Former NBA player and Auburn standout, Mamadou N’Diaye, was hired as associate head coach on July 16, 2019. N’Diaye, who was recently at Georgia Tech, will play a key role in recruiting and coach the Dons’ frontcourt.
After a standout career at Auburn, the Dakar, Senegal native became the first Senegalese player to be selected in the NBA Draft when he was chosen by the Denver Nuggets with the 26th pick in the first round of the 2000 NBA Draft. After being traded to the Toronto Raptors, he went on to play three seasons north of the border, including one year alongside veteran NBA All-Star Hakeem Olajuwon. N’Diaye also played for the Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors. He retired from playing professionally in 2010 after international stints in Greece, Lithuania, China and Israel.
N’Diaye began his coaching career in 2011 at Coastal Carolina joining the staff of Cliff Ellis, his college coach at Auburn. In three seasons at CCU, he helped guide the Chanticleers to a 54-40 record and a 32-18 record in the Big South Conference, while reaching the post season twice, culminating with a Big West Championship and the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid in 21 years.
With N’Diaye working primarily with CCU’s post players, the Chants led the Big South Conference in rebounding margin his first two seasons (+5.7 each year) while finishing second in 2013-14 (+4.7). Coastal also led the Big South in field goal percentage defense (.402) and scoring defense (68.4 ppg) last season.
In 2014, N’Diaye was hired as an assistant to Brian Gregory at Georgia Tech. In his two years coaching the Yellow Jackets, N’Diaye tutored starting post players Demarco Cox, Nick Jacobs and Charles Mitchell to their best performances as collegians, helping Tech set a school record for rebound margin two years running and finishing first and second, respectively, in the Atlantic Coast Conference in that category. All three players set career highs for scoring average and field goal percentage.
The 7-foot, 255-pound N’Diaye, who began playing basketball at age 18, was a four-time letter winner for Ellis at Auburn and helped the Tigers reach unprecedented heights. The starting center for the 1998-99 season, N’Diaye helped Auburn climb as high as No. 2 in the nation in both the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN Coaches polls and finished the season No. 4 in the country. Auburn won the outright SEC Championship, the SEC Western Division Championship and set the state of Alabama record for victories in a season with a 29-4 overall mark.
In his senior season of 1999-2000, Auburn was the preseason No. 1 ranked team in the nation by Sports Illustrated, spent most of the year in the Top 10, had the second-longest homecourt winning streak in the nation at 30 games and led the SEC’s Western Division for 29-straight weeks dating back to the 1998-99 season.
Individually, N’Diaye was a two-time All-SEC performer and ranks second all-time at Auburn in blocked shots (241) and eighth in rebounding (798). During his junior season, N’Diaye recorded 77 rejections to break Charles Barkley’s career blocked shots record. He tallied at least 25 blocked shots in each of his four years at Auburn and registered at least 66 in his final three seasons. N’Diaye played in 128 games during his career at Auburn, which ranks him second all-time in school history.
As a freshman at Auburn, N’Diaye received the Greg Pratt Award, given to the Auburn student-athlete who best excelled in his sport and in academics. After concluding his professional career, he returned to Auburn to complete his bachelor’s degree in International Business in June of 2011.
