2025 four-star forward Badara Diakite has committed to the Iowa men's basketball program, as he announced on Tuesday. Diakite is the No. 127 player in the country.
A product of South Kent High School in Connecticut, Diakite chose the Hawkeyes over a final three of Iowa, Boston College and Washington. Premium subscribers knew Diakite was FutureCasted to Iowa since mid-October.
Diakite, who officially visited Iowa in mid-October, said seeing practice was a big deal for him when he made it to campus.
"Seeing those practices and how they were playing and stuff like that, and how Coach Fran (McCaffery) was coaching them -- yeah, that was definitely something that stuck out," Diakite said. "They were just going up and down, and just the movement of the ball, it was so fast."
He believes his style of play matches up well with the way Iowa operates.
"[Play style] is important," he said. "The system, how they play, and stuff like that."
Diakite, who is originally from Mali, moved to the United States in 2020. Coincidentally, he, freshman wing Chris Tadjo and sophomore big Ladji Dembele are all from the country of just over 24 million people in northwest Africa.
"Oh, it's definitely great having a couple guys that are from the same country," Diakite said. "I had a chance to talk to them when I was on campus. We talked about school over there and stuff like that."
"It's definitely great to see people from my country on this kind of stage. They can definitely teach me some stuff and I had some good conversations with them. So it's great."
Diakite is Iowa's first commit in the class of 2025.
READ MORE: Four-Star Prospect Badara Diakite Talks Top 3, Official Visit
