Hassan Diarra

[WhereistheDove?]

I never asked for more minutes for Gaff. As for Akok, if there is anybody who doesn’t think we would have been better playing him a lot more they didn’t pay attention. And have not looked at the stats. Almost all our best combined offense and defense lineups included him. He’s going to do well at Georgetown.

I’m just busting your chops.

 

[CL82]

Diarra is better than Gaffney. Through confidence alone

The question isn’t is Diarra better than Gaffney. The question is is Newton better than Gaffney. The answer is yes.

 

[tcf15]

We weren't going to get a stud willing to come in and play only 15 mpg. This guy is willing to do it and should be a steady backup with solid defense despite the mediocre shooting numbers.

He fits the role we need.

He comes in with 3 years of eligibility left too, the same amount that Rahsool Diggins had when he left. I’ll take it.

 

[husky99]

Hearing uconn.

 

[imno1]

The question isn’t is Diarra better than Gaffney. The question is is Newton better than Gaffney. The answer is yes.

i beg to defer. In reality Newton is taking Cole’s role. Diarra Is a replacement for Gaffney and should be at least a slight upgrade with more upside

 

[HuskyHawk]

The question isn’t is Diarra better than Gaffney. The question is is Newton better than Gaffney. The answer is yes.

Huh? Newton is replacing Cole. Diarra would presumably fill the 15 minute backup PG role. I am hoping Taliek can coach him up. That Assist to TO ratio is awful. His per 100 Ortg and Drtg are both worse than Jalen‘s. FG% is better for Diarra, but FT% is worse.
Diarra

Season	School	Conf	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	2P	2PA	2P%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
2020-21	Texas A&M	SEC	18	6	352	36	103	.350	22	57	.386	14	46	.304	19	30	.633	7	30	37	30	19	2	38	33	105
2021-22	Texas A&M	SEC	40	3	614	78	210	.371	44	106	.415	34	104	.327	56	78	.718	7	64	71	56	28	8	52	54	246
Career	Texas A&M		58	9	966	114	313	.364	66	163	.405	48	150	.320	75	108	.694	14	94	108	86	47	10	90	87	351

Gaffney

Jalen Gaffney College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Jalen Gaffney - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

 

[auror]

i beg to defer. In reality Newton is taking Cole’s role. Diarra Is a replacement for Gaffney and should be at least a slight upgrade with more upside

Huh? Newton is replacing Cole.

Two different conversations:

Are we better than last year?
Newton vs. Cole, SO Hawkins vs. Martin, Diarra vs. Gaffney, Alleyne vs. FR Hawkins, Johnson/Karaban vs. Whaley.

In the aggregate we are probably worse, maybe even, depending on Newton's play, Hawkins' improvement, and whether Johnson or Karaban can contribute positively right away. But JR Sanogo and JR Jackson should be better than their SO selves, so we're improved in the 2 other starting spots.

Are we better than we would have been with no transfers out?
Newton vs. Diggins, Alleyne vs. Gaffney, Diarra vs. Floyd, ? vs. Akok.

Unquestionably yes, for this upcoming year (and probably next as well).

 

[Kenny11]

Just not sure what many saw in Akok that we will miss all that much. I mean he was nothing more than an 8-10 minute guy with the way he was playing. He blocked a few shots off the ball, made a few 3s and that’s good. He let everyone go by him on the baseline, couldn’t hold his ground being backed in to the basket. He hasn’t taken anyone off the dribble since his freshman year so that doesn’t make him much of an impact offensively. I mean granted if he suddenly gets all his gifts back maybe we will regret him leaving but honestly they guy who saw minutes last year rarely deserved any more than he got.

Good kid but looking forward to Samson and Alex time!

You aren’t wrong at all but basketball is a game of rhythm and confidence and he never really got enough minutes to get a rhythm and thus his confidence went down along with Hurley’s confidence in him. That will usually happen to a couple players throughout the season because only 5 guys can play at a time. He might be better on a different team where his minutes are consistent and he’s allowed to play through mistakes. I think he has some basketball ptsd fron all he went through with the injury, the isolation and having his pro dreams basically shattered during his experience at uconn anyway and it’s great that he moved on.

