As the 2019-20 BIG EAST regular season enters its homestretch so, too, do the careers of a quartet of stellar seniors who have certainly made their mark on their respective programs.
In a season in which Marquette’s Markus Howard and Seton Hall’s Myles Powell garnered a great deal of attention with their record-setting play, these four may have not received their due recognition for their own brilliant careers. Some can be considered the face of their program, others, the backbone. One has played the perfect wingman to Howard during his career while another saved his best season for last as he held together a program that featured both injuries to key players and dismissals of others.
So with just a handful of games remaining before they partake in their final BIG EAST Tournament in two weeks at Madison Square Garden, here’s a tip of the hat to Providence’s Alpha Diallo, Butler’s Kamar Baldwin, Marquette’s Sacar Anim and Georgetown’s Jagan Mosely for a job, and a career, well done.
“Alpha’s been a four-year player for us and I’m really proud that he’s going to graduate,” said Providence head coach Ed Cooley. “I’ve seen him mature in so many ways on the floor and off the floor. He works really hard in the classroom and in our community. I think he’s a role model for young kids as he takes a ton of time for them when we have guests at games, in practice or on our campus.”
During his time in Friartown, the 6-7 product of New York City has posted 1,547 points (and counting) in his career, placing him 14th in school history, and is enjoying yet another stellar season in his swansong campaign. Heading into this weekend, Diallo ranks fifth in the conference in rebounding (8.0), fourth in steals (1.7), ninth in blocks (1.0) and 14th in scoring (14.0). And he is such a part of the fabric of the Friars’ program, having won three consecutive team awards which were named for former Providence greats.
In his freshman season he earned the Marvin Barnes Defensive Player of the Year award. Sophomore year saw him take home the Ryan Gomes Most Improved Player hardware and last season Diallo was the recipient of the Jimmy Walker Most Valuable Player award.
In a recent three-game stretch, which included a win over BIG EAST-front runner and the nation’s No. 13 team, Seton Hall, Diallo posted the following numbers: 19 points and 17 rebounds versus St. John’s, 35 points and 10 rebounds vs. The Hall, and 18 points and eight rebounds against Georgetown.
If he keeps up that kind of production the rest of the way, we’re reasonably sure he’ll come away with the inaugural Ed Cooley “Thanks for the Memories” award.
“He’ll leave a legacy here that will last a long time,” Cooley said. “I’m really proud of him and hopefully he can continue to play as well as he’s had in the best three-game stretch in his career. Hopefully he can stretch that out to as many great games as he can as he closes his illustrious career here at Providence.”
What can you say about Kamar Baldwin? He landed in Indianapolis four seasons ago and immediately gave notice he was going to be a difference maker, not only at Butler but in the BIG EAST as well. He was named to the conference’s All-Freshman Team that year, finished with 59 steals to lead the Bulldogs, which was the eighth-best in Butler single-season history, was third on the team in scoring (10.1 ppg.) and scored 345 points, the eighth-best mark by a freshman in Bulldogs’ history. And he never let up from there.
Butler head coach LaVall Jordan said there wasn’t enough time in his busy day to sing all of Baldwin’s virtues.
“Oh man, that would take longer than we have time to talk here,” Jordan joked. “Kamar Baldwin embodies Butler, what Butler stands for and what Butler basketball is all about in terms of his humility and how he comes in everyday and doesn’t think too much of himself. He’s a confident player, he loves the game, he loves this place, he loves his teammates and he has a passion for all of that. He is Butler.”
What Jordan appreciated as much as Baldwin’s contributions to the Bulldogs’ program was how he helped make for a flawless transition when Jordan took over at Butler when former coach Chris Holtmann left for Ohio State.
“Obviously for me, coming in here in year one, he was coming off a really strong freshman campaign but he just locked in and was on board with the new coach,” Jordan said. “That was an important thing for the future of our program, for Kamar to stay and embrace the vision I had for Butler. For me to not have recruited him personally, he and I had to connect and get to know each other along the way. So I just appreciated his trust and how he received me personally.”
Baldwin, by the way, will head into Saturday’s home game vs. DePaul with 1,899 career points, good for sixth best in program history. He is 41 points shy of overtaking Matt Howard (1,939) for fifth place and is just 47 short of catching Kellan Dunham (1,946) for fourth. So clearly, Baldwin is not done assaulting the Butler record books.
It’s hard to find much time in the spotlight when your teammate is Markus Howard. And while fans outside of the Marquette community may not appreciate Sacar Anim, his coach certainly does. Anim is a student-athlete who has gotten it done both on and off the court. He’s already been named to the BIG EAST All-Academic Team twice in his career while also being named the Golden Eagles’ top defender the past two seasons. The former AP Player of the Year in Minnesota after his senior season at DeLaSalle High School, the 6-5 Anim finds himself just 97 points shy of 1,000 for his career. And he’s already graduated and is taking graduate courses.
“I love Sacar,” Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “I think he is everything college basketball should be about. He’s a guy who came in here, he was lightly recruited, and he’s a guy, who after his freshman year of not playing much, didn’t hang his head and made a difficult decision to redshirt. But he attacked his redshirt year about as well and as hard as I’ve ever seen a kid do it. And his work has paid off to the point where he’s really become a three-year starter for us, a high-level BIG EAST player and a consummate team guy.”
Wojo, of course, is a disciple of old-school basketball. You may remember his habit of banging the floor on the defensive end when a big stop was needed during his Duke playing days. These days the old-school coach sees a lot of himself in his hard-nosed player.
“He’s a throwback and I’ve loved having him in our program,” Wojo said. “He’s made me better and he’s made our program better, not just on the floor but off the floor because he’s as good a kid as you’re going to find.”
Finally, there is Georgetown’s do-everything Jagan Mosely. Nothing the 6-3 guard out of fabled St. Anthony High School in Jersey City will jump off the stat page at you. But he is the quintessential stat-stuffer. Need an assist? Mosely has 96 of them to place second on the Hoyas. A steal? His 35 swipes lead Georgetown. How about a rebound? The 6-3 Mosely is third on the team with 121. Need a guy at the free throw line in crunch time? Mosely’s sinks them at 83 percent, second on the squad.
Mosely’s play has made a big fan out of head Hoya Patrick Ewing, particularly in a season which has seen the exit of four players in December.
“He’s meant a lot to us,” Ewing said. “Without him we wouldn’t be as successful as we are right now. I don’t even have a title for him. MVP of our team or whatever you want to call it, that’s him. He has been a dream for us. He was hurt when I first got here and he worked himself back into shape and he played well for us my first year and played well in my second year. (But) this year he’s just knocked it out of the box.”
Mosely sits 61 points shy of reaching 700 for his career. And with four regular-season games remaining, beginning with Wednesday night’s affair at Marquette, before the BIG EAST Tournament, he is on the precipice of closing out a career in which he’ll top 700 points. He has already posted better than 330 assists and rebounds as well.
“It’s great for a coach to be able to count on someone as much as I count on him,” Ewing said. “He’s done an outstanding job.”
Alpha, Sacar, Kamar and Jagan, take a bow. You’ve earned it.