With an already strong recruiting class coming in this upcoming season, DePaul men’s basketball head coach Dave Leitao added another player to the 2019-2020 roster on Monday. Nick Ongenda, a six-foot-10-inch center, will head to DePaul after previously committing to Western Kentucky. 

“Nick is a great addition to our roster for this season and he provides our team length and additional athleticism to the frontcourt,” Leitao said in a statement on Monday. “Adding a player of his caliber in July to our group of incoming players continues to add versatility to our roster that we set out to do last fall with the recruiting class and transfers to our program.”

Ongenda, a native of South Africa, ranked among the nation’s top centers for the 2020 recruiting class before reclassifying for the 2019 class. Last season, Ongenda averaged 14 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks per game at Southwest Christian Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Along with Ongenda, Leitao is reportedly adding another member to his coaching staff this season: Marc Hsu. Hsu is coming over from Western Kentucky, where Ongenda previously committed to, and will now serve as an assistant coach for the Blue Demons. He replaces former Cornell head coach Bill Courtney on Leitao’s staff. 

Ongenda now joins a DePaul team that has a top 30 recruiting class coming, their best since the 2007 season, and a team that is filled with multiple talented big men, which includes Paul Reed, Jaylen Butz and Carte’Are Gordon.