Thioune making immediate impact for Coyotes

Lahat Thioune is from Dakar, Senegal, and hasn’t seen his family in five years. He couldn’t speak English when he got to the U.S., something that complicated all the other hardships that go with a quest to play college basketball and get a degree.

Those circumstances would send many to seek out the quiet corners of life whenever possible. But that’s not Thioune, a 6-10 power forward and the lone senior on the Coyote men’s basketball team. He quickly overcame the language and culture barriers with his personality intact.

“His teammates call him ‘Grandpa Hat’ or just ‘Hat’,” USD coach Eric Peterson said. “It’s a reference to being a little older than a lot of his teammates. He’s a great young man. Very mature. He cares about his studies and he cares deeply for his teammates… Anyone who would spend some time talking to him will feel better about life afterward.”

A 15-minute conversation with Thioune, who began his college career at Utah, confirms that. He loves life. He laughs, he tells stories about those early hardships and he appreciates what people have done for him.

In other words, this is a great teammate.

“Being part of this team is easy because I’ve been a lot of different places and met a lot of different people,” he said. “You learn to understand people. When I first got here everybody was chill. Just a lot of good and positive people. Being the oldest guy on the team, I want to help all of them as much as I can.”

Thouine spent four years playing at Utah with the first year as a redshirt. He then transferred to Central Florida for one season and then transferred to USD in 2023-24 for his last year of eligibility. 

His decision to come to Vermillion marked a reunion with Peterson. The second-year coach, who was former USD head coach Craig Smith’s assistant at Utah, was in charge of working with the Ute big men and had built up a strong rapport with Thioune. 

Peterson felt Thioune could help the Coyotes. The international studies major has since done that in a big way as the team’s leading rebounder (10.2 per game) while averaging 13.3 points.

When Thioune signed with Utah in 2018, Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak (he was replaced by Smith in the spring of 2021) said of him: “Lahat has a motor and upside that we are excited to coach, but more importantly, he’s a phenomenal young man with a great attitude that our fans and community will enjoy.”

The positive attitude has been a valuable part of a tough recent stretch for the team. As the program’s lone senior, it’s vital to be able to share what you know about dealing with the grind.

“He’s been through the battles,” Peterson said. “He has been a part of a big-time program with Utah and he knows what it is all about. He plays very hard – he definitely has the GATA mentality.”

“GATA” is an acronym first heard at USD when Smith was the head coach. Without getting terribly specific, it refers to playing intensely with as much aggressiveness as the rules permit. When your most experienced player has those traits, it can help a young team like the Coyotes.

“Sometimes adversity hits and you just have to find a way to keep getting better,” Thioune said. “In good days and bad you have to come back the next day and get to work. You have to stay positive. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. Be the same person and do what you need to do to get better.”

Dakar, Senegal, is a port city of more than a million people in West Africa. It was the starting point for a lot of soccer players according to the city’s Wikipedia page and has also become a good place to learn to play basketball. For Thioune, the starting point was age 13 for Flying Stars Academy, a program in Dakar that continues to send players to the U.S.

By age 16 he left Senegal to play high school basketball in the United States for Florida Prep, a boarding school in Melbourne, Fla. Soon after, just as he’d hoped, he was being recruited by Division I programs.

It hasn’t been easy all the time. His account of his first day in the United States brings that out.

He was first introduced to this country at the Denver airport and Thioune did not know the person who was going to pick him up or what he would look like. He also did not know where he would meet this person or persons.

As anyone who has been there can attest, the Denver airport can be an intimidating place even for English speaking people who make regular visits.

“I was at the airport for two hours trying to find the guy,” Thioune said. “I didn’t know where to go. I saw signs but I couldn’t read the signs because everything was in English. So I couldn’t read it and I couldn’t talk to people. I took some English classes in high school but it was nothing like trying to understand it with actual people speaking it. I finally found who I was supposed to meet through a series of phone calls. I remember them walking toward me. I’ll never forget that. I was unbelievably happy.”

Then came his first tournament with new teammates. 

“I wasn’t in the United States 24 hours and I was already playing in an AAU tournament,” he said. “I liked my teammates but when they started talking, I had no idea what they were talking about. But the great thing was that I got to go to high school three weeks later and I started learning. I had to be patient with myself and just try to figure it out a little bit at a time. I took extra classes where I learned grammar and vocabulary and things like that. Just the basics.

“It took a while but eventually I was able to communicate and get my school work done,” he continued. “A few months later I was watching movies and reading. It was a struggle but it paid off.”

Senegal rarely gets above 90 degrees or below 65 so the recent cold spell with daytime temps below zero made things interesting. During his time in Utah, it got cold once in a while but nothing like last week in Eastern South Dakota. His experience with the weather in Dakar and Florida, of course, were no help at all.

“When I go outside, I run straight to the gym,” Thioune said. “It’s crazy here. I’d never been around places that were as cold as this. I don’t go outside unless I have to, and when I get back I turn the heater up right away so it gets warm. I don’t mess with the cold. In Senegal they’ll say “Today is super cold,” but no, I can tell them it’s not super-cold. It’s not cold like it is here.”

After this season he will be exploring his options as a professional player, though he is not taking a career in basketball for granted. The sport has been a huge priority since he was a youngster and he has proven he is willing to pay a price to continue to play it.

“For me, my goal is to be a pro,” Thioune said. “But wherever God takes me, I’ll know he put me there for a reason. I’ve had to be away my family for a long time and I really miss them, so I’ve had to make some sacrifices. I have faith that one day I’m going to be able to look back and say it was all worth it. It was worth it for me and it was worth it for them.”