Dinamo Sassari, Ousmane Diop doesn’t hold back on Piero Bucchi

Former Torino man doesn’t hold back on Piero Bucchi

Dinamo Sassari’s Senegalese center Ousmane Diop is in his first year in Italy’s top basketball league, after loans to Cagliari and Turin, and more importantly, he is in his first season under coach Piero Bucchi. In an interview with ‘TuttoSport’ the class of 2000 spoke precisely about the coach from Bologna.

“He is a real man, who tells you things as they are, to your face. That pleases me. If he thinks you are not making an effort, he tells you, but he does the same even when you are doing well. Humanly he is an incredible person and as a coach you don’t need to introduce him,” said the center, spending beautiful words for Bucchi.

The current season for Diop is also his first in the big leagues: “I feel comfortable, the level of basketball is different than in A2, but I’ve been here for two years now, I’m learning every day. Every now and then you make mistakes, but you have to move on. The first few months of last year I suffered a little because of the level. This year I am much calmer mentally as well.”

Finally, a judgment on the city of Sassari and life in Sardinia: “The society is a family, not like in other places. It never happened to me. And the thing I like the most is the people. From Turin to here at the beginning I suffered a little from fewer opportunities than in the big city. But I soon settled in, found friends. Then after the winter you can do many things outdoors. I love the sea, it’s close here, and I used to live in Senegal five minutes’ walk from the sea, on the fishermen’s side. I am a sea boy.”