A talented young big man with solid fundamentals is always an asset
The Duke Chronicle’s annual series of player profiles continues with this one on Patrick Ngongba.
A 6-11 big man from Paul XI, which has sent Trevor Keels and Jeremy Roach to Duke previously, Ngongba is an interesting player.
If you watch the videos on the Chronicle’s profile, you’ll probably notice something fairly quickly: in spite of being 6-11 and playing mostly around the basket, Ngongba only dunks rarely. We only saw one in these clips.
There might be reasons for that - for instance, his coach could have told him not to do it. And of course he was recovering from a serious foot injury this year which might have limited his vertical.
And in these clips, his vertical is not impressive. But what is impressive is how he maneuvers inside. Playing in the post is a lost art, but you’d think that if Kevin McHale were to watch this, he’d be impressed with Ngongba’s footwork. He gets around really well. There is one spot too where he shoots the ball incredibly high off the backboard. It’s entirely possible that that’s a reaction/adjustment to his injury. Whatever it is, not many people have that hand-eye coordination. Pretty impressive.
He is likely to be seen as the backup to Khaman Maluach, but he could start too. He has vastly more experience in the way Americans play basketball and Duke has plenty of outside shooters. Having someone who is willing to bang inside is very helpful.
