WEST HAVEN — Najimi George was working with his father on a construction project in New Jersey when the word made its way out there.
“When I found out from my dad, he told me, I was in shock,” George said. “It was a dream come true, to play Division I.”
George, a 6 foot 4 guard, and a Bridgeport native who played at Kolbe Cathedral, came to the University of New Haven as a Division II player, and had a promising freshman season, averaging 19 minutes, 8.1 points, 3.2 rebounds in 2024-25. In one stroke, last May 1, the Chargers accepted an invitation to move up and join the NEC, and after a hectic offseason are ready to dive in — or at least they will dive in, ready or not, into the mad, mad world of big time college basketball.
“You can’t go anywhere on campus without someone saying,’ good luck against UConn,’” coach Ted Hotaling said.
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New Haven plays its first Division I game on Monday at UConn, then plays Columbia and Penn State at home. You read that right, the Big Ten’s Nittany Lions are coming to West Haven on Nov. 8 to play in the school’s 1,000-seat Hazell Center, where major renovations will soon start.
“A lot of the guys have been very enthusiastic about the opportunities, so we’ve had a very good fall,” Hotaling said. “A lot of Division I programs have a lot of new players, we have a lot of new players, all really good guys, have been receptive to coaching and gelled well and they’re really excited about this new venture we’re undertaking.”
Hotaling set about finding players to accept this unique challenge, of moving up without much of a transition period. He honored the scholarships offered to four who had committed to the Division II program, believing they can develop into mid-major, D-1 talents. He mined the transfer portal for players looking to be part of something historic, like junior Jabri Fitzpatrick, transfer from Felician, a D-II school in East Rutherford, N.J..
“Coach fought tooth and nail for me to get here,” Fitzpatrick said. “At the end of the day I wanted to go somewhere where I was wanted. It’s historic and I just want to start it off on the right foot. I’m going to work day in and day out to try to get myself and these guys in the right position so we can start it off right.”
Senior guard Kheni Briggs came with D-I experience at Albany, junior forward Stefano Faloppa, originally from Italy, came in from Tennessee-Martin. UNH also has 11 freshmen, several from Connecticut.
“The mentality we need is to get better individually, get better as a team,” Fitzpatrick said, “and every time you come on the court to get better, have that urge to get better. Come in with effort, come in with a willingness to pay attention, to learn and grasp the little details Coach is trying to put in.”
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Hotaling, 53, an assistant at Yale and Eastern Kentucky before taking over at UNH in 2010, has taken his program to five NCAA D-II Tournaments, reaching the Elite Eight in 2023. He sees New England prep schools as a good place to start looking for talent.
“First and foremost, we wanted good people that were excited about the challenge,” Hotaling said. “Then we were looking for talent that fits our coaching style, the style of play we’re going to have. But first and foremost is people, because you’ll have a people problem before you have a basketball problem.”
Once he assembled his roster, it was largely a normal summer and autumn at New Haven.
“Once you find out you’re going (to Division I) you’re just going to do your job the same as you’ve done it,” he said. “People think you have to do different things now that you’re Division I, but you still have to show up for work every day, put in the hours, be a great practice team, great recruiters, you just have to do it at a level where the competition is maybe resourced a little better. It’s business as usual, it’s just new business.”
From coaches he’s spoken to, who have made the transition, Hotaling believes much of what his program has been doing at Division II can translate to the NEC. “So your (small forward) may have to be 6-6 instead of 6-5, your four man might have to be 6-8 instead of 6-6, but you’re going to kind of gather that information as you go.”
Among NEC schools, New Haven is one of the vast majority, along with Central Connecticut, to opt out of the NCAA revenue-sharing process. They will get roughly $90,000 from UConn for this game, one of three the Huskies, ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll, will play against mid-majors to start the season. New Haven AD Devin Crosby nailed down the date with Penn State, believed to be the first time a Big Ten men’s team will play on the road against an NEC opponent.
“Playing Penn State here? Sheesh,” George said. “Everything just happened so fast. Over the summer, I would not have said ‘we would be playing Penn State at home.’”
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UNH will eventually have to travel there. The Chargers have also have road games at Seton Hall, Boston College and Vanderbilt in the first D-1 out-of-conference schedule.
But on both sides of the Boston Post Road, the main thoroughfare straddled by the sprawling campus, the buzz is about playing Dan Hurley’s Huskies, Alex Karaban, Solo Ball, and all the rest. For most, if not all the players, packed Gampel Pavilion, with more than 10,000, will be the largest crowd of their lives. There will be busses to get fans up to Storrs to see the Chargers let it fly.
“The culture that’s developing here is just being an every-day guy,” George said. “Just to come in every day and go 110 percent. I hope that after they watch our first Division I game, they’re going to say, ‘Damn, these guys are tough to beat, these guys are going to play hard no matter what.’ Whether we’re up 20 or down 20. Going to play UConn, being a Connecticut guy, it’s a dream come true. I’ve been following UConn since I was a little kid. Can’t wait.”
