Adam Betz: Diarra's ovation well earned

Dec. 29—HARTFORD — When he exited the court for a breather in the latter stages of the second half Wednesday night, UConn men's basketball junior Hassan Diarra received an ovation from the announced sellout crowd of 15,564 at the XL Center that rivaled the one given to Husky great Emeka Okafor earlier in the night.

But it was an ovation that was well deserved.

For the second time in as many games, Diarra's play helped lift his team to a Big East victory.

The 6-foot-2 guard scored six points, recorded four steals and drew a critical foul all in the second half as the second-ranked Huskies topped Villanova 74-66.

"That felt amazing," Diarra said of the ovation. "That's just getting recognition for playing hard and playing my game. This crowd is amazing. UConn Nation is one of a kind. So, I appreciate that."

The Queens, New York native was one of the heroes, along with Joey Calcaterra, in UConn's win against Georgetown in its previous game — remember, JC/HD and CalcaDiarra. He scored five points that game: a layup to tie it and a three to put the Huskies ahead for good. Both baskets came in the second half.

The second half proved to be Diarra's time again Wednesday night.

After mustering an assist and a minus-six plus/minus rating in 5:24 of action in the first half, Diarra returned to the court for the first time in the second half 2:42 in.

"We started the game really getting into them aggressively," Huskies coach Dan Hurley said. "We really had them playing out of the scoring area for the first several minutes. Then we went to the bench and we let them get comfortable. I felt like that kind of played out to the beginning of the second half where we didn't pressure them. We wanted to pick them up full court. We were willing to give up a little bit of field goal percentage on defense, but we felt like we could turn them over.

"When Hassan went into that game when Tristen (Newton) picked up his third foul, the game really changed there."

On his first possession, Diarra stole the ball from Eric Dixon. The Huskies turned it over themselves, but got it back and Diarra found teammate Jordan Hawkins for a three-pointer that put the Huskies up 39-36.

UConn never relinquished the lead the rest of the way.

"My mentality was just wanting to be disruptive," Diarra said. "Just pick my team up with energy and defense. That started on the defensive end."

The professional journalist writing this column couldn't have picked a better adjective to describe Diarra. He's a disrupter.

"I love my guards like that," Hurley said with a smile. "I love attack guards."

Diarra credits that play style to his upbringing in Queens.

"A New York City guard just brings the energy, he's playing defense," Diarra said. "Offensively, he's just looking to push the pace and find his teammates, get them open shots. When you have a team like this with this amount of firepower inside and outside, it makes my job easy."

Perhaps Diarra's most critical contribution Wednesday came when he didn't have the ball however.

Villanova (7-6, 1-1) had cut the score to 58-56 thanks to a 7-0 run capped off by a converted and-one by Caleb Daniels with 3:36 to play. Following a bucket from teammate Adama Sanogo, Diarra drew a charge on Villanova's Jordan Longino.

On the ensuing possession, Andre Jackson hit a three-pointer to give the hosts some breathing room.

"For him to not always have to score to make that big of an impact for us, like words can't say how much he means to our team," redshirt freshman forward Alex Karaban said of Diarra.

Diarra's stats this year don't look all that impressive. He's averaging 3.2 points, 1.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals in 16.5 minutes per game.

He added three assists to his totals Wednesday and finished as a plus-four.

But providing big numbers isn't the role that Diarra has on the team.

It's his energy, his timing to make big plays, his disruption, and his ability to make his teammates better in practice.

"His defense is grueling, nothing easy," Hawkins said. "So when we play Big East games like this, this feels like nothing because of the way he competes in practice every day. It's great to have him on the team."

And it was great to see the UConn faithful embrace Diarra like his teammates already have Wednesday night.

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Adam Betz is a Journal Inquirer staff writer.

For coverage of UConn football and men's basketball as well as area high school and local youth sports, follow Adam Betz on Twitter: @AdBetz1, Facebook: Adam Betz — Sports Writer, and Instagram: @AdBetzJI.