🏀 KuBuckets Archive

http://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/kentuckys-hamidou-diallo-declares-for-nba-draft-without-ever-playing-in-college/ ↗

Our fears about Malik Newman have become a reality for Kentucky. I sincerely hope KU doesn't run into something similar down the road.

I really like the idea of grabbing top transfers and coaching them up for a year before throwing them to the wolves. It really gave McLemore a chance to shine. I believe that will be the case with Newman as well.

Transfers can't play so there is no playing time conundrum. The quality of the roster can be much better from top to bottom without dissent due to lack of playing time. Practices must be very intense with that much talent on the scout team. It sure beats going against legacy coach walk-ons as much as we love them!

@dylans ben Mac was a transfer?

I'm guessing you mean being ineligible?

@dylans I don't see it as the same. Or even a big deal. They landed a top-10 player mid-season while they had an open scholarship anyways. If he comes back, they landed a stud 5-star that has been in the system and playing college ball for 9 months before he even steps on the court. If he leaves, they are in the same place they would have been.

Newman is different. He would have taken a spot for an entire 12 months and he would have impacted recruiting.

Newman kept his word. The key is Diallo hasn't hired an agent, so Diallo could be right back at Kentucky next year. Maybe Diallo wants an honest assessment from the NBA on the skills he can improve on. If he had hired an agent, I would feel different, but just declaring for the draft doesn't mean anything yet.

@KUSTEVE wonder if cal wants him back?

I seem to recall posting at the time Diallo went to Kentucky that he would likely not play a single game for them. Not a bad way to get a paid for high end training camp for the NBA...I bet Cal is feeling a little bit used for a change.

@Crimsonorblue22 Considering Bam declared for the draft today, which makes 8 Mildcats declaring, I think the answer would be yes.

@KUSTEVE

Adebayo has not hired an agent so there is a chance he will be back. I have seen him as a late first round in some of the mock drafts,

@JayHawkFanToo Reports coming out that he is hiring an agent actually. Not official, but hes apparently meeting with them now.

@Kcmatt7

You are correct, here is an update dated today. ↗ Pretty risky move considering he currently is projected to be drafted bottom of first round; if he drops to the second round, no guaranteed contract.

Cal will always advise his players to declare and test the waters. That's just his personal philosophy and have no issue with that philosophy.

Cal does a good job of preparing players for the NBA. If Diallo goes to UK and practices for a year and then gets picked in the first round of the NBA draft, that would be the second player to go to UK under Cal, not play a single game, and still get drafted (Kanter being the other). If you're a high level recruit, that's a huge deal because that would signal that Kentucky practices are better preparation for the NBA than playing at most other schools.

Of course, it helps that UK has enough NBA caliber athletes on their roster to make those practices competitive on that level, but that's all the more reason to be convinced if you're a high recruit. I would love to watch a Kentucky practice to see how Cal runs their practices because their guys come out ready to play in the NBA almost right from the very beginning.

Kentucky's reputation is for getting top talent, not developing players. The NBA has to look at Kentucky because that's where all the studs are at. It's like overlooking all the talent on the Texas or Miami football teams because the product on the field sucked last year. Those players will still get drafted based upon raw talent. The difference is Cal actually gets them to play well in college too.

@dylans

I agree. Since Cal got to UK, it has had the one of the top 3 classes just about every year. Yes, he has done relatively well but it has only one National Championship, same as KU, and when you consider all the talent he has had, you could say UK has under performed. UK is the men's equivalent of UConn in women, except UConn women has won a ton of titles.

@JayHawkFanToo KU has underperformed? Or UK?

@mayjay

LOL.. do I blame it on auto correct, not enough coffee or just old age?...hmmmm....

@JayHawkFanToo Imagine how good men's basketball would be if there was no reason to leave early, like women's ball.

@dylans I often say the opposite. Imagine how less dominant UConn women would be if they had a reason to leave early.

@approxinfinity I was thinking that UK basically gets a new roster of 5 star players every year. If those spots were not open then those players would have to spread out to more teams. There could be 4 super teams instead of 1 based on the number of scholarships or a great number of teams could end up with a star.

Then as an added bonus you could see a Sr. Josh Jackson dominating those young, gonna take over the world stars.

On the flip side if there were real money in the WNBA and a reason to leave early maybe more girls would get good at basketball? I still feel like there is more room for improvement in the women's game than the men's game. I don't feel as though we've seen the peak yet.

@dylans

Maybe this is one of the reasons... ↗

@JayHawkFanToo That's why my wife doesn't have very many girl friends. (Not that she's in the WNBA)

I heard the transfers can play in Italy via Bedore

Crimsonorblue22 said:

I heard the transfers can play in Italy via Bedore

That is awesome

Yeah it will be fun to see how they perform. Hopefully, we can find a stream of some sort. Hell I'd even be fine with a radio broadcast.