Tim Benz: Accelerated development of Mounir Hima a bright spot for Duquesne in 2022

Duquesne center Mounir Hima didn’t play any basketball as a child. Growing up in Tillaberi, Niger, soccer was his sport.

“Me playing basketball is a destiny. I never thought about basketball,” Hima said Monday. “Basketball where I came from wasn’t a priority sport. You don’t even have a lot of gyms where I come from. You could create the soccer ball on our own. You just take a bunch of plastic. Two shoes (for each goal). … It was the easiest sport to play.”

But as he was growing into what is now a 6-foot-11 frame with a 7-foot-7 wingspan, Hima stood out as a basketball prospect. He enrolled in a camp and eventually, through American recruiting pipelines, found his way to St. Benedict’s Prep in New Jersey and South Jersey Hoops Elite in AAU play.

Despite a lack of polish and experience, Hima drew scholarship interest from the likes of VCU, Pitt, Texas A&M, Rhode Island, UMass and Duquesne. He chose Duquesne, in part because of his friendship with St. Benedict’s teammate and fellow Dukes forward Toby Okani.

With just four years of basketball experience under his belt — one of them a redshirt season on the Bluff in 2020-21 — Hima was expected to be eased into some minutes this year and used sparingly.

But a wave of injuries up front forced head coach Keith Dambrot into accelerating Hima’s learning curve. Hima began getting double-digit minutes against St. Louis on Jan. 29, when he blocked five shots and grabbed six rebounds. By late February, he was starting, managing 31 minutes against Davidson and 22 against George Washington.

“He’s developing,” Dambrot said. “He’s a wonderful young man that does all the right things. You root for guys like him. He is very young in the game, so it is hard to judge him on a day-to-day basis right now. We kind of threw him in prematurely. But he is doing a good job with what he has right now.”

Offensively, Hima is still quite raw, never exceeding nine points in a game. But he wound up with 20 blocks on the year and averaged 4.5 rebounds in games he played from Jan. 29 through the rest of the regular season.

“In a team, you’ve got to know what you are good at,” Hima said. “My goal is to do that stuff. Rebound. Block shots. Run the floor. Score when I have easy baskets. Other players have to do the other stuff.”

Dambrot frequently praises Hima’s intelligence, personality and attitude. Those are reasons why he has been able to play D-1 basketball with so little experience and a relative lack of developed instinct. Hima is a computer science major who speaks four languages (English, French, Zarma and Hausa). But five years ago, Hima arrived in America not knowing English at all.

“My house mom made me go to New York for three months to learn English,” Hima recalled. “I couldn’t speak a word. It was crazy. I was just grinding, grinding. That helped me elevate my understanding to learn the language quickly.”

Yet the language of basketball is something that Hima found difficult to master in the beginning. As he described, even grasping simple terminology such as the difference between “make a basket” and “score a goal” (in soccer) was challenging.

“When people speak, coaches talk, sometimes it’s hard to know what they are asking for. For the different languages, soccer and basketball are not the same,” Hima said. “But the more I play, the more I get used to the coaches when they talk to me. I’m learning to take it all in when I make a mistake and go with the flow. Don’t let that bother me.”

That said, Hima has two valuable traits that can’t be taught. Size and natural enthusiasm. For a large post player, he runs the floor well and plays with lots of energy. Sometimes, that gets him in trouble, especially in terms of picking up fouls too quickly. But that’s a part of Hima’s game he hopes to hone.

“The more I play, every game you see, this kid is learning,” Hima said. “My first game until now, I’m so excited that I’m learning. Every game I’m getting better. My confidence is getting better, my understanding of the game is getting better. Knowing where I am. Knowing when to not foul. Knowing when to block. All this thanks to the minutes I’m getting.”

At 6-23, bright spots have been few and far between for the Dukes in 2022. Hima’s increased playing time is one of them. If they are to survive their first-round Atlantic 10 Tournament game against Rhode Island Wednesday, Hima’s contributions will likely be a reason why.

And if they are able to forge a better path next season, Hima should be a big part of that quest as well.

Listen: Duquesne center Mounir Hima discusses his journey to America, his adjustment from soccer to basketball, and learning on the fly as a D-1 player