such he has picked up an oral commitment from German ubersportler Niels Giffey, according to David Borges of the New Haven Register. The 6-7, 19-year-old from Berlin, who is visiting Storrs at the moment, picked UConn over Louisville, Michigan, Gonzaga and UCLA, citing UConn's great history of wing players, and specifically Ray Allen:
"I’m really excited to come to UConn," said Giffey, who speaks fluent English. "I knew that UConn has a great basketball history. Coach Calhoun is a Hall of Fame coach, they’ve had Ray Allen and plenty of great wings. I like that fact. It’s a good team, a great coaching staff. I really felt comfortable."
He may not have made made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922, but our Niels is obviously a very bright young man (although, do we really have a coaching "staff" at this point officially?). On the court, Giffey appears to be a pretty solid pickup.
He's 6-7, can play both guard or forward positions, and according to this scouting report (scroll down), he has a good long-range jumper and he can rebound. Seems like Giffey's got some talent - especially judging from the schools who were after him - and he'll get a chance to play right away, given the youth of the 2010-11 team.
Giffey fits into the roster following Calhoun's waiving of Darius Smith and Jamaal Trice, and barring any other moves (or NCAA sanctions), the Huskies are at their scholarship allotment now. He's the sixth member of UConn's freshman class, along with Roscoe Smith, SHABAZZ! Napier, Jeremy Lamb, Tyler Olander and Michael Bradley.
YouTube does have a Niels Giffey highlight video (from an account named Giffeynizer, which is phenomenal). Here it is:
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AWESOME!
And unexpected! Cal sees your Dirk Nowitzki, and raises you one Niels. I hope he lives off-campus. In Berlin, maybe? Check out the t-pike? Have a little Doogie’s H-Dogs?
In all seriousness, I like a) that UCLA, Louisville, and the Zags were after him too; b) his size (although there’s probably still nobody on this roster who can guard a decent-sized BE 2-guard); the versatility; the jumpshot and the Euro quick-release on that jumper; and the fact that he seemed in that video to be playing competition better than most U.S. high schools.
Is this Cal’s first European player? I think it is. Up until now it was just various places in Africa, and Israel (unless you count Madison Square Gordon as a Brit). First time’s the charm?
Excited to see him. Complete unknown.
Fold the football program, and deposit monies previously budgeted for said program into a savings account in Coach Calbertus Magnus's name.
Ben Eaves.
Forgot about him.
Second time’s the charm…?
Fold the football program, and deposit monies previously budgeted for said program into a savings account in Coach Calbertus Magnus's name.
There are some more stories and scouting reports on Giffey at EuropeanProspects.com, which I linked to above.
Learn more about the Giffeynizer here.
Orange Bowl/dual Final Fours or bust in 2011. We're going all-in.
One of those guys on Niels in an e-mail to Mike Anthony:
“He excelled in his team’s defensive zone press playing at the top, as well as on the 1-2-2 or 3-2 zone. He is not a great scorer, at least not a scoring-minded player. Good athlete for European standards, he should be OK on NCAA level.” (LINK)
First off, gotta cut the zone shit out; no asshole defensive schemes on this side of the wall, meester. Also, that’s probably the least exciting endorsement I’ve ever heard. Unless, of course, they consider Shawn Bradley OK as well.
Nevertheless, I love this signing in so many ways. Welcome aboard, Niels.
P.S.: To start off the nicknaming session, here are some suggestions to get the ball rolling:
Niels Davis
Niels River
Niels Griffey Jr.
Navy Niels
Incredibly high Nielsen rating
Or, Ubersportler, which is my fav.
by UConnBlog Justin on Jun 19, 2010 1:35 PM EDT up reply actions
OR, you can go by this awesome tidbit toward the end of Borges' latest blog post:
“***Giffey is said to have a great feel for the game and a high skill level.”
In other words: “Meaningless basketball jargon, meaningless basketball jargon, explosiveness, reach, meaningless basketball jargon, skills.”
by UConnBlog Justin on Jun 19, 2010 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Other nickname:
Or, the Berlin Wall. Can’t believe I missed that one.
by UConnBlog Justin on Jun 19, 2010 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions
i kinda like going with just...
The German
Mysterious, kind of intimidating, you can make up plenty of fake stories about The German’s feats among European basketball leagues.
His real name must be eliminated though, it’d be like finding out Hulk Hogan is really named Terry Bolea or Superman is Clark Kent. It would devastate The Germans followers to know his real name was _______.
I think the best part about the Giffeynizer
is that his experience in the zone press will lend some credibility to Calhoun when he does his annual “running and gunning” and “we’re gonna press a lot more than last year” spiel that lasts for about a week in October.
Orange Bowl/dual Final Fours or bust in 2011. We're going all-in.
by Kevin Meacham on Jun 19, 2010 11:24 PM EDT up reply actions
The thing that upsets me about this
is that his name is pronounced like the word “seals” instead of like the word “miles” … that greatly hurts the nickname opportunities.
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