(01-22-2022 02:38 AM)Big Red Wrote:  NIU Recruiting Update:

Mamborou Mara - HS Senior - 6’7” - SF - Royal Crown Academic School (Toronto, ON - born in Conarky, Guinea) - Ok…here’s the type of offer that gets me to thinking. First of all, this kid could be a legend at NIU or he could completely fizzle out. I literally have no clue. His story (of what I can get by peeking around the edges of a paywall, is pretty remarkable. As noted, he’s from Guinea but fled the country during a coup and left his entire family (parents and 5 siblings) behind to play basketball in Toronto at Royal Crown. His dad had one piece of advice for him…be humble. Now…finding video of him is challenging. I’ve not yet found any from him playing at Royal Crown, but I have found one highlight package of him playing for his native country in the U18 Africa Tournament where he averaged 19.3 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.3 steals and 1.5 blocks. How many games? I’m not sure. Also, when I watch the video, he’s just bullying his opponents. He’s ridiculously athletic (he doesn’t look 6’7” to me on the video but the quality is terrible, it’s a year old and I have no idea how tall the other guys are…also, the video looks kind of compressed because there’s a guy who literally looks like he’s 5 feet tall…so there’s a lot of things…but everything else I’ve seen, including an article in the Toronto Star…says he’s 6’7”). He can fly and he just overpowers everyone on the court. He looks like a young Michael Jordan (and I say that knowing full well how that comes off) but again, I’m sure the talent in the U18 Africa Tournament is not good so, grains of salt and all. So, yeah, the outlook for this guy is a mystery. The Toronto Star says he’s getting attention from D-I schools but NIU is the only offer he’s received. I’m interested to see some other offers come in if for no other reason than to get some kind of gage on how coaches value him. But…until then…we’ll just have to wait and see and with NIU realistically only having 1 or 2 remaining scholarships available at this point, it’ll be interesting to see where Coach Burno focuses on the final additions.

Video: https://youtu.be/A4Wr_AXdVZM

Sounds like Samuel Sooleymon from the recent Grisham book.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!