Ellis excited by latest CCU signings

CONWAY -- The Coastal Carolina men’s basketball program is halfway to filling out its 2012 recruiting class, and already coach Cliff Ellis feels the Chanticleers have added two of the top talents they’ve signed during his tenure.

In addressing the signings of 6-foot-5 guard Michel Enanga from Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) and 6-foot-7 forward Alioune Diagne from Elevation Academy (Sarasota, Fla.), Ellis credited first-year assistant coach Mamadou N’Diaye for taking the lead on the players’ recruitment and spoke highly about the impact he believes each will have on the program in the near future.

“I really think that these two on paper, as far as early signees, these are the two best we’ve ever had,” Ellis said.

N’Diaye, who played for Ellis at Auburn and joined the Chants this summer after playing professionally in the NBA and internationally, is a native of Senegal and formed a natural connection with the players, who are both of African descent.

Enanga is from Cameroon, and Montverde Academy coach Kevin Boyle said earlier this week that N’Diaye’s ties to the continent played a key role in the player’s decision to choose Coastal after also considering Manhattan and Jacksonville. Diagne, like N’Diaye, is originally from Senegal.

“I knew him even before coming here,” N’Diaye said of Diagne. “He knows it’s a good situation, and it was a plus having me [also] from Senegal, but if it wasn’t a good situation, just the relationship is not going to cut it. It has to be a good situation. Now, the relationship and the background coming from the same place and knowing the same people and trying to achieve the same thing that I have done with the same coach who helped me to achieve it was a great selling point.

“And he knows here I’ll watch his back. He’s like a brother. ... The same [with] Michel. [Their] parents really trust me to look over them and to push them to become the best that they can possibly be. It’s not just a coach and player relationship; it’s more like a big brother and little brother relationship.”

Speaking of the signees, N’Diaye said both are standout defenders with the potential to eventually play professionally at some level or another.

Talking over the phone earlier this week, Boyle said Enanga’s strength is his defense and toughness. N’Diaye called him a “lock-down defender” who can guard point guards as well as power forwards. He projects as a wing player for Coastal.

“He’s very strong, very, very long,” N’Diaye said. “Actually in Africa, he was playing the point guard. At Montverde, they have a very good point guard. Everybody’s trying to get him, so that’s why Michel is playing more at the two, three, even a little bit of four. But he’s a very, very strong player. Very athletic, hard-nosed player, tough. He just [doesn’t] want to take no for an answer.

“And what I like about him is when I saw him last year when he first got to Montverde and this year [it’s] like night and day. He got so much better. So I really think we got a steal getting him. He should have been recruited way higher than where people have him ranked at.”

Diagne, nicknamed “Badou,” is also considered a plus defender, though Ellis spoke highly of his offensive game, comparing him to CCU senior Chris Gradnigo in terms of having well-rounded inside-outside skills.

Said N’Diaye: “Badou, just like Michel, he’s a very tough defender, long, he gets a lot of steals, a lot of hands on the ball, a very good rebounder, very good on the block facing up. He’s getting better too. ... So I think the sky’s the limit for him too.”

Ellis hopes to add two more signees to this recruiting class before all is said and done.

As for N’Diaye, he is still a rookie in the coaching profession and new to the recruiting game, but he’s quickly making an impact in his first season at Coastal.

“Mamadou is like a son to me. He came up under me,” Ellis said. “... He’s just a guy that I just trust. I like the way he relates to young people, and he’s an NBA player that people respond to. But he’s a very good teacher, and he’s a tremendous human being. He deserves all the credit for [signing] those two guys -- he really does.”

Kirkland out for season

Senior guard Willie Kirkland hasn’t had much go right for him since joining the Chants last season, and he received more bad news as an MRI taken last week revealed he has a broken bone in his foot/ankle and will miss the rest of the season.

The team’s official news release called the injury a fractured ankle, while Kirkland said the MRI revealed a broken bone in his foot. Either way, he’s expected to miss the rest of the season and will petition for a medical hardship and extra year of eligibility.

He said the injury dates back to an October scrimmage and was initially thought to be a sprained ankle. The 6-foot-4 guard played in four games off the bench, averaging 8.3 minutes and 3.8 points before learning the severity of the injury.

“It’s frustrating, disappointing,” Ellis said. “He basically has been here two years and hasn’t been able to play. But injuries have just killed him this year. It’s been sad to watch.”

Kirkland, who transferred into the program from Gulf Coast Community College, played in only seven games last season before being ruled academically ineligible. He had offseason surgery to address a heel condition and was hoping to work his way back to form as a senior.

“It’s tough, but you can only control what you can control,” Kirkland said Thursday. “... Last year, academics -- that was my fault. This year I’ve got the grades, and now I’m not healthy.”

Kirkland has already used the maximum five years to complete his eligibility as he sat out a season before transferring from Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Ala., to Gulf Coast CC in Fla., so he would need an NCAA waiver to regain another year of eligibility.

“We’ll try to get a medical hardship, but those sometimes are out of our hands and they can be longshots,” Ellis said. “But we’ll do the best we can.”