Wolves' Dieng, Gophers' Pitino have forged tight-knit relationship

MINNEAPOLIS -- It's halftime of the Gophers' third-round NIT game against Southern Mississippi, and Richard Pitino's bunch clings to a 44-40 lead. As the first-year coach saunters toward the Williams Arena home dressing room, he's stopped by a familiar, deep voice with a heavy African accent.

"Will you go away?" Pitino asks upon turning and facing the tall, imposing figure of Gorgui Dieng. The Timberwolves center, former Louisville player and longtime friend looks down at Pitino -- who barely reaches 6-foot-11 Dieng's chest -- and tells him which play to run against the Golden Eagles' zone defense.

"Leave me alone," Pitino says.

There's a comfort level here, the kind between mentor and apprentice turned tight-knit buddies. Pitino, a former Cardinals assistant under his father Rick Pitino, often asks Dieng to join him, his players and staff for dinner. Dieng often attends Gophers games and worked out at Minnesota's Bierman Field Athletic Building this summer. The two are constantly giving each other grief, usually via text or in person.

But today, Dieng is serious. Save for some extra muscle, he still looks like the freshman in college who didn't know what goaltending was. But his knowledge of the game has swelled like the rotund baobab trees that dot the landscape in his home country of Senegal.

On their first possession out of the break, the Gophers heed Dieng's unsolicited advice. Sophomore forward Joey King knocks down a jumper, and Minnesota goes on to win 81-73 en route to the NIT championship.

When King's shot falls through, Pitino snaps his neck around to Dieng, seated behind the Gophers' bench.

"How'd you like that play?" Pitino mouths. Dieng smiles, then laughs.

In a region that comprises the Senegal and neighboring country the Gambia rests an 11.5-square-mile plot of ancient stones grouped into round formations. The Senegambian Stone Circles date back to the third century B.C. and are regarded as a central burying place for separate villages, suggesting a linkage between independent tribes that still resonates today.

Originally settled by the French and Portuguese in the mid-15th century, Senegal claimed independence from France in 1960. Today, its population numbers more than 13 million in an area slightly smaller than South Dakota.

Gorgui Sy Dieng, his parents, his seven brothers and sisters and his countrymen and women understand the importance of personal bonds. Now 24, Dieng returned to his hometown of Kebemer this summer and held a basketball camp for local children.

Senegal, the westernmost nation in Africa, isn't currently as war-torn as some of the other areas on the continent. But much of it is impoverished. So Dieng provided the campers food, shoes gear and court time free of charge May 16-18.

It is from this same, arid town -- departments, as they're called in Senegal -- that Gorgui grew into an important piece of an NBA rotation.

He was first discovered at a Basketball Without Borders clinic. He then joined the Sports for Education and Economic Development (SEEDS) Academy in Senegal before spending a year at St. Joseph Prep in Huntington, W.Va.

Pitino was an assistant under his dad while fellow aide Walter McCarty (now a Boston Celtics assistant) recruited Dieng. Pitino left for a year to serve on Billy Donovan's Florida staff.

When he returned as Rick Pitino's associate head coach in 2011-12, he found a sophomore who'd added fluent English to his four other spoken languages and was well on his way to mastering a game whose basic tenets befuddled him a few short years prior.

"He made a pretty good jump, obviously, and it showed," Richard Pitino said. "We went to a Final Four, and he was a big part of it. He was coming into his own a little bit as one of the better big guys out there."

But Dieng needed help to get there. He learned the language by stepping out of his dorm room and into the Louisville community. He spent a lot of time at the Rick Pitino household, including Thanksgiving dinners while his teammates went home to see their families.

Senegal is 94 percent Muslim, according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency website. There's no Thanksgiving on the Islamic calendar the country follows. So turkey, football and video games on holidays weren't familiar to Dieng.

But the Pitinos provided him a family away from his biological one.

"I'd learn what Thanksgiving means and learned the whole culture about it," Dieng said. "They explained it to me. Every year, I'd just go there and spend the time with them."

Louisville reached the Final Four that season. Richard Pitino snagged the head coaching job at Florida International afterward, then took over for fired Tubby Smith in Dinkytown a year later.

Dieng, meanwhile, served as the enforcer on the Cardinals' 2013 national championship team and was drafted 21st overall later that summer. After a sluggish start to his pro career, he started 15 of Minnesota's final 18 contests, averaged a double-double during that span and gleaned all-rookie second-team honors.

All the while, he had a familiar confidant in his new home when he needed one.

"Richard's a good friend," Dieng said. "We make fun of each other. We text sometimes. Outside basketball, we talk about everything."

