Diakite Hoping To Continue Correcting Early Miscues
Posted on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, 1:27 am
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Mamadi Diakite
By Scott Ratcliffe
Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett said on the team’s media day two weeks ago that forward Mamadi Diakite has shown signs of improvement in the offseason, and added that he believes Wahoo fans will see those improvements on the court.
The 6-foot-9, 228-pound redshirt junior from Albemarle County’s Blue Ridge School — by way of Guinea, Africa — is expected to see his role increase after a productive sophomore campaign, even with the late addition of Alabama transfer Braxton Key to the Cavalier lineup.
“I think he has improved,” Bennett said of Diakite. “I have mentioned before, I think Mamadi in a sense could be an X-factor for us with his athleticism and his length. He’s now in his third year of playing, fourth year in the program, and so I think he is just an improved player with his experience, he’s gotten stronger, he’s shot the ball well up to this point from the outside, that part’s improved, and when he just simplifies some things he can be effective — and he’s a wonderful young man.”
After sitting out his first year in 2015-16, Diakite quickly made a name for himself as a defensive standout and capable rim protector, blocking 39 shots as a redshirt freshman.
Last season, Diakite played in all 34 games for the ‘Hoos. He averaged 5.4 points and three rebounds a game in 15.6 minutes as a reserve behind Isaiah Wilkins, and got some more big-game experience under his belt in the process.
Wilkins’ graduation left open the starting 4-spot, and it was a probability that Diakite would step in. Key, however, has started the first two games alongside De’Andre Hunter and Jack Salt in the frontcourt, with Diakite and Jay Huff filling in off the bench down low.
Things didn’t go so well in the season opener against Towson, as Diakite got into early foul trouble. He picked up his second personal with 12:42 left in the first half and clocked only 16:41 of playing time against the Tigers, finishing with two points (1-for-3 shooting, 0-2 from 3) and a pair of rebounds.
“I could have done better [against Towson],” Diakite admitted. “There are things that, I went back and looked at the tape and there were a lot of things that I could have done better and I did, and [against George Washington Sunday] I was able to change that. That’s what helped me.”
Against the Colonials, Diakite was again whistled for a pair of quick fouls within 13 seconds of each other — the second came at the 13:13 mark of the first half — forcing him to watch a lot of the first half from the sideline, despite his own inquiries on how he could avoid such a scenario.
“Before the game, I talked to the refs and asked them what would be a proper way to play good defense on the post,” Diakite revealed. “They told me not to hook. The first [foul], I thought that I didn’t do a good job of blowing up the screen, like I was able to guard typically. On the second foul, I thought that I got pushed — that’s what I thought, but they called it against me. They told me that I hooked the guy.”
Diakite re-entered with 6:41 left in the half and was effective right off the bat, as he followed his own miss in the lane to give UVA a 25-12 lead.
He added a nice alley-oop lay-in on a sweet feed from Ty Jerome before the break and added three more buckets in the second half, and finished the night with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting, adding three boards and a couple of blocked shots in just over 17 minutes in the 19-point win.
Still, Bennett knows that Diakite and his teammates still have a long way to go and plenty to improve upon.
“This team has to keep working…,” said the coach. “We have some great strengths and there are some areas that we have to keep addressing, but you have some size when it’s in position that can bother shots, make it hard. I feel like we should be able to rebound better with our size on the front court. Everyone is capable. We have to get more production off the bench, I think that’ll be important.”
Diakite agrees that there is room for improvement.
“We are going to look at the tape and learn from the mistakes,” he said, “and we are going to keep going forward from there.”
Diakite grew up a soccer player and didn’t begin playing basketball until around 2010. His father, Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, saw how fast Mamadi was growing and suggested the switch, and the rest is history.
Also a high-jumper in high school, Diakite has shown off his freakishly smooth athleticism throughout his Cavalier career. He is a team-first player, he gives it his all and he’s just simply the kind of guy you want on your side, as Bennett explained.
“He’s got a contagious or infectious personality, the way he’s very — a little bit like Justin Anderson — he’s always happy, you just watch him around people and you pick that up,” Bennett said.
It will be important moving forward for Diakite to avoid the fouls and stay on the floor longer, especially when the other bigs are battling foul trouble of their own. He has proven on several occasions that he can be a crucial contributor and just may be that X-factor that Coach Bennett believes he can be in the overall success of the team.
