Diallo’s Improvement Continues with Clutch Performance
It’s one of the most important questions John Calipari and Kentucky are facing early in the season: Who will step up to take big shots in the clutch?
Hamidou Diallo offered a potential answer Saturday afternoon.
Diallo buried two huge 3-pointers in the final minutes against Virginia Tech. Fearlessly taking two of the most important shots of the game, the freshman helped shoot the No. 8/5 Wildcats (9-1) to a hard-fought, high-scoring 93-86 win over the Hokies (9-2), their best so far this season.
The second of Diallo’s two 3s was the true dagger, coming after Virginia Tech had gone on a 9-2 run to trim UK’s lead to a scant two points. With a shade under a minute left, Diallo raised and fired.
“It was just a normal shot to me,” Diallo said. “I just got the ball and I saw the rim, to be honest. It’s just hard work paying off and I’m just going to keep getting in the gym trying to get better.”
No one has ever questioned Diallo’s athleticism, but his shooting stroke has been the subject to frequent critique. His response has been to put his head down and get in the gym, an approach he doesn’t plan to change after scoring 20 points and hitting 4-of-7 3-pointers.
“I’m just going to keep working on my craft and keep trying to get better, each and every part of my game,” Diallo said. “Hopefully prove the doubters wrong.”
Diallo has gone a long way in proving those doubters wrong in his last four outings. He has now scored at least 19 points in every game dating back to UK’s win over UIC, shooting 30 of 56 (53.6 percent) and 5 of 12 from 3 along the way.
“It’s just my teammates and my coaches,” Diallo said. “Pretty much, they all believe in me and I’m just making them believe. Every day I come into practice and I’m just working hard and just trying to make my teammates and coaches believe in me. That’s what we have been doing and that’s what we’re all trying to do.”
Wisely, Diallo is focusing much more of his energy on his teammates and coaches than anyone else. He’s heard Coach Cal talking this week about his players not getting their due respect and he appreciates the thought. He’s just not going to enter that conversation.
“I’m just here to play basketball and focus on what I need to do for this team and what we need to do to win,” Diallo said. “That’s Coach Cal’s position and he’s going to fight for us and that’s why I chose to come here. I’m just here to play basketball and do what he tells me to do.”
Early in the season, Coach Cal was on Diallo about his shot selