K-State Basketball Signs Two in Late Period

This afternoon, Bruce Weber announced the signing of final two committed members of the 2016 recruiting class. The two are Cartier Diarra, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound point guard from Florence, SC (West Florence), and Brian Patrick, a 6-foot-5, 180-pound shooting guard from Fort Lauderdale, FL (Boyd Anderson).

Diarra, the 54th-ranked point guard in the nation by 247Sports and fourth-ranked in the state of South Carolina, will look to push Kamau Stokes at PG, and will at least be expected to provide solid minutes off the bench to spell Kamau. Diarra can also slide over the the two spot if needed. Diarra can score plenty, but also showed good basketball IQ by posting a 3.14 career assist-to-turnover ratio (330 assists to 105 turnovers). We posted a couple videos with his commitment announcement back in early February. (And yes, his name is a nifty amalgamation of two former Wildcats: Cartier Martin and Dramaine Diarra)

Patrick has largely been flying under the radar but was rated as a 3-star small forward by Rivals. Patrick comes from Boyd Anderson HS, the same high school that sent K-State Hall of Famer Mitch Richmond as well as Martavious Irving. It was Irving who contacted the coaching staff to have them come look at Patrick (it's great to see that our fellow alumni are trying to help out this beleaguered coaching staff), and Weber and Co. were impressed enough to offer Patrick a scholarship. Patrick is the shooter that this staff has been looking for, leading his high school team in scoring his senior season while shooting the 3-ball at a 42% clip and averaging 52% from the field. He will look to push Barry Brown at the two-guard spot, but has the length to play at the three in smaller line-ups.

Patrick and Diarra are the third and fourth members (repsectively) of the 2016 K-State men's basketball recruiting class, joining Xaiver Sneed and James Love III (who Patrick joins from Ft. Lauderdale). Bruce Weber will still have one scholarship to fill, and is still all-in on JUCO SF Freddie McSwain, who visited Manhattan last weekend and will visit Indiana this weekend before announcing his final decision at an evening ceremony at his school on April 24th.