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Center will have to continue carrying load for the Scarlet Knights frontcourt with Echenique out for season

BY MIKE VORKUNOV

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

By all accounts, Rutgers' 71-62 victory over NJIT at the RAC Saturday did occur and will count, despite the lack of people there to account for it. Which answers the age-old question "If a college basketball game happens in the midst of a snowstorm and hours before a bowl game, in front of a barely there crowd, did it still happen?"

In front of approximately 500 fans who were there to tell its tale, the Scarlet Knights defeated the Highlanders in a game once again dominated by Hamady N'diaye and the pre-game announcement that his frontcourt mate Gregory Echenique will miss the rest of the season due to a second surgery on his previously documented eye injury.

Not coincidentally, the two stories are intertwined.

Echenique underwent a followup procedure December 17 to remedy what has been reported as a detached retina, although unconfirmed by the University. He will seek a medical redshirt to retain three years of eligibility.

In his absence N'diaye has picked up his minutes, his role and least of all, his production.

Saturday was no different. The senior once again put up a gaudy stat line, scoring 11 points, grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds and swatting a career-high nine shots. It was N'diaye's fifth game with at least six blocks, and third in a row.

He overmatched a game but undersized NJIT squad with his height and athleticism, setting the tone with his defensive presence, and twice enthusing the crowd with his blocks of transition layups.

But one game does not make a season, especially against the competition N'diaye faced, more important will be whether he can make these kinds of games more common the rest of the season.

Before the latest news about Echenique broke, N'diaye was simply holding down the fort until reinforcements came. Now he is an army of one in the frontcourt.

With Austin Johnson still young, Brian Okam still undeveloped and Jonathan Mitchell undersized, it is N'diaye towering over his teammates in height, experience and importance come the start of the rugged Big East season.

Johnson scored a career best 13 points in 13 minutes against NJIT, but coach Fred Hill has said already that he never envisioned him playing this many minutes so soon.

Okam, while providing size gives little else at this point, and Mitchell is not suited to play with the likes of Greg Monroe or Arinze Onuaku.

Coach Fred Hill doesn't see this latest wrinkle as any new burden on his big man but he does know things will change starting with the conference opener against Cincinnati.

"Theres no newfound weight on H's shoulders," Hill said. "You guys may think so but H is H. He's a warrior, leader. He plays with enthusiasm, he played great. He's given us great minutes which we didn't anticipate because he is very efficient in less minutes but so far we've been able to get away with playing him more minutes.

"It's going to get a little bit more difficult as we get into the Big East part of the schedule and bodies are a little bit bigger and stronger and leaning on him. That's when we're going to need Brian Okam and Austin Johnson."