WKU Basketball: Nick Ongenda to Depaul, Tops now at Scholarship Limit for 2019–20

With last week’s news of Jordan Rawls being officially added to the WKU Basketball roster, the Tops had one more player than available…

Photo from Jon Lopez

With last week’s news of Jordan Rawls being officially added to the WKU Basketball roster, the Tops had one more player than available scholarships on the 2019–20 roster. On Monday afternoon that logjam cleared as incoming freshman center, Nick Ongenda announced that he is now heading to Depaul

As you can see in the tweets above, Ongenda has followed former WKU assistant coach Marc Hsu to the windy city. Ongenda was a high three to four-star prospect that was initially a coup when he reclassified to the 2019 class.

He signed with WKU during the November signing period so no word if he’ll be eligible to play this season or will have to sit out for the Blue Demons. He was primarily recruited by Hsu and with Charles Bassey’s return, playing time was expected to be limited for the 6'11 Canadian prospect. He would have to earn playing time from Charles Bassey, Tolu Smith, Carson Williams, Marek Nelson & Isiah Cozart all competing for minutes at the low post positions.

WKU was at 14 scholarships and this may have been in the works for a while, especially since he hadn’t appeared in any of the workout pictures that WKU has been releasing over the past month. While losing a prospect of his stature hurts for depth and future talent he was definitely more a project (especially offensively) than recent big men commits like Bassey and Mitchell Robinson.

With Ongenda’s departure, here is where WKU roster now stands heading into the 2019–20 season.

1. Jared Savage — Senior (Forward)

2. Camron Justice- Senior (Guard)

3. Kenny Cooper- Senior (Guard)

4. Taveion Hollingsworth — Junior (Guard)

5. Josh Anderson — Junior (Guard)

6. Carson Williams — Junior (Forward)

7. Marek Nelson — Junior (Forward)

8. Charles Bassey — Sophomore (Center)

9. Tolu Smith — Sophomore (Forward)

10. Jeremiah Gambrell — Sophomore (Guard^)

11. Isiah Cozart — Freshman (Forward)

12. Jackson Harlan — Freshman (Guard)

13. Jordan Rawls- Freshman (Guard)

Walk On — Patrick Murphy — Junior (Guard)

^Gambrell could get a medical redshirt due to injuries in 2018–19

Update

BG Daily News beat writer, Elliott Pratt confirmed that WKU has released Ongenda from his letter of intent allowing him to be eligible at Depaul for the 2019–20 season.