Senior | Center | 6’9″ | 220 lbs. | Bamako, Mali

Career Stats: Cheick Diakite

Cheick has started to find his niche. He brings high energy and has become a fearsome defender inside that disrupts many shots. Many of his rejections come in help defense as another player penetrates to the hoop. Cheick does not commit many fouls inside since many of his blocks come in support and through him using his good leaping ability.

Diakite also does a solid job on the glass. He loses his man at times and doesn’t check him, giving up offensive rebounds. But what he gets to, he grabs.

On offense, Diakite has one main post move. He likes to catch the ball with his back to the basket and then spin towards the baseline for short jumper. He can use this from either side of the rim. Beyond that, he has a lot of work to do on his offensive game in the post. At least his shot selection is good and leads the team with a 57% field goal percentage. Most of his shots are dunks. Hopefully, both he and Lewis Witcher will work on their post moves this offseason.

Cheick also does not have good hands and often drops passes thrown his way, creating turnovers. He struggles from the line, too, shooting under 60% this season. In fact, his FG% is higher than his FT%.

Cheick has done a solid job whenever he’s been given the chance to play, especially when he was starting over Collins earlier in the season. He has to be the leading candidate to take Collins’s starting spot next season, depending on how ready Jeff Allen and Gus Gilchrist are physically. Cheick has good size, which Tech has sorely needed inside over recent years.

Greatest Game: Cheick had 9 points on 4/6 shooting and 6 rebounds in the win at unc this season. He also had 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 blocks in the win against bc. But I’d like to think his best game is still ahead of him.

Stats:

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