Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Ibrahima Diallo took the podium wearing a shirt with the world famous photo of Muhammad Ali towering over Sonny Liston.
It was only fitting for the third-year seven-footer to wear a shirt that personified destruction and sheer domination in sports.
Diallo set a Provident Credit Union Event Center record with eight shots in a 70-57 win over Alabama State, breaking a record set by Brandon Clarke, who now plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, in 2017.
He’s one of many reasons the Spartans have a chance to start the season 4-0 for the first time since the 1956-57 season.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he broke it again,” said fourth-year guard Omari Moore.
Moore and fellow team captain Alvaro Cardenas were flanking Diallo at the podium. The two of them know better than anyone what ASU had to deal with that night.
“If you see him in practice and you’re here with him everyday you’re not surprised by any of this,” said Moore.
That’s not to say Moore’s prolific and acrobatic layup package doesn’t help out Diallo.
“There’s a lot of guys that when I got them one-on-one, I know I’m going to block their shot,” said Diallo who’s 10 blocks leads the Mountain West. “But O [Omari], he’s too fast, I can’t.”
Diallo’s performance Tuesday night is an early sign that second-year SJSU head coach Tim Miles’ rebuild is progressing.
“It’s just more physicality, better rebounding, better inside play,” said Miles. “In this league especially you got to have a certain amount of physicality to win the paint.”
Physicality, rebounding and inside play are all things the Spartans lacked in the 2021-22 season, particularly in Mountain West play as they finished 1-17.
SJSU was outrebounded and outscored in the paint night in and night out. Well, all night, but one.
Their lone win came against New Mexico, which happened to be Diallo’s first conference game. The center had missed over two months of the 2021-22 campaign with a knee injury.
In his first defensive possession, he went up and spiked a layup into the stratosphere. Diallo finished the game with 14 points on a 7-for-11 day from the field.
The Spartans were outscored in the paint in 12 of their 14 Mountain West games by an average of 17 points prior their win over UNM.
Through SJSU’s three wins in 2022, the Spartans have outscored opponents in the paint by an average of 23 points and outrebounded them by 46 boards.
But it’s not all Diallo doing the work in the restricted area.
He’s accompanied by Temple-transfer Sage Tolbert III, Fresno State-transfer Robert Vaihola and true freshman Max Allen.
“They’re all valuable contributors,” said Miles. “They’ve done a very good job of helping us out in different points in time.”
The Spartans are on the precipice of matching records from when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president and have a center in Diallo who’s breaking records set by someone averaging double figures in the NBA.