Rainbows
land Tidian

Salt Lake Community College will be sending its third player in seven years to the Hawaii basketball program.

Ahmet Tidiane, a 6-foot-8, 225-pound sophomore power forward from Dakar, Senegal, has verbally committed to the Rainbow Warriors for the 2005-2006 season. Tidiane averaged 7.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 14 minutes for the Bruins last season.

He will join former Rainbow Troy Ostler (1999-2001) and current Rainbow Jeff Blackett as players who have come out of coach Norm Parrish's successful junior college program.

"He's a great kid with a really, really good upside," Parrish said on the telephone last night. "He loves to run and is very strong. He's humble and hard-working.

"Unlike Troy, who was really skilled and a finished product, Ahmet was really raw when he came to us. But, by the second half, he had a better understanding of what he needed to do. He jumps well and has a lot of God-given timing. He has a lot of potential and he's still learning. The people there (in Hawaii) are really going to like him."

The first official day to commit during the early signing period is Nov. 10. Hawaii has five scholarships to give for next season and head coach Riley Wallace has said he'd like to sign at least two players during the early period.

The UH coaching staff is prohibited by NCAA rules to discuss recruits.

Tidiane had 27 blocks for the Bruins and some high-scoring games. He scored 29 points against North Idaho College last season, a team which featured UH incoming junior forward Matthew Gipson.

"Ahmet will start at either the '4' or the '5' for us this year," Parrish said. "Last year, he wasn't a focal point for us but we've told him that he'll have to be better offensively this year. He'll have more of an offensive role for us.

"He's so dedicated to getting better. He's the type of kid you only have to tell him to do something once and he does it."

Parrish gave Ahmet's free-throwing shooting as an example. Ahmet finished at 53 percent "but he was probably at 40 percent for most of the season," said Parrish. "He kept working on it and, probably in his last 10 games, he was close to 85 percent."

Ahmet spoke no English when he came to SLCC but Parrish said the player speaks English very well, although with a French accent, courtesy of a teammate who is from Cameroon.

Ahmet visited Hawaii last month. He also visited Montana, Utah, Utah State and Boise State.

"Ahmet is a smart kid but pretty naive," Parrish said. "I was involved in the sense that I helped him narrow it down to the schools he should visit. There were a ton of schools who came in on him this summer.

"I pretty much stayed out of it after that, telling him to take his visits and enjoy it. He came back, telling me he liked Hawaii for all the reasons that I thought he would. Good program. Good coaches. Good quality kids. He'll be a good fit."