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

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 (appro ...

player who last played for

Stade Malien Stade Malien is a Malian professional Association football, football and sports club based in Bamako. One of the two dominant clubs of Malian football, their eastern Bamako training grounds host other sports as well, including a successful bask ...

. He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

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 School colors, official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are gener ...

and the

Virginia Tech Hokies The Virginia Tech Hokies are the athletic teams representing Virginia Tech in intercollegiate athletics. The Hokies participate in the NCAA's Division I Atlantic Coast Conference in 22 varsity sports. Virginia Tech's men's sports are football, b ...

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. His father is from Mali. 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 a private, Catholic high school for boys in the Concourse Village neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City, New York. The school serves the Archdiocese of New York. It is a member of the Catholic High School Athlet ...

The Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County to its north; to its south and west, the New York City bo ...

. 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 metropol ...

, 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 composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

player Sharone Wright, 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: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

. 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 inst ...

after suffering a

torn anterior cruciate ligament An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during in ...

, 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, p ...

. Diarra initially came off 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, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship institution of the five- ...

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 landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. 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, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

. 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 collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

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-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

. 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 mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

. 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 The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

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.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. The NBA draft returned to Brooklyn after 2020 NBA draft, the pre ...

, Diarra made his professional debut with

AB Contern Amis du Basket-Ball Contern is a semi professional basketball club from Contern, Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and nort ...

of the Luxembourg Basketball League in 2020, and averaged 10.4 points in the 2021–22 season. In October 2023, Diarra joined South African club

Cape Town Tigers The Cape Town Tigers are a South African professional basketball team founded in Cape Town. The Tigers have played in the Basketball National League (BNL) and played in three seasons of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) between 2022 and 2024. ...

for the 2024 BAL qualification tournament. He was eligible as an African import player due to his Malian heritage. He helped Cape Town qualify for the main tournament, and scored the game-winning basket in the West Division final against

City Oilers City Oilers is a basketball club based in Lugogo, Kampala, Uganda. The team competes in the Ugandan National Basketball League (NBL), where it has won 10 championships, the most in league history. The Oilers currently also play in the Basketball A ...

. In November 2024, Diarra joined Malian champions

in the

Road to BAL The Road to BAL, also known as the BAL Qualifying Tournaments, are the qualifying tournaments of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). While the main tournament is co-organised by FIBA and the NBA, the organization of the qualifiers is completely do ...

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 ...

, 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 Cardinal Hayes High School alumni People from Harlem Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball players Shooting guards Basketball players from Manhattan Virginia Tech Hokies men's basketball players Cape Town Tigers players Malian men's basketball players AB Contern players 21st-century American sportsmen Stade Malien basketball players