The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Giffey to play in Calhoun charity game for first time
UConn’s 2011 and 2014 national championships aren’t that big a deal in Niels Giffey’s hometown of Berlin.
Berlin, Germany, that is. In Berlin, Connecticut — and any other town in the Nutmeg State, for that matter — those two national titles that bookended Giffey’s college career still resonate quite a bit.
“Every time I come back to Connecticut and see friends and family over here, it’s more a topic for them,” said Giffey, who averaged 8.4 points and hit 48.3 percent of his 3-pointers on that 2014 team. “People are so invested in college sports and UConn and (those runs). Lots of people that went to school with us at that time, they usually have a little story to tell that’s connected to that. It’s a cool thing.”
Giffey will be back in the Nutmeg State on Friday when he takes part in the Jim Calhoun Charity All-Star Basketball Game at 7 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena. It’s the first time he’ll play in the biennial event. In the past, Giffey has been preoccupied with the German National Team’s preseason schedule.
“For sure, I’m excited to be there,” he said by phone earlier this week. “I’ll have the chance to be part of the event, play with some of the guys. I heard Shabazz (Napier) and Boat (Ryan Boatright) will be there, too.”
They will be, along with many of the players that have donned a UConn uniform over the past 30 years. Ray Allen, Caron Butler, Rudy Gay and Charlie Villanueva are all expected to attend. Andre
Drummond is a possibility, as is Kemba Walker, who may have an NBA-oriented commitment that could keep him away. Giffey’s 2014 national championship teammates, Amida Brimah and Kentan Facey are expected to be there. For the second time, many former UConn women’s players will participate, as well.
Giffey’s stay in Connecticut won’t be long. He’ll fly in on Thursday and return to Germany on Saturday. But it won’t be his first trip back to his adoptive home state. In fact, he was just here a few weeks ago visiting the family of his fiancée, Erin Dinnan, who hails from Southington and whom Giffey met while the two were at UConn.
In fact, during that recent visit, Giffey had a chance to do dinner with another key component of that 2014 national title team. Fella named Kevin Ollie.
“I just had a really good talk with him, told him I really appreciate everything he did, the opportunities he gave me,” Giffey reported. “He did everything fullhearted. He had his own personal battles. At the end of the day, it’s a business, I guess, but that doesn’t change anything about the type of person he is.”
Ollie, of course, was fired as UConn’s head coach on March 10 after two straight embarrassing, losing seasons. He has been invited to take part in Friday night’s game, but it would seem unlikely he’ll attend. Ollie is in the midst of fighting UConn for the more than $10 million left on his contract — a subject Giffey didn’t broach over dinner.
“You know what, I didn’t really bother bringing that whole conversation up,” he said. “It’s not really what I was interested in hearing from him.”
Giffey’s memories of his UConn tenure are overwhelmingly positive. He arrived on campus a gangly kid from Germany, a bit unsure of himself (and his shot), battled inconsistencies and lack of playing time and eventually emerged as a confident, dead-eye shooter his senior season — following a summer playing for his national team for the first time.
“That really helped me out,” he recalled. “I came back with more confidence in my game than just shooting. I just wanted to make the most out of everything we had that last year.”
Mission accomplished. With Napier leading the way but Giffey, Boatright, Brimah, Facey, DeAndre Daniels, Lasan Kromah and others playing key roles, the Huskies overcame a few blips during the regularseason en route to an improbable run as a No. 7 seed to the program’s fourth national title, beating Kentucky in the championship game.
His best memories? Beating Iowa State and Michigan State in the East Regionals at Madison Square Garden (“That was such a homecourt advantage”), and returning to AT&T Stadium, where Ollie had taken the team on a tour in early January, sandwiched between league-opening losses at Houston and SMU.
“We had a little downward spiral,” Giffey recalled. “Despite that, (Ollie) took us to the stadium, showed us where the Final Four was gonna be played. That was a cool moment, walking through that same arena again three months later.”
Of course, Giffey — along with Napier and Tyler Olander — is one of the few players to win a pair of national titles. Giffey made some nice contributions as a frosh on the 2011 title team that was dominated by Kemba Walker (with some help from Jeremy Lamb, Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith, Napier and others) and, of course, coached by Calhoun.
“He definitely gave me something a little deeper,” Giffey said of the Hall of Fame coach, “a new mindset that I wasn’t used to, that I didn’t know back in Germany, that kind of ‘dog’ mentality where you go and overpower people. Not only outplay, but outwill them. He kinda personifies that.”
Since graduating from UConn, Giffey has played for Alba Berlin, a first-level team in the Basketball Bundesliga. The team also plays in the EuroCup, where he averaged 7.2 points per game last season and emerged as a team captain.
Giffey, who originally signed a three-year contract and is entering the final year of a two-year extension, has played against Boatright, as well as former Florida standouts Scottie Wilbeken and Patric Jones (both of whom he helped vanquish in the 2014 Final Four). One of his current teammates is Peyton Siva, whom Giffey and the Huskies didn’t have as much success against when Siva was at Louisville.
“Let’s just say I prefer playing with him than against him,” Giffey said.
On Friday night, it’s all about playing with — and against — former teammates and fellow players with whom he shares a unique bond as a UConn alum.
“I’m pumped,” Niels Giffey said. “It will be a great night.”