Four-star forward, Badara Diakite officially signed a written offer of athletics aid with the Iowa men's basketball program on Monday. Originally from Mali in West Africa, Diakite will play his final year of high school basketball at South Kent High School in Connecticut.
The No. 127 player in the country, Diakite is the lone signee in Iowa's 2025 recruiting class.
Diakite announced his intentions to commit to Iowa on Tuesday, though premium subscribers were aware of an impending commitment in mid-October.
“Badara is an extremely talented, versatile player with a great feel for the game,” Fran McCaffery said in a statement. “He can stretch the floor with his 3-point shooting, he can guard any position one through five and he is an even better person. We’re thrilled to have him as part of the Hawkeye family.”
Diakite ultimately chose the Hawkeyes over a final three of Boston College, Washington and Iowa. He took official visits to all three campuses, with his official visit to Iowa City coming in early October. The trip allowed him to get to know Fran McCaffery, assistant coach Courtney Eldridge and the Iowa basketball program on a deeper level.
"I definitely like talking to them, especially when I went there," Diakite said after his OV. "I had a lot of fun with Coach Fran. He showed me around and we had a lot of good conversations. He's definitely a good guy."
McCaffery's experience and decisiveness in the recruiting process stood out to Diakite, who moved to America in 2020.
“I chose the University of Iowa because of the coaches’ communication in the recruiting process and because of Coach McCaffery," Diakite said. "I feel he understands me as a person and sees my basketball talents to be used in ways I can grow my game while helping the team win.”
Entering next season, Diakite will be the third player on Iowa's roster of Malian decent, joining Chris Tadjo and Ladji Demebele. Iowa's African connection also extends to Seydou Traore; his family is originally from Ivory Coast in West Africa, though Seydou himself was born in New York City.
The variety of connections to Diakite's home country helped sway Diakite to calling Iowa home.
"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."
McCaffery spoke to the international players on his roster on Tuesday night following Iowa's 96-77 win over South Dakota, before he could officially speak about Diakite.
"I think they fit well in this institution, into this state," McCaffery said. "I think our style of play fits all of them. It's been impressive to me, how easy it's been to coach those guys. They're innately workers. They listen."
At times, McCaffery has had to get Tadjo and Dembele to loosen up a little, considering how much passionate they are about doing their respective jobs on the floor well.
"They want to do what the coach asks them to do. If anything, I try to get them to be more free flowing," he said. "Trust your talent and make plays. You're seeing that more with Ladji this year, and you'll see that more with Chris. Seydou is doing it already. I have no doubt that our addition will do the same."
