Winding college career brings 'Big' John Hugley IV back to the 'Burgh

A mountain of a man with an adoring smile emerged Tuesday from the summer basketball workout at Duquesne’s UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse and cheerfully greeted a curious onlooker.

“Can I call you ‘Big John?’ ” the visitor inquired.

To which John Hugley IV responded: “Sure can.”

Wait, are we talking about John Hugley, the former Pitt big man?

Yep, this was the same guy.

Three years after leaving Pitt, where he spent three seasons playing for coach Jeff Capel in the ACC, Hugley is back in town in the Atlantic 10 after second-year Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III plucked him from the NCAA transfer portal.

The 6-foot-11, 270-pound Cleveland native, a former all-ACC honorable mention at Pitt who spent the past two seasons in the Big 12 at Oklahoma and the Big East at Xavier, seemingly couldn’t be happier.

“I love Pittsburgh. This is a second home for me,” Hugley said. “It’s just like my home in Cleveland. I want to come here to live one day. But, you know, when it’s time for the (Cleveland) Browns to come in town, I can’t go against my team. Besides that, I love Pittsburgh to death. I’ve made great friends here, great experiences here, met great teammates here.

“Just happy to be here.”

Hugley’s arrival on campus has excited Joyce, who has rebuilt Duquesne’s roster mainly through the portal with the hope of returning the Dukes to their championship form of two seasons ago, when they won just their second A-10 title and gave their long-suffering fans a rare thrill with the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid in 47 years.

“It’s huge having John here,” said Joyce, a former high school star in Akron, Ohio. “His experience is something I can’t take credit for. He’s seen basketball at some high levels. He’s been coached by some great ones — Jeff Capel, Porter Moser (Oklahoma), Sean Miller (Xavier). These guys have coached deep into March Madness. They’ve had No. 1-ranked teams at times. He comes from that stock of seeing basketball played at a high level, and it does wonders for our team.”

Joyce’s team is coming off a disappointing 13-19 season in his first year following the retirement of former coach Keith Dambrot.

Hugley, meanwhile, is no stranger to Joyce, a big reason they clicked.

“I’ve known (Hugley) since he’s been in high school,” Joyce said. “His high school coach, Chet Mason, and I are great friends. We came up playing basketball together. I’ve known John for a while now, and when you talk about the transfer portal, sometimes those are things that come into play.”

While not everything went as planned at Pitt, the smile remained with Hugley on an early July morning, months away from the start of another college hoops season.

He shrugged at the notion of playing again in a town where his college career began. This time, he will suit up in the city’s Bluff section, a short distance from the Oakland neighborhood that is home to Pitt.

“To be honest,” Hugley said, “I never in a million years envisioned playing here at Duquesne.”

But there he was, standing inside “The Coop” and talking about lifting Duquesne’s program to another level and returning the Dukes to the NCAA Tournament.

“A couple of winning seasons, a couple of tournament appearances, and then, ‘Boom!’ Duquesne is back on the map,” said Hugley, whose best college season was in 2021-22 at Pitt, when he started 31 of 32 games and averaged 14.8 points and 7.9 rebounds. “That’s what I’m here to try to do. To bring joy back to the university, bring joy back to Pittsburgh. It’s not only just Pitt basketball here. I feel like we’re going to make a strong example this year.”

Much like the Duquesne team that won 26 games two seasons ago and the Robert Morris squad of last season that also collected 26 wins and a trip to the “Big Dance.”

“Knowing that the drought that this program has been through has put a lot of fire in my system to bring it back to the top,” Hugley said, referring to Duquesne’s decades-long stretch of futility. “Another 20-plus win season (the Dukes posted back-to-back records of at least 20 wins under Dambrot in 2023-24 and ‘24-25) and get to the (NCAA) Tournament again. That’s the biggest thing for this program — just setting the record straight that we are no pushover.

“This is a high-major program, and the way coach Dru runs things is very high major-like. I feel like once we get out there, we’re going to shock the world, and I feel like we can compete with anybody in the country.”

It would be a major source of pride for Hugley to end his college career with a flurry at Duquesne, especially after a disappointing season at Xavier a year ago, when he averaged just 9.9 minutes in 34 games for the Musketeers.

Injuries and personal issues, at times, have plagued Hugley.

He was suspended for a period during his freshman year at Pitt after his involvement in an alleged car theft in Oakland but was reinstated by Capel when prosecutors withdrew the charges and the case was expunged from his record.

Then, after a breakout sophomore season, Hugley suffered a setback the following year when he was injured during the preseason and struggled with mental health challenges during his recovery, leading to a withdrawal from the team.

“Love coach Capel. I’d call him right now and thank him for everything,” Hugley said. “He showed me how to be a man. He was like a father figure, a big brother.”

Now, it’s time for Hugley to show some love to coach Joyce, as well, he reckoned.

After all, Joyce is the one who said browsing the transfer portal is like “speed dating,” but that his encounter with Hugley was anything but.

“Our hometowns — he in Cleveland and me in Akron — are only 25-30 minutes apart,” Joyce said. “For John, being in this situation, with it being his final year, wanting to be successful and finding that success, I think knowing someone was huge for him. He kind of understood where I came from, what I’m about, and didn’t have to meet me. It was like I said, ‘I know you. I followed you through high school and your college career. I’ve cheered for you from a distance.’ ”

Joyce has made a special emphasis in the offseason on improving Duquesne’s interior play. He said he is expecting Hugley will be a key component to the plan.

“He’s going to play at a high level,” Joyce said, “but one of the things I really want John to do is be a great leader for our team. Throughout the summer, he’s done a really good job.”

Hugley’s unusual journey — he’s entering his sixth Division I season — has brought him to an unusual setting just minutes from where it began. His enthusiasm might be contagious.

“I want to give a special shoutout to coach Dru for just bringing me here and being able to compete with his guys,” Hugley said. “This is probably going to be one of the best teams I’ve played on in college. Coach Dru did a great job hitting the portal. With the additions, we’ve got depth, we’re very big, we’ve got guards, we’ve got athletic wings, we’ve got shooters all across the board. I feel like once we really get in and buy in and figure it out, we’re going to be one of the dangerous teams in the conference and in the country, honestly.”

In addition to the 6-11 Hugley, the Dukes also added several other big men, including 6-10, 255-pound Stef van Bussel, who played one season each at Saint Louis and Charleston; 6-9, 240-pound Serb Lazar Milosevic, who arrived in America for the first time Tuesday; and 6-10 freshman Frederik Jellum, to go along with returning 6-9 senior David Dixon and 6-8 junior Jakub Necas.

“We have some depth at that position,” Joyce said. “With our style of play, we wanted to really establish an inside presence around the rim, especially from the offensive side of the ball. Our depth at the 4 and 5s is really good. We’ll see how it plays out throughout the season.”