Curtis guards Diallo, Paulsen have Vikings in the mix for 4A state championship
Tyce Paulsen and Vazoumana ‘Zoom’ Diallo grew up going to Curtis High School basketball games, rushing onto the court at halftime to get some shots up, dreaming of one day donning Vikings’ jerseys of their own.
After patiently watching their siblings go through the program, it’s their turn, and this looks like the most promising season yet in their young high school careers. Paulsen is a junior guard, Diallo a sophomore guard. Their play is a major reason why the Vikings are 8-2 overall, 4-0 in the 4A South Puget Sound League and among the state’s top 4A programs.
Paulsen’s two older brothers, Jase and Zack, both played for Curtis. Jase now plays basketball at Northwest University in Kirkland, while Zack plays for Seattle Pacific. And Diallo’s older brother, Sindou, also played for the Vikings. He’s now a senior playing for Montana Tech was named an honorable mention NAIA All-American in the 2019-20 season.
“It was probably like eight years of watching my brothers play for Curtis,” said Tyce Paulsen, now a junior guard for the Vikings.
Zoom is five years younger than Sindou, so their relationship was more mentor-mentee than competitive.
“I was like a proud little brother,” Zoom Diallo said. “I looked up to him, most definitely. When he went to the gym, I went to the gym. It was just the fact of seeing him play high school basketball at a winning program at Curtis, I was like ‘Dang, I want to be like that.’ Seeing how he flourished and he played the right way.”
Sindou Diallo always tried to set a positive example for his younger brother, knowing he was latching onto his every word and striving to be like him.
“It’s been fun,” Sindou said. “Very exciting. He’s been in the gym since he was as small as he could be. He’s just been dedicated. There’s guys out there, they go hang out with their friends on the weekends or whatever. He’d just stay in the gym, come home and sleep, then repeat the process. He has that mindset and determination.
“I’m so happy for him. Everything happens because of God and what you allow God to help you do. It goes back to the determination aspect. Whatever he wants to do, he can do it. I’m just proud.”
That obsessive work ethic, combined with a silky smooth game, has made the 6-foot-3 sophomore guard a coveted recruit early in his high school career. Already, he holds offers from UW and WSU. Whereas Sindou was a bit of a late bloomer at Curtis — he was the sixth-man as a junior and didn’t start until his senior year — Zoom is already playing at a high level. He’s averaging 17.3 points for the Vikings this season and shooting 55 percent from the field.
“He’s a lot better skilled basketball player,” said Curtis coach Tim Kelly. “He’s very collected, he’s always under control. When he gets into the lane, he’s not going a million miles an hour. He’s become a better shooter since last year, and he’ll only get better. It just makes him that much harder to guard, because he can get to the hole whenever he wants, basically.”
He’s grown vocally, too.
“Leading my teammates, being more assertive, finding my teammates,” Diallo said. “I can do anything on the floor. I can come out, triple-double, whatever my team needs me to do.”
Diallo also leads the team with 47 assists. Often, he’s looking to Paulsen, who is one of the area’s best perimeter shooters.
“That boy got a sniper,” Diallo said, laughing. “That boy is a shooter right there. He brings a lot to the table. He knows what it’s like to be at curtis. He turns it up and lets us know when to turn our game on, for sure.”
He’s already a better shooter than Zack, his most recent brother to come through the Curtis program. While Tyce plays more nonchalantly, Zack played with more of a warrior mindset and made his living getting to the rim.
“He looks like he’s not playing hard sometimes,” Tim Kelly said of Tyce. “I don’t know if it’s just his body language or just how he is. But he does have it in different ways. He’ll talk smack to people. Zack didn’t really do that. He has it in that manner but you don’t see it in some of the other things. He’s very skilled, too. Good passer. Zack would just take over on the defensive end.”
Zack has tuned into nearly every Curtis game on live streams. He said if you gave him a list of things to do, watching his little brother and his teammates play games would be at the top.
“Just watching (Tyce) out on that court is so fun,” Zack Paulsen said. “I know he’s so good. The way he plays and the way he moves is not normal. And then Zoom has grown into this man. Just a 15-year-old man. He’s going to be so fun to watch. They were babies playing together. It’s really cool to see what they’re doing.”
Tyce Paulsen, who holds offers from Portland, Pepperdine and others, is averaging 13 points a game for the Vikings and knocked down the game-sealing 3-pointer on Wednesday night against Sumner to keep Curtis perfect in league play. From all the years watching his brothers play, he learned toughness.
“Nothing comes to you,” he said. “You have to work for everything. They taught me how to be mature. Just watching them grow, it really just helped a lot.”
When they were little kids watching their brothers play, Paulsen and Diallo told each other that they were going to a win a state championship one day at Curtis together. They’ll have a shot, looking like a team with a good chance to make it to the Tacoma Dome in March, at the very least. It’s not just the two of them, either. Junior Cinque Maxwell is actually the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 16.4 points per game. Devin Whitten averages 9.6 points and Trent Williams averages 9.3.
“We have other good players,” Kelly said. “Cinque is really good. Devin is a really good shooter. They all get along. We joke, we call (Paulsen and Diallo) the ‘five-star guys.’ But they don’t act like that. They’re just like everyone else. They don’t think they’re special or anything.”
They don’t want special treatment, just a special moment, lifting a trophy at the 4A state tournament before they graduate and move on to the next chapter.
“We’re very close,” Diallo said. “We just need to lock in.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
