Nikita Konstantynovskyi sets example at Monmouth while playing for family, country
With Ukraine at war, his childhood gymnasium destroyed and his brother drafted, Konstantynovskyi is sending money home and wowing those around him at Monmouth.
WEST LONG BRANCH – Monmouth big man Nikita Konstantynovskyi in many ways resembles the standard portrait of a student-athlete.
He’s at the gym 6 a.m. most days for individual workouts before a team walkthrough at 7. There’s injury prevention, weightlifting and his daily shot routine – 300 makes, 150 from mid-range, 150 from around the arc. That’s all before the team’s actual practice in the afternoon and night classes for his master’s degree in communication.
Konstantynovskyi even works a campus job at the Office of International Student Services when he has the time, a throwback to a different era of the student-athlete experience.
But with his country invaded, his childhood gymnasium destroyed and his brother drafted, there is so much more going on behind the scenes for the Ukrainian graduate transfer from the University of Tulsa.
“It was a big fall for us, but at the same time I had to man up and step up to be like a man,” Konstantynovskyi told me last month. “That’s what you got to do when this stuff happens.”
Konstantynovskyi, a triplet, sends his mother money he earns whenever he can. His father died during 2022 from a heart condition, and his brother Denys, also a basketball player in Europe, was drafted into the Ukrainian military. He has been in training camp for more than three months.
“I don’t even know where his military camp is. As much as I wanted him to say, certain things you cannot say,” Konstantynovskyi said. “But he became strong. At the same time, he was hooping in the (Ukrainian) Higher League. He was balling out, and then he got drafted. He got a letter that said hey, you need to show up at 9:00 the next morning. He got drafted, so he had no choice. It was in the middle of the season. He just told coaches, ‘I need to go protect my country.’”
Konstantynovskyi shows me one of his tattoos: The words Family First in red script, one word printed above each collarbone.
“Every day I will always think about my family,” he said. “I always call them once I have a chance. It’s very nice, because they helped me get here, so right now I need to help them.”
I asked Monmouth coach King Rice if he’d ever had a player who had this much to shoulder off the court.
“No. I’ve had a lot of kids from some tough situations. I’m a guy that came from a tough, tough upbringing,” Rice said. “… But when your country’s at war, and your brother’s signing up for the war and you haven’t seen your mom and you haven’t seen your sister, his perspective on the world is incredible. He’s teaching me new stuff, just the way he’s dealing with the Ukrainian-Russian war. I’m learning from him and just trying to give him every opportunity where we can help him. For him to speak up and say, ‘I need help.’ We’re just here for him.”
Amid everything, Konstantynovskyi is upbeat, personable, smiling. He jokes about the different weather between Oklahoma and New Jersey and makes sly allusions to brotherly trash talk with Denys. And he clearly loves to talk hoops.
His work ethic has set an example for Hawks teammates. Fellow graduate transfer Xander Rice, son of King, is struck by how Konstantynovskyi can compartmentalize and focus on his game.
“Nikita, the thing that he really brings that’s the most impressive thing is just maturity,” Xander Rice said. “With the Monmouth team last year they had a lot of young guys having to kind of grow up quick and be leaders. But with him, he’s an older guy, he’s been in college for a while and he’s just honestly a grown-up. There’s no other way to put it. He’s just a super, super mature guy and the young guys are learning how to go about their business and act as adults (by) following him.”
Konstantynovskyi agreed that playing the sport he loves helps him escape from the concerns of the war. He cited his jam-packed schedule as well.
But war doesn’t leave people’s personal treasures alone, and it certainly doesn’t let athletes stick to sports. Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, they bombed out the gym where Konstantynovskyi grew up learning the game of basketball.
“It was very hard to see something like that getting destroyed,” he told me. “But I have talked to some people who are trying to get new equipment and they’re trying to put things together, make it looking like a gym again.”
He said Kyiv, the country’s capital, is more secured now. He doesn’t know when he will go back to his homeland. And as the conflict nears the two-year mark, he recognizes solutions aren’t easy to come by.
“I would never wish anybody go to war and experience those kind of things,” Konstantynovskyi said. “Killing people and stuff like this is unacceptable and the war needs to be ended by conversations. I don’t even know how it needs to be ended, to be honest, but at the same time people doesn’t need to be dying and that’s the main thing for me and for everybody.”
Back in the U.S., he has two years of NCAA eligibility remaining because of a medical redshirt season last year after getting hurt in Tulsa’s season opener. On the court, he is giving Monmouth something it sorely needed: more height. The Hawks were very undersized for the CAA in their first season in the league. At 6-foot-10, Konstantynovskyi gives them a third option who can play the five.
“Nikita’s the best rebounder we’ve had here in a long time,” King Rice said. “He gets them with two hands, offense and defense. He’s good around the block, he’s an awesome screener, he’s great at dribble handoffs, he understands ghosting – if you’re gonna set it and then you don’t set the screen, or you weren’t gonna set it and then you set it.”
Konstantynovskyi started at center for Monmouth’s season-opening 72-61 loss to George Mason on Monday, and while his shot wasn’t falling that night (0-for-9), he had five rebounds, three blocks and an assist in 17 minutes.
He sees major responsibility in being under the basket, able to see what’s unfolding around the court, and takes pride in his basketball IQ.
“I’ve got to talk as a big,” Konstantynovskyi said. “Need to let the guards know where the screen is. Need to communicate, because the big is like an eye on the court. I need to be the loudest, I need to control the game.”
As the college basketball season picks up, players everywhere will settle into that familiar rhythm of multiple games per week. Konstantynovskyi will continue to go about his business, working on his craft, and those around him will continue to marvel at how he manages to do it.
“I think with what he’s gone through with his off-the-court stuff, I think that just adds to the level of respect that guys are giving him, because he comes into work every day and is ready to give his all and kind of leaves all that stuff off the court when he steps in between those lines,” Xander Rice said. “That’s the most impressive thing about him. He’s able to kind of separate what he’s going through off the court, which is obviously incredibly tough, and come in to work every day and give his all.”
………
Thanks for reading, and thanks to Nikita and the people at Monmouth for the interviews last month.
Let’s clean the glass by looking ahead to Friday’s massive hoops schedule around New Jersey:
Princeton visits Hofstra after its big win over Rutgers to open the season. The Tigers have lost to Hofstra in each of their last three seasons (2022-23, 2021-22 and 2019-20), and the Pride are expected to be a top contender in the CAA once again.
Rutgers gets another shot at its first win by facing Boston University. While some RU fans were understandably upset Monday, Princeton was never a guaranteed victory for them on paper. Boston, however, actually is in the “must-win” category if we’re to take the Scarlet Knights seriously.
Konstantynovskyi and Monmouth will take aim at West Virginia, a team that had to sweat out a 67-59 win over Missouri State on Monday after trailing at halftime.
Rider will be at No. 5 Marquette, and while the Broncs’ games are generally found via ESPN+, this is a chance for fans to see them on a regular channel (FS1 at 8:30). Will this be a close fight like Rider’s opener at Providence last year?
On Saturday I’m headed to NJIT’s home opener against Saint Peter’s, while at Walsh Gymnasium in South Orange, Seton Hall will host Fairleigh Dickinson. Jersey-on-Jersey matchups galore.
A game I’m low-key interested to follow Friday night is Seton Hall’s women’s team at Ivy power Columbia. Seton Hall destroyed Iona in Tuesday’s season opener, with 10 players scoring at least five points. Micah Gray had a team-high 11 on 4-of-5 shooting in her Pirates debut; Amari Wright had nine points and six assists.