NCAA Basketball: Top 10 players to wear jersey No. 34 in 2023-24 season

6. Lahat Thioune (South Dakota)

Another player with a far from straightforward journey, Thioune came from Senegal to prep school in Florida and later began his collegiate career at Utah. His three years in the Pac-12 saw mostly bench work for the Utes, and more of the same came as a senior at UCF. The well-traveled forward found another new home this past offseason and found significantly more run with South Dakota in the Summit League.

Thioune averaged 14.3 points and 9.3 rebounds and made 57% of his field goal attempts, with numbers that blew his earlier experience out of the water. Sure he was doing this against the Summit League, but he played great with consistent court time and was the conference’s leading rebounder. He was an all-around solid frontcourt weapon even during a rough year for the Coyotes, who grabbed just 8th place in the league.

A season with several double-doubles included a 24-point, 10-rebound performance against UTRGV and a nearly identical effort at DePaul. Thioune actually had fantastic rebounding numbers especially during conference play, including a 19-rebound effort at North Dakota State. In the return game against the Bison in late February, Thioune actually had 31 points and 11 rebounds and would have quite the emphatic end to his college playing days.