The Growth of Confidence
Dec 07, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
We saw Kansas State trail. We saw K-State lead. And we saw David N'Guessan grow up before our eyes during the Wildcats' 81-64 win over Abilene Christian on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
N'Guessan had a career-high 16 points to go along with five rebounds — and that was in the first half alone. He finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-for-9 shooting from the floor in 33 minutes while slashing and moving and getting open and playing with the most confidence he's demonstrated all season for Coach Jerome Tang's team.
"I put in the work," N'Guessan said. "Coach said to keep doing it and my confidence would keep going up and I'd see the results. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing."
N'Guessan's previous season high was 12 points against Rhode Island on November 21.
On Tuesday, N'Guessan was on another level as the Wildcats improved to 8-1 and now prepare to face Incarnate Word on Sunday.
The 6-foot-9, 215-pound N'Guessan, a versatile junior transfer from Virginia Tech, was good from the start for a K-State team that was up and down for the first 20 minutes and led 35-34 at the half. N'Guessan scored four of the Wildcats' first eight points and blocked a shot by Abilene Christian guard Damien Daniels, which led to a fastbreak layup by Desi Sills. Two possessions later, he caught a pass from Markquis Nowell in mid-air and flipped the ball into the hoop.
"Markquis finds me all the time," N'Guessan said. "My teammates are making it easy for me."
Moments later, N'Guessan made K-State's first 3-pointer. That gave him nine points in eight minutes of action. Then he caught another pass from Nowell for another layup.
"Me moving all the time helps the flow of the offense and it opens up bubbles for our team to attack," N'Guessan said. "Me standing in one spot allows the defender to stay on me the whole time. I just have to keep moving.
"Coach Tang talks to me about confidence all the time and my teammates help me with it as well. They just keep telling me to keep my head up even if I make a bad play. That really helps me."
N'Guessan tied his season-high 12 points with a free throw to pull K-State within 32-29 with 3 minutes, 17 seconds left. Then he gave K-State a 33-32 lead when he went up strong with his left hand off the glass. Less than a minute later, he made a pair of free throws. That gave him a career-high 16 points in 17 minutes in the first half.
"They were finding me every time for easy layups," N'Guessan said.
He wasn't finished.
He reached 20 points when he caught a long, high pass from Cam Carter and he laid the ball softly into the hoop to give K-State a 66-51 lead with 7:51 left in the second half. He scored his 21st and 22nd points on a short baseline jumper for a 68-55 lead.
With 4:26 remaining, he landed awkwardly on his left knee. He walked off a lump and made the first of two free throws. He showed no signs of slowing when he blocked a shot on the other end of the floor.
"He's a competitor," Nowell said. "He's fierce. He does all the little things to help this team win. That's why on nights like this he gets rewarded, because he sets screens, and rolls hard, and gets on the glass. Any opportunity we get to give him the ball we try to do so as much as possible."
N'Guessan dreamed of performances like this.
Born and raised in De Lier, The Netherlands, N'Guessan grew up playing hoops. He hit a growth spurt — he went from 6-foot-3 to 6-foot-9 between ages 15 and 17 — that played a part in his decision to come to America to play high school basketball and potentially refine his talents at the collegiate level. He graduated from Mt. Zion Prep in Lanham, Maryland, as one of the top 40 power forwards in the nation. In March 2020, he chose to make Virginia Tech his initial college home over offers from St. Joseph's, VCU and Washington State.
As a freshman during the abbreviated 2020-21 season, N'Guessan scored 13 points at Wake Forest and 10 points at Syracuse while playing in 21 of 22 games at Virginia Tech. Last season, he came off the bench in all 36 games and showed flashes of potential as the Hokies' top big man off the bench. He averaged 3.7 points and 2.7 rebounds while averaging 13.4 minutes per contest. He had a then-career-high 15 points on 7-of-7 shooting against Maine and added 10 points and a career-high nine rebounds against Cornell. He played in all four ACC Tournament games and saw nearly 10 minutes of action against Texas in the NCAA Tournament.
"At Virginia Tech, he played behind two all-conference guys," Tang said. "It wasn't that he was a bad player, but he was just behind two all-conference guys. In the limited minutes that he played, we saw him do some really good things, and we thought given more minutes he could do more of those things.
"He's a real mismatch playing the five because he's so fast that he can outrun fives down the court and sprint out of ball screens. He's starting to feel and they're developing confidence in each other. You have to credit the guards for throwing him the ball. I see David's game continuing to grow. I feel like he can shoot the 3 and he can make plays from the high post on a short roll as team makes adjustments and it's going to give us more options. It'll put the defense in a bind more moving forward."
N'Guessan entered the transfer portal right before the May 1 deadline. His phone rang non-stop his first week on the market, as a bevy of Division I programs sought his talents. He visited K-State in late May. He issued his top eight possible selections (K-State, Maryland, Georgetown, St. Joseph's, George Washington, UMass and Rhode Island) and returned to The Netherlands to spend time with his family and formulate his decision.
Then he chose to make Manhattan his home.
And he's fitting in nicely.
"This is the reason I transferred, to be able to contribute more and help my team win more games," N'Guessan said. "I'm happy I was able to contribute and we could get the win."
