As the Louisville basketball program continues to recruit talent through the high school ranks and the transfer portal for their roster next season, there is one more highly underrated prospect that should garner the attention of Kenny Payne and staff. His name is Makhan Diouf and he currently plays for Bella Vista College Prep in Scottsdale, Arizona.
All of the attention has been on 2024 five-star combo guard Trentyn Flowers, 2024 five-star small forward Carter Bryant, and even a shade of attention on 2024 five-star small forward Karter Knox this past week in terms of 2024 prospects linked to the University of Louisville. But, Head Coach Kenny Payne could find a diamond in the rough here with borderline 7-footer Makhan Diouf.
Louisville Head Coch Kenny Payne would do well to make a trip down to Scottsdale to see the raw talent and athleticism of this big man. A native of Senegal, he played the 2021-2022 season with Aix Maurienne Savoie Basket, a basketball club that plays in Savoie, France.
While there, he averaged 10.9 points per game, 7.7 rebounds per game, and 1.2 blocks per game. Not a bad stat line for a 17-year old playing in a U21 league. This season, he made the transfer to the United States to continue his dreams of playing basketball and now plays for the Bella Vista Prepatory School in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In 28 games with Bella Vista, he averaged 7.3 points per game, 4.5 rebounds per game, and 1.1 blocks per game. He would help his team, the Bears, finish the season with an impressive 21-9 season. And he also picked up a four-star rating from both 247Sports and On3, and is currently ranked as the No. 7 best player in the state of Arizona, according to On3.
Now, that his junior season of high school is finished, it’s more than likely that will garner more attention from Division I programs around the country. At this point in his recruitment, he is heavily underrecruited and currently holds only one scholarship offer from Arizona State, sources tell Big Red Louie.
Much like Louisville Head Coach Kenny Payne did with NBA Africa Academy prospect Emmanuel Okorafor, he and the staff could be looking at another international product who would fit in well with the Louisville basketball program. Louisville has a history of attracting prospects such as Diouf, going back to the days of Rick Pitino when he successfully recruited Deng Adel and Mangok Mathiang from the international prospect pool.
The 6-foot-11 1/2 big man made a name for himself at last year’s Tarkanian Classic, a premier pre-Christmas basketball tournament held in Las Vegas, Nevada. In a recap of the tournament by MadeHoops’ Max Feldman, he had this to say about Diouf:
"“A new name to surface from the weekend, Bella Vista’s Makhan Diouf turned heads in the desert. The 7-0 2024 big is originally from Senegal, but played the last three years in France before arriving in Arizona. A long, rangy athlete that doesn’t move like most seven-footers given his lateral quickness, fast-twitch and fluidity in the open floor. Diouf brought unique value on both ends, serving as the trigger man at times and switching out in space onto all five spots. Covers plenty of ground defensively, changed directions in a hurry and routinely met attempts on the glass. A roaring motor to go with notable tools are the baseline, but Diouf is ahead of the curve skill wise and popped as a handler with enticing shooting indicators. A recruitment that could pick up rather quickly in the coming months and into the spring.”"
A very similar situation to NBA Academy Africa’s Churchill Abass, there’s a strong possibility that Louisville could be linked to him because of Kenny Payne’s history of recruiting prospects from the continent of Africa. First, it was Emmanuel Okorafor, then it was Churchill Abass, and now it could be Makhan Diouf.