Mark Wacyk has more details about Ngot. Suffice to say, St. FX will not be playing small-ball as much as it did last season, when it occasionally put out lineups with no one taller than 6-foot-6 on its way to being a tournament team:
"Ngot's journey in the U.S. took him initially to Notre Dame (Ma.) Prep in 2006-07 and then to SUNY Orange, a JUCO in New York State, in '07-08 where he used up his first of post-secondary eligibility. Ngot then accepted a scholarship at NCAA Division II University of Bridgeport, where fellow Sudanese big man and former NBA shot blocking specialist Manute Bol once played in the '80s. Ngot injured his knee very early in his very first game with Bridgeport last season, which sidelined him for the rest of the year, granting him a medical redshirt season. He arrives at X ready to play immediately with four full seasons of eligbility remaining.
"With his length, no doubt Ngot will be an impact player defensively for the get-go and it will be interesting to observe how Coach Steve Konchalski integrates him into the X system, historically predicated on full-court, pressure D and transition offence. Konchalski first saw Ngot in high school at the NIKE camp and expects the 7-footer to be able to run the floor well and move into a prominent role almost immediately."
Here is some good background on Ngot, via the Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald-Record: He is survivor of the Sudanese civil war, one of the some 20,000 Lost Boys:
"Ngot was 11 and staying with his grandparents at their farm near the city of Wau when the war — mainly over religion, politics and economics — hit the farming village. Riiny's parents were thought to be dead. After a brief stay in a displacement camp, Riiny and his 8-year-old sister, Akuol, started walking. Soon they met up with others on the journey through jungles, into parts of the Sahara desert and its sub-regions, into Ethiopia and across a treacherous river, the Gilo, before reaching safety at a refugee camp in Kenya."
Related:
7-footer joins X-Men (cishoops.ca
Saw him this weekend. RAW RAW RAW. Has a nice touch in jumper/freethrow but lack of lower body strenght make him offensivley inept. Has trouble catching the ball. Trouble holding positon. Not explosive. Not going to dunk over people. Can block shots with his length but jumps at every fake. Only grabs rebounds that come right too him. He does run the floor OK . If he could learn to stay down and not get faked he could be useful as a golie for the press but he's a long way from being much of a player.
ReplyDelete