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Friday, July 13, 2001
Former Isles player Diene going ’trotting
Post-graduation road takes Pathe down the Globetrotters’ path
By Darrin Scheid
Caller-Times

Diene

Pathe Diene's playing career will continue.
   Diene, the former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball player, also will get a lesson in acting, comedy and trickery after signing a contract this week with the Harlem Globetrotters.
   The Globetrotters have two traveling teams, and officials with the club did not know which team Diene would join.
   A&M-CC fans watched Diene get the Islanders program off the ground two years ago. He was part of the university's first men's basketball team in 1999-2000, which finished 13-13. A 6-foot-10 center, Diene averaged 1.2 points, 2.0 rebounds and a team-high 1.3 blocks last year, his final season of eligibility with A&M-CC.
   Islanders coach Ronnie Arrow, who was on a recruiting trip last season, said Diene will be an asset to the Globetrotters because of Diene's personality and playing ability.
   "This is a great opportunity for him," Arrow said. "He's a great kid who just kept getting better and better when he was with us."
   Diene was out of town Thursday visiting family and could not be reached for comment.
   The Globetrotters recently returned from a five-country tour through France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Portugal. The team is currently conducting summer youth basketball camps for kids from ages 6-15 in 15 cities in the United States. Nine cities remain on the Globetrotters camp tour. The team will be in Houston until today.
   Diene, a native of Senegal, began his collegiate career at the University of Texas-El Paso, where he was a walk-on for the Miners basketball program. He transferred to A&M-CC and sat out the 1998-99 season, a year that Arrow used to build his roster for the following season.
   As a junior, Diene scored 1.3 points, pulled down 2.3 rebounds and blocked 1.7 shots per game in 15 games. Before coming to the United States and enrolling at UTEP, Diene had never played organized basketball. He was a goalie for his high school soccer team.
   Diene will join a team with unmatched tradition.
   The Globetrotters played their first game in 1927. Since then, they have played more than 20,000 game, the only professional sports team to reach that milestone. The squad currently has a roster of 31 players. The Globetrotters typically tour from mid-December to mid-April and play in more than 75 cities across the world.
   The team has not released next year's tour schedule.
   The Globetrotters play against the New York Nationals. Their former competition, the Washington Generals, stopped playing in 1995.


, Contact Darrin Scheid at 886-3747 or scheidd@caller.com

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