The original Nature Boy was World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer Ric Flair, who made a career out of his signature move, the figure-four leg lock, and his over-the-top personality.
Ohio has its own Nature Boy in junior forward Maurice Ndour, a transfer student with two years of college playing experience who has garnered the same nickname from coaches and teammates.
“He’s a freak,” said freshman forward Wadly Mompremier. “It’s his length, his athleticism and how hard he plays.”
And like Flair dominated the ring, Ndour hopes to dominate the floor in his time at Ohio.
Ndour’s long journey to Athens began in Mbour, Senegal, when he was eight years old and already six feet tall. He played some soccer with his friends at the time, but his mother wanted him to become more active, so she pushed him to start playing organized basketball.
“People used to tell me, especially in school, ‘Man, you’re not supposed to be in this class. You’re older than that,’” Ndour said. “And it was all because I was so tall. It was crazy.”
The next stop in his basketball career brought him to Asia, after he was recruited and given a scholarship to Okayama Gakugeikan High School in Okayama, Japan.
For someone who hadn’t often left his family before, the adjustment to life in Japan was challenging early on for Ndour. He often felt homesick during his freshman year there, and adapting to the different culture and language barrier was initially difficult for him.
But after six months, Ndour became fluent in Japanese, one of the five languages he speaks proficiently, and began to settle in Gakugeikan, where he averaged more than 30 points per game over three years.
After his time in Japan, he was recruited to play basketball on scholarship at Monroe College in New Rochelle, N.Y. This time, the adjustment to a new culture wasn’t as difficult for Ndour, given that his time in Japan prepared him for life away from home.
“I was used to being on the road,” Ndour said. “I wasn’t homesick at all. I had a goal, which was playing basketball and to compete. The one (adjustment) was getting used to playing American basketball.”
Ndour was highly recruited out of Monroe, but the idea of playing at a major school never interested him. It came down to Ohio and Western Kentucky for the man with a 7-foot-5 wingspan, and he decided that Athens was ultimately the right fit because of the playing style and emphasis on player development from the Bobcats’ coaching staff.
His teammates feel he made the right decision in choosing Ohio and have appreciated what he brings to the team both from a performance standpoint and how he fits in as a teammate.
“He’s very versatile,” said senior forward Jon Smith. “He knows several different languages. He’s been to a lot of different places. It’s always educational, for a lack of a better word, to hang out with him, because you’re always going to learn something.”
Since this is his first season playing in the NCAA, Ndour is doing his best to draw on the advice of others, like Smith, as he prepares for his first Division I game against Northern Iowa on Saturday.
“Jon Smith has been here for four years, and he knows the system,” Ndour said. “He’s played college basketball. I played in junior college, and it’s not the same. Coming in here, he taught me a lot. Being a competitor each and every day and coming into practice and going hard every day.”
Ndour hopes to keep that competitiveness strong even after he graduates. His ultimate goal is to play basketball professionally.
“That’s the ‘plan A,’ to play pro basketball and see what I can do with a degree in my pocket,” Ndour said. “I just want to keep playing for another 10 or 15 years.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
@c_hoppens
