blueheron

March 20th, 2010 at 12:06 PM ^

"Hacktar" joined the team for the '93 to '94 season. I remember him being a welcome addition because, except for Juwan Howard, the team was very perimeter-oriented. They wound up losing to eventual national champ Arkansas in a regional final. I think he took off after the following year (with Traylor and Albert White on the way).

Hard to believe, but M.I. actually had a cup of coffee in the NBA:

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/makhtar_ndiaye/index.html?nav=page

He just one of five (!) players on the team with that distinction. Those were the days.

He was also the basketball Forrest Gump of that era. He played with future pros at Oak Hill in Virginia (Jerry Stackhouse), UM, and UNC (Vince Carter).

Muttley

March 20th, 2010 at 4:50 PM ^

I moved to Chapel Hill in 95 and at the Raleigh-Durham airport saw Makhtar come out of the plane I was about to board to fly back to Detroit. It was a couple of weeks before he announced his transfer, and I remember thinking "that's strange".

If there had been an MGoBlog back then, I could have posted it, but alas, I wasn't connected to the internet.

jmblue

March 20th, 2010 at 11:41 PM ^

He had an interesting story. He left his native Senegal to attend Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, then committed to Wake Forest. But Wake committed some kind of violation that made Ndiaye ineligible, in a way that somehow allowed him to transfer and immediately become ineligible. He joined us in between semesters in 1993-94. It was a nice break for a team that needed more size, but Ndiaye ended up being a foul magnet and had a knack for committing offensive goaltends. (I can't remember the specifics, but I know he had one that came at a horrible time in the Arkansas loss in the tourney.) After his sophomore year (1994-95) he again transferred, this time to UNC. Somehow, he managed to start on two Final Four teams there.

ommeethatsees

March 20th, 2010 at 8:01 AM ^

Apparently he has Roethlisbergeritis. I did a googlestalk on him and he was one messed up dude. In one incident he accused a Utah player of racial slurs during a final four game then recanted and said he made it up. The Utah player claimed Makhtar spit on him in the same game. During another game he drew the ire of Coach K when he stared at the Duke team and made a gesture like he was slitting his throat and later after UNC won the game jumped on the scorers table to taunt the Duke fans. In another incident he sued American Airlines for "inability to earn a living" as a professional basketball player after he applied a dry ice pack to his sore back and "severely burned" his back. In yet another incident he was charged with assault after attacking a friend. I guess I'm not too upset at him for transferring to UNC. Maybe he was helped by the Michigan coaching staff.

Trepps

March 20th, 2010 at 9:29 AM ^

Probably somewhere with his arms raised up and his mouth wide open in utter disbelief that a foul has been called on a play where he nearly decapitated some poor YMCA member.

Pai Mei

March 20th, 2010 at 12:26 PM ^

He also was the price recruit at Wake Forest in the same class as a guy named Tim Duncan. He didn't like being second to Duncan, which is why he transfered.

6tyrone6

March 20th, 2010 at 1:11 PM ^

My comment is not about the topic but your avatar. Manny Pacquiao I learned last week he was selling tickets prior to the fight for a concert that he was giving/singing at AFTER the fight. Tickets sold for $30 each and he sells out. I found it amazing that he has the confidence to schedule it, the stamina to pull it off etc...and I heard he has had several concerts after fights over the last few years.

Noahdb

March 20th, 2010 at 9:29 PM ^

His high school coach at Fork Union loved him. He told me he'd have more of an impact at Wake than Rodney Rogers. I kept thinking I'd heard him wrong and must've stared a little hard. He pointed at my notebook and said, "Yeah, you can write that down..."