University of Minnesota coach Richard Pitino can remember the first time he watched the big man play.
Bakary Konate, now a freshman for the Gophers, was in Kansas then — at Sunrise Christian Academy, a world away from where he grew up in Mali. Coming from Africa, Konate was still raw. There were many questions about his potential to integrate into American culture and to the American game that couldn't yet be answered.
Still, Pitino saw the promise and handed over a scholarship.
A project, the coach thought.
Just six months later, the coach has another, very different thought when he watches the 6-11 freshman practice:
"OK, I need to figure out how to play him," Pitino said at his news conference Friday, which marked the official start of fall practices.
With the season quickly approaching, Konate has established himself as a major asset rather than a slow, long-term venture. The problem is that he sits third in the depth chart at center, behind seniors Elliott Eliason and Mo Walker.
The solution? Perhaps to play the freshman at power forward instead, Pitino said on Friday. "We've got to try to make it work," he said.
The first big test of that experiment came after the news conference, when Pitino inserted Konate at power forward on the first team in practice. Konate played at power forward a couple of times over the summer, but Pitino only ran about 10 percent of the plays he plans to use this fall during that time, he said.
The biggest challenges for Konate would be keeping up with and guarding smaller opponents at power forward, and coming off ball screens.
For Pitino, it likely would mean changing his game plan a little bit — perhaps having Konate roll off ball screens toward the basket rather than popping to the perimeter as Joey King and Oto Osenieks did last season.
"That's my job, to tinker with that a little bit," Pitino said.
If the coach decides he wants to try such a configuration when the regular season starts, the Gophers would boast a dramatically different look than a year ago, when pick-and-pop power forwards King and Osenieks platooned. This year was expected to be more of the same, with athletic 6-8 freshman Josh Martin joining the team. At 6-11, Konate would be taller than Walker, who could start at center, and would form a larger lineup — the Twin Towers look many Gophers fans hoped to see last season.
There are still six weeks before the first game — against Louisville in Puerto Rico — for Pitino to decide whether his vision will work in reality.
In the meantime, Pitino has commended Konate's quick integration to both the culture and the flow of American collegiate basketball. While the Gophers' other international recruit, Gaston Diedhiou (from Senegal originally) was denied admissions at the university, Konate — after one prep year in Kansas — appears to be adjusting smoothly.
When Timberwolves center and Pitino's former player at Louisville Gorgui Dieng visited campus over the summer, he and the coach laughed at Konate's quick development.
"Bakary's ahead of where I was [as a freshman]," Dieng told Pitino then.
According to Pitino, who has now worked with both, Konate is "just as skilled, if not more skilled" than Dieng, while moving down the court better than the second-year NBA player.
"His feel is pretty good and his comprehension is pretty good," Pitino said of Konate. "Sometimes he surprises me. I haven't really seen [the transition part] yet. He seems to be acclimating very well."
