In Senegal, Baye Moussa Keita’s teammates called him ‘Rigueur.’ Translated from French to English, the nickname means ‘Tough.’

The moniker is rooted in Keita’s attitude, not his appearance. The latest Syracuse basketball commit – a 6-foot-10, 220-pound Senegal import – is relentless, if not overpowering. And Keita, a junior at Oak Hill Academy (Va.) who recently committed to Syracuse for the 2010 class, has two more years to get bigger.

‘He’s lifting weights for the first time in his life,’ said Keita’s head coach at Oak Hill, Steve Smith. ‘His body could change. He has two years here.’

Two years to bulk up, hone his game, and become a Big East player. Keita joins 6-foot-7 forward C.J. Fair of Baltimore City High School and Life Center Academy guard Dion Waiters as the third recruit to commit to SU for the 2010 class.

Unlike Fair and Waiters, Keita is a complete mystery on the national scale. Several recruiting Web sites, including Scout.com, don’t even include Keita on their rankings. Not in spite, rather anonymity. The book on Keita is more of a pamphlet: a couple all-star games, a peculiar ‘big, but not thin’ frame, and a handful of other Senegalese to compare him to.

Smith said the fact that Keita speaks fluent English erases the communication breakdowns that have typically detoured the development of past Senegal prospects at Oak Hill. The 24th-year coach Smith has tutored more than a half-dozen Senegalese players, including Dallas Mavericks center DeSagana Diop, who jumped straight to the pros.

But language aside, it’ll take back-to-the-basics teaching on one end of the court for Keita to be realistically ready in two years.

‘He’s raw offensively,’ Smith said. ‘But he’s a shot-blocker, a defender and very athletic. …He’s better at facing up than posting up right now. We’re working with him to try to get him a post-up game. He’s more of a four than a five to me.

‘With the schedule we play and the guys he’ll practice against, he should be much better (in two years) than he is now.’Keita came to the United States as part of the Sports for Education and Economic Development in Senegal (SEEDS) Foundation, which was founded in 2002. In September he enrolled at Oak Hill, the famed recruiting hotbed that vaulted Carmelo Anthony, Eric Devendorf, Billy Edelin and Dayshawn Wright to Syracuse.

Thus far, he’s participated in the 2008 Jordan Brand Classic’s International Game at Madison Square Garden and the Nike Global Challenge in Portland, Ore., five months later. Keita needs to stack game action in the U.S. because practices and games are simply much more organized here than in Senegal, Smith said.

That being said, Keita’s country wasn’t hurting for agile frontcourt competition. ‘There are a lot of big guys over there,’ Smith said. ‘He’s considered one of the top 2 or 3 kids over there. He went to a Top 40 camp for big guys in Senegal and was one of the top players. All of those kids are athletic.’

For now, Keita is learning how to tame his 6-foot-10 frame effectively in the paint, a post game buttressed from added girth in the weight room. The ascension to Syracuse won’t be easy. His competition is stronger, faster. But Smith points to his success with past Senegal prospects in the same position – Diop, former North Carolina Final Four forward Makhtar N’diaye and others. And thanks to the SEEDS foundation teaching him English, Keita begins his Big East training one step ahead.

He’s raw. But he also has two years to go.

‘You don’t have to show him sign language like I did with the other ones for six months,’ Smith said. ‘You can tell them and show them what you want them to do. …The weight room is important for him – getting stronger. Just playing a lot and practicing a lot with good players like he will here will give him the experience he has not been used to.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on October 27, 2008 at 12:00 pm