As he embarks on a professional career, Mamadi Diane has discovered a new mentor.

Fresh off a scintillating 23-point performance on Senior Day last Saturday, Mamadi Diane poured in a season-high 24 in the loss to Boston College on Thursday.

Seventy-five seconds into Saturday’s senior day game against rival Maryland, Dave Leitao spotted something that only coaches see and immediately felt good karma.

Diane hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 38 seconds left to lift the Cavaliers to a stunning 68-63 victory at John Paul Jones Arena.

While the Terrapins (18-11, 7-8) will be fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives, the Cavaliers will be playing out the string — with Diane on their minds.

Sportswriters aren’t supposed to pull for players they cover. We’re supposed to be unbiased, uncaring. We’re supposed to be the Switzerland of the sports world — neutral.

Mamadi Diane — whose last 3-pointer came against Old Dominion in the CBI last March — was glad to see the ball swish through the net.

If Virginia has much hope of proving prognosticators wrong and not finishing last in the ACC this season, it’s pretty obvious that, among a number of things, Mamadi Diane is going to have to rise from the dead.

For much of Wednesday night’s game against South Florida, very little of what Calvin Baker did on the court was very pretty or seemed to come easy.

For three years, Leitao and an army of UVa fans have been waiting for Diane to step up, take charge and not be afraid to fail.

At ACC Media Day on Sunday, Virginia — to nobody’s surprise — was picked to finish dead last (12th) in the conference.

Toward the end of practice on Saturday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena, Virginia coach Dave Leitao decided it was time to see what his players were really made of.

“We’re OK. We’re not 100 percent,“ Virginia coach Dave Leitao said.

Mamadi Diane says his injury is improving every day and he expects to be ready well before the official opening of the season in October.

On Wednesday, sources told The Daily Progress that UVa forward Mamadi Diane — the team’s leading returning scorer — recently underwent surgery on his left foot and is expected to be out of commission for at least a couple of months.