Nendah Tarke is fielding interest from Rutgers basketball as the sophomore is just two days removed from entering the transfer portal.
Tarke is coming off a very strong year at Coppin State where he averaged 12.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. At 6-foot-4 and with a 42.6 field goal percentage, he has the size to be a shooting guard or a combo guard in the Big Ten.
He is also a strong defensive presence.
He said that South Alabama “is pretty heavy on me” along with Loyola (Chicago), Longwood, St. Bonaventure and Rutgers among others. San Diego and Seton Hall just began following him on social media on Sunday night.
The contact with Rutgers, Tarke said, has already started with a phone call this weekend from assistant coach T.J. Thompson.
“They’re really interested. They lost guys and they were interested in someone like myself to score and defend and make plays for them,” Tarke told Rutgers Wire on Sunday.
“They just told me that they’ll keep in touch, you know, throughout this time period. Basically just told me that they were very interested.”
There is no timtable for a decision, no rush to make a choice. He says he has seen a number of players enter the transfer portal only to make decisions that were rushed and not in their best interest.
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He is leaving Coppin State following the firing of head coach Juan Dixon. Tarke said he was close with the staff and felt it was the right time to see what other options existed via the transfer portal.
Tarke scored double digits in five of his last seven games of the regular season.
Ironically, Tarke’s worst game from last season came in late December at Jersey Mike’s Arena. He was held to two points on one-of-eight shooting as he was still recovering from a fractured shooting hand, an injury he says is healed now.
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A visit, Tarke said, could be likely if the communication with Rutgers continues to progress.
“I think so – I think at some point. So (coach Thompson) told me they will keep in touch,” Tarke said. “He said I could be the missing piece for them to get over the hump. So as long as things continue go well with that, yeah, I definitely plan on visiting.”
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In the out-of-conference schedule, Tarke showed that he can perform well against the bigger competition from elite conferences. The showing against Rutgers notwithstanding, Tarke did well this past season in his other competition against the Big East, the Big Ten and the ACC:
- at Georgetown on Nov. 18, 2022: 17 points (37.5 shooting percentage), 6 rebounds, 2 assists
- at Maryland on Nov. 25, 2022: 14 points (45.5 shooting percentage), 2 rebounds, 4 assists
- at North Carolina State on Dec. 6, 2022: 13 points (66.7 shooting percentage), 11 rebounds, 1 assist
In two meetings this season against Howard (the MEAC’s automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament), Tarke averaged 15 points per game on a 50.0 shooting percentage.
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