Mamadi Diakite missing Virginia Basketball season opener

UVA announced late Tuesday that redshirt freshman forward Mamadi Diakite will sit out the team’s season opener at UNC Greensboro next Friday (Nov. 11).

In a prepared release, the school said that a joint evaluation of Diakite’s amateur status, which took place last fall by both the school and the NCAA, is the reason for his absence.

No further details were given as to the specifics of the findings. Diakite, a native of Guinea in western Africa, will not be the only ACC player to miss time this year. Omer Yurtseven, a heralded NC State recruit, was recently suspended for the first nine games of the season by the NCAA for receiving money while playing for a team in his home country of Turkey.

A September 2015 VirginiaSports.com profile on Diakite, who redshirted last season after graduating from the nearby Blue Ridge School indicated that he had been cleared by the NCAA at that time.

Diakite is the second Virginia player to miss out on opening night; Austin Nichols was suspended one game last Friday for breaking team rules.