Giants in a foreign land
Two prep players from Senegal— one who’s 7-1, the other 6-11— are chasing their hoop dreams in the Denver area
Rudy Carey would stop practice at Denver’s East High School last year and command his newassistant to relay orders to the towering teenager he called “Little Man.”
Carey has learned enough in four decades coaching high school basketball to knowhe doesn’t always have all the answers. Especially when they have to be delivered in a foreign language.
“Siri, howdoyousay ‘Boxout’ inFrench?” Carey said, explaining howhewould bellow into his cellphone. “Siri, howyou do you say ‘Pay attention’ in French? Iwould do it right there in the middle of practice. That’s howI communicated with him at first.”
And so began the American odyssey of Assane Diouf, a 7-foot-1 giant from Senegal who arrived in Denver 18 months ago with dreams of earning a college education through basketball. After a freshman season mostlywiped away by injuries to his size-18 feet, Diouf helped lead Denver East to the Class 5A state quarterfinals last season, and his emergence on the AAU circuit this spring has helped him earn scholarship offers from several Division I universities.
It has all happened fast for a 16-year-old who had arrived in a strange land without knowing the language, unsure of what he had gotten himself into as an unfamiliar white powder fell from the sky once he got off the plane.
“I was excited and a little bit nervous,” said Diouf, who has quickly grasped a new language to add to the handful of others he has already mastered. “I didn’t know what I was going to see, but I said, ‘I’m going and my family needs me, and I’m going to do what I need to do to help them out.’ ”
Diouf’s is a path dozens of players from the capital city of Dakar, the westernmost city in Africa that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, have attempted to travel in the past five years. Samba Kane, a 6-11 native of Dakar, followed Diouf to Colorado in August
and played his sophomore season at Regis Jesuit.
Both players began their journey at Flying StarAcademy, amodest, outdoor facility founded by Ibrahima N’Diaye in 2011. N’Diaye’s brother, Mamadou, became the first Senegalese player drafted into the NBAwhen theNuggets selected him in the first round in 2000. Ibrahima was inspired by the path his brother, a 7-footer, had taken from a scrawny teenager leaving his home country to stardom atAuburn and then to a professional career. N’Diayewanted to replicate the support system that had helped carry his brother to those lofty goals.
“I have brothers and sisters, and in my family, education was very important,” N’Diaye said. “To get a degreewas very important for us. I also saw my brother get a scholarship. And I sawmy brother go to the NBA through the same process that our kids are nowgoing, so, forme, it’s a blessing to see what happened with my brother. It inspired me a lot to help as many kids as I can to get an education.”
Finding homes
N’Diaye’s mission is met by a need that college programs have for athletic big men, who have become increasingly difficult to find in the United States. The most wellknownFlying Star alum is 7-6Central Florida standoutTacko Fall, who could be on his way to a career in theNBA. ChristKoumadje, a 7-4 center at Florida State, also came through the academy.
N’Diaye’s network of basketball contacts has been built through family and awidening net of people in the United States who have reached out to him with hopes of helping young players from Senegal have a chance at reaching their educational goals.
Itwas through that network thatN’Diaye came in contact with Greg Willis, who founded the Colorado Hawks club organization more than two decades ago. Willis, who mentored former Overland star and current University of Indiana player De’Ron Davis, saw opportunity for Diouf and Kane in Colorado. Here they could expand their skills while playing the state’s best competition in high school and face the country’s top national competition through the club’s participation on theAdidas Gauntlet circuit — a series of AAU tournaments attended by hundreds of Division I coaches every spring and summer.
Stories like that of Fall, whomoved to six different cities and was shuffled from school to school before landing at a prep school in Florida, are all too common for playerswho arrive fromAfrica with dreams that can often be crushed by empty promises. Willis had heard horror stories of playerswho arrived in theUnited States only to be sent back when a coach at a fledgling prep school orAAUprogramput the player through aworkout, only to decide the player wasn’t good enough. In other instances, players are told they are coming to a school that never gets off the ground, voiding their coveted I-20 study visas.
Willis, who hasworkedwith several African players in the past, was determined to make the experience for Diouf and Kane more stable than what some of their countrymen had lived.
“We’ve done charity work with four different countries in Africa, and it’s about giving kids educational opportunities,” Willis said. “You like to seewhere they have an opportunity to progress, and see colleges making offers to them because that’swhy they are here. They are trying to go to col- lege and get an education, and it makes you feel good to see that.”
As to how he feeds two 7-footers? “I don’t even know,” Willis said with a chuckle. “They’re definitely not missing any meals.”
That’s not to say even a stable situation such as the one provided to Diouf and Kane hasn’t come without speed bumps. Diouf tore a tendon in his foot during his first workout upon arriving in Denver. He later broke the same foot andwas unable to play as a freshman.
Still, Carey saw encouraging signs in the first 7-footer he has ever coached. Though raw, Dioufwas strong and physical and had a nose for hunting shots on defense. He averaged 3.4 blocked shots per game as a sophomore last season.
“When we first saw him physically, we were excited,” Carey said. “We thought, as our ego goes, that we can teach everything but height. We figured if hewas that big and wanted towork, we can make a good player out of him.”
If Diouf showed growth as a sophomore at Denver East, he has flourished on the club circuit. After dominating three games against other Division I prospects in Dallas last month, the University of Massachusetts and Rider University offered him scholarships.
Kane, after playing only 14 games atRegis Jesuit as a sophomore, has also found his stride and picked up offers fromUMass and the University of Illinois at Chicago. N’Diaye said Kane “is like a son” to him. The two are from the same neighborhood in Dakar, and N’Diaye pulled Kane off the soccer field a few years ago and directed him to a sport that could help him provide for a family to which he is extremely close. N’Diaye knew that the first couple of months for Kane could prove difficult.
“Iwas nervous because inmy mind, I had that I was leaving my mom,” Kane said. “It was really hard leaving my family.”
Second family
It was clear after a recent practice at Overland High School that Diouf and the 17-year-old Kane have gained a new family in the Hawks. Kenny Foster, a talented 6-4 guard out of SmokyHill, went to give Diouf a high-five, only to be swallowed in a bear hug from the gentle giant. Bodie Hume, a 6-7 forward out of Sterling, has become close with Kane, offering him advice during breaks in action as the slender big man continues to learn a game he has played for only a few years.
“That’s the most important thing they need — being a part of a family because they are away fromtheir family,” said Simeon Boddie, the director of the Hawks program. “It makes them comfortable. Our group is really comforting to them, which really helps them grow on and off the court.”
Diouf’s favorite subject in school ismath. Numbers don’t need translation. Although he has shown an impressive grasp of English, reading comprehension homework can still be a struggle. So he was moved whenKwane Marble, a teammate at Denver East and with the Hawks, recently offered to help him with his homework during a study session that Boddie organized during the club’s trip to Atlanta.
The only thing Marblewants in return? A French lesson.
“I told him it is so I can talk stuff to other players in French and they don’t knowwhat I’m talking about,” Marble said.
It appears Siri will soon have to find another team.