 

[aburks41]

Two different conversations:

Are we better than last year?
Newton vs. Cole, SO Hawkins vs. Martin, Diarra vs. Gaffney, Alleyne vs. FR Hawkins, Johnson/Karaban vs. Whaley.

In the aggregate we are probably worse, maybe even, depending on Newton's play, Hawkins' improvement, and whether Johnson or Karaban can contribute positively right away. But JR Sanogo and JR Jackson should be better than their SO selves, so we're improved in the 2 other starting spots.

Are we better than we would have been with no transfers out?
Newton vs. Diggins, Alleyne vs. Gaffney, Diarra vs. Floyd, ? vs. Akok.

Unquestionably yes, for this upcoming year (and probably next as well).

Roster and lineup construction is undoubtedly better this year though. Last year’s roster had a pretty hard ceiling, but they had a high floor. This years team will have a much higher ceiling. We have shooters, ball handlers, and a junior year Sanogo.

 

[runner11]

Not hating on analytics! But I love seeing these basic statistical breakdowns from people who admittedly have never watched the kid play. Gaffney had better splits than Bazz at the same point. Did anyone expect Gaff to be better? I guess it's better than forming your entire season outlook based on Samson Johnson's AAU 3 point %, but it's still pretty stupid.

 

[CL82]

i beg to defer. In reality Newton is taking Cole’s role. Diarra Is a replacement for Gaffney and should be at least a slight upgrade with more upside

The reality is Cole was leaving to go pro. Players do that. The guy who would be next up, in theory, to run point was Gaffney. When Gaffney went into the portal we were essentially left without a point guard. His replacement was Newton. That’s an upgrade.

(Not that I don’t wish Jalen well, I do. I always felt like he gave his best for us. It just didn’t work out for him here.)

@HuskyHawk

 

[Matt1010]

Diarra (and Texas A&M as a whole) made some MAJOR strides towards the end of the season once Marcus Williams left.

The team played its last 13 games without him and went 11-2. Over that stretch Diarra averaged 19 minutes per game and put up 8/2/2 on 42/44/85 shooting splits. If he can replicate that kind of production as a plus level defender this is a perfect add.

 

[Kemba Time]

Huh? Newton is replacing Cole. Diarra would presumably fill the 15 minute backup PG role. I am hoping Taliek can coach him up. That Assist to TO ratio is awful. His per 100 Ortg and Drtg are both worse than Jalen‘s. FG% is better for Diarra, but FT% is worse.
Diarra

Season	School	Conf	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	2P	2PA	2P%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
2020-21	Texas A&M	SEC	18	6	352	36	103	.350	22	57	.386	14	46	.304	19	30	.633	7	30	37	30	19	2	38	33	105
2021-22	Texas A&M	SEC	40	3	614	78	210	.371	44	106	.415	34	104	.327	56	78	.718	7	64	71	56	28	8	52	54	246
Career	Texas A&M		58	9	966	114	313	.364	66	163	.405	48	150	.320	75	108	.694	14	94	108	86	47	10	90	87	351

Gaffney

Jalen Gaffney College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Jalen Gaffney - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

You need to add another layer of context to the stats and then the real story becomes abundantly clear very quickly.

Jalen scored 131 points last year; 40 of those came in the first four games of the season against very weak competition, and to take that a step further: 56 came in those 4 games + 2 more with MD-ES and Grambling. He also had 24 of his 65 assists in those 6 games.

Against representative competition, we're talking about a sub-.300 FG% with a 3P% of 15 in 27 games. From the start of Big East play on, he shot .286% from the field, .188% from 3 and scored 44 points in 22 games with a 1.3 to 0.7 assist to turnover ratio. That is not a playable high-major player by any standard whatsoever.

You seem stuck on the assist to turnover ratio, but both Jalen's and H. Diarra's are misleading.

Jalen's fatal flaw is an inability to handle high-major ball pressure. To compensate for that, he turned his back to the defender and backed the ball up the court, eating up a large amount of the shot clock. His inability to initiate offense cratered our shot quality and offense efficiency because of the number of times it led to a game of hot potato to get a shot up for whomever ended up with the ball and less than 10 seconds to make something happen when he finally got us into a half-court set.

Diarra, meanwhile, played in a Buzz Williams system that has always led to low assist-to-turnover ratios.

