Great Osobor emerges for men’s basketball as a leading scorer
Utah State men’s basketball fans have gotten to know a lot of new faces this season after the roster didn’t return a single player from the 2022-23 team who had minutes. At 6’8” and 250 pounds, junior forward Great Osobor has been impossible for viewers to miss.
Born in Spain, Osobor played high school basketball in England and fell in love with the sport, quickly setting his sights on competing at the highest level possible.
Even though most people don’t view England as a country that places a high priority on basketball, the competitiveness helped Osobor develop his game.
“In England, basketball is growing a lot. It’s really getting competitive now,” Osobor said. “I played for the Bradford Dragons until I was 16 and then I went to Myerscough Basketball Academy. That’s where I kind of like, I will say, I ‘blew up.’ I had really good years, and then schools started noticing.”
© CWild Photography Great Osobor dunks the ball against UC Irvine on Dec. 2.
Osobor spent the first two years of his collegiate career at Montana State before following head coach Danny Sprinkle to Logan. When Sprinkle took the job at USU, Osobor had some initial hesitations about leaving Bozeman.
“I wasn’t originally going to enter the portal. I was mad. I was like, ‘Sprinkle is leaving me,’” Osobor said. “Then after I calmed down, I knew that if I was going to leave Montana State and that great situation I had there, then I’m going to follow my coach wherever, and I’m grateful he’s at Utah State because it’s awesome. The people here are really invested in the sport and are amazing.”
Last season, Osobor was named the Big Sky Conference Top Reserve and was the primary player off the bench for the Bobcats. At USU, he’s being relied on more, playing over 33 minutes per game — up from 18.9 the previous season.
The increase in minutes has also led to a significant increase in production. After his performance against UC Irvine, Osobor is averaging 20.5 points per game and 9.6 rebounds per game, both tying for 27th in the country and leading the Aggies.
Sprinkle sees Osobor’s increase in statistics as a natural side-effect of his development.
“Great is still only 20 years old — people don’t know that. I’ve got freshmen on our team who are older than Great,” Sprinkle said. “He’s still young in his development, and he’s just going to continue getting better. We saw that with his talent last year, you know, where he can get a rebound and push it, and he’s a really good passer. When he’s under control, he’s as good of a facilitator as we have.”
Graduate guard Darius Brown II said Osobor has made strides in his game to remain available on the floor.
“Great has always been capable,” Brown said. “Even last year, he was capable of doing all this. This year he’s getting opportunities and not fouling as much, which keeps him on the floor.”
Brown was one of Osobor’s teammates under coach Sprinkle at Montana State, and they are now roommates at USU. Brown said their close relationship off the floor has translated to success on the court.
“We talk about a lot of things, and we even watch games together,” Brown said. “We’re in the gym a lot together and that chemistry plays onto the court and we can talk to each other about anything on the court. I understand him, he understands me and it makes the relationship easier.”
One reason Osobor was not able to see the floor as much last year is Sprinkle had Big Sky Player of the Year Jubrile Belo on the same roster. Osobor credits Belo for helping him learn and become a better player as a result.
“I got to watch how he played and what he was doing right. I like to apply that to myself. I’m a different type of player, but like, he does a lot of really good things and the coaching staff has put me in a position to be successful,” Osobor said.
One of the early challenges the team has faced is having such little time to develop chemistry on the court. Besides Brown and Osobor, no other two Aggies have shared the floor during a regular season game. Brown credits the early success to their teammates and the collective buy-in from the team while also having a good relationship off the court.
“Everybody likes each other, and nobody’s afraid to speak up and say what’s on their mind about what needs to be done,” Brown said. “Everybody does things together. We go get food all the time together, just little things like that make everybody more likable towards each other. It makes everything easier on the floor to communicate.”
Osobor has also been impressed with the collective buy-in and focus on winning he’s seen from his teammates.
“Obviously, you go to a new team and you have to try to account for egos or whatever and everyone wanting to be the guy. But I feel like in our team, we are very unselfish,” Osobor said. “Everyone’s really just about winning right now. Everyone knows their role and is willing to sacrifice to win.”
The Aggies have done a lot of winning early on in the season including taking first place in the Cayman Islands Classic, in large part thanks to massive performances from Osobor.