New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Usher in the new guard
Diarra transfers to UConn from Texas A&M
Mamadou Diarra never was able to play significant minutes for UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley, but his younger brother will have the chance.
Hassan Diarra, who just completed his sophomore season at Texas A&M, has transferred to UConn. Hassan Diarra made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday.
“It’s very exciting,” Diarra
said told Hearst Connecticut Media. “The history of UConn, their guards. Being from the East Coast, it’s definitely a big deal to play at UConn with their rich history of winning and developing great guards. I built a great relationship with the coaches, and I felt like there was a lot of opportunity for me there.”
Certainly, it didn’t hurt that his older brother Mamadou played for UConn and has been a student/ graduate assistant coach with the program for the past three years.
“Ultimately, it was just about Coach Hurley, Coach Kimani (Young), Coach (Luke) Murray and Coach Tom (Moore), and the job they did with me,” Diarra said.
Diarra, a 6-foot-2 guard, played 18 games for the Aggies last season, making six starts, and averaged 6.2 points and 1.4 assists per game. He finished second on the team with 19 steals.
He also had a knack for clutch shots. Last season, Diarra hit three 3-pointers that either tied the game or won the game for the Aggies: with .9 left on the clock for an 81-80 win over Abilene Christian; with 0.1 seconds left for an 83-80 win over Florida in the SEC tournament; and with 9.3 seconds left to tie Arkansas 64-64.
“I think it’s just a testament to how hard I work,”
Diarra noted. “I work hard every day, and it showed in the biggest moments.”
Diarra, a Queens, N.Y. product, prepped for three years at nearby Putnam Science Academy, which he led to national championships in 2018-19 and 2019-20. He finished as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,469 points, passing current Detroit Piston Hamidou Diallo in the last few games of his