Remember all those great guards he had at Marquette? Vander Blue averaged 1.8 assists to 2.3 turnovers his final year and a 2.0 assists/2.0 turnovers for his career. Darius Johnson-Odom posted a 2.7 assist to 2.4 turnover mark as an All-Big East first teamer in 2011-12. These are future NBA players on Sweet 16/Elite Eight teams. Look up and down last year's A&M roster and it's the same thing. It's the way they play.

Diarra also improved considerably as the season went on last year against high-major competition. I took his final 15 games as what seems like a fair indicator: He shot 434% from the field, .378% from 3 from that point on and as many have mentioned, there's reason in Texas A&M's roster construction change during the season to believe that is not a coincidence.

All this is to say that Jalen 100% did the right thing in leaving UConn for a level where his skillset can flourish without his inability to handle ball pressure destroying his production. And perhaps more importantly, to nip any idea of using a misrepresentation of what Gaffney was to cut down Hassan before he even plays his first game for us.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Another thing to consider is that Gaffney posted his numbers/minutes largely against early season cupcakes and in garbage time throughout the season while Diarra, I believe, had more against better opponents/non-garbage time. So, if my assumption is accurate, another bit of a nod to Diarra.

 

[UConNick]

I’m wondering if people are being too rigid in him being labeled a “point guard.” Yes, he’s going to come in for 15-20 mins and probably dribble the ball a lot, but I still think Jackson will be the one initiating the offense when Newton’s not on the floor (and a lot of the time when Newton is on the floor). In a nutshell, I’m unfazed by a poor A/TO because I don’t expect that to be his primary role.

This is a very strong add for the kind of opening we had, especially if he really is OK with that bench role. I understand the concerns if we were indeed going to be relying on him as a second, strict lead guard, but that won’t be the case. Positionless basketball; no one has strict roles anymore defined by their positions (except Sanogo).

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

You need to add another layer of context to this stats and the real story becomes abundantly clear very quickly.

Jalen scored 131 points last year; 40 of those came in the first four games of the season against very weak competition, and to take that a step further: 56 came in those 4 games + 2 more with MD-ES and Grambling. He also had 24 of his 65 assists in those 6 games.

Against representative competition, we're talking about a sub-.300 FG% with a 3P% of 15 in 27 games. From the start of Big East play on, he shot .286% from the field, .188% from 3 and scored 44 points in 22 games with a 1.3 to 0.7 assist to turnover ratio. That is not a playable high-major player by any standard whatsoever.

You seem stuck on the assist to turnover ratio, but both Jalen's and H. Diarra's are misleading. Jalen's fatal flaw is an inability to handle high-major ball pressure. To compensate for that, he turned his back to the defender and backed the ball up the court, eating up a large amount of the shot clock. His inability to initiate offense cratered our shot quality and offense efficiency because of the number of times it led to a game of hot potato to get a shot up for whomever ended up with the ball and less than 10 seconds to make something happen when he finally got is into a half-court set.

Diarra, meanwhile, played in a Buzz Williams system that has always led to low assist-to-turnover ratios. Remember all those great guards he had at Marquette? Vander Blue averaged 1.8 assists to 2.3 turnovers his final year and a 2.0 assists/2.0 turnovers for his career. Darius Johnson-Odom posted a 2.7 assist to 2.4 turnover mark as an All-Big East first teamer in 2011-12. These are future NBA players on Sweet 16/Elite Eight teams. Look up and down last year's A&M roster and it's the same thing. It's just the way they play.

Diarra also improved considerably as the season went on last year against high-major competition. I took his final 15 games as what seems like a fair indicator: He shot 434% from the field, .378% from 3 from that point on and as many have mentioned, there's reason in Texas A&M's roster construction change during the season to believe that is not a coincidence.

All this is to say that Jalen 100% did the right thing in leaving UConn for a level where his skillset can flourish without his inability to handle ball pressure destroying his production. And perhaps more importantly, to nip any idea of using a misrepresentation of what Gaffney was to cut down Hassan before he even plays his first game for us.

We were typing at the same time, lol. Thanks for some of the data.

 

[aburks41]

You need to add another layer of context to this stats and then the real story becomes abundantly clear very quickly.

Jalen scored 131 points last year; 40 of those came in the first four games of the season against very weak competition, and to take that a step further: 56 came in those 4 games + 2 more with MD-ES and Grambling. He also had 24 of his 65 assists in those 6 games.

