Boubacar Diakite, a 6-foot-8 forward from Our Savior New American, has reclassified to the Class of 2017 and enrolled early at St. John’s.
After suffering an injury this past spring, Diakite will redshirt the 2017-18 season while taking classes on the Queens campus and participating in various other team activities.
“We welcome Boubacar to our basketball program,” said St. John’s head coach Chris Mullin. “Boubacar will have the opportunity to rehab from his injury this year while acclimating to the University and getting ahead on his coursework. Our staff looks forward to supporting Boubacar in his development on and off the court.”
Diakite comes to St. John’s from Our Savior New American in Centereach, N.Y., the alma mater of rising junior forward Kassoum Yakwe and former Red Storm standouts Felix Balamou and Chris Obekpa.
A 6-foot-8 small forward who originally hails from Mali, Diakite is a consensus top 10 recruit in New York State. Diakite represented Mali at the 2016 FIBA Africa U18 Championship in Kigali, Rwanda, where he averaged 6.4 and 3.3 rebounds helping the team to a third place finish. On the club circuit, Diakite played for PSA Cardinals, which also the former AAU home of Yakwe.
Andrew Slater of 247Sports.com first reported the reclass news.
Diakite joins shooting guard Bryan Trimble in St. John’s 2017 class, while onetime 2017 commit Sidney Wilson is transferring.
St. John’s is also focusing on several 2018 prospects, including shooting guard Luther Muhammad, forward Jordan Brown and big man Moses Brown.
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