Transfer Diarra fulfills dream, sees titles in future
When the moment finally came, Hassan Diarra was ready. Uconn’s newest guard had practiced this exact scenario, taking and making a game-winning shot, over a thousand times as a kid against his older brother, Mamadou. They grew up in New York City, the Bronx specifically, and spent countless hours playing at a neighborhood court with a worn down and discolored double rim and metal backboard.
The setting was now the Southeastern Conference Tournament and his Texas A&M team was in overtime, tied 80-80 with Florida in a second-round game. With 14.7 seconds left he knew the ball was coming his way.
“Once I get the ball, I’m going to go left,” he thought to himself. “I like going to my left.”
Tyrece Radford inbounded and quickly got Diarra the ball behind the 3-point line with four seconds left. He dribbled to his left, squared up his shot and let it fly. Diarra slowly started to backpedal, the shot rattled off the rim and dropped in the net with a tenth of a second left. Diarra’s time playing in the Bronx paid off.
“When I got the ball, I was calm actually,” he said. “I already had the confidence that if I shot the ball, it’s going to go in. I like to go left ... I took one dribble, pulled up and the rest is history. I kind of knew it was going in before I even got the ball to be honest. At that moment, I was super confident, calm and not too rattled.”
It’s that confidence Diarra is now bringing to Uconn. Seeing his minutes decline with the Aggies, he felt it was time for a change and entered the NCAA transfer portal, committing to Dan Hurley’s Huskies earlier this month.
He picked Uconn because he feels like he’ll have the opportunity to play significant minutes while competing for Big East Conference and national championships.
The fact he had dreamed of being a Husky since those days in New York City didn’t hurt either.
“You watch Uconn. You watch guys like Kemba Walker play and guys like Ray Allen,” he said. “They play at Madison Square Garden, that’s home. Family and friends are able to watch you play. It’s kind of a big deal.”
Now, after departures had depleted the Huskies’ backcourt, the transfers in of Diarra, East Carolina’s Tristen Newton and Virginia Tech’s Nahiem Alleyne have helped reload the position.
No inside info
Mamadou Diarra’s iphone buzzed nonstop with texts and phone calls after his brother entered the portal.
Mamadou, a Uconn graduate assistant for three seasons said there were universities like Seton Hall and Maryland, that wanted the inside scoop on if Uconn had the edge to land Hassan.
The only problem? Hassan was giving Mamadou the silent treatment.
“He held it close to his chest,” Mamadou said. “Because I am here, he made sure I didn’t think it was Uconn. I wouldn’t even talk about Uconn and just talk about school in general. He would be like, ‘I don’t know, man, I am just trying to figure it out.’ ”
Meanwhile, the Uconn coaching staff insisted they weren’t using Mamadou to land Hassan.
“It’s crazy because they really left me out of the whole thing,” Mamadou said. “I’ve been involved in so much of the recruitments and setting up visits and helping out in that aspect. They did the whole thing without me. I was like, alright. I understand why, though.”
Hassan started narrowing down his list. He looked at three factors: his relationships with the coaches, where he could see himself thriving, and playing with great players where winning is a priority.
His visit to Storrs sold him on the Huskies.
“They (Uconn coaching staff ) do a good job of presenting what they see in the future for you at their school,” Hassan said. “I had my family there with me. I liked what I saw and what they had to offer. It’s ultimately why I went to Uconn.”