A pristine, stained-wood trophy case and an oversize desk with plays and notes scattered across it are the hallmarks of Pitino's Bierman Field Athletic Building office. The 2014 NIT trophy, trimmed-off Madison Square garden net draped over the top, graces the center of the trophy case. Behind the desk, separate framed photos of Richard and his wife, Jill, and his 3-year-old daughter, Ava stand out among the rest of Pitino's mementos.

Out the doors of the Gophers basketball office, to the right and up a flight of stairs resides the basketball team's primary workout facility. When he wasn't in Senegal for his camp, Las Vegas for summer league or Spain for the FIBA World Cup, Dieng was here, pumping iron and getting shots up.

Five days a week, sometimes six. He'd often spend the mornings working out with Gophers strength coach and conditioning coach Shaun Brown, then be at the Target Center by noon to get some one-on-one time with the Wolves staff.

Dieng focused on adding muscle to his 230-pound frame while maintaining his agility. He wants to be able to run the floor with Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and the rest of Minnesota's young contingent. Assistant Ryan Saunders, the son of coach and president Flip Saunders, also put Dieng through some rim-finishing drills this summer.

"I just want to get better any time I've got a chance," said Dieng, who lives about two minutes away from the Minnesota campus, according Pitino. "I think that was a good opportunity for me. Nobody was here. The coaches was focusing on me."

His progress showed at summer league, where he averaged 11.5 points and a team-best 10.2 rebounds per game. Dieng then established himself as his country's best player at the FIBA World Cup, averaging 16 points and 10.7 rebounds per game as Senegal advanced to the knockout round.

Consequently, Dieng came to camp more confident, chiseled and vocal than he was before. He even complains about fouls more, acting far less sheepish in practice than he did as a rookie, according to Flip Saunders.

"The one thing that may be different," said center Ronny Turiaf, another close friend of Dieng's, "is now you can see the comfort level from where he's talking a little more on defense -- the same thing that last year I was trying to tell him, because when he does that, he's becoming more alert and making everybody else alert."

Said Saunders: "(Dieng) had a very good, developmental summer. . . . He had . . . a smorgasbord of everything."

Including a consistent, accessible workout spot courtesy of his old friend. Dieng stopped by Pitino's office almost daily this summer. Sometimes, he'd get there before the coach and park his car in Pitino's designated space.

Despite such playful antics, he's a good person and a good role model to have around the program, Pitino said. He'll have Dieng speak with his players when they're around, and any time there's a team meal outing on the docket, Dieng is usually invited.

"He's just such an easy guy to be around," Pitino said. "He's funny, he's got a good personality, he's got a good way about him."

Pitino sits in the first row behind the Bresna Arena baseline and scribbles in his mental notebook. Saunders meticulously walks two scrimmage teams through the particulars of defending the pick-and-roll.

Later, the Gophers' second-year head man will receive play sheets from a member of Saunders' staff. He'll use drills observed here at Timberwolves training camp in Mankato when his team begins its own practices.

The relationship between Minnesota's college and professional basketball teams extends well beyond Pitino and Dieng.

For one, Saunders is a former Gopher himself. So is Ryan. So Flip allows Pitino to swing by workouts or pick his brain whenever he wants, a convenient boon for a 32-year-old entering his third year as a head coach. He's of course always had his dad as a tutor, but some exposure to the game's highest level is a nice addition to Pitino's coaching repertoire.

Having guys like Dieng at games and practices is good for recruiting. So is the presence of pro scouts in town when the Wolves host their NBA teams, as well as the opportunity for athletes to attend a host of professional sporting events while they're in college.

"He's got great pride in the University of Minnesota as well as the state, because he's from here and he's been here," Pitino said of Saunders. "I probably get a lot more out of it than he does, but I appreciate it, certainly."

Not so, Saunders said.

"I think it's good for everybody," Saunders said. "We can talk to them and they can tell us about guys in the drafts that are coming out. We can get some intel from them, and they can pick things up (from us)."

Dieng and Pitino's relationship forges tangible benefits for both sides, too. But it's just as much about mutual respect, admiration and a pair of careers the two are choosing to keep intertwined.

"This game is all about relationships," Pitino said. "Gorgui is a guy that I've always been extremely close with, and now that he's here, that's an added bonus, certainly."

For Dieng, Pitino's presence makes him feel more at home. His parents and siblings are all back in Senegal, though his mother comes to the States from time to time.

"I feel comfortable talking to him, and I know he got my back," Dieng said of Pitino. "No matter what happens, he going to be there for me."

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