Cats Taking Additional Steps to Get Better
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Just as Kentucky head coach John Calipari is always looking for ways that his team can get better, his players are also trying to find ways in which they, individually, can reach new levels.
For some, like new Wildcat Hamidou Diallo, it involves reclassifying in the middle of the school year to go from the high school level to the biggest stage in all of college basketball.
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| Kentucky vs. Auburn | ||
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Tue., Jan. 14 – 4 p.m. ET |
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| Coverage | ||
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | 2016-17 Team Stats | AU |
| 14-2 | Record | 11-5 |
| 4-0 | Conference Record | 1-3 |
| 93.8 | PPG | 79.2 |
| 71.7 | Opp PPG | 75.0 |
| .491 | FG% | .423 |
| .403 | Opp FG% | .411 |
| 41.8 | RPG | 37.6 |
| .342 | 3PT FG% | .344 |
| .295 | Opp 3PT FG% | .316 |
| .697 | FT% | .689 |
| 18.1 | APG | 12.9 |
| 6.8 | SPG | 7.9 |
| 6.2 | BPG | 5.4 |
“This is great for him,” Calipari said. “He’s going to get to work out all the stuff that he needs personally – we can be about. You can focus on what he needs. Then kind of shove him into this stuff, let him get a feel for it and go for it.”
Diallo, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard out of Queens, New York, will certainly have an adjustment period on his hands. Like any student going from high school to college – athlete or not – Diallo is getting used to living in a new city, finding out where his classes are and getting used to college classwork.
In regards to basketball, Diallo will be getting used to a college-level strength and conditioning program, he’ll be meeting his teammates and getting used to their tendencies on and off the court, he’ll learn what the coaching staff wants from him and he will compete against the speed, physicality and skill level present at Kentucky.
“It’s his first time,” Calipari said. “He’s probably anxious and nervous. I gave him a couple of things that we’re doing so that when we go up and down he can play those things and we can go against him. What I would imagine is that he’ll look a little lost.”
His new teammates can only imagine what he’s going through.
“It would have been extremely difficult for me,” UK guard De’Aaron Fox said. “I didn’t really struggle at the beginning, but I think in the middle of the season when everybody is starting to try to hit their peaks and you’re just coming in – you’re at the bottom of the barrel, you don’t really know what’s going on – I think it’s extremely difficult coming in midseason like that.”
When Fox and Diallo compete against each other in practice it won’t mark their first time. The two athletic guards became familiar with each other’s games prior to Kentucky, where Fox said Diallo’s physicality, size and strength allowed him to get to the basket at will.
“If you’re in the way when he’s on his way to the basket you’re most likely going to get dunked on,” Fox said.
In college, that may not be as easy of a task, but his style of play will nonetheless help each of the Wildcat guards in practice. Make no mistake, it’ll help Diallo as well.
“He’s going to make us better and we’re going to make him better,” Fox said. “Like I said, he’s a combination of speed and power. Just something that not too many people have. At a wing spot, it’s going to help us (with) him guarding me, Malik (Monk) and Isaiah (Briscoe), just switching off of all of us, and then us guarding him as well. It’s going to make us all better.”
Fox is another Wildcat putting in the time to get better. Whether it be arriving to practices early or staying late, the four-time Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week recipient has worked on his jumper and has seen the rewards of that work in games.
Over his past two games, Fox scored a career-high 27 points and hit 10-of-16 shots against Arkansas, and then had 22 points on 11-of-17 shooting against Vanderbilt. Those games mark his two highest shooting percentages of the season in games in which he’s attempted at least 10 shots.
“It’s just something that’ll help my game,” Fox said of his improved percentages on jumpers. “If I’m making the midrange and they start stepping up I can just hesitate and blow by anybody. It’s just going to help my game completely.”
Calipari said a big part of Fox’s improvement is being ready for his shots. Similar to Monk early in the season, not getting under his shot and being too casual, Fox too has had to adjust and work on his shot to find more consistency. For Fox, instead of “tip-toe” shooting, he has been working on staying in good position with his feet and hands to catch the ball and “explode” into his shot.
“De’Aaron Fox, you can say it’s not the workouts that did it, but what was it?” Calipari said. “‘Well, the stars and the moon kind of crossed a certain way and the light hit me and it just changed me.’ Oh, OK. It’s not the work.
“So, you know, what we do is hard. What they have to do is hard because of what they are up against in every game we play. But, he has been great. He is shooting 62 percent the last three games. Couldn’t make a shot. He was 1 for 16. Now, it’s got to be something. It isn’t because he ate his Cheerios. There is something that has happened between where he was and what he is doing now, and I believe it is getting here early, spending more time, coming back at night.”
No. 6/6 Kentucky (14-2, 4-0 SEC) will work to take its next step forward as a team when it faces Auburn (11-5, 1-3 SEC) on Saturday at Rupp Arena at 4 p.m. ET.
After losing its first three conference games, Auburn enters Saturday’s game coming off a road win over Missouri on Tuesday. The Tigers have been led by freshman guards Mustapha Heron and Jared Harper, who lead them in scoring, rebounding and assists.
