Mark Pope didn’t spend a pretty penny to steal Mo Dioubate away from Nate Oats and the Alabama Crimson Tide because he shot 46.2 percent from three on low volume as a plug-and-play stretch four. When he fires away, you’re hopeful, not confident — but anything he gives you from the perimeter is icing on the cake compared to everything else he brings to the table as a basketball player.

The junior forward is averaging 12.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks — all career-highs — but the eye test tells you he’s far more valuable than anything a box score can. It’s the fight and hustle, his ability to do the punking rather than getting punked, something Pope’s Wildcats learned all too well last season.

You brought him in to do to Alabama what Alabama did to Kentucky three times in 2024-25.

Coming off a 21-point December loss to Arizona and a shaky 11-point home win over five-loss South Florida in which the Tide gave up 93 points, Oats was asked about his team’s toughness and how you fix some of those issues. His response? Well, you do what Coach Pope did in Lexington.

“Recruit a guy like Mo Dioubate in — you didn’t really have to coach him to be tough. He was tough. That’s who he is,” Oats said. “Certain coaches and teams always tend to be a little tougher, so there is definitely some coachability to it. If it’s one of those deals where you’re rating the toughness factor from zero to ten, I don’t think you’re taking a guy who starts at a one and moving him to a ten. You can move a guy who is a four or a five and get him to a seven or eight.

“Maybe you can take a guy who is an eight and move him up to a ten, but you’re not taking a guy who is inherently soft and making him the toughest dude on the court. You gotta have some fight and determination, toughness and some grit about you. As a coach, I can try to demand it, but you have to want to do it and it’s gotta be who you are.”

Alabama HC Nate Oats was discussing his current team’s “toughness” and how they need to improve on it over the next few weeks, then mentions (now) UK’s Mo Dioubate was tough.

“Recruit a guy like Mo Dioubate in and you didn’t really have to coach him to be tough. He was tough.” pic.twitter.com/a23NiATCCh

— Tres Terrell (@TerrellTres) December 18, 2025

In eight viewing opportunities with Dioubate on the floor — even in ranked losses to Louisville and Michigan State — not once has the word ‘soft’ crossed the mind. In fact, his presence was sorely missed in back-to-back losses vs. North Carolina and Gonzaga when effort and heart were seriously questioned with this group.

Then he returned against Indiana and St. John’s and helped flip the season around. That’s simply what the 6-7, 220-pound Swiss Army knife out of Queens does.

Did you know he’s also the biggest trash talker in the SEC?

Taking the podium at SEC Media Days in Birmingham back in October, a reporter asked Preseason First-Team All-SEC guard Labaron Philon to share his take on the league’s best trash talker entering the season.

It took him no time to pull out the obvious answer, someone he saw plenty during their time together in Tuscaloosa.

“The biggest trash talker? I’d say my former teammate Mo Dioubate, from all of our old practices,” he said.

Philon averaged 10.6 points, 3.8 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per contest as a freshman while Dioubate was a sophomore with the Tide, the latter adding 7.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.

Now, they’ll be facing off on the big stage when the Wildcats walk into Coleman Coliseum to open SEC play on Saturday, Kentucky certainly having its hands full with Philon emerging as a clear All-American candidate, averaging a team-high 21.9 points, 5.6 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals per outing.

“It’s gonna be fun,” Philon told KSR of taking on Dioubate. “They’re our first game after getting done with the non-conference and going into conference play. It’s gonna be really fun knowing how hard he competes and how much he loves the game. Just seeing him there, keeping in touch with him, it’s been a really big thing for me, because I like keeping in touch with all of my teammates.”

Philon went three for three against Kentucky last season, scoring 15 points with four rebounds and four assists in a 102-97 win in Lexington, followed by seven points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals in the 96-83 victory in Tuscaloosa to take the regular season sweep. He saved his best for last in the SEC Tournament, though, going for 21 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals in a 99-70 blowout.

What was the difference against the Wildcats last season?

“Coaching — Coach Oats really knows what he’s doing. Coaching and preparing,” Philon said. “They say it’s hard to beat a team twice, and three times is really, really hard. Each game we just had to focus. The first game, we played them at their crib, and it was a crazy environment, a packed-out game.

“They came to us and we got a chance to play them again, and we proved that we focus on every opponent and never overlook any game.”

The first rematch takes place on Saturday, January 3 at Noon ET, live on ESPN. Will Dioubate be the difference taking on his old friends?