Diggins brings big personality, recruiting skills to Storrs
STORRS — Rahsool Diggins spent a half hour talking about the personality he will inject into the UConn men’s basketball program — all that North Philly swagger, a certain confidence developed on the city’s toughest playgrounds. And then he showed it. “We’re going to get Big Donovan,” Diggins said while headed toward a back entrance of UConn’s Werth Champions Center. “He’ll be here.”
Diggins has been on campus less than a month and he is showing signs of the moxie Dan Hurley feels the roster needs and the point guard position demands.
Here was Diggins Wednesday afternoon, leaving his first meeting with the media and headed back toward a locker room he’s barely settled into. He already feels the responsibility to set a tone in that room — and to encourage others to grab a scholarship offer and a seat beside him.
Diggins was talking about Donovan Clingan, the heralded 7-footer from Bristol Central who on Thursday made an official visit to Storrs. It is hard to imagine Clingan, the Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year, choosing any school but UConn. He has lived his entire life in Bristol, remained in public school despite numerous private opportunities, and he has long been recruited by the state university and a program once again on the rise.
Then again, Clingan has many options — Michigan, Ohio State and Syracuse among them.
“He’ll be here,” Diggins repeated as he reached for the door. “Definitely.”
On Tuesday, Diggins had posted a message to Clingan on Twitter: “Do Whats Right my guy.”
“Rahsool is really outgoing,” fellow freshman Jordan Hawkins said. “He’s hilarious. Sool just says what is on his mind.”
There were a number of things Wednesday — the cheesesteaks and soul food
Diggins misses from back home, how he went grocery shopping the other day and FaceTimed his mother, Keia, because he hadn’t done this alone and wasn’t sure what to buy. Another acclimation has been the cold-water awakening of college basketball’s intensity and the next-level inferno that is a Hurley practice. It has been …
“To me, hell,” Diggins said. “Hell. It’s been a great experience, but it’s just hard work. I’m used to being able to walk to the next drill, take my time, go over it. But here it’s just, you only get an hour [in summer session], so you run to the next drill, he explains it for 15-20 seconds, boom, ball in the air.”
That is standard. No level of work ethic or high school success can completely prepare a player for what the next level brings. Boom, it hits you and sometimes, boom, a certain way of being allows you to adapt rather quickly. Diggins looks like A.J. Price and sounds like A.J. Price, kind of cool, witty, charismatic.
It’ll be a while before Diggins, coaches and the rest of the players know what Diggins can actually offer in 2021-22. Senior R.J. Cole and junior Jalen Gaffney are probably in line to earn the bulk of the minutes at point guard. Diggins will develop behind them. But he is already learning a lot — about fitting into a team after running one for four years — and it is clear why Hurley sees him as a fit for the program identity he is establishing.
Diggins studies clips of Shabazz Napier, Kemba Walker and Taliek Brown — all three of them national champions at UConn. A little bit of Price, too, since people keep saying his game also resembles that of Price. Brown is now the Huskies’ director of player development.
“I haven’t seen him go,” Diggins said. “But if he wants to play 1-on-1, he knows where to find me.”
It was, for his childhood, all around the Abbottsford projects, all over the courts at Hank Gathers Recreational Center, Francisville Playground, Clemente Park, Happy Hollow Park. Diggins’ father, also Rahsool, is a truck driver who used to drive national routes but is more local now. His mother works for the state. He has five sisters, no brothers.
“Confidence always high, no matter where I am,” Diggins said. “I always speak up. I like to rally the team, get everybody to compete.
You want somebody to play with you instead of degrading people, bringing them down. That’s what I try to do. Even though I’m new, still learning, I try to give input when I can. I’m not timid.”
Diggins, 6-2, was a fouryear starter at Archbishop Wood High, a two-time Philadelphia Catholic League MVP and the MaxPreps Pennsylvania Player of the Year as a senior, when Archbishop finished 19-1 with a loss in the Class 6A state championship game.
“I had a great high school career, but for me to be one of the best players to come out of there I had to win,” he said. “I’m not a fast individual. I bring pace, personality. I think that’s what Coach Hurley said we needed most. I bring that to the table right now.”
Diggins is a shifty player. He goes by Sool to most, Soolie to some, adding “I don’t really live up to the family names anymore: Big Guy, Chunky Monkey.”
He averaged 18.6 points, 6.5 assists and 3.5 steals last season, according to MaxPreps. Playing point guard, Diggins said, comes with accepting blame for losses and credit for victories no matter your statistical impact.
“I love it,” he said. “I embrace it.”
Embrace what’s difficult. Like the first month of college basketball.
“It’s actually more than what I expected,” Diggins said. “It’s not for everybody. This program is strict. You’ve got to compete. You can’t take days off. You either kill or be killed here. That’s what I wanted. That’s what I need, too. I knew [Hurley] was intense. He’s a little crazy. But that’s what I like. That’s what I needed. I’d rather have an intense, crazy coach rather than a laid-back guy.”
Diggins is a talker. He can’t believe the closest Chick-fil-A is about a half hour drive, so he orders big — usually 30 nuggets and three sandwiches to make sure he has leftovers. He can’t find a good cheesesteak. He learned quickly to avoid afternoon naps, no matter the morning workout, because he’ll have trouble falling asleep at night. He gave up playing video games at night to rest properly. There’s been time to study (Diggins will major in finance) and workout. He saw Geno Auriemma, another Philadelphia guy, recently in the weight room.
“He was lifting and he asked the training coach, ‘Are they boys basketball [players] or are they men?’ ’’ Diggins said. “I had to speak up and tell him we were men, getting stronger in the weight room. That’s the only conversation we really had. I don’t know if he really knows me. I think once he finds out who I am, we’ll talk about a cheesesteak or two.”
In the meantime, Diggins will probably be tweeting, trying to pull more players into his new basketball world.
“He thinks he’s a recruiter,” freshman Samson Johnson said. “That’s crazy. He has something that just makes you feel special. I don’t know how he does it. He’s funny. You just feel good being around him.”