I had a good day on Synergy and watched Missouri host Alabama on Jan. 21, to get a better feel for Missouri post transfer Mohamed Diarra.
Diarra plays hard and he didn’t care that the game was over in the last four minutes. He was bringing it. Most of his eight points came during that spurt. He got to the line, and one time he got the ball on the left wing and drove by first-round pick Noah Clowney for the dunk on the baseline. That’s something Ebenezer Dowuona never could have done. I know it’s one game and not to judge a player based on one game, but he just showed he’s more developed than Dowuona.
In the first half, he came in around the 16:35 mark and he proved he was an active rebounder, but he probably didn’t play more than five minutes. Missouri didn’t start star Kobie Brown due to injury, which is why Diarra played more while rotating with Noah Carter. Add in that Missouri was playing 6-8 Brandon Miller, 6-10 Clowney and 6-11 Charles Bediako, that’s as good as it gets in the frontcourt among SEC schools.
I see someone, who at his best, can easily be D.J. Burns backup if Ben Middlebrooks isn’t bringing it, and could possibly play with Burns. He’s raw, and he had some silly moments, like he made a good play where he got the steal on a lazy Jaden Bradley pass for Alabama, but then wanted to be the point guard, and he turned it over to Alabama’s Mark Sears. That is the kind of thing you can get away with doing maybe in junior college, but not in the SEC.
Diarra and Bradley’s paths crossed a few times. Diarra was able to guard Bradley in a switch and then Bradley drove, but couldn’t quite get by him and missed. The other time the two crossed paths was when Bradley drove and he blocked his shot late in the game. Bradley then couldn’t get the inbounds pass in and was called for a five-second violation.
I picked up on a few things about Bradley, and can see why he fell out of the rotation at Alabama and subsequently transferred. The aforementioned Sears was running the show when paired with Bradley, and then Sears played off the ball when Jahvon Quinerly was in the game. That made me really appreciate what Sears brought to the team, and if not for Terquavion Smith, he probably would have been a natural NC State target when he left Ohio. He’s from Muscle Shoals, Ala., where Ralston Turner is from and he finished up at Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military Academy, where Kevin Keatts coach.
But back to Bradley, a lot of time he’d pass to Sears and then go spot up in the corner, and that isn’t his game. He drove to the rim a few times, and made one or got swallowed up by the trees. He almost had a spectacular dunk where the ref called the foul on the Missouri guy, but it was more of a “anticipating there’d be contact” kind of foul. He had one open jumper he could have taken but passed up on. This was toward the start where over his last 26 games, he essentially made a positive impact in two of them — vs. Ole Miss on Jan. 3 and at Vanderbilt on Jan. 17.
Diarra plays hard and he didn’t care that the game was over in the last four minutes. He was bringing it. Most of his eight points came during that spurt. He got to the line, and one time he got the ball on the left wing and drove by first-round pick Noah Clowney for the dunk on the baseline. That’s something Ebenezer Dowuona never could have done. I know it’s one game and not to judge a player based on one game, but he just showed he’s more developed than Dowuona.
In the first half, he came in around the 16:35 mark and he proved he was an active rebounder, but he probably didn’t play more than five minutes. Missouri didn’t start star Kobie Brown due to injury, which is why Diarra played more while rotating with Noah Carter. Add in that Missouri was playing 6-8 Brandon Miller, 6-10 Clowney and 6-11 Charles Bediako, that’s as good as it gets in the frontcourt among SEC schools.
I see someone, who at his best, can easily be D.J. Burns backup if Ben Middlebrooks isn’t bringing it, and could possibly play with Burns. He’s raw, and he had some silly moments, like he made a good play where he got the steal on a lazy Jaden Bradley pass for Alabama, but then wanted to be the point guard, and he turned it over to Alabama’s Mark Sears. That is the kind of thing you can get away with doing maybe in junior college, but not in the SEC.
Diarra and Bradley’s paths crossed a few times. Diarra was able to guard Bradley in a switch and then Bradley drove, but couldn’t quite get by him and missed. The other time the two crossed paths was when Bradley drove and he blocked his shot late in the game. Bradley then couldn’t get the inbounds pass in and was called for a five-second violation.
I picked up on a few things about Bradley, and can see why he fell out of the rotation at Alabama and subsequently transferred. The aforementioned Sears was running the show when paired with Bradley, and then Sears played off the ball when Jahvon Quinerly was in the game. That made me really appreciate what Sears brought to the team, and if not for Terquavion Smith, he probably would have been a natural NC State target when he left Ohio. He’s from Muscle Shoals, Ala., where Ralston Turner is from and he finished up at Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military Academy, where Kevin Keatts coach.
But back to Bradley, a lot of time he’d pass to Sears and then go spot up in the corner, and that isn’t his game. He drove to the rim a few times, and made one or got swallowed up by the trees. He almost had a spectacular dunk where the ref called the foul on the Missouri guy, but it was more of a “anticipating there’d be contact” kind of foul. He had one open jumper he could have taken but passed up on. This was toward the start where over his last 26 games, he essentially made a positive impact in two of them — vs. Ole Miss on Jan. 3 and at Vanderbilt on Jan. 17.
