Niko Ruffin (born June 12, 2003) is an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player for the

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East ...

of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

(ACC).

Early life

Niko Ruffin was born on June 12, 2003, in the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. He is the son of

Dru Hill Dru Hill is an American R&B boy band, whose repertoire included soul, hip hop soul and gospel music. The group was founded in Baltimore in 1992 by Tamir "Nokio the N-Tity" Ruffin, and as of 2023, is still active. Dru Hill recorded seven top 40 ...

founder Tamir "Nokio the N-Tity" Ruffin and radio personality

Angie Martinez Angela "Angie" Martinez (born January 9, 1971) is an American radio personality, podcaster, singer, former rapper and actress. Dubbed "The Voice of New York", Martinez is widely known for her 28-year run at New York City station WQHT, Hot 97 ( ...

. Martinez ended her relationship with Ruffin's father shortly after his birth stating that she was not ready for a full commitment to him. Singer

Mary J. Blige Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actress, and entrepreneur. Often referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Qu ...

, a close friend of Martinez, is Ruffin's godmother.

High school career

In 2017, Ruffin began his basketball career at

Paramus Catholic High School Paramus Catholic High School is a co-educational Roman Catholic high school located in Paramus in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school, founded in 1965, under Archbishop Thomas A. Boland, and Superintendent of Schools, Mon ...

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H, ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

. In both his junior and senior years, he was the team captain of the Paladins. During his junior year, he helped the team score a 19–1 win against an opposing team. In his senior year, the Paladins won 85–57 against Westwood's high school team and were named the second team All-Big North United Division. He graduated from Paramus in June 2021, just shy of his eighteenth birthday, and went on to

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

to continue his education and basketball career.

College career

Ruffin joined Syracuse University's Orange men's basketball team in August 2021, where he played point guard position. During his freshman year, he sustained an ankle injury that prevented him from playing two exhibition games, which the team lost. He recovered in late December 2021 and returned to the team the following January, defeating the

Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Cardinals (also known as the Cards) are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Co ...

. He scored an average 1.0 every two minutes. In his sophomore year, he helped the Orange defeat the

Oakland Golden Grizzlies The Oakland Golden Grizzlies are the athletic teams that represent Oakland University (OU) in the Horizon League and NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The school fields 16 teams: Oakland Golden Gr ...

. However, they lost to the

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The teams have also been nicknamed the ...

Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facul ...

and the

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the N ...

. He scored an average 2.0 every eight minutes. As a junior, the Oranges defeated the

Chaminade Silverswords The Chaminade Silverswords are the 12 varsity athletic teams that represent Chaminade University of Honolulu, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Silverswords compete as members of the Pacific West Confe ...

and

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels (also Carolina Tar Heels) are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to ...

. He scored 2.0 every four minutes.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

, 2 , , 0 , , 2 , , .000 , , .000 , , .000 , , 0.5 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 4 , , 0 , , 8 , , .250 , , .000 , , .000 , , 0.3 , , 0.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , , 2.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

, 2 , , 0 , , 4 , , .500 , , .500 , , .000 , , 0.5 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 3.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 8 , , 0 , , 14 , , .286 , , .500 , , .000 , , 0.4 , , 0.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , , 5.0

References

External links

Syracuse Orange bio

New Jersey bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruffin, Niko 2003 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Manhattan Point guards Syracuse Orange men's basketball players 21st-century American sportsmen