By Dan Froehlich | Special to LRTrojans.com
In mathematics, the square root of a number is a value that, when multiplied by itself, is the number. For example, four times four equals 16, making the square root of 16 four.
In Little Rock's Jack Stephens Center, the square Ruot is a near double-double, courtesy of first-year junior center
Ruot Monyyong.
Monyyong, who is the son of an Ethiopian mother and a South Sudanese father, did not have a direct path to Little Rock head coach
Darrell Walker's team. Coming out of Nashville, Tennessee's, Whites Creek High School, Monyyong needed to "grow up" before coming to Division I basketball.
"I had a lot of offers out of high school but I was ineligible so I felt like a lot of people forgot what type of player I am and what I can do," Monyyong said.
Monyyong's first stop was at Eastern Florida State, a junior college in Melbourne, Florida. Averaging 5.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, he only spent a year in Florida before transferring north to Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
"It was rough. It was hard," Monyyong said of going to a pair of junior colleges before settling in at Little Rock. "I wasn't ready to be here so I'm glad I took that route. I knew I had to be stronger. But the biggest adjustment was coming here."
As the starting center for Shelton State, Monyyong saw his numbers increase drastically, upping his scoring average to 16.1 per game while his rebounds ballooned to 10.4 per game. That drew the attention of Walker and assistant coach
Alfred Jordan, who convinced the athletic big man to Little Rock.
"Coach Walker and coach Jordan really recruited me hard," Monyyong said. "I felt like I could play here instead of going somewhere else to sit."
Halfway through his first season with the Trojans, the recruiting game has paid dividends for both parties.
With 18 games under his belt, Monyyong has recorded 10 double-doubles on the year, which is currently tied for fifth nationally. Averaging 12.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, he brings a six-game streak of double-doubles into Thursday night's game at Coastal Carolina. He is the lone player in the Sun Belt to average double-digits in rebounds and he is just shy of the top-20 in scoring in the league.
"Since we started conference play, everyone has had to pick it up," Monyyong said. "We have been short some people so I knew I had to pick it up too."
Those people include sophomore
Nikola Maric, himself a 6-10 center/forward who averaged 10.7 points and 4.5 rebounds as a starter last season and just returned to the lineup two games ago.
Following Little Rock's six-point win over Georgia Southern on January 6, which was the team's third game in five days, all of them wins, Walker said of Monyyong; "He's a quiet assassin. He's not flashy, he just takes care of business."
Monyyong believes that his study of Anthony Davis' rebounding techniques have really helped him corral all those missed shots.
"If someone is in the corner, he'll go to the other side of the rim and get his position and it will come right to him," Monyyong said.
A leader on the court more via actions than words, Monyyong hopes to continue to take care of business in the second half of the season, guiding the first-place Trojans through 14 more conference games and the league tournament.
And his idea of the square root?
"Win conference, go to March Madness and win some games."
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