INDIANAPOLIS —꧒ Greg Senat always dreamed of participating in March Madness growing up in Elmont. It just did not look qui🌜te like this.
Senat is at the NFL Scouting Combine trying to impress teams and convince them he is worth d👍rafting next month. The 6-foot-6, 302-pounder went to Wagner to play basketball, which he did for four years there. But he also has played football for the past two years, and now the tackle is hoping to play in the NFL instead of the NBA.
He is viewed as a raw talent in this draft, someone who can develop into a good player with the right coaching. He had not played football since ninth grade when he approached the football coaches at Wagner before the 2016 season about joining the team. He initially though🍸▨t he would play tight end, but instead learned how to play right tackle.
Senat said his baske൲tball background helps him as a blocker.
“When you are block🦩ing on the field, you’re basically just defensive sliding on people, staying in front of a defender,” he said. “I think playing basketball has helped me develop quicꦅk feet and that kind of conditioning and quick twitch that you need to play offensive line.”
NFL teams are intrigued by Senat’s potential, but also quest🎃ion his commitment to playing football full-tiꦦme.
“Some of them may have questions about why I started so late or if I sti✨ll have any basketball player left in me,” he said. “But I’m fully committed to this. I love the sport. I’m happy to be here, and I think I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
On Friday, Senat went through the drills. He put up the fourth-best time in the three-c♐one drill among linemen and was 🐻13th in the broad jump.
Senat went to the East-West Shrine Game in January, where he got to face stiffer competition than he saw at Wagner. He projects as a right tackle in the NFL, but said he believes he could play 🍷either side.
“I think they just see me as a tackle, someone who they have to put a little time into to teach me the game but who can play anywhere,” Senat said. “I would love to be a left tackle in the NFL. That’s the pinnacle there, and I think I can d🍸efinitely do that.”
As for basketball, the fifth-year senior now just🍸 watches his former Wagner teammates. The Seahawks are 23-8 after Saturday’s NEC Tournament victory against Robert Morris and will play LIU Brooklyn in the final Tuesday.
“Shout-out to those gu🐼ys,” Senat said. “Keep working and make it to the NCAA Tournament.”
And if an♑yone at the combine wants to test Senat’s hoops skills in a game of one-on-one?
“I think everyone 🃏here knows I would probably beat them,” Senat s🌼aid.