Big stage, bigger challenge
Saltfleet’s Nik Djogo is a member of the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish
The biggest crowd he ever remembers playing in front of in high school was the Hamilton city final at McMaster. If memory serves, one side of the gym was reasonably full of spectators. Meaning there might’ve been 1,000 people there.
“Maybe,” Nik Djogo says. “That’s a stretch.”
So it was a little breathtaking when he ran out onto the court at Michigan State University in his Notre Dame Fighting Irish uniform back in November with 15,000 people booing the visitors. The size of the place along with the noise was pretty mind-blowing for a guy from Saltfleet Secondary.
U.S. college basketball — especially when you’re playing for one of the big schools — is a whole different world. You travel well, stay at nice hotels and basically live like a pro. Everything is looked after. Pretty much as he thought it would be. All you have to do is go to class and play well.
Actually, that’s pretty much Notre Dame’s motto. Posted throughout the team’s locker-room are reminders that say Go to class and don’t turn the ball over and we’ll get along just fine.
“It’s even above our urinals,” he laughs. While it sounds easy, it’s not. After sitting out his first season on campus — the team had two seniors at shooting guard who were going to absorb all the playing time so he elected not to blow a year of eligibility — the transition to topflight college star has been a challenge. He’s good, but everybody here is good. He’s six-foot-seven, but everybody is big. He’s athletic, but everyone here is fast and strong. And he understands the game. But here, everybody does.
He learned all that during one of his first practices when he went up for a dunk the same way he’d done tons of times back in Hamilton. Djogo was admittedly a little lackadaisical in his drive to the hoops and one of the Fighting Irish’s big men pinned the ball against the backboard. That’s when the chirping began.
“This isn’t high school,” a bunch of players laughingly taunted.
Lesson learned. He hasn’t done that again. Even so, playing time still wasn’t arriving. The 20-yearold was working hard day after day but some games he wasn’t finding the floor at all. Occasionally, he was getting a few minutes in garbage time with his team way up or way down late in a contest.
He admits some of it had to do with being a little freaked out by the immensity of everything. He’d do well in practice then not perform as well when the lights went on for real.
But, a week ago, the team suffered a couple of injuries. Suddenly, the door was open.
Against Georgia Tech, he got 24 minutes. Three days later against North Carolina he got 25.
And Tuesday he was on the floor for 29 in a double-overtime loss to Louisville.
He scored some points, played some hard D. Most important, he protected the ball just as the signs in the bathroom had instructed him.
As he did, he noticed the butterflies were fading fast.
Still, as someone who grew up watching March Madness on TV and dreaming of playing at this level, he admits it was something else to line up against these basketball factories. Guarding guys in the Tar Heels’ famous white and Carolina blue was stunning.
“It’s weird,” Djogo says. “Sometimes you have to take a step back and realize how lucky you are.”
Of course, it was nice that he hit two huge three pointers in the final few minutes against UNC. Notre Dame lost by a point to the 15thranked team but he’d shown he deserved to be out there.
It’s a big thing for him. He hadn’t been heavily recruited in high school.
In fact, it wasn’t until the coach of the Fighting Irish came north to scout a few other guys that he ended up on the radar. Quite by accident. Now that he’s here, he doesn’t want to let the opportunity slip away.
“No matter how many times you do it,” he says of running out onto the court to start a game, “it never gets old.”
sradley@thespec.com 905-526-2440 | @radleyatthespec Spectator columnist Scott Radley hosts The Scott Radley Show weeknights 6-8 on 900CHML.