There’s another offer out for Archie Miller and the Hoosiers. 2020 PG Hassan Diarra received an offer from Indiana today according to a report from Corey Evans of Rivals.com. The 6-foot-2, 180 pound point guard plays for Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut and leads a top PSA Cardinals (New York) AAU team on the Nike EYBL circuit.
His brother Mamadou Diarra played from UConn and also played for the PSA Cardinals.
As it stands, Hassan currently sits as a three-star recruit on Rivals.com, but his 247Sports composite ranking has him at four-star status within the top 100 overall players of the 2020 class.
While Indiana has clearly and openly pursued shooters in the class of 2020, Diarra is better known for his ability to facilitate the offense. The goal in this particular recruitment is to find another true point guard that can help manage the offensive sets and learn from Indiana’s current floor general Rob Phinisee. More on his skill sets below in the scouting report.
The Scouting Report on Hassan Diarra
Hassan Diarra is a fearless point guard that primarily looks to attack the rim. He has great ball control with both hands and can penetrate at full speed using his left or right hand. Naturally, he is a right-handed shooter and scorer, but if the opportunity gives him a cleaner look, he has no hesitation to use his left-hand to finish.
At his height, Diarra has a more filled out frame than other guards at his age, which lowers his body’s center of gravity. In turn, he has unique body control that you would find in many running-backs in the NFL. This is very useful when he needs to navigate between front court defenders or find ways to slip out of sticky situations. Also, his frame has given him the confidence to play off of contact. It seems that he almost prefers to feel the contact as he penetrates in the lane, and he uses the contact to bounce off defenders and create space.
On defense, Hassan has been coached to understand the importance of defensive stance and defensive posture. He has an athletic bend in his knees that allows him to be ready to move laterally in any direction, depending on the ball carrier. As you can see from his EYBL stats, he can keep up with some of the quickest guards and his peskiness results into steals.
Diarra’s passing is one of his top traits. At over 30 minutes per game for one of the top EYBL teams, Diarra can facilitate offenses at some of the highest levels of the game. He may not be as flashy of a passer as fellow 2020 Indiana targets RJ Davis or Caleb Love, but he certainly understands the importance of spacing and how floor-gravity works. He often finds teammates after he penetrates into center the defense.
Shooting is an area that Hassan Diarra is looking to improve. He is not a particularly great scorer, but he is certainly willing to take the shots if he is given open looks. Diarra makes his living off of penetrating into the lane and an occasional three-point shot if the defense is lagging behind.
Hassan Diarra 2019 EYBL Statistics
On the EYBL Circuit, Diarra leads a 7-1 PSA Cardinals team where he tops all players in minutes. Across the 8 games thus far, Diarra is averaging 12.8 points per game, shooting 44% from the floor, but just 33% from behind the arc.
As mentioned above, Diarra’s speciality is his passing and facilitation of the offense. He and AJ Hoggard lead the Cardinals in assists with an average of nearly 10 per game between the duo. Diarra has an impressive 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio on the EYBL circuit. For reference Indiana’s best assist-to-turnover player was Rob Phinisee at 2.3 on the 2018-2019 season.
Defensively, two categories stand out for Hassan Diarra. In both steals and defensive rebounds, he leads the team in totals on the EYBL season. A lot of that has to do with his 180-pound frame, which allows him to muscle his way into rebound competitions on the floor.