Men’s Basketball: UCI’s Ndiaye mulls pro future
At 7-foot-6, UC Irvine sophomore Mamadou Ndiaye is the tallest player in NCAA men’s college basketball. He has less than a month, however, to decide whether he has already hit his ceiling at the amateur level.
Ndiaye, who averaged 10.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in his second season at UCI, has until April 26 to declare himself eligible for the NBA Draft.
UCI Coach Russell Turner said Ndiaye will receive feedback from the NBA undergraduate advisement committee, as well as NBA personnel and agents, as to where he might be drafted. If he declares for the draft, he will surrender his remaining NCAA eligibility. If he does not land with an NBA team, he could also explore professional opportunities overseas.
“He has a tough call and great belief in himself and what he can do,” Turner said of Ndiaye, who was the Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman, when he blocked 106 shots and started all 34 games for the Anteaters. “He knows very clearly that he wants to be an NBA player someday. What he is facing is a tough choice that anybody can question in either direction, if they wanted to. My message to him has consistently been that I have his back, whatever he decides.”
Turner, who was an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors for six seasons before beginning his five-season tenure with the Anteaters, said he plans to use his NBA contacts to help provide Ndiaye an accurate picture of his value.
“I can talk directly with people who are making those [evaluation] decisions, so that is an advantage,” Turner, a former assistant coach at Stanford and Wake Forest, said. “I can also talk with him about the players I’ve worked with who have faced a similar choice. Players like Tim Duncan, Curtis Borchardt, Jason Collins, Casey Jacobsen and Josh Childress. I have great respect for how difficult that choice is.”
Turner said Ndiaye was not leaning one way or another, but the coach believes that all things being equal, he would, like most student-athletes, be more interested in pro basketball than staying in school.
“I’m going to support his desire to chase his dreams,” Turner said. “And I am going to do everything I can to make sure he makes as informed a decision as he can. I think he wants that too.
“I know whatever choice me makes, he is going to have a lot of people loudly tell him he screwed up. And I think that is a shame. Everybody has an opinion, but the only opinion to me that matters is Mamadou’s.”
Ndiaye’s unusual height and length – his arm span exceeds eight feet and he can touch the rim on his tip-toes – has made him an intriguing option for professional scouts. His development at UCI was slowed this season, when he missed 19 games with two separate foot injuries. He played in 15 games (11 starts) to help the Anteaters finish 23-11, win the program’s first Big West Conference Tournament title and make the school’s first appearance in the NCAA Division I Tournament.
Ndiaye, who set a school record with 11 blocks in a game against Long Beach State in 2013, scored a career-high 21 points at Loyola Marymount on Nov. 29, 2014, before being sidelined with the first of his injuries. He made 10 of 11 field-goal attempts in that game.
Ndiaye shot 70.7% from the field as a freshman and shot 63.4% from the field as a sophomore.
A gifted shot blocker, he has continually developed his offensive game, though he struggled at times catching entry passes in the post and was, at times, bothered by physical play in the paint. Tremendously strong, he also used his 300-pound frame to overpower foes, often getting to the basket with ease and dunking the ball.
Ndiaye has gained universal praise from coaches and teammates for his competitive nature and has been termed an ideal teammate who is very well liked by his fellow players.