Report: 7-foot Arizona State transfer Massamba Diop focused on Gonzaga, St. John’s
Gonzaga is beginning to gain traction with one of the top centers in the transfer portal.
Massamba Diop, a 7-foot-1 freshman from Arizona State, entered the transfer portal on Wednesday with a “do not contact” tag and didn’t waste much time paring his list down to two primary schools.
Gonzaga and St. John’s are considered to be the favorites to land the big center, according to a report on Wednesday from 247Sports.com’s Travis Branham.
The “do not contact” tag means coaching staffs can’t initiate contact with a transfer and often implies that player already has a specific school, or group of schools, in mind.
“The two schools that seem to be vying for his talent are Gonzaga and St. John’s,” Branham wrote. “The expectation is Diop will make a decision rather quickly and am currently classifying this one as a toss-up.”
The Zags watched Diop play firsthand when they traveled to Arizona State for a nonconference game on Nov. 14. Gonzaga came out with a 77-65 victory, but Diop was effective for the Sun Devils, scoring 11 points on 4 of 10 shooting and 3 of 6 from the free throw line while adding four rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
Diop was a high-impact player on both ends of the floor in his lone season at ASU, averaging 13.6 and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 56.9% from the field, 30.8% from the 3-point line and 71.5% from the free throw line.
The Rufisque, Senegal, native ranked second in the Big 12 at 2.1 blocks per game, only sitting behind Kansas standout and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Flory Bidunga. Diop also set Arizona State’s freshman record with 69 total blocks.
Diop had three straight 20-point games to open Big 12 play, against Colorado, BYU and Kansas State, and rejected a season-high seven shots in ASU’s 95-89 loss to the Buffaloes. He scored 19 points, pulled down nine rebounds and added three blocks in ASU’s 70-60 home upset of No. 14 Kansas on March 3.
Diop entered the transfer portal weeks after the Sun Devils made a coaching change, moving on from Bobby Hurley after 11 years before hiring longtime Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett.
The Zags are rebuilding in the frontcourt after losing top scorer and All-American forward Graham Ike to graduation. Ismaila Diagne, a sophomore reserve who made three starts for GU last season with Ike and Braden Huff injured, confirmed on Thursday he’s entering the portal.
Ironically, Diagne has a connection to Diop through their shared time playing for the youth academy at Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid. Before Gonzaga’s game at ASU in November, Diagne told The Spokesman-Review he roomed with Diop in Madrid and helped bring the fellow Senegal native up to speed as he was trying to learn Spanish.
Diop also shares an agent with numerous ex-Gonzaga players, according to RealGM. Jason Ranne, who works with Wasserman Basketball, also represents Rui Hachimura, Domantas Sabonis, Jalen Suggs, Joel Ayayi and David Stockton, according to the website.
Harwell back on GU’s radar
A source close to the program confirmed there’s “mutual interest” between Gonzaga and Houston transfer Isiah Harwell.
The guard’s name should ring a bell for Gonzaga fans.
Harwell took an official visit to Spokane during his time at Utah prep school Wasatch Academy and named Gonzaga as one of his four finalists, along with Houston, Texas and California.
The former five-star guard and top-20 prospect committed to the Cougars but struggled to stay in coach Kelvin Sampson’s rotation, in part because of a lingering knee injury that sidelined him most of the summer before his freshman season.
Harwell averaged just 3.6 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 27.9% from the field and 27.1% from the 3-point line. The guard averaged roughly 20 minutes during nonconference play but watched his minutes tail off in the Big 12, when he was surpassed in the rotation by fellow freshman Chase McCarty and sophomore Mercy Miller.