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Virginia Tech has filled their last available basketball recruiting scholarship for 2005 with a commitment from 6-9, 225-pound post player Cheick Diatake (pronounced Check Jah-kah-tay) from Bridgton Academy in Bridgton, Maine.

Originally from Mali, Diatake has been in the United States for about a year. VT assistant coach Ryan Odom was very instrumental in bringing Diatake over to the United States, and in the end, Diatake rewarded Odom's efforts with a measure of loyalty in committing to VT.

Diatake progressed well in his first season of American basketball, averaging 10 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 blocks per game. His offensive game needs a lot of work, but he is a fierce competitor, an excellent athlete, and a good shot blocker and rebounder. He is rated as a 2-star recruit.

“He’s a very athletic front court player,” Bridgton Academy coach White Lesure said. “He played center and power forward for us. I like to use the Detroit Pistons analogy when describing him. I think the closest way to describe him is that he is a Ben Wallace waiting to happen. He’s an old style frontcourt guy. He’s very aggressive defensively, a great rebounder and someone whose offensive skills will come along.

Diakate speaks English very well, is a good student, and is qualified academically. He joins fall signees Hyman Taylor (6-9, 235) and Terrance Vinson (6-7, 218) in rounding out the Hokies' 2005 basketball recruiting class. Virginia Tech will have a full complement of 13 scholarship players when practice begins in the fall (barring any attrition).

For more information on Diakate, more comments from his coach, and a list of other teams who offered Diakate and were recruiting him, please check out our TSL Pass recruiting update on Diakate's commitment. And if you're not very familiar with basketball recruiting, both in general and at VT, be sure to check out our TSL Pass Basketball Recruiting Primer, posted yesterday. 

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-- Will Stewart