SAN DIEGO – Tahirou Diabate, who competed for the University of Portland for three seasons and owns the fifth-best career field goal shooting percentage in that program's history, has signed a Grant-in-Aid which officially makes him a member of the San Diego State men's basketball program, head coach Brian Dutcher announced today. The 6-9, 220-pound forward is immediately available to compete for the Aztecs in the 2020-21 season.
A native of Bamako, Mali, a country in Western Africa, Tahirou Diabate (pronounced tuh-HE-row DEE-uh-bah-tay) speaks five languages: his native Bambara, English, French, Japanese and Spanish, and growing up he attended schools in France, the Canary Islands, and Japan. He plans to graduate from Portland with a degree in organizational communication and enter graduate school at San Diego State.
Diabate, who chose to sit out last season, made 70 starts in 91 total appearances for the Pilots and averaged 7.2 points and 4.1 rebounds in his three-year playing career at Portland. In an average of 18 minutes per game, he shot 55.3 percent (272-of-492) from the floor and totaled 73 blocks and 55 steals. His 73 career blocked shots rank ninth on the program's career list.
During his three season's competing for Portland, he was one of just eight players in the nation to average at least 16.0 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.3 steals per 40 minutes played while shooting at least 55.3 percent from the floor.
As a junior, in 2019-20, Diabate set career-highs in nearly every statistical category. He earned a start in each of the 31 games in which he appeared and averaged 9.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while blocking 25 shots, dishing out 13 assists and totaling 19 steals, all career-highs or career-high equaling numbers. He recorded 13 games in double figure scoring, including a career-high 25 points at Pepperdine on 9-of-12 shooting. He has two double doubles: 13 points and 10 rebounds against CSUN and 12 points and 10 rebounds versus Ball State. With four blocks at Saint Mary's, he equaled his single-game best set against Santa Clara during his freshman season in 2017-18.
In his sophomore year, he played in all 32 of the team's games with 17 starting assignments. Diabate shot 74-of-136 from the floor, 54.4 percent, to lead the team in field goal percentage and averaged 5.7 points and 3.2 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game. In the 28 games in which he attempted at least two shots, he hit over 50 percent of his shots in 25 of them. His 24 blocked shots, including seven games with multiple blocks, ranked second on the squad. He had five games in which he reached double-digit scoring, including a season-best 14 points, six rebounds, three blocks and two steals at CSUN. His 48 career blocks to that point were already 18th on the program's career list.
As a true freshman, in 2017-18, he made 22 starts and appeared in 30 games. His 56.3 percent field goal shooting, 4.2 rebounds and 24 blocks all ranked second on the team. For the year, he averaged 6.4 points, scoring in double figures eight times and recorded his first double double, with 15 points and 10 boards at Santa Clara, while also blocking four shots. He finished the season with three of his five career double digit rebounding games, including his career-best 11 boards against Santa Clara.
Diabate played his high school basketball at Teikyo Nagaoka High School in Nagaoka Japan, on the island of Honshu. As a junior, he led the team to the 2016 Okinawa Cup, the national championship for Japanese high school basketball, and was named the MVP of the tournament after leading all players in points and rebounds. That same season he averaged 31 points and 18 rebounds per game. Among his highlights in Japan, he once scored 101 points in a game, as well as a 51-point effort in the 2016 Niigata Tournament finals to qualify for nationals and then erupted for 61 points in a game at the Okinawa Cup.
This past season, the Aztecs won their conference-leading 14th Mountain West championship, eighth of the regular season and sixth tournament title, finished the regular season with a 23-4 record and earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament.
San Diego State is expected to return starters Nathan Mensah and Trey Pulliam, as well as significant contributors Lamont Butler, Keshad Johnson, Adam Seiko and Joshua Tomaic. Diabate joins transfer Matt Bradley and incoming freshman Demarshay Johnson Jr., as new faces in the 2021-22 season.
-SDSU-