Belmont's Dia to enter transfer portal
MBB: The Bruin big man will also look into entering the NBA Draft
Belmont’s Malik Dia is planning to enter the transfer portal, joining teammate Ja’Kobi Gillespie. Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits on X/Twitter) is also reporting that Dia will test out the NBA Draft waters this spring.
After playing his playing his freshman season at Vanderbilt, Dia transferred across town to Belmont before last season. The 6’9 forward averaged 16.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game for the Bruins while playing just 23.1 minutes a night. Dia earned 3rd Team-All Missouri Valley Conference honors this season.
Against Murray State, Dia scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds in Belmont’s 83-61 in Murray on February 28th.
Dia had one of the highest usage rates in the country this season. According to KenPom.com, Dia was #1 in the country in possessions used with 37.3%. This stat quantifies the number of times a player makes a shot, misses a shot that the defense rebounds, or how often turns it over. He was also #2 nationally in percentage of shots, which showed when he was on the floor, Dia took 38.9% of Belmont’s field goal attempts.
With Dia and Gillespie entering the transfer portal, and senior guard Keishawn Davidson graduating, the Bruins have now lost three of their top four scorers from this past season.
So are these players looking to move up to bigger schools and conferences like SEC, Big Ten where there is more NIL money and exposure? Do the Racers have any chance or interest in landing any of them?
Dia sure would be a nice get for us…