UConn went outside its basketball family but stayed inside its American Athletic Conference neighborhood to fill its coaching vacancy.

Dwayne Killings, a former member of the Temple University staff, was hired as the assistant coach, UConn announced Wednesday. He replaces the departed Karl Hobbs, who left in late March to work for Steve Pikiell at Rutgers University.

A native of Amherst, Mass., Killings spent the last five years as a Temple assistant, helping the Owls qualify for the NCAA tournament three times and make one NIT appearance. He joins three former Huskies, associate head coach Glen Miller, assistant Ricky Moore and director of basketball administration Kevin Freeman, on Kevin Ollie's staff.

"Having grown up in New England, UConn is just such a unique and special place, with such a great  tradition," Killings said in a released statement. "And then, to work for someone like Kevin Ollie, is something that made the opportunity really attractive to me. He's a young coach who has already accomplished a lot of great things.

"I thought we had a lot of synergy as we started to talk to each other about where he wants to go with his program and, at the same time, how he wants to try to have his staff be a part of his vision and his future and I got really excited about it."

Ollie called Killings a role model for his players.

"I took notice of him when I was on the road recruiting because he was always so professional in the  way he conducted himself ... how he carried himself, not only on the court but off the court, as I saw him work at the different AAU tournaments," Ollie said in a release. "With his recruiting ties across the country, I think he's going to do a great job for us.

"And obviously, his knowledge of the conference, being at Temple, is huge."

Killings, 35, has New England ties. He played basketball for the University of Massachusetts for two years before moving on to Hampton University. He also spent a season (2010-11) as an assistant coach at Boston University.

His background also includes working as Temple's assistant director of basketball operations from 2006-09. With the NBA D-League, he monitored player development programs. He also served as special assistant and video coordinator for the Charlotte Hornets, where he formed a close friendship with former UConn star Emeka Okafor.

"I was very impressed with his pedigree, the different walks of life he's been through," Ollie said. "All the different knowledge and basketball experience he has is invaluable. I know he will be an outstanding addition to our staff."

Killings starts his job just in time for the busy July recruiting period. It will be a hectic few weeks for Killings, Miller and Moore, with Ollie spending time away serving as an assistant coach with the USA Basketball's under-18 men's national team.

Killings feels a strong connection to Ollie.

"We've had many conversations and he knows a bunch of people I'm really close with and people he is close with have been like mentors to me, so in some ways, we're connected," Killings said. "Probably my background speaks to coach Ollie a little bit because we've kind of crossed the same paths. ... Having not been a heralded basketball player who never scored a meaningful bucket in college, I've had to go through it in kind of a different way for my professional career.

"But it was very similar to how he worked and worked and people valued who he was as a person just as much as who he was as a player. During my time at UConn, I hope people value me both as a person as well as a professional."

g.keefe@theday.com