The University of Hartford men's basketball team has signed point guard Andrew Ramirez (Madrid, Spain/Western Nebraska Community College) and forward Nikola Colovic (Belgrade, Serbia) to National Letters of Intent, head coach John Gallagher announced today.
 
The duo joins fellow signee Hassan Attia (Alexandra, Egypt/Colby Community College) in the Hawks signing class for the 2016-17 season.


 
"Our staff has put together an incoming class that will turn heads right away next year and for the next few years of our program," Gallagher said. "Each of the three brings a different dimension, and combined with the strong core we already had coming back, this group is poised to make a run at the America East Championship."
 
Ramirez will have three years of eligibility remaining when he joins the Hawks program. He had his year at WNCC cut short due to injury, but in his 12 games (eight starts) he averaged 9.7 points, 3.1 assists and 2.8 rebounds. He also shot .439 from beyond the three-point arc in helping WNCC to an 8-4 start. Included in that was a win over the top-ranked team in the nation, the College of Southern Idaho, that saw Ramirez named WNCC's Athlete of the Week.
 
"Andrew is a high-major talent who can make a significant impact on our program," Gallagher said. "He has impressive floor vision, great shooting ability and the leadership skills you look for in a point guard. He is also an outstanding student – he is a model student-athlete in every sense of the word – and we are thrilled to add him to our program."
 
Before coming to the United States, Ramirez was one of the most celebrated players in Madrid, if not the entire country, during his high school years. He played for eight years with Basketball Torrelodones, where he was coached by current Hawks assistant Ivo Simovic. Torrelodones was ranked fifth in all of Spain in 2014-15, thanks in part to Ramirez' 21.5 points and 5.4 assists per game. Ramirez also worked with the national team program from the age of 12, and has dual citizenship from England and Spain, as his mother was born in England.
 
Colovic comes to the University as a freshman after an outstanding junior career in Serbia. The 6-foot-10 power forward played the last two years at Beovuk 72, winning MVP honors for the Serbian Under-19 league. He averaged 25.5 points, 16.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists in his most recent season. He was also slated to play for the Serbian National Team at the World Championships in 2015 before he was sidelined by an injury.
 
"Nikola is a really versatile player for his size," Gallagher said. "He has the size to bang inside, a real knack for rebounding, and he's also a really good passer down low. It may take him a little while to adjust to playing in America, but with his skill set and work ethic, he has the opportunity to be one of the better big men in our league in his career."
 
In the fall, the Hawks signed Attia, a 6-foot-10, 270 pound center from Colby CC. In his sophomore season with Colby he played in 30 games with 28 starts, averaging 8.5 points in 18.1 minutes per contest. He also grabbed 8.4 rebounds per contest to go along with 2.0 blocks and 1.0 steals. He posted 12 double-doubles on the season, including a season-high 21 points and 15 rebounds against Cloud County.
 
"Hassan is a space-eater in the truest sense of the word," Gallagher said. "With his ability to block shots and grab rebounds, he will be able to match up with anyone in our league and most of the bigs we face in non-conference action."
 
The three signees join a program that returns three starters in addition to injured big man John Carroll, who missed all but the first five games of the season.