newjerseynewsroom.com

BY MIKE VORKUNOV

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Fittingly enough, when Hamady N'diaye learned that he was the Big East Defensive Player of the Year, he showed the same enthusiasm that led him to be so successful on the court.

After Fred Hill called him with the news that he should be expecting some hardware in the near future, N'diaye let out a small yelp. Then he went silent while ruminating about all that he went through to get to this point.

"I've been thinking about this for a long time," he said. "I've wanted it since my freshman year really, I'm really proud of that."

"All I did, all the defense I played, all the time and everything on this team, since Year One that was one of the main things I did. Now getting rewarded for that I feel like I keep getting rewarded for everything, four years later all the hard work that I've gone through.

N'diaye won the award thanks to a season where he averaged a league-leading 4.5 blocks per game -- 2.4 more than second place Gavin Edwards' 2.1 a night -- and 7.1 rebounds per.

His 140 blocks were more than Edwards' and No. 3 Rick Jackson's 128 combined. He won the award despite Rutgers finishing 14th in the standings with a 5-13 conference record. N'diaye thought that playing for a losing team may have inhibited his chances but was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.

"That was one of the things that really shocked me," he said. "When you don't have a winning record people look past certain things. I really didn't expect it."

Hill believes that N'diaye was able to overcome that roadblock not only because of his production but also because of his personality and the person that N'diaye is.

"I think when you look at things like this, not only do you recognize things he's done on the court, you recognize the human element," said Hill.