The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Diarra a ‘spark off the bench’ after playing sparingly in title run
STORRS — UConn men’s basketball reserve guard Hassan Diarra isn’t a specialist. He’s not primarily a knockdown shooter or a lockdown defender like Joey Calcaterra and Nahiem Alleyne were, respectively, during the Huskies’ run to the 2023 national championship.
Diarra, who played sparingly behind those players last March, won this season’s Big East Sixth Man Award for a reason: his versatility. He does a little bit, sometimes a lot, of everything.
“Look what we got last year from Nahiem and Joey off the bench and on the perimeter,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said Sunday night. “Joey brought so much life and swagger and Nahiem was an excellent defender. So at times, Hass has brought a little bit of both. He’s brought some great defense and he’s also brought some splash on offense for us. You can only do this with depth, this type of season we’ve had.”
UConn is well positioned for a run at history, looking to become the first team since Florida in 2006-07 to go back-toback. The Huskies (31-3) are the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament, opening East Region play Friday afternoon against Stetson.
For Diarra, it’s a trip home. Almost, anyway. He grew up in the neighboring borough of Queens and once played a high school game at Barclays Center, where first- and second-round NCAA play will be held Friday and Sunday.
UConn didn’t recruit him out of Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut, where led the team to two national championships and finished as the program’s all-time leading scorer. But when a major roster overhaul took place in the summer of 2022, Diarra was a priority addition to a team that ended up as perhaps the deepest, and certainly the best, in the nation.
This year’s team could be even better, though it must win its next six games to officially join the conversation. Diarra is a major reason why the Huskies are the story of the tournament before it begins. He returned as a senior this season and,
with Calcaterra and Alleyne elsewhere, went about playing a certain role as well as any player in America.
Diarra is averaging six points and 2.5 assists. Often guarding the opponent’s top perimeter threat, he also has 29 steals, which is third on the team but noteworthy in that he has played roughly 60 percent of the minutes as those with more (Tristen Newton, Cam Spencer, Alex Karaban).
Most impressive? Diarra’s offensive efficiency. He is shooting 47.6 percent from the field, 37.5 percent on 3-pointers and 79.6 percent on free throws. Last season, he was just 29.4 percent from the field and 17.9 percent on 3s. Now he’s as reliable as any UConn player in an ability to play a role, even if that role is technically a secondary one.
“He’s competitive, man, both ends of the floor,” starting guard Cam Spencer said. “He competes on the offensive end and defensive end. He’s just somebody you want to go to war with, somebody who you love having on your team but you hate playing against. He’s a spark off the bench every game, just comes in and makes a winning basketball play. He’s so fiery. He’s a great dude. Hassan is one of my favorite teammates of all time.”
Diarra has said he never considered transferring despite a decreasing
role as 2022-23 played out. He didn’t score a single point in last season’s NCAA Tournament. He played just 11 minutes against Iona, five against St. Mary’s, four against Arkansas and eight against Gonzaga as UConn won the West Region. He played a total of four minutes at the Final Four, three against Miami and one against St. Diego State in the national championship game.
This year, he’s integral to the rotation, a modernday John Gwynn in some ways. Diarra is one of seven (now eight, with Jaylen Stewart’s emergence) counted on to play consistently. He is averaging 19.2 minutes for the Huskies, who celebrated the Big East Tournament championship Saturday night and Sunday before shifting into NCAA prep work on Monday.
“I just want to go out there and be a winner and
do whatever the team needs at the time,” Diarra said. “The season has gone pretty well for all of us, I’d say, not just me, the team. It’s a team game. We’re riding momentum for sure. But we understand we’re not looking in the rearview mirror anymore. We’re focused on what’s in front of us, what we have to do to be successful in this tournament.”
Diarra is the younger brother of former UConn player Mamadou Diarra, who is now the Huskies’ director of player development. Another brother, Cherif Diarra, just completed his sophomore season as a forward on the Southern Connecticut men’s basketball team. The Owls lost their Division II NCAA Tournament opener on Saturday, the day Hassan and the Huskies defeated Marquette to win the Big East championship.
Diarra’s parents and Cherif will attend UConn’s NCAA Tournament game Friday in Brooklyn. Mamadou will be there, too, of course, on the Huskies’ bench.
“Just a blessing to be part of this journey,” Hassan Diarra said.
“To be here at UConn, we love this school to death. We give it everything we got.”
Diarra has played every game this season, scoring in all but two. He started just once, Feb. 3 at St. John’s, when Karaban was injured.
“He’s taught me a lot,” freshman starting guard Steph Castle said.
“He’s an older guy for us and a big part of our team. He’s teaching me to make big plays without the ball in my hands, cutting more, getting on the offensive glass more. He’s just another leader for us and he shows it every night. He makes you
play (care)-free, knowing you have somebody who can pick up your slack if you’re not playing well. Or if you need a rest, the bench won’t have any drop-off. To have that kind of confidence in our bench, how deep our team is, it’s just a super comfortable feeling for me.”
Diarra has an optional fifth year of NCAA eligibility to exercise in 202425. He hasn’t decided and/or announced whether he will return to UConn as a grad student.
“He’s super valuable for us, just to have a tough guard to come off the bench and really just change how games go,” Karaban said.
“He really feeds off his defense and what he does for us defensively, no other guard can really do, I see in the country. He’s just so active on the defensive end. He’s so unselfish offensively. He knows how to play his role perfectly.”