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Scholastic Roundup: He’s your March Madness bracket buster

March 28, 2022 Andy Furman

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He’s the Bracket Buster – and he’s from Brooklyn.

His name – KC Ndefo – a graduate of Abraham Lincoln High School.

And a member of the men’s basketball team that continues to make history.

The St. Peter’s University basketball Peacocks.

Those Peacocks have the nation’s longest winning streak, and tonight meet Purdue in the Sweet 16 – in Philadelphia.

Their second-round win – a 70-60 victory over Murray State (Ky.) – last Saturday, was powered by Ndefo’s team-high 17 points. That win pushed the Peacocks to a nine-game winning streak – and a win over the Boilermakers would pit the little school from Jersey City into the Elite 8.

Ndefo, the three-time reigning MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, recorded 10 rebounds to go along with his 17 points to record his seventh career double-double while also adding six blocks to become the first player in program history to reach 300 career blocks.

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Ndefo and his team shocked the world on opening night – last Thursday – when they defeated No. 2 Kentucky in a stunning overtime contest.

“The emotions were very high, we were very thrilled,” said Ndefo in the postgame press conference. “We came down with a mindset that we’re not losing.”

Ndefo, a senior forward who led the nation in blocks as a junior, scored seven points as the Peacocks pulled the shocker – 85-79 – over the Wildcats in overtime.

“We can beat anybody with hard work and dedication so that’s what we were doing out there,” said Ndefo, a sports management major.

By the way, St. Peter’s with an enrollment of about 2,300 students, entered that game as an 18.5-point underdog.

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Ndefo began his high school career at Elmont (NY) Memorial High School. He helped lead that team to a Class A state title as a sophomore. As a junior, he helped Elmont win the Nassau Championship. He finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks in the title game and hit the game-winning buzzer-beating shot in the 58-56 win against South Side High School.

After his junior season, Ndefo transferred to Lincoln High where he averaged 14 points and nine rebounds per-game as a senior. He served as team captain, and was a letter winner.

In January 2018, the New York Board of Education ruled Ndefo ineligible, causing him to miss the remainder of the season. He committed to playing college basketball for St. Peter’s – the only Division I school to offer him a scholarship.

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As a freshman, the 6-7 Ndefo averaged 7.8 points and five rebounds-per-game. He averaged 8.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.4 blocks and 1.4 steals as a sophomore.

He was named MAAC Defensive Player of the Year, MAAC Sixth Man of the Year, and Third-Team All-MAAC.

As a junior, he averaged 13.7 points, 6.5e rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.4 steals-per-game while shooting 50 percent from the field. His 3.6 blocks-per-game led Division I in that category, and he was the shortest player to lead the nation in blocked shots per-game since William Mosley of Northwestern State in 2011. He was named to the First Team All MAAC as well as repeating as MAAC Defensive Player of the Year.

Following the season, Ndefo entered the transfer portal, but ultimately returned to St. Peter’s. He surpassed the 1,000 point-mark on February 4, 2022 when he scored 14 points – and added a program-high 11 blocks – in an 83-74 victory over Quinnipiac. He was named to the Third Team All-MAAC as well as MAAC Defensive Player of the Year for the third season.

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Wishing a speedy recovery to Barry (Slice) Rohrssen who was seriously injured (Feb 25th) after he was struck by a car that drove into the outside dining area at Call Me Gaby in Miami Beach.

According to the Miami Beach Police Department, the accident occurred when a Bentley Turbo R driven by Regitze Tauber Gamble suddenly drove over a curb on Washington Avenue as she was attempting to parallel park, hit a parked Toyota Rav4m before striking a tale with five diners and nearby pedestrians. Some victims were trapped under the car. One man was killed, and eight others were injured in the incident, including Rohrssen.

Rohrssen, a Xaverian High grad is a self-proclaimed “gym rat.” He played basketball at St. Francis College – and he was later an assistant basketball coach at the school.

“Slice” later served as assistant basketball coach at UNLV and the University of Pittsburgh.

In April, 2006 he was named basketball coach at Manhattan College, and later served as assistant coach for John Calipari at the University of Kentucky and at St. John’s – with another Xaverian grad – Chris Mullin.