IRVINE, Calif. -- For the last three years, UC Irvine center Mamadou Ndiaye has been one of college basketball's true novelties. After all, there aren't many guys who are 7-foot-6 with an 8-foot-3 wingspan playing basketball anywhere in the world, let alone in America.
Ndiaye himself gets it, of course. His height makes him a bit of a spectacle that has fans rushing up to him for pictures just to say that they got a chance to meet a person who is that tall.
"It used to be (annoying)," Ndiaye told CBS Sports. "But now I just say whatever. I'm used to it."
It's a cool story. What isn't discussed enough though is that Ndiaye's height makes him a true game-changer at any level of college basketball.
This is a story about why he's so effective. Because since Ndiaye came to UC Irvine back in 2013, the Anteaters have reached new levels as a program. They're 17-6 so far and off to their best start in school history, largely on the back of their defense.
And that defense is led by the 7-foot-6 big man.
When Russell Turner took over at UC Irvine back in 2010, he had quite a task in front of him. The Anteaters had a 30-plus year history of playing Division I college basketball, but had never made a run to the NCAA Tournament and had only made the NIT twice. Heck, even in the past 20 years, they had only made two Big West Conference Tournament finals to give them a chance to go dancing.
There are few coaches in college hoops who have had as varied and experienced a career as Turner despite the fact that he just turned 45 before the season began. He was a coach at Wake Forest in the mid-1990s when Tim Duncan was there. He then coached under Mike Montgomery at Stanford, and followed him to the NBA with the Golden State Warriors, where he coached for six more seasons before coming back to the college game at Irvine.
Through all of those stops, he'd been a man-to-man defensive coach. And when he got to Irvine, it was the same. Plus, he played uptempo basketball, ranking in the top-10 percent of all Division I teams in pace of play for his first two seasons. Now, Turner plays zone defense on about two-thirds of his possessions, according to Synergy Sports, and the Anteaters have rung up defensive efficiencies that also reside in the top-10 percent of all college basketball teams.
What changed for him?
"Well, we got a 7-foot-6 center, and his backup is 7-2. That's a pretty good start," Turner said while laughing. "Our defensive performance is a priority. It always has been. We've prioritized the way we work, how hard we train and all of that. When I got the job, we tried to emphasize the uptempo style that we wanted to play because we needed to get the attention of some recruits. That was effective. But then we got two 7-foot centers, and had a third one before one of them transferred. Anybody is going to adapt their style of play to the personnel they attract, and we did value shot-blocking before we even got the 7-foot guys."
Shot-blocking and rim protection has been a major key to Irvine's success since Ndiaye's arrival. In Ndiaye's first season, the Anteaters led the nation in field-goal percentage at the rim against, and finished 14th nationally in the percentage of opposition's shots taken at the rim. This season, they're still a solid 32nd nationally in field-goal percentage against and 19th nationally in percentage of shots taken at the rim against.
Basically, teams just don't take efficient shots at the rim because Ndiaye is there. And because teams are so averse to going inside, it has other effects on their defense. For instance, players on the perimeter can close out harder on shooters. which is part of the reason teams are only shooting 31.5 percent from the 3-point line against them and taking a slightly lower total of 3s per game.
"Having guys inside like Mamadou and Ioannis (Dimakopoulos), it gives the rest of us confidence that we have a great rim protector so the rest of us can take chances at times," senior guard Alex Young said. "I don't want to say that we can gamble, but we can take those chances on getting steals or closing out hard on the 3-point line. One of the biggest things for us on the perimeter of a zone is to take away 3-point shots. Our 4-guys have done a great job of taking away corner 3s in part because they have the confidence of knowing 'hey, if we just run them off the line they're going into a 7-footer in the paint.'"
For his part, Ndiaye knows that his teammates have confidence in him to do his job inside.
"I just tell my teammates 'trust me inside the paint,'" Ndiaye said. "'Don't ever worry about inside the paint. I got it all. I work in the paint to make it so nobody can get an easy basket."
Improved agility has played a big role in the big man's defensive ability as well. Ndiaye is more mobile this season than he has been in years past, which has allowed him to contest more shots in the paint. It's also allowed the Anteaters to occassionally go with a man-to-man scheme when he's on the floor in order to confuse the opposing offense.
"I do a lot of different footwork moves," Ndiaye says. "Trying to move faster. A lot of defensive movement, some basic things moving around the floor, around the paint."
Having said that, let's not pretend that this is just a one-man show. Irvine has a really strong team defense that communicates about as well as anybody in the country with their rotations in the zone. That's something that is also an improvement from last season, and it's something the team believes is attributed to getting a preseason experience unlike what most colleges get to have.
Back in October, the Los Angeles Clippers did their preseason workouts in Irvine at the practice facilities. Part of that was wanting to get away from the bright lights of the city. And Irvine became a natural place, as it's about an hour south of Los Angeles and houses Clippers' coach Doc Rivers' son Spencer. The impact of watching professionals work out constantly was substantial.
"The biggest thing was having the Clippers training camp here," Young said. "We got a chance to come in here and see how NBA players communicate, and they're always talking. DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin lead that. So what I did, being a point guard, I just wanted to be a catalyst for that communication. So I've tried to get the rest of the guys to do that, and as the year has gone on we've done a great job of communicating with one another on the court. This is the best year we've had in that regard since I've been here."
A 7-6 big man inside. A strong team defense with experienced guards on the perimeter that communicate. All of this has resulted in Irvine currently ranking as the No. 29 defense in the country on a point-per-possession basis, third in the country among mid-majors. Two years ago, they were 23rd. If they can sustain that mark this season, they'll be the only mid-major school in the entire country to have two top-30 finishes in adjusted defensive efficiency, which speaks volumes about how far this program has come.
"Defensive teams often win," Turner said. "Your defense is a way of reflecting your team's togetherness and toughness. We've gotten guys to buy into that here and that's made us strong."
Given the strength of the defense, the question then shifts to whether or not the Anteaters can make a return appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, they made the Big Dance for the first time and came within seconds of picking up their first win against fifth-seeded Louisville. Heck, if Terry Rozier would have been called for a clear foul late, maybe the result would have been different too.
This year, things are rolling right along. They're 6-1 in the Big West and tied for the conference lead with Hawaii. They're putting themselves right back into position to make a run at the Big Dance again in the Big West Conference Tournament. Plus, with nine regular season games plus a conference tournament and a postseason appearance, they're only eight wins away from setting the school record for victories at 25.
Whether or not they can do that, who knows. But with their big man that is no longer just a college basketball novelty in tow, it seems like something that's very much in the ballpark.
"Here's the thing: Mamadou's really good," Turner said. "He's not just big. He's really competitive, he's athletic, he's smart. And he has a high level of intensity about the way he plays. So when you're anchored in the middle by someone who plays like that, it's easy for the rest of the guys to be like that. It's not exactly right to say that it's easy to play with him. He changes the game. He just does. On offense, in some ways he makes it harder to play. But I think we're figuring that out, and right now we have it figured out better than we have at any other point since he's been here."
The requests for pictures are still going to flood in. The attention is still going to be on Ndiaye's height more than on anything else.
"He has more charisma when it comes to that stuff than anyone I could ever imagine," Turner said. "I get more frustrated with that stuff than he does and he's the one who has to do it all the time. He's just a really special person."
Hopefully though, he and UC Irvine will begin to be recognized for what they are: a strong team that is reaching heights previously unforeseen defensively on the back of its dominant defensive big man in the middle.
