{"id":774098,"date":"2026-06-30T01:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/774098\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T01:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:36:18","slug":"zoom-diallo-immediately-fit-right-in-at-dream-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/774098\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoom Diallo immediately fit right in at \u201cdream school\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">When <a href=\"https:\/\/ukathletics.com\/sports\/mbball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Kentucky Basketball<\/a> was coming so close to landing top high school recruits and transfers, but ultimately just missing out on them, Mark Pope and his staff needed a player like Zoom Diallo to get on the board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Diallo has referred to Kentucky as his \u201cdream school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cWhen I came on my visit, I came off the plane, and someone already knew my name,\u201d Diallo said at Thursday\u2019s media availability. \u201d[When I was growing up], I was a West Coast guy. I was waking up at nine a.m. in the morning to watch Tyrese Maxey, Hamidou Diallo, all of those types of dudes. I understand how much fans care about Kentucky Basketball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThe fact that I\u2019m even able to put on the jersey is such a blessing for me and a dream come true. Again, now that I\u2019m here, I really want to not take things for granted and definitely apply what I\u2019ve been working on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Fans knew Diallo\u2019s name because of how good a player he is. Having played two seasons at Washington, in the tough Big Ten Conference, Diallo is going to bring a high pedigree to Kentucky and make an impact in the SEC. This past season, Diallo averaged 15.7 points per game and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 48.9 percent from the field. That\u2019s after averaging 11.1 points and 2.7 assists per game as a Freshman while shooting 47.3 percent from the floor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For a fanbase who grew progressively upset with the construction of last year\u2019s roster, particularly at point guard, Diallo\u2019s arrival has reinvigorated them. Diallo, himself, feels it. He already fits in. In four months, we\u2019ll see how he fits in on the court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Diallo and the Cats need a big season for Mark Pope to stay off the hot seat after an uneven first two seasons. How good does it need to be?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">81% of Kentucky Reacts votes said that Kentucky needs to at least make the Sweet 16 for Pope to stay off the hot seat, while 13% said he just needs one NCAA Tournament win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Kentucky Basketball was coming so close to landing top high school recruits and transfers, but ultimately just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,244,231,772,1544],"class_list":["post-774098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-kentucky-wildcats-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116836498388854371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}