April 12, 2006

WACO, Texas - Baylor received a signed National Letter of Intent from Djibril "Penny" Thiam of California's Stoneridge Prep to play basketball, head coach Scott Drew announced Wednesday.

"Penny is an impressive young man," Drew said. "He is an excellent student who is extremely hard working and driven to be successful in academics, basketball and life."

A 6-8 wing, Thiam is listed as the No. 81 national recruit by HoopScoop and ranked 23rd among NBAdraft.net's class of 2006.

Thiam starred for Stoneridge Prep, which was ranked as high as No. 14 nationally this season in PrepStars.com's Prep School Poll. Thiam played his final prep season at Stoneridge, located in Tarzana, Calif., after his arrival in the United States from Senegal. He is a native of Dakar, the capital city of Senegal.

"Penny's best basketball is ahead of him," Drew said. "He grew up playing guard and has grown eight inches in the last two years, which gives him the unique quality of possessing height as well as perimeter skills. Penny has a lot of athletic ability and his versatility really excites our staff."

Thiam is Baylor's third signee, all incoming freshmen, of its 2006 recruiting class. He joins two signees from the early signing period: All-American Tweety Carter of LaPlace, La., and Josh Lomers of Boerne, Texas.

BAYLOR 2006 SIGNEES:Name                     Pos.   Ht. Wt. Yr. Hometown (Schools)Demond "Tweety" Carter  G   5-10    170 Fr. LaPlace, La. (Reserve Christian School)Josh Lomers          C  7-1 250 Fr. Boerne, Texas (Boerne HS)Djibril "Penny" Thiam   F   6-8 200 Fr. Dakar, Senegal (Stoneridge [Calif.] Prep)