Men's Basketball | Monday 05/14/2018

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – New Mexico State head men's basketball coach Chris Jans bolsters his roster for the 2018-19 season with the addition of Mohamed Thiam.
 
"We are ecstatic that Mohamed Thiam has elected to attend New Mexico State and join our basketball program," said Jans. "Mo brings a wealth of talent, including his ability score at all three levels on the floor.  We expect Mo to make an immediate impact on our team next season!"
 
Thiam comes to NM State after spending the last two seasons at Marshalltown Community College where he earned NJCAA Third-Team All-American distinction and First-Team All-Region XI honors this past season while hauling in Honorable Mention All-Region XI accolades as a freshman.
 
The 6-9 forward is also the sixth-ranked JUCO recruit according to JucoRecruiting.com. He joins recent signee Ivan Aurrecoechea as the second player to join NM State ranked in the top-10 amongst JUCO recruits.
 
As a freshman with the Tigers, Thiam averaged a double-double with 14.2 points and 10.1 rebounds to go with a 31.1-percent shooting clip from downtown. He scored eight points with four rebounds in his collegiate debut against Quakerdale Prep Academy and followed that up with his first-career double-double, tallying 10-points and 10 rebounds.
 
He scored a then season-high 34 points on 13-of-17 shooting with 11 rebounds against Iowa Central. He then a career-high 18 rebounds against Southeastern and followed up with another 18 rebound performance the next game as well. Finished his freshman campaign with 14 double-doubles, 21 games with 10-plus points and 15 games with double-digit rebounds.
 
Thiam's sophomore campaign was even more impressive with him averaging 19.7 points while grabbing 9.6 boards to go with a .471 shooting clip. The Dakar, Senegal, product opened the season with 19 points and 16 rebounds and strung together 13-straight games with double-digit points and was heled to single-digits in the scoring column once all season. During that same 13-game stretch, he poured in a career-high 37 points on 13-of-24 shooting with 14 rebounds against Highland (Ill.).
 
He finished the season with 14 double-doubles – including a career-high tying 18 rebounds against Simpson College. Thiam tallied 20-plus points in 15 games this season as well – three of which were 30-plus point performances.
 
The 6-9 forward will join Addison Wallace, Ivan Aurrecoechea and Clayton Henry in Las Cruces next year as the Aggie men's basketball team looks to defend its Western Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament title.