Against representative competition, we're talking about a sub-.300 FG% with a 3P% of 15 in 27 games. From the start of Big East play on, he shot .286% from the field, .188% from 3 and scored 44 points in 22 games with a 1.3 to 0.7 assist to turnover ratio. That is not a playable high-major player by any standard whatsoever.

You seem stuck on the assist to turnover ratio, but both Jalen's and H. Diarra's are misleading.

Jalen's fatal flaw is an inability to handle high-major ball pressure. To compensate for that, he turned his back to the defender and backed the ball up the court, eating up a large amount of the shot clock. His inability to initiate offense cratered our shot quality and offense efficiency because of the number of times it led to a game of hot potato to get a shot up for whomever ended up with the ball and less than 10 seconds to make something happen when he finally got us into a half-court set.

Diarra, meanwhile, played in a Buzz Williams system that has always led to low assist-to-turnover ratios.

Remember all those great guards he had at Marquette? Vander Blue averaged 1.8 assists to 2.3 turnovers his final year and a 2.0 assists/2.0 turnovers for his career. Darius Johnson-Odom posted a 2.7 assist to 2.4 turnover mark as an All-Big East first teamer in 2011-12. These are future NBA players on Sweet 16/Elite Eight teams. Look up and down last year's A&M roster and it's the same thing. It's the way they play.

Diarra also improved considerably as the season went on last year against high-major competition. I took his final 15 games as what seems like a fair indicator: He shot 434% from the field, .378% from 3 from that point on and as many have mentioned, there's reason in Texas A&M's roster construction change during the season to believe that is not a coincidence.

All this is to say that Jalen 100% did the right thing in leaving UConn for a level where his skillset can flourish without his inability to handle ball pressure destroying his production. And perhaps more importantly, to nip any idea of using a misrepresentation of what Gaffney was to cut down Hassan before he even plays his first game for us.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Two different conversations:

Are we better than last year?
Newton vs. Cole, SO Hawkins vs. Martin, Diarra vs. Gaffney, Alleyne vs. FR Hawkins, Johnson/Karaban vs. Whaley.

In the aggregate we are probably worse, maybe even, depending on Newton's play, Hawkins' improvement, and whether Johnson or Karaban can contribute positively right away. But JR Sanogo and JR Jackson should be better than their SO selves, so we're improved in the 2 other starting spots.

Are we better than we would have been with no transfers out?
Newton vs. Diggins, Alleyne vs. Gaffney, Diarra vs. Floyd, ? vs. Akok.

Unquestionably yes, for this upcoming year (and probably next as well).

I think this team is probably better. But them I’m high on Johnson and Karaban playing well and significantly. Hawkins showed a lot of improvement in short time, so that’s encouraging. Hoping for more from Jackson certainly. Newton vs Cole is a tough one. Alleyne probably won’t be as good as Martin. But would be much better than Polley, so it depends on how you think about it.

Real key is this lineup better fits what Dan wants to do. Should be better for that reason alone.

 

[aburks41]

I think this team is probably better. But them I’m high on Johnson and Karaban playing well and significantly. Hawkins showed a lot of improvement in short time, so that’s encouraging. Hoping for more from Jackson certainly. Newton vs Cole is a tough one. Alleyne probably won’t be as good as Martin. But would be much better than Polley, so it depends on how you think about it.

Real key is this lineup better fits what Dan wants to do. Should be better for that reason alone.

I agree with this but I also hate the idea on these threads that we have to do a 1:1 comparison of who we brought in vs who we lost. We do not want to bring in clones for the guys we lost, because that means we have the same lineup issues as last year. We had 1 guy last year who would (or could?) beat his man off the dribble, and that guy was barely 6’ tall. This year we should have at least 3 of those guys on the court assuming Jackson and Hawkins develop like we expect them too. Add in a junior year Sanogo, and this team is going to be so much more fluid and versatile.

 

[Waquoit]

Alleyne probably won’t be as good as Martin.

I bet he will be in the NCAA's.

 

[bendm]

If the rotation is set, I’m not nearly as high as you are with the sweet 16 or bust.

Roster and lineup construction is undoubtedly better this year though. Last year’s roster had a pretty hard ceiling, but they had a high floor.

