Adama Sanogo on His Former UConn Backup Donovan Clingan: 'This Kid's Really About It'
The former UConn center discusses the Trail Blazers' No. 7 overall pick, who battled with him for minutes on the 2023 national championship team.
📍 LAS VEGAS — At Donovan Clingan’s introductory press conference in late June, there was one name the Trail Blazers’ No. 7 overall pick brought up multiple times as having helped him significantly during his freshman season at UConn: that of Adama Sanogo, whom he backed up on the first of two national titles he won under Danny Hurley.
“I’ve played against the top of the top in practice,” Clingan said then. “My freshman year, Adama really prepared me. That was something that got me ready.”
Sanogo just finished his rookie NBA season on a two-way contract with the Bulls. I tracked him down after Chicago’s first Summer League game on Saturday, hours before Clingan’s own debut, to talk for a few minutes about what he saw at the beginning of Clingan’s college career.
The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: What were your first impressions of Donovan when you met him?
SANOGO: Before he got here, he used to come work out with us when he was still in high school. Since then, I’ve been like, ‘This kid’s really about it.’ He was one of the top players in high school, so for him to be coming in to work out with us, that was something I was impressed with.
Q: He told us after the draft that you were the one that helped him the most his freshman year.
SANOGO: I appreciate him saying that, but that’s just how we do it at UConn. When I first got there my freshman year, there were some guys that helped me out, like Isaiah Whaley. I was there before him, so when he got there, what those guys did for me, I felt like I had to do for him, too.
When I first got there, nothing was given to me. So I wanted to make sure nothing was given to him, either. We’re playing the same position, so we’ve got to for it. But at the same time, I’ve got to teach him the right things to do.
Q: Once he got there his freshman year, when did you first realize how good he could be?
SANOGO: When he was in high school working out with us, I was like, ‘You don’t have to do that. You can just stay home and chill.’ But he was coming in after school, texting me asking if I wanted to work out. He wanted to do that. There are aren’t a lot of kids that want it like that.
On the court, he’s not going to give up. He’s always going to find a way to impact the game. When we were first in practices together, I tried to make it hard for him. Push him around, make him give up. But that didn’t work. I’m pushing him, provoking him, trying to make him quit. After a little bit, I was like, ‘OK, this kid isn’t going to give up.’
I remember in the summer, we used to play one-on-one. He was freshman, I was a junior. The way he was coming at me, I went to Coach Hurley and said, ‘I think we’ve got one of those guys.’ It was great being teammates with him. That’s my guy.