Interesting 2nd-round possibility for Maurie

Mamadou Ndiaye, a 7'6" freshman center from Senegal, currently playing for UC Irvine.

This guy doesn't seem to be on the radar of many teams at this point and might be worth Morey taking a 2nd-round flyer on. He's not the complete stiff that most 7'4"+ players are (*cough* Thabeet *cough*). I don't know how many years he's been playing, but he exhibits more of a feel for the game than most previous giant African imports -- Dream and Deke excluded, of course. At 290 pounds, he's not a beanpole like Manute Bol was. He doesn't have Yao's massive lower body, but he's already got a stronger upper body than Yao had when he was drafted.

He recently came close to a triple double against Univ. of Washington with 18 points (7 of 9 FGs), 8 rebs and 9 blocks -- in only 26 minutes. That's against a Div 1 opponent that's not a pushover.

He seems to be pretty athletic for someone that tall and has a bit of a mean streak. And like they say, you can't teach extreme height.

Highlights from the UC Irvine/Washington game:

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Same name, different guy. That guy is now 38 years old. This new version is 20.