I think this team is probably better. ...Real key is this lineup better fits what Dan wants to do. Should be better for that reason alone.

next year's team will have synergy. no more 10 pts in 10 min starts that we spend all game digging out of.

we are replacing cole with newton, but martin and whaley are being replaced by committee. we are replacing their rebounding and defense with shooting, passing, and ball handling.

of the projected starters we have a good idea of what to expect from newton, alleyne, and sanogo, but AJ and Hawkins in particular are the x-factors. they will dictate our floor/ceiling but given their talent the ceiling is the roof.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

You need to add another layer of context to the stats and then the real story becomes abundantly clear very quickly.

Jalen scored 131 points last year; 40 of those came in the first four games of the season against very weak competition, and to take that a step further: 56 came in those 4 games + 2 more with MD-ES and Grambling. He also had 24 of his 65 assists in those 6 games.

Against representative competition, we're talking about a sub-.300 FG% with a 3P% of 15 in 27 games. From the start of Big East play on, he shot .286% from the field, .188% from 3 and scored 44 points in 22 games with a 1.3 to 0.7 assist to turnover ratio. That is not a playable high-major player by any standard whatsoever.

You seem stuck on the assist to turnover ratio, but both Jalen's and H. Diarra's are misleading.

Jalen's fatal flaw is an inability to handle high-major ball pressure. To compensate for that, he turned his back to the defender and backed the ball up the court, eating up a large amount of the shot clock. His inability to initiate offense cratered our shot quality and offense efficiency because of the number of times it led to a game of hot potato to get a shot up for whomever ended up with the ball and less than 10 seconds to make something happen when he finally got us into a half-court set.

Diarra, meanwhile, played in a Buzz Williams system that has always led to low assist-to-turnover ratios.

Remember all those great guards he had at Marquette? Vander Blue averaged 1.8 assists to 2.3 turnovers his final year and a 2.0 assists/2.0 turnovers for his career. Darius Johnson-Odom posted a 2.7 assist to 2.4 turnover mark as an All-Big East first teamer in 2011-12. These are future NBA players on Sweet 16/Elite Eight teams. Look up and down last year's A&M roster and it's the same thing. It's the way they play.

Diarra also improved considerably as the season went on last year against high-major competition. I took his final 15 games as what seems like a fair indicator: He shot 434% from the field, .378% from 3 from that point on and as many have mentioned, there's reason in Texas A&M's roster construction change during the season to believe that is not a coincidence.

All this is to say that Jalen 100% did the right thing in leaving UConn for a level where his skillset can flourish without his inability to handle ball pressure destroying his production. And perhaps more importantly, to nip any idea of using a misrepresentation of what Gaffney was to cut down Hassan before he even plays his first game for us.

This is the proper analysis x1000.

I was/am a huge fan of Gaff and desperately wanted him to succeed at UConn. But an objective deep dive into the metrics shows it just wasn’t meant to be. I hope he kicks arse at FAU.

WRT Diarra, all deep-dive analytics and “eye test” signs point towards this being grand theft auto by Hurley & Co. if we can get him to UConn.

 

[aburks41]

I just looked at all of the tweets mentioning that he was entering the portal from a few weeks ago...every single A&M fan in the replies were upset that he is leaving. I’ll take that as a good sign that he’s going to be an impact guy for us in whatever role he has here.

 

[Improviser]

I just looked at all of the tweets mentioning that he was entering the portal from a few weeks ago...every single A&M fan in the replies were upset that he is leaving. I’ll take that as a good sign that he’s going to be an impact guy for us in whatever role he has here.

I would have that take too.

Fans can be excruciatingly analytical and critical of a player. That they are upset with his leaving, should be a good indicator of his value to A&M.

If he comes here, welcome aboard. If a superior player comes instead, welcome to him. If they both come, welcome to both of them.

 

[Storrs South]

I just looked at all of the tweets mentioning that he was entering the portal from a few weeks ago...every single A&M fan in the replies were upset that he is leaving. I’ll take that as a good sign that he’s going to be an impact guy for us in whatever role he has here.

From their board, it seems the staff was caught off guard he was leaving.

Source in case anyone wants to get the A&M fan perspective: Diarra Potential Destinations | TexAgs

Edit: some more fan perspective here:
Diarra in the portal | TexAgs