‘It’s fun,’ says lone Elk appearing in fourth consecutive state semifinal
CENTERVILLE — When Baboucarr Njie was a freshman he sat on the bench, as expected, when Centerville won its only Division I state championship. The next year in a state semifinal blowout of Cleveland St. Ignatius, Njie got to play a little at the end of the game.
“Especially at a very young age it felt great being able to get on the floor and playing against competition way better than you,” Njie said.
Now in his second year filling a major role for the Elks, the 6-foot-7 Njie will start today’s 8:30 p.m. state semifinal at UD Arena against Toledo Whitmer. And Njie is the only Elk to be a part of all four of the program’s consecutive trips to state. In the four-division era that began with the 1987-88 season, the Elks are the second Division I team to play in four straight state semifinals. The other was Columbus Brookhaven from 2001-04.
“It’s fun being able to do that coming from a winning program and a program that always holds the standard and holds everybody accountable,” Njie said.
This season Njie and senior Jonathan Powell, the team’s leading scorer and Xavier signee, entered the season as the only Elks with meaningful varsity experience. Njie stepped up after the graduation losses of Gabe Cupps, Collin O’Connor, Tommy Gankyuhag, Emmanuel Deng and Kyle Kenney. Njie averages 13.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists.
“His basketball IQ is really high,” Elks coach Brook Cupps said. “He can put the ball on the ground, can play out on the floor, can guard multiple positions, can push it, and rebound it and block shots. His experience and his understanding of the game is pretty valuable to this group.”
Cupps also likes Njie’s leadership and the influence he has on the team.
“He’s a great personality, guys like being around him, he’s positive, he’s funny, he interacts well with the players,” Cupps said.
Njie knew enough to soak up everything he was learning as a freshman and sophomore. Going to state meant lots of extra practices and opportunities to improve. He said he’s never taken any of the state runs for granted.
“It helped me a lot,” Njie said. “When you get the opportunity to do that, you always want to just go as hard as you can so you can prove something. And by doing that you’re always getting better. It’s just a great opportunity for you to grow.”
Cupps never misses a chance to teach a player something, which is why he includes younger players in practice during the tournament to get them extra reps.
“They see how we go about prepping for teams, and the amount of detail that goes into it,” Cupps said. “It gives them a different understanding of what it takes to win at the highest level,”
Njie has also had players in his own family to look up to and learn from since he started playing. His oldest brother Mo Njie graduated in 2020 and is a junior at SMU. Kebba Njie left Centerville after his sophomore year for La Lumiere, a national program in Indiana. He’s a sophomore at Notre Dame.
“Being little brother gives you advantages because you get to see how they grow up and how they handled things that they’re going through in high school,” Njie said. “It basically paves the way for you because it shows you all the rights and wrongs of what to do in life, and especially in basketball.”