Youssou Ndoye grew up in western Africa, which is quite different from western New York.
Ndoye, a 7-foot junior from Senegal, is the starting center for St. Bonaventure (13-8, 3-4 A-10), tonight?s guest at Richmond (14-8, 4-3). Ndoye?s adjustment to the U.S. involved a gradual understanding of Division I basketball?s intensity, and a quick understanding of how the weather in his college town is unlike that of his home country, which has a climate commonly described as pleasantly tropical.
?Coming from Senegal, never seeing snow, and the next thing you know, I end up here and it?s snow every time,? Ndoye said in a Monday phone interview from St. Bonaventure, about 75 miles from Buffalo.
Ndoye is one of five Bonnies, three of them starters, who are from outside the U.S. That has been comforting, Ndoye says, as has the St. Bonaventure community.
?It was a culture shock when I first got here,? said Ndoye. ?I?m used to it now. I met a lot of great people that have helped me. It?s been a joyful journey, I?ll say.?
The Spiders tonight may miss the interior defensive presence of 6-6, 270-pound senior Derrick Williams, who left the Spiders on Monday for personal reasons. His loss weakens a defense that struggled to handle Ndoye when the teams met on Jan. 8 at St. Bonaventure. Ndoye scored a career-high 19 points and had 11 rebounds in the Bonnies? 84-70 win. He shot 17 free throws.
Ndoye noted that the A-10?s 25 international players could engage in a very competitive Division I-level game.
Of 13 league teams, nine have at least one international player. No A-10 program has more than St. Bonaventure.
?We have to do it a little bit differently up here,? said Mark Schmidt, who?s in his seventh season as Bonnies? coach. ?We?re not going to be able to go in the gym and get that top-100, top-150 player. We don?t have a great back yard here in western New York for players.
?So we just go around and try to find wherever we can go to get players. To be able to compete in the Atlantic 10, you need to find the players wherever you can find them.?
Richmond and VCU are two of the four A-10 programs without an international player.
Chris Mooney, in his ninth season as Spiders? coach, earlier in his tenure brought to UR Francis-Cedric Martel from Canada and Josh Duinker from Australia.
?We have our eyes open and we?re always making sure that we?re trying to see if we can get the best players we can,? Mooney said.
Ndoye, a 7-foot junior from Senegal, is the starting center for St. Bonaventure (13-8, 3-4 A-10), tonight?s guest at Richmond (14-8, 4-3). Ndoye?s adjustment to the U.S. involved a gradual understanding of Division I basketball?s intensity, and a quick understanding of how the weather in his college town is unlike that of his home country, which has a climate commonly described as pleasantly tropical.
?Coming from Senegal, never seeing snow, and the next thing you know, I end up here and it?s snow every time,? Ndoye said in a Monday phone interview from St. Bonaventure, about 75 miles from Buffalo.
Ndoye is one of five Bonnies, three of them starters, who are from outside the U.S. That has been comforting, Ndoye says, as has the St. Bonaventure community.
?It was a culture shock when I first got here,? said Ndoye. ?I?m used to it now. I met a lot of great people that have helped me. It?s been a joyful journey, I?ll say.?
The Spiders tonight may miss the interior defensive presence of 6-6, 270-pound senior Derrick Williams, who left the Spiders on Monday for personal reasons. His loss weakens a defense that struggled to handle Ndoye when the teams met on Jan. 8 at St. Bonaventure. Ndoye scored a career-high 19 points and had 11 rebounds in the Bonnies? 84-70 win. He shot 17 free throws.
Ndoye noted that the A-10?s 25 international players could engage in a very competitive Division I-level game.
Of 13 league teams, nine have at least one international player. No A-10 program has more than St. Bonaventure.
?We have to do it a little bit differently up here,? said Mark Schmidt, who?s in his seventh season as Bonnies? coach. ?We?re not going to be able to go in the gym and get that top-100, top-150 player. We don?t have a great back yard here in western New York for players.
?So we just go around and try to find wherever we can go to get players. To be able to compete in the Atlantic 10, you need to find the players wherever you can find them.?
Richmond and VCU are two of the four A-10 programs without an international player.
Chris Mooney, in his ninth season as Spiders? coach, earlier in his tenure brought to UR Francis-Cedric Martel from Canada and Josh Duinker from Australia.
?We have our eyes open and we?re always making sure that we?re trying to see if we can get the best players we can,? Mooney said.
