After potentially becoming John Calipari’s first none-and-done player, freshman guard Hamidou Diallo has decided to return to Kentucky for his first official season.
Diallo had until Wednesday night’s deadline to withdraw his name from the NBA draft, and according to multiple reports, decided to return to Lexington after being told that he’d likely wind up as a late first-rounder.
Let's Chase Championship #9 BBN!! pic.twitter.com/9Zyd9cPUom
— Hamidou Diallo (@hamidoudiallo) May 25, 2017
Diallo enrolled early in January and was eligible to play the second half of the season, but John Calipari opted to keep him on the sidelines.
He is ranked as the top shooting guard in the 2017 recruiting class.
Lovell’s Analysis:
I said in my early SEC observations piece last week that I thought the Wildcats could run into some early frustrations this season.
The reasoning was that they seemed to lack a dominant go-to scorer in the backcourt. Of course, that was because myself and many other people believed that Diallo would stay in the draft.
But now? This team has all the pieces you need to win a national championship.
Let’s take a quick glance at Kentucky’s top players heading into the season (rankings via 247Sports.com):
- Hamidou Diallo (5-star guard, 9th in 2017 class)
- Kevin Knox (5-star forward, 10th in 2017 class)
- Jarred Vanderbilt (5-star forward, 11th in 2017 class)
- P.J. Washington (5-star forward, 14th in 2017 class)
- Nick Richards (5-star center, 17th in 2017 class)
- Quade Green (5-star guard, 24th in 2017 class)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (4-star guard, 29th in 2017 class)
- Jemarl Baker (4-star guard, 70th in 2017 class)
- Wenyen Gabriel (5-star sophomore forward, 14th in 2016 class)
- Sacha Killeya-Jones (5-star sophomore forward, 25th in 2016 class)
For those keeping score at home, the Wildcats will boast a roster of eight former 5-star players.
Not everyone buys into the star rating system, but no one can deny that this team is incredibly deep at every position. Several of these guys can play multiple positions, and that’ll give Calipari a lot of flexibility throughout the season.
Diallo’s return is surprising in the sense that he wowed many people at the NBA Combine with his incredible athletic ability.
He had a ridiculous 44 1/2-inch vertical – the second-highest ever recorded at the combine – which left plenty of scouts in awe of his possibilities at the next level.
But Diallo’s all-around game is what elevates Kentucky to being the potential preseason No. 1 team in the country. He will attack the rim with fury on a regular basis, and his jump shot should continue to progress as the season goes along.
If his outside jump shot becomes consistent, it’s hard to see anyone stopping him.
Kentucky’s success will depend on how quickly all the pieces fit in place, which is usually the case each season when Calipari revamps the roster with a new batch of young talent.
However, at this point, I’d have a tough time going with anyone else at the top spot.
The amount of talent that this team has at every position is just something that’s hard to overlook.