Rams courting CSI wing

College of Southern Idaho has produced several talents over the past decade that have played their final few college seasons at Colorado State. Mame Bocar Ba, Harvey Perry and Gerson Santo each spent a couple years at CSI before inking with the Rams.

With the CSU staff's ties to CSI, the Rams are hoping to lure yet another playmaker from the JUCO mainstay.

Pape Diatta, a 6-foot-7 small forward, has seen his recruitment pick up steam during his sophomore year at CSI while posting average figures per game of 13 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2 assists. Diatta (pronounced Pop Gee-ah-da) has helped CSI to a 22-8 record this season.

On the recruiting front, Diatta has a handful of offers to his credit, but is in no hurry to commit to any of his pursuers.

“I have Loyola Chicago, Georgia, Penn State, Oregon State, and Colorado State, too,” Diatta told GoldandGreenNews.com regarding his current offers. “I'm also hearing from Nevada.”

The class of 2016 wing has not scheduled any official visits, but said that CSU, Oregon State and Penn State are trying to set up dates to get him to visit. His focus right now is in helping CSI to a championship.

“I was going to do that after my seasons ends, because I'm focused on playing my games,” he said, adding that he has no recruiting favorites for the time being. “I really don't know where yet, but I think I might visit Oregon State, Georgia, maybe Nevada. I cannot say for sure, yet, so I don't really know.”

Diatta was part of a state championship winning team as a prep for Rock School in Gainesville, Florida. He moved there his freshman year of high school from the Senegal, where he was born and raised up until that point.

Since being fairly new to the States and having grown up on the East Coast, Diatta admitted to really only knowing about and following ACC and SEC basketball. So schools like Colorado State have some catching up to do in familiarizing themselves to him.

The Rams, however, have been courting Diatta for a little over two months now.

“I'm talking to Coach (Ross) Hodge,” Diatta said. “He's just has been telling me what their program is about, you know, and how they need a player that can come in and contribute right away and a stretch four and all. He's been giving me a lot of information about their school and how their season is going.”

He admitted that with his schedule, it's been difficult for him to keep track of any team this season, let alone CSU.

“To be honest, I haven't really been following anybody. I watched some of their (CSU's) highlights, though. He (Hodge) sent me some of their highlights.”

How much interest does Diatta have specifically in Colorado State?

“I do have a lot of interest in them. I'm really not that familiar with their program, but I know they play in the Mountain West and they've been doing good. I've been getting updates a lot of times. At first, I didn't know anything about them. I'm from out East, so I grew up really only knowing about the SEC and ACC.”

On the court, Diatta brings a versatile skill set that has enabled him to play many positions.

“They (CSU) are talking to me about the three spot, which is who I am. I'm playing the four here (at CSI), because I came in here and the team needed me to. They wanted me to play the four, so I did it. But when I was in high school, I played the one through three. My team needs a four, so I say, 'Sure, I will do it.' I'm not really a four, but I'm just a player. I can do and will do anything that can make me stay on the floor, even if that's play the five. I will do that just to stay on the court.”

When it comes time for Diatta to pick a school, he has several factors he is focusing on.

“Just a place where I can come and impact the game right away. Also, I want to be around people that I know are good people, you know? Just positive people and stuff. I just want to make sure it's that way with the staff. The only thing will be on campus, how I can be able to play good minutes and things like that.”

Ryan Krous is the publisher of GoldandGreenNews.com. You can email him at ryan.krous@gmail.com or follow him on twitter @RyanKrous for all the latest and breaking Colorado State news.