4* PF Baye Ndongo Commits To Georgia Tech

On Friday 3/4* PF Baye Ndongo has committed to the Yellow Jackets. He becomes the first incoming freshman to commit to Georgia Tech under Damon Stoudamire. Ndongo originally verbally committed to Rutgers, but his primary recruiter was Karl Hobbs who joined Georgia Tech’s staff last month. Hobbs was able to convince Ndongo to join him. Baye grew up playing soccer in Senegal, but was convinced to start playing basketball in the US when he was 14. He played for Team Senegal in the U19 World Cup in 2021 and put up some decent stats.

I’m pretty excited about this pickup. Ndongo is one of those late starters at basketball that should be able to grow into his game in college. The 6’10” forward is super athletic and seems to have great shot blocking instincts. I have only watched highlights, but reports from his games call him a high-energy, hard-nosed player which is what you want to see from someone who is a little more on the raw side. On the offensive side he definitely needs some work, but I can see a ton of potential. He has some huge highlight reel dunks, but that’s not all. His shot looks smooth, but will probably need to improve at the college level. His ball handling will definitely need to improve, but he’s better than I expected at it. This coaching staff will have some good basics to work with.

I am very excited about this signing. I wanted an incoming freshman to round out this class and Ndongo is a great way to do that. He’s another big man who has a ton of potential and already has a decent game. He should see the court some this year, but I wouldn’t expect him to start.

Damon Stoudamire seems to put a lot of emphasis on length and athleticism from his wings and bigs. We’ll see what that means for his defensive schemes this year.

Ndongo is the 7th commit to this team. 8 players have left so GT has 11 scholarship players for next year leaving two open slots. We’re getting to the end of the recruiting season so this could be the last pickup, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s one more late commit coming.