The Coastal Carolina men's basketball program has hired Mamadou N'diaye as an assistant coach, filling a vacancy created last month when Richie Riley left for Eastern Kentucky.
N'diaye played for Chanticleers coach Cliff Ellis at Auburn and was a first-round draft pick of the Denver Nuggets in 2000. The 7-footer completed his professional playing career last year in Israel and will be moving into his first coaching position.
"I'm excited because he's family," Ellis said Monday. "He played for me and was part of a team that was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and [had] a No. 1 ranking. He knows what success is. ...
"He was a guy that played 11 minutes a game, as I recall, as a freshman, and by the time he was a senior he was a first-round draft pick by Denver. He's one of the most intelligent guys I've ever coached. He speaks several languages. He is one of the hardest working guys I've ever had. So he's got tremendous work ethic [and] he's very intelligent."
N'diaye averaged 8.9 points, 8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game during his senior season at Auburn. He went on to play in 69 NBA games, averaging 3.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.9 blocks before taking his career overseas.
" For the past 10 or 11 years, he's played professionally -- NBA, Greece, China, different places, and it's time for him to put that career down," Ellis said. "And I think what he brings to us is that knowledge of how to be successful. Our players will be able to feed off of him because here's a player that was successful both academically [and] athletically."
N'diaye and Ellis have remained in contact since their time together at Auburn. N'diaye decided this past December that he was ready to retire and make the transition into coaching and was one of four or five candidates interviewed for the position, Ellis said.
"Me and coach, since college, we've had a very good relationship," N'diaye said. "During my playing days, he was a mentor to me, somebody I could always go talk to -- on and off the basketball court. ... All this time we've been keeping in touch, so we have a really good relationship. It came that I was done playing and I was [looking to] get into coaching, and when the opportunity arised, we discussed it. I feel very honored and very thankful for having the opportunity to start my coaching career under such a legendary coach."
| Ryan Young, ryoung@thesunnews.com
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