How Filippos Gkogkos joined Hurricanes basketball

Miami freshman Filippos Gkogkos entered the court to play the final three minutes of the Hurricanes 91-60 win over Coppin State on Saturday and collected his first two rebounds.

Gkogkos played basketball Romania and won the national title in 2015 before starting high school. He entered the University of Miami for its business school on an academic scholarship. His role is mainly to contribute on the practice squad and help the team prepare for these games.

Each minute he plays feels like a rewarding bonus. The first time he entered the court was on November 16 against Quinnipiac, but it was for less than a minute and he did not record any stats.

Head coach Jim Larrañaga shared the story of how he ended up joining the Hurricanes as a walk-on.

“Fillip walked into my office the first day of school and said he wanted to be on the team,” recalled Larrañaga, to which his response was, “It’s not like a club you join. Do you play basketball?”

“And he walked around my desk, picked up my iPad and immediately went to YouTube videos and showed me his videos. He said, ‘I played basketball in Romania.’ He speaks five languages. He’s brilliant. And I watched the videos and I said, ‘hey you know what, we’re shorthanded. Why don’t you come and try to be a walk-on?’”

After being told what a walk-on does, Gkogkos’ response was to express his desire to get better. Time will tell whether or not the Hurricanes will create a wide enough margin for him to get on the court during ACC play but everyone remembers their first career moments.