“They’re good,” Coach Cal said. “They’ve beaten teams like Oklahoma. They lost to Georgia; had them down 16. They lost to Mississippi; had them down 15 or 16 and lost. They’ve been up big. They play active and they’re aggressive. It’s going to be a hard game. We lost to them last year, had to watch that game again and wanted to throw up.”
2017 Shooting Guard Hamidou Diallo Joins Wildcats for Spring Semester
Hamidou Diallo, widely considered the top shooting guard in the class of 2017, has signed a financial aid agreement with the Kentucky men’s basketball team and is enrolled in classes. He began his first semester at the University of Kentucky on Wednesday for the spring term after graduating in May from the Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut.
Diallo (pronounced ha-MUH-do DEE-ah-lo), a top-10 prospect in the 2017 class, is expected to practice with the team this semester and begin game competition in the 2017-18 season, though he is eligible to play in games immediately.
Diallo is the fifth prospect to sign with Kentucky out of the 2017 class, joining five-star signees Quade Green, Nick Richards and P.J. Washington, and four-star signee Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. UK can only comment on prospects who have signed national letters of intent or financial aid agreements. The next national spring signing period is in April, when UK expects to announce any additional signees.
Diallo, from Queens, New York, is Kentucky’s third guard in the 2017 class. At 6-foot-5, 190 pounds, Diallo is a long and extremely athletic wing with a ton of upside. A high-flying, high-scoring guard who excels at getting to the basket, Diallo is considered an elite finisher with a potential to be a lockdown defender. Among the major recruiting services (Rivals, Scout, ESPN and 247 Sports), he is rated as high as No. 9 (247 Sports) and no lower than No. 11 (ESPN). Both 247 Sports and Scout consider him the No. 1 shooting guard in the 2017 class.
In his final season in high school, in 2015-16, Diallo led Putnam Science Academy to a 38-3 record with an appearance in the state semifinals. The two-time all-state honoree averaged 19.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in his senior season before graduating in the fall. He averaged 17.0 points and 4.0 rebounds as a junior.
Diallo’s enrollment marks the second straight midyear enrollee for Calipari and Kentucky. Current redshirt freshman forward Tai Wynyard enrolled early last season
Fox and Monk on Midseason Watch List for Wooden Award
Having already proven they’re among the top freshmen in the country and possibly a part of the best backcourt in the nation, Kentucky men’s basketball freshman guards Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox are now among 25 players on the midseason watch list for the annual John R. Wooden Award.
Chosen by a poll of national college basketball experts, the Wooden Award midseason 25 is comprised of student-athletes who are the early frontrunners for one of college basketball’s most prestigious individual honors.
UK is one of five schools (UK, Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA and Wisconsin) with two players on the midseason 25 and one of only two schools (UK and UCLA) with two freshmen. Seven total freshmen were among the midseason top 25.
Kentucky Outlasts Vanderbilt to Stay Perfect in League Play
After having beaten its first three Southeastern Conference opponents by at least 23 points – something they hadn’t achieved since 1953-54 – the Kentucky Wildcats were tested until the final minute of play in an 87-81 triumph on the road at Vanderbilt on Tuesday.
Malik Monk scored six points over the final 32 seconds, including four free throws with less than 17 seconds remaining to seal the victory for UK. Kentucky’s backcourt of Monk, De’Aaron Fox and Isaiah Briscoe scored UK’s final 27 points over the final 12:30 of the game. Briscoe and freshman forward Bam Adebayo carried the load in the first half as Fox and Monk were faced with foul trouble. Briscoe and Adebayo scored 23 of UK’s 45 first-half points.
Kentucky looked like it would roll to another easy victory after scoring the game’s first nine points, but early foul trouble for Fox and Monk allowed the Commodores to soar back and eventually take their first lead at 17-15 with 12:57 to go in the opening half. UK never led by more than those opening nine points, while there were eight lead changes and seven ties throughout the game. Vanderbilt’s last lead came at 53-52 with 16:43 to go, but a 7-0 spurt by the Cats allowed the visitors to shake loose. The Commodores made things interesting pulling to within two as late as 18 seconds remaining, but Monk calmly sunk each one of his four attempts from the foul line and the upset bid was quelled.
Briscoe finished the game with a career-high 23 points, while Fox added 22. Monk posted 18 and Adebayo scored 14.
Additional notes:
• It’s the fourth time in John Calipari’s eight seasons at UK the Wilidcats have been spotless through their first four league games
• Kentucky shot 51 percent from the field, the 11th time this season the Wildcats have hit at least half their shots, and fourth time in a row (all SEC games)
• Thirty-three of Kentucky’s first 59 points came as part of runs of 8-0 or better
• With both Briscoe and Fox topping the 20-point plateau, it marked the seventh straight game that at least one Wildcat tallied 20 or more points
• Briscoe and Fox are the first Kentucky duo to each score at least 20 points vs. Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium since Feb. 12, 2011 (Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight)
• It is the most points Kentucky has scored against Vanderbilt (87) since March 5, 2003 (106)
• It is also the most points that Kentucky has scored against Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium (87) since Feb. 7, 1996 (120)
• Kentucky has scored at least 87 points in each of their first four SEC games of a season for the first time since 1993-94
• UK has shot at least 50 percent from the field in four consecutive SEC games for the first time since the 1987-88 season (five games, Feb. 24, March 2, 5, 11, and 12)
