Column: KC Ndefo, you’re an honorary New Jerseyan
From racking up 14 blocks during Saint Peter's tournament run to winning the Boardwalk Trophy and Game MVP, no one better embodies the Jersey toughness Holloway has in mind for his program than Ndefo.
PISCATAWAY – It makes all the sense in the world in hindsight.
I can’t tell you what I was thinking when I predicted a 70-56 final score last Friday. I don’t know if I was fully awake when I pressed publish that morning. Seventy points for one team? Could I have been further off?
Sunday’s Garden State Hardwood Classic – a game pitting one of the five best defensive teams in the country, per KenPom.com’s ratings, against a rival whose coach insists upon blue-collar effort and intensity – was always going to be a rock fight. We just couldn’t have predicted the extent.
Even during the game, we were cracking jokes as the minutes ticked by. “First one to 50 wins, right?” Soon 50 became a big “if.”
When the final horn sounded, Seton Hall’s 45-43 was the lowest-scoring game between the New Jersey rivals since 1943. Twenty-nine shots made in 40 minutes. Thirty-four turnovers.
For a game so thoroughly dominated by defense, of course KC Ndefo would be found right at the heart of it. Again, it makes all the sense in the world.
Nine months ago, the three-time MAAC Defensive Player of the Year introduced himself on the national stage by racking up 14 blocks and five steals during the Saint Peter’s Peacocks’ Cinderella tournament run. On Sunday, Ndefo’s nine points, eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals earned him Joe Calabrese Game MVP honors in his first time playing for the Boardwalk Trophy.
“Going back (through) the rivalry, seeing pictures of guys who hold that trophy, we just came into this game and we knew what we wanted to do,” Ndefo said. “We knew what we were trying to get at, and having that trophy was a big accomplishment for us.”
Ndefo, born in Nigeria and raised on Long Island, is actually the first non-New Jersey native since Corey Sanders in 2017-18 to win this Game MVP. Myles Powell (Trenton), Ron Harper Jr. (Franklin Lakes) and Bryce Aiken (Randolph) all had turns winning the award in recent years.
That’s OK. Ndefo deserves more than the MVP. He’s one of us. An honorary New Jerseyan.
Saint Peter’s fans need no reminder of Shaheen Holloway’s famous words after getting the Peacocks into the Sweet 16: “I’ve got guys from New Jersey and New York City. You think we’re scared of anything? You think we’re worried about guys trying to muscle us and tough us out?”
That identity should eventually help Holloway drive local recruits to Seton Hall, but in his first year on the job, his most vital recruiting win was getting Ndefo as a graduate transfer. The veteran’s prowess hasn’t always been visible in box scores, but nobody could be more valuable to Holloway as a culture-setter than Ndefo.
No one better embodies the gritty Jersey toughness Holloway has in mind for his program.
“I thought KC was a guy who stepped up in practice the last two days and also stepped up today,” Holloway said. “He understands this. For him to play in this game, he never played in it before, to play the way he played and play with that sense of urgency and the guys kind of followed behind him, I thought that was huge.”
With Alexis Yetna still sidelined by a knee injury, Ndefo has been Seton Hall’s starting five, and his assignment Sunday was star Rutgers center Clifford Omoruyi. Ndefo was active on Rutgers’ first few possessions. He swatted a pass to Omoruyi out of bounds and denied him good position in the post, which led to Omoruyi trying and missing a long jumper.
Omoruyi picked up two fouls in the first five minutes – much like the Indiana game eight days before – and when Steve Pikiell put him back in the game with 6:28 left there was some renewed energy. He coaxed fouls from Tyrese Samuel and Al-Amir Dawes, the latter on a successful dunk, enabling him to post five quick points.
But they were the only five points he’d score, a season low, on 1-of-6 shooting. Ndefo helped hold him scoreless in the entire second half.
“Obviously he as a shot blocker is unique in the way he plays,” Pikiell said of Ndefo. “Cliff, again, early foul trouble took him out of the rhythm of the game. … But again, he’s a tough matchup. He’s kind of unique in how he plays. He’s strong, he’s quick. He did a good job in that matchup.”
