Diarra provides value for UConn beyond box score
STORRS — After doling out a team-best four assists off the bench on Saturday, Hassan Diarra saved his best for the postgame press conference, where he assisted Jordan Hawkins from being too modest.
After being asked which he preferred, his powerful dunks or a “kill-shot” 3-pointer that capped a 14-0 run, Hawkins responded: “Probably the 3.”
Diarra was quick to correct him.
“No, the dunk,” the junior guard noted. “There were two of them. The one baseline was crazy.”
“Yeah,” Hawkins admitted, “I like the one baseline. That was nice.”
Just another example of Diarra fulfilling his role as a team-unifier, a glue guy.
“My chemistry with everybody on the team is good,” the 6-foot-2 junior guard said. “That’s my job. I’m supposed to know where everybody is and where everybody’s going to be.”
That includes postgame press conferences.
Diarra finished with just four points in the UConn men’s basketball team’s64-55 win over Seton Hall on Saturday. He missed two of four free throws and hit just one of three shots, bricking his lone 3pointer (a desperation heave at the shot-clock buzzer).
But Dan Hurley rated Diarra’s performance right alongside that of Andre Jackson’s, who finished with a double-double and a career-high 15 points.
“Hassan Diarra was so invaluable,” the UConn coach said, “just taking three shots.”
Indeed, Diarra finished with those team-high four assists to go with a steal, a block and zero turnovers in 25 minutes, the most he’s played in a game in three months. He also helped hold Seton Hall’s
guards to a combined 9-for-32 shooting.
“He just really, really bothered their guards,” Hurley noted. “He’s a disrupter. And he didn’t hurt us offensively.”
It hasn’t always been easy this season for Diarra, who transferred to UConn after playing the past two seasons at Texas A&M. The production and playing time have been sporadic, at times, the turnovers a bit too frequent. Fellow transfer Tristen Newton won the starting point guard spot in the preseason and hasn’t given it up, despite his own sometimes inconsistent play.
“His adjustment this year has been not as quick as he’s wanted,” Hurley said of Diarra. “We just feel like he’s a perfect type of guard for this league, toughness-wise, competitive spirit, just in the fight.” Diarra seems to take it all in stride. “Honestly, this season’s been up and down for me, personally,” he noted. “But, we’re winning games, and that’s what it’s all about: finding a way to help my team each and every day, whether that’s in practice or in the game. I’m just taking it for what it is, and I’m enjoying my time.”
No doubt, a big part of that enjoyment stems from playing alongside his older brother, Mamadou, a former UConn player who is not the team’s director of player development.
“It’s amazing,” Hassan Diarra said recently. “Seeing him every day, just having fun. He’s always talking to me, whether it’s motivational or he’s yelling at me. It’s good.”
Mamadou insists he doesn’t yell at Hassan any more than any UConn coach does.
“The whole program’s a family, so they yell at him just as much as I do,” Mamadou said, with a smile. “It’s all love on this side. Everybody gets the best out of it, we get the best out of everybody. Everybody gets yelled at.”
Mamadou isn’t on the coaching staff, so
he’s limited in how hands-on he can be with Hassan or any player on the Huskies’ roster. But earlier this season, when Hassan was really struggling, Mamadou was there for him.
“Obviously, he’s my little brother, but I try to be that person for him where he can talk about it and figure out where he’s going wrong,” Mamadou said. “You get to see him grow as the season goes on, all the mistakes that he’s made, you see that he’s getting better. To be a part of his process, more handson and involved, is just an honor.”
Hassan’s parents, Kadija Kone and Fousseny Diarra, get to most home games, something they weren’t able to do when he was at Texas A&M. No doubt, they make a pit stop to Southern Connecticut State, where youngest son Cherif is a 6-6 starting sophomore forward, averaging 7.6 points and a teambest 9.0 rebounds per game for the Owls.
Indeed, Hassan Diarra is surrounded by family in Connecticut, by both his true siblings and his UConn “family.”