After missing the first 10 games of the season for Towson men’s basketball waiting to be cleared by the NCAA, Coppin State transfer guard Nendah Tarke made his first start for the Tigers on Dec. 22 as he continued to work his way back into the flow ahead of conference play.
Tarke hit the transfer portal in March after Coppin, committed to Nicholls State in May but re-entered the portal in June and signed with Towson in August. He wasn’t cleared to play until early this month, though, as the NCAA sifted through questions about whether he should be considered a two-time undergraduate transfer.
Shortly after he was cleared, a federal judge’s ruling allowed two-time transfers to play immediately anyway.
Tarke debuted for Towson during the Tigers’ 101-93 double-overtime loss at Bryant on Dec. 16, scoring three points and pulling down four rebounds in 16 minutes. He slid into the starting lineup in a 65-55 win against Nicholls on Dec. 22, posting 13 points, six rebounds and two steals in 28 minutes.
Tarke made 5 of 17 shots between the two games for Towson, which is 6-6 entering its final nonconference matchup of the season against Division III Arcadia on Dec. 30.
“I’m getting good looks, getting great looks not falling, but I think that just comes with the game,” Tarke said following the Nicholls game. “But I feel like conditioning-wise I’m good, game-wise I’m good, it’s just getting my shots down.”
Tarke had a productive three-year run at Coppin, averaging 12.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 2.1 assists. He earned MEAC Rookie of the Year honors in 2020-21, first-team All-MEAC honors in 2021-22 and MEAC All-Defensive Team honors in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He hit the portal after Coppin moved on from six-year head coach Juan Dixon.
A native of Gaithersburg and graduate of Bullis School, Tarke eventually decided to stay close to home in his next stop. That benefited Towson, which needed to find some offensive juice in the portal with veteran staples Cam Holden and Nicolas Timberlake moving on.
Tarke practiced with the Tigers while he waited for word on his status.
“It’s great, just getting around the guys. Learning a bunch of new guys has been a process, but it’s been fun,” he said. “I’m willing to go to war and go to battle with these guys all day, any day.”
Tarke started against Nicholls alongside fellow transfer Tomiwa Sulaiman (Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and returners Christian May, Charles Thompson and Dylan Williamson. Freshmen Mekhi Lowery and Tyler Tejada, Wofford transfer Messiah Jones and holdover Chase Paar played double-digit minutes off the bench. Junior guard Rahdir Hicks has missed the past seven games with a concussion.
Tarke gives head coach Pat Skerry another chess piece as he experiments with his rotation ahead of CAA play, which gets rolling at Monmouth on Jan 4.
“I thought he was really good defensively,” Skerry said, referring to Tarke’s performance against Nicholls. “There is game rust. He hadn’t played in awhile. I thought he was rusty [at Bryant], but the only way to get him better is to play him and get the other guys used to playing with him. So we’re trying to kind of force-feed that, but he did a good job for us.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Towson Athletics