Omar Ndiaye found way to NAU with an assist from hard work — and ex-Cat A.J. Bramlett

Editor’s note: This article is part of the Star’s 2018-19 college basketball guide, which ran in Sunday’s paper.

The shoelaces were the curly kind, like a Jack-in-the-Box french fry. Omar Ndiaye took one look at them and said, “Nah.”

“I wasn’t feeling them,” he said, years later.

So Ndiaye spent an entire day learning how to tie regular laces, and he practiced and he practiced, like any other stubborn kid, and when he was done, and he learned how to tie those laces, he showed his mom and he threw the curly shoelaces away, and he knew he would be alright, and she knew he would be alright.

Because Ndiaye, a senior guard at Northern Arizona, wasn’t any other stubborn kid. He was born without a right hand.

Which make his dribble-drives all the more impressive, his 3-pointers a thing of beauty, his no-look passes jaw-dropping.

That’s what caught NAU head coach and former Arizona Wildcats student manager Jack Murphy’s eye.

But first, Murphy got an assist from a fellow Wildcat.

“The reason Omar is here is because of A.J. Bramlett,” Murphy said. “I love him to death. A.J. cares about people as much as anybody. A.J. met Omar in high school, worked him out and trained him, and the fall of his senior year, texted me, ‘I’m gonna send you film of a kid, his dream is to play D-1,’ and I was just floored by everything he was capable of doing.”

Ndiaye was a budding star for Monte del Sol High School in Santa Fe, where he averaged 16 points per game as a junior and more than 21 per game as a senior. He met Bramlett through his high school coach — “A.J., that’s my dude,” he says — and they worked out together.

Murphy brought Ndiaye out for an unofficial visit, not realizing that he had already applied to attend NAU.

“I came down to watch a game, met Coach Murph, and it was a surreal feeling at first,” he said. “I dreamed about this. I didn’t think it would come true. It was really simple, and that’s why I have a lot of respect for Coach Murphy. As soon as A.J. told him about me, Murph was all for it. It wasn’t even a long process.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Ndiaye was one of nine newcomers his freshman, a year after the team won 23 games with five seniors playing major roles, and, Murphy said, “It’s not like I had to sit down the three guys left. From Day 1, he was one of the guys. … I coach him as hard as I coach anybody. But he’s got a great sense of humor about him.”

Murphy tells a story that sums up Ndiaye’s perspective on life.

“We have a kids summer camp, and one of my good buddies brought his kids, they’re running around all week, and they they’re going out to California for a beach vacation,” Murphy said. “My buddy’s wife says to me, ‘Do me a favor, tell these kids it’s safe to go in the water, that it didn’t happen.’ What didn’t happen? ‘Omar told them a shark bit his arm off.’

“And Omar is just dying there laughing.”

It is a perspective that Ndiaye has had his whole life.

“I wouldn’t change a thing about myself,” he said.

Added Murphy: “Just today at practice, he’s running scout team, and Omar’s coming off a cut, and a guy throws it wide. Omar says, ‘If you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a hand.’ He’s quick-witted, snappy. He lightens the mood, but also, when we get in a serious setting, he’s the one to get the guys pumped.”

Basketball, Ndiaye said, gives him the outlet he needs. He started playing at age 6.

“It made me feel like I wasn’t different,” Ndiaye said. “In some ways if I’m in an empty gym, its meditation to me.”

Basketball has given Ndiaye a platform to talk about his struggles — and his perseverance. He’s played in five games for the Lumberjacks and hit two 3-pointers.

“It’s still hard at times,” he said. “I’m breaking barriers, trying to break down misconceptions people have on disabled people. There are still going to be some people who doubt you.”

That only gives Ndiaye a chance to open their eyes and drop their jaws. That feeling — when he balls out against a guy who has totally underestimated him — there’s nothing like it.

“It’s kind of hard to describe,” he said. “It’s a confidence boost. Stepping into a gym, people look at you funny, and I make one shot. OK, he might have been lucky. But I get in the groove, and I’m surprising people.”