Here is another interesting Fox Sports article about Brethren Christian High’s “big.” This is an excerpt–to read the entire article, click here.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.
Every day the secretary at Brethren Christian High School here fields phone calls from college scouts regarding Mamadou Ndiaye, a junior on the school’s basketball team. That is not unusual: Ndiaye is a budding college prospect who averages 22.9 points, 13.2 rebounds and 4.7 blocks per game for the Warriors.
What is extraordinary is that the Guinness Book of World Records recently phoned to inquire about Ndiaye.
“Our school wouldn’t cooperate with them,” Brethren Christian’s coach, Jon Bahnsen, said, “but Guinness probably wanted to see if he was the world’s tallest high school basketball player.”
The 18-year-old native of Senegal stands 7-foot-5, weighs 310 pounds and wears size 19½ lime green Nike Zoom Kobe VI shoes. At 89 inches, Ndiaye is two inches taller than anyone currently toiling in the NBA even though he plays for a tiny private school (enrollment: 250) that currently does not even have its own gym.
While his stats may be skewed due to the Warriors competing in California’s third-smallest class (5-AA), Bahnsen has little doubt that his player who ducks through doorways has an unlimited ceiling.
“Right now his game is basically catch, turn, drop-step, dunk,” says the 5-foot-11 Bahnsen, whose own college coach was a 7-footer from a foreign country, former NBA center Swen Nater of the Netherlands. “But this kid’s going to play professionally someday. The minute Mamadou enrolled I became a much better basketball coach.”
Here is another interesting Fox Sports article about Brethren Christian High’s “big.” This is an excerpt–to read the entire article, click here.