We saw Kansas State trail. We saw K-State lead. And we saw David N'Guessan grow up before our eyes during the Wildcats' 81-64 win over Abilene Christian on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
N'Guessan had a career-high 16 points to go along with five rebounds — and that was in the first half alone. He finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-for-9 shooting from the floor in 33 minutes while slashing and moving and getting open and playing with the most confidence he's demonstrated all season for Coach Jerome Tang's team.
"I put in the work," N'Guessan said. "Coach said to keep doing it and my confidence would keep going up and I'd see the results. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing."
N'Guessan's previous season high was 12 points against Rhode Island on November 21.
On Tuesday, N'Guessan was on another level as the Wildcats improved to 8-1 and now prepare to face Incarnate Word on Sunday.
The 6-foot-9, 215-pound N'Guessan, a versatile junior transfer from Virginia Tech, was good from the start for a K-State team that was up and down for the first 20 minutes and led 35-34 at the half. N'Guessan scored four of the Wildcats' first eight points and blocked a shot by Abilene Christian guard Damien Daniels, which led to a fastbreak layup by Desi Sills. Two possessions later, he caught a pass from Markquis Nowell in mid-air and flipped the ball into the hoop.
"Markquis finds me all the time," N'Guessan said. "My teammates are making it easy for me."
Moments later, N'Guessan made K-State's first 3-pointer. That gave him nine points in eight minutes of action. Then he caught another pass from Nowell for another layup.
"Me moving all the time helps the flow of the offense and it opens up bubbles for our team to attack," N'Guessan said. "Me standing in one spot allows the defender to stay on me the whole time. I just have to keep moving.
"Coach Tang talks to me about confidence all the time and my teammates help me with it as well. They just keep telling me to keep my head up even if I make a bad play. That really helps me."
N'Guessan tied his season-high 12 points with a free throw to pull K-State within 32-29 with 3 minutes, 17 seconds left. Then he gave K-State a 33-32 lead when he went up strong with his left hand off the glass. Less than a minute later, he made a pair of free throws. That gave him a career-high 16 points in 17 minutes in the first half.
"They were finding me every time for easy layups," N'Guessan said.
He wasn't finished.
He reached 20 points when he caught a long, high pass from Cam Carter and he laid the ball softly into the hoop to give K-State a 66-51 lead with 7:51 left in the second half. He scored his 21st and 22nd points on a short baseline jumper for a 68-55 lead.
With 4:26 remaining, he landed awkwardly on his left knee. He walked off a lump and made the first of two free throws. He showed no signs of slowing when he blocked a shot on the other end of the floor.
"He's a competitor," Nowell said. "He's fierce. He does all the little things to help this team win. That's why on nights like this he gets rewarded, because he sets screens, and rolls hard, and gets on the glass. Any opportunity we get to give him the ball we try to do so as much as possible."
N'Guessan dreamed of performances like this.
Born and raised in De Lier, The Netherlands, N'Guessan grew up playing hoops. He hit a growth spurt — he went from 6-foot-3 to 6-foot-9 between ages 15 and 17 — that played a part in his decision to come to America to play high school basketball and potentially refine his talents at the collegiate level. He graduated from Mt. Zion Prep in Lanham, Maryland, as one of the top 40 power forwards in the nation. In March 2020, he chose to make Virginia Tech his initial college home over offers from St. Joseph's, VCU and Washington State.
As a freshman during the abbreviated 2020-21 season, N'Guessan scored 13 points at Wake Forest and 10 points at Syracuse while playing in 21 of 22 games at Virginia Tech. Last season, he came off the bench in all 36 games and showed flashes of potential as the Hokies' top big man off the bench. He averaged 3.7 points and 2.7 rebounds while averaging 13.4 minutes per contest. He had a then-career-high 15 points on 7-of-7 shooting against Maine and added 10 points and a career-high nine rebounds against Cornell. He played in all four ACC Tournament games and saw nearly 10 minutes of action against Texas in the NCAA Tournament.
"At Virginia Tech, he played behind two all-conference guys," Tang said. "It wasn't that he was a bad player, but he was just behind two all-conference guys. In the limited minutes that he played, we saw him do some really good things, and we thought given more minutes he could do more of those things.
"He's a real mismatch playing the five because he's so fast that he can outrun fives down the court and sprint out of ball screens. He's starting to feel and they're developing confidence in each other. You have to credit the guards for throwing him the ball. I see David's game continuing to grow. I feel like he can shoot the 3 and he can make plays from the high post on a short roll as team makes adjustments and it's going to give us more options. It'll put the defense in a bind more moving forward."
N'Guessan entered the transfer portal right before the May 1 deadline. His phone rang non-stop his first week on the market, as a bevy of Division I programs sought his talents. He visited K-State in late May. He issued his top eight possible selections (K-State, Maryland, Georgetown, St. Joseph's, George Washington, UMass and Rhode Island) and returned to The Netherlands to spend time with his family and formulate his decision.
Then he chose to make Manhattan his home.
And he's fitting in nicely.
"This is the reason I transferred, to be able to contribute more and help my team win more games," N'Guessan said. "I'm happy I was able to contribute and we could get the win."
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