After Ndefo scored with 1:54 left in regulation to make it 45-43, he hustled back up the court to continue the job. My eyes were trained on Omoruyi; the Scarlet Knights had to try going to him again, and they did. Omoruyi made what might have been a winning post move on a less agile, less committed defender and attempted the game-tying layup, but Ndefo stuck with him and blocked it.
“I knew they were trying to get something towards the basket, so Coach said it, just being locked into what we had to do on defense,” Ndefo said. “That’s something I thrive on, getting blocks and being a defensive dude and being active whichever way I can.”
The final 1:10 was hectic: a combined five missed shots and another pull-your-hair-out officiating moment for Rutgers fans, as Ndefo appeared to step on the baseline while going for a loose ball in the final five seconds. (Just like Thursday against Ohio State, it’s not reviewable.) But the final stop on Omoruyi – who, oh by the way, has a four-inch height advantage on Ndefo – convinced me Seton Hall was going to pull it out.
“I feel like it’s something I’ve been doing my whole life,” Ndefo said, “just being able to defend one through five and just doing whatever I have to do to help our team get the win.”
The most telling thing I think I can say about Ndefo is that he’s not only a perfect match for Seton Hall, but also would have fit right in on Pikiell’s team had he transferred instead to Rutgers. You’d think they keep him at the four or even use him as a big wing, given how massive some of the Big Ten’s centers are. Then again, size didn’t stop Ndefo from containing Omoruyi.
A player that would have made an impact for either Seton Hall or Rutgers – after putting a mid-major from Jersey City in the history books? No one deserves an honorary New Jersey card more.
………
Thanks for reading. I’m feeling grateful this morning after covering the battle for New Jersey for the second straight year.
I’m certain this column didn’t win me any Rutgers fans, but those are the breaks. If you’re on Twitter insisting that Ndefo’s last block was “all hand,” no ball, and your evidence is a paused TV replay grainier than the Zapruder film, you’re being a sore loser. Every Rutgers player except Dean Reiber had at least one turnover Sunday; some were the product of great defense but some were boneheaded plays, and Pikiell himself said the Scarlet Knights didn’t deserve to win.
But this wasn’t the only game of the weekend worth talking about! Let’s clean the glass and get going with our Mondays:
Fairleigh Dickinson shocked NJIT 73-71 on this late tip by Sean Moore.
What a moment for Moore, who followed coach Tobin Anderson from Division II St. Thomas Aquinas and is playing his second month of D1 basketball. The guard averages more rebounds (5.8) than points (5.7) per game. Anderson has the Knights at 6-6 after this program went 4-22 last season.
I don’t have much to say about watching Princeton wallop Monmouth 91-54 on Saturday night. Backups like Jacob O’Connell and Konrad Kiszka were dunking with ease in the final minutes. Monmouth is struggling in a rebuilding year, but I still wonder if it can get it together in time for its CAA debut. Princeton, meanwhile, has won eight in a row against unimpressive competition.
Princeton is playing Iona, the toughest opponent on its schedule, on Tuesday at Kean University in Union. Mitch Henderson said the Tigers would have preferred to schedule a home-and-home and Iona didn’t want to come to Jadwin, but with power-conference teams not wanting to touch Princeton, this workaround will do. More to the point, Henderson told a terrific Rick Pitino story.
“When I was in junior high, we moved to Lexington, Kentucky,” he said. “My dad became an electrical contractor down in Lexington and I went to Rick Pitino’s basketball camp. I got a T-shirt … well, you had to beat him. I beat Rick Pitino in one-on-one and I wore that shirt almost all the time freshman year.” Unfortunately, he no longer has the shirt and won’t be wearing it Tuesday.Haven’t done one of these before, but let’s try it out. Here’s how New Jersey’s eight D1 programs stack up five weeks into the season, sorted by record while also displaying each team’s overall KenPom ranking and their NET:
