In the three complete years of Virginia coach Dave Leitao’s career, he has not had a consistent shot-blocker. Senior center Tunji Soroye had 37 blocks during the 2005-06 season but has since faded, and last season 6-foot-5 senior forward Mamadi Diane led the Cavaliers with 22.
It seems Leitao has finally found the defensive menace he has been seeking in 7-foot freshman center Assane Sene. The native from Saint-Louis, Senegal, already has 24 blocks this season. Should he keep his current pace, Sene will finish with about 40 blocks, not including postseason play.
“He’s a high, high motor-guy,” Leitao said.
From preseason practice, both Leitao and team members praised Sene for his energy and activity on both ends of the court. That is why Leitao said Sene earned his first start Nov. 28 against Syracuse. While logging just seven minutes that evening, Sene’s minutes quickly grew in number. Since conference play began Dec. 28, he has started every contest and played at least 22 minutes in all but two games; he played 16 minutes in a 74-50 blowout against Brown Jan. 6 and played 10 minutes after getting into foul trouble in an 84-78 loss against Maryland Jan. 20.
Where he got the motor with which Leitao has been so impressed, Sene said, is from his boyhood idols: now-retired NBA players Alonzo Mourning and David Robinson, two of the best in the business at swatting shots.
“When I saw them playing, I was saying, ‘I wanna be like this guy,’” Sene said. “They get big and were playing hard. They’re kind of like models for me — I’m trying to be like them.”
Like many players from Africa, Sene did not start playing basketball until well into adolescence. After playing soccer most of his life, Sene said, he picked up basketball — which Sene said is the third most popular sport in Senegal behind soccer and wrestling — upon encouragement from his four older brothers.
“I was like 6-[foot]-8, something like that,” Sene said. “My brothers always kept telling me, ‘You should go play basketball.’”
Sene picked up the new game and quickly became a star. He participated in the highly regarded Seed Academy Camp in Senegal, where he met Amadou Fall, director of scouting for the Dallas Mavericks, who Sene said was his biggest mentor and influence in making his way into college basketball in the United States. Sene then showed well at the NBA Players Camp in June 2007, which got him on college coaches’ radar.
“The coaches over here — they know that we have the ability,” Sene said of players like him who hail from Africa. “We’re aggressive, we have the height, we can move easily,”
Sene arrived in the United States for good in summer 2007 and enrolled on scholarship at preparatory school, South Kent School, in South Kent, Conn., staying with a guardian family Fall had introduced to him in Senegal, Sene said. Upon his arrival, Sene had to adjust to the more physical style of play in American basketball, but most challenging of all, he had to learn English. Though he is now fluent, he said he had not learned any English before he left Senegal.
“My guardian family, they helped me a lot with my language and a lot of things over here,” Sene said.
In the meantime, the recruiting frenzy began. Sene averaged 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks per game in his lone high school season and was offered scholarships by Big East powerhouses Syracuse and Connecticut as well as Kansas and Virginia, he said. Texas, Florida, UCLA and Maryland also looked at him, according to Rivals.com.
“Before I got here, I didn’t know exactly about the conferences,” he said. “I had a teammate who was also from Senegal, and he helped me a lot to tell me about the conferences, and what were the differences and stuff like that.”
Sene made his commitment to the Cavaliers Oct. 23, 2007. After visiting Sept. 28 last year and meeting with Leitao and assistant coach Bill Courtney, Sene said his trust in the coaching staff was the biggest factor in his decision.
“Before I signed, I had a big relationship with Coach Leitao and Coach Courtney,” he said. “I trusted them before I came here. They were really nice [to] me, and I said, ‘They deserve to get me on their team, so I’m going to go play for them.’”
Though he is now equipped with English language skills, Sene said adjusting to a new environment this season has been like arriving at South Kent all over again. Now, however, Sene has a new mentor: fifth-year senior and Nigeria native Tunji Soroye, who Sene said is like a brother.
“He’s not playing this year a lot, and also he’s a fifth-year, but he keeps doing his thing, especially helping me a lot,” Sene said. “[He’s] telling me a lot about basketball. Even if it’s not improving my game, he’s telling me some stuff that I need to take ... like school stuff.”
Now, Sene is at the center of a core group of freshmen and sophomores who hope to lead Virginia back to prominence. Like his team, however, Sene knows he has room to grow.
“I’m on the way — I’m not a great player,” Sene said. “I’m trying to get better.”
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