Cartier Ducati Diarra (born February 6, 1998) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Kansas State Wildcats The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are generally used as c ...

and the

Virginia Tech Hokies The Virginia Tech Hokies are the athletic teams representing the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in intercollegiate athletics. The Hokies participate in the NCAA's Division I Atlantic Coast Conference in 22 va ...

Early life and high school career

Diarra grew up in

Harlem, New York Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

, and broke his foot at the age of two. He was mainly raised by his mother, Danyelle Lee, alongside siblings Abraham, Cyncere and LadiRoyale, and rarely spoke to his father. Diarra grew up taking dancing lessons at Uptown Dance Academy. As a freshman, Diarra played basketball for

Cardinal Hayes High School Cardinal Hayes High School is an American Catholic high school for boys in the Concourse Village neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City, New York. The school serves the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It is a member of the Catholic Hi ...

The Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York ...

. After one year, he transferred to

West Florence High School West Florence High School is a public secondary school serving grades 9 through 12 in Florence, South Carolina, United States. The school is located on the city's west side, near the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95. History West Florence ...

Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropolit ...

, where he began living with his aunt, Lillian Shabazz. Diarra joined West Florence's varsity basketball team despite not having much organized basketball experience. As a sophomore, he averaged seven points and 3.7 rebounds per game. Former

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

player

Sharone Wright Sharone Addaryl Wright (born January 30, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in Macon, Georgia, he played collegiately at Clemson University from 1991 until 1994. Wright was selected 6th overall in the 1994 NBA draf ...

, whose son befriended Diarra, became his mentor and father figure. As a junior, Diarra averaged 12.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.2 steals per game. In his senior season, he averaged 18.8 points, 11 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 3.6 steals and 2.1 blocks per game, registering eight

triple-doubles In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: point (basketball), points, rebound (basketball), rebounds, assist (basketball), assists ...

. Diarra was named '' The Morning News'' Player of the Year.

College career

Kansas State

Diarra

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his first season at

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament, bur recovered quickly and was able to practice with the team and add strength. On November 10, 2017, he made his college debut, recording 13 points and four assists, shooting 4-of-4 from three-point range, in an 83–45 win over

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. Diarra initially came of the bench but began making an immediate impact as soon as he was placed in a starting role, after Kamau Stokes broke his left foot against

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

on January 6, 2018. On January 13, he scored a freshman season-high 18 points, including 16 in the second half, in a 73–72 loss to 12th-ranked

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

. As a freshman, Diarra averaged 7.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and two assists per game. He shot 40.5 percent from three-point range, the third-most by a freshman in program history. Diarra missed eight games of his sophomore season with a broken finger. On March 15, 2019, at the 2019 Big 12 tournament semifinals, he scored a season-high 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds in a 63–59 loss to

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

. As a sophomore, Diarra averaged 6.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. On December 30, during his junior season, he was named

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

Player of the Week, one day after scoring a career-high 25 points to go with seven assists and five rebounds in a 69–67 victory over

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

. On January 18, 2020, Diarra scored 25 points for a second time, while posting six rebounds and four assists, in an 84–68 win over

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. As a junior, he averaged 13.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game. On March 25, 2020, he announced that he would transfer from Kansas State.

Virginia Tech

On March 31, 2020, Diarra committed to play for

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

in his senior season. He was immediately eligible as a graduate transfer. In four games, Diarra averaged 7.5 points, 2.3 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. On December 16, 2020, he announced he was opting out of the season, citing concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 37 , , 22 , , 23.8 , , .469 , , .405 , , .723 , , 2.5 , , 2.0 , , .8 , , .1 , , 7.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 26 , , 9 , , 25.5 , , .404 , , .365 , , .702 , , 3.3 , , 1.7 , , .9 , , .3 , , 6.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 32 , , 27 , , 31.3 , , .412 , , .305 , , .669 , , 3.8 , , 4.2 , , 1.8 , , .3 , , 13.3 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 4 , , 0 , , 19.8 , , .435 , , .125 , , .692 , , 2.5 , , 2.3 , , .0 , , .3 , , 7.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 99 , , 58 , , 26.5 , , .427 , , .339 , , .692 , , 3.1 , , 2.6 , , 1.1 , , .2 , , 9.0

References

External links

Virginia Tech Hokies bioKansas State Wildcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diarra, Cartier 1998 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from New York City Cardinal Hayes High School alumni People from Harlem Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball players Shooting guards Sportspeople from Manhattan Virginia Tech Hokies men's basketball players