In 2010, Mamadou Ndiaye came to the United States knowing he wanted to play professional basketball.

What he didn’t know was how to play the sport in an organized setting. Ndiaye grew up in Senegal playing soccer like everyone else, and had only picked up a basketball to mess around with his friends.

He also didn’t know that he had a tumor on his pituitary gland, which could explain how he had grown to be 7 feet, 5 inches tall, but was also debilitating his eyesight by the day.

He was lost — an entire ocean and 45 U.S. states separated him from his home.

“Mamadou had a lot of complications and a lot of stuff to get through,” said Russell Turner, who coaches Ndiaye at the University of California, Irvine. “But once he adapted and figured it all out, he could focus on his game.”

Ndiaye received medical help, polished his game and found himself as one of the most dominant high school basketball players California has seen in recent years.

A freshman at UC Irvine, Ndiaye has grown to 7 feet, 6 inches and he’s widely believed to be the tallest player in the country. As the starting center for the Anteaters, he tends to make the game look easy, reaching out his rangy arms to deftly block shots or place the ball in the basket jumping no more than an inch or two off the ground. Yet there was a time when he didn’t know where he’d end up and adapting to the American game was a challenging task.

Ndiaye’s path to college basketball makes him the player he is, and he’s now know for his advantaging size and astounding 3.4 blocks per game — making him the seventh-best shot blocker in the country.

“There was a big learning curve,” Ndiaye said. “But now I think I have gotten it and it’s going really well.”

When Ndiaye first got to Stoneridge Preparatory School in Simi Valley, Calif., a physical examination revealed the tumor he didn’t know he had. Stoneridge couldn’t afford the surgery, but charitable donations could and he was soon taken in by a couple in Huntington Beach, Calif., who became his legal guardians.

Their house was down the street from Brethren Christian High School, which was where he’d make his name.

“I didn’t know much about him before he got here,” said Jon Bahnsen, Brethren’s head coach. “But he moved in a few blocks away and we had maybe the most dominant high school player I’ve ever seen.”

Ndiaye towered over all of his teammates. He didn’t speak much English and the athletic department had to make special arrangements for him to have his own room and king-sized bed whenever they traveled.

But other than that, Ndiaye fit in right away. His natural skill and size made sure of that.

“The campus here embraced him,” Brahnsen said, “and he became really close with his teammates.”

As soon as he stepped onto the floor for the Warriors, they centered their game plan around him. They played a loose man-to-man and he rarely left the paint. They fed him in the post possession after possession.

But his game extended past the block where he showed off a working mid-range jump shot and an ability to get down the court in five or six mammoth strides.

Versatility, potential and the 90 inches separating him from the ground drew attention from top programs — most notably Georgetown — but Ndiaye opted to stay close to home.

“It was all I knew — California and UC Irvine,” Ndiaye said. “And the beach reminds me of Senegal.”

Standing on the sideline at his first college practice Ndiaye was exceedingly nervous. The scrimmage playing in front of him was a faster game than he had ever seen. The players were bigger than the kids he posted up and swatted in high school. He wasn’t sure if he belonged.

But then Turner subbed him in and he blocked a teammate on his first defensive possession. That was his first step.

A month later, in the Anteaters’ upset of Washington, he nearly posted a triple-double with 18 points, eight rebounds and nine blocks. That was his second step.

“He’s no doubt going to play in the NBA one day,” Turner said. “And a guy with his size and skill is going to be great there.”

If Ndiaye lives up to his coach’s lofty expectations, his next steps could make history.

Published on February 17, 2014 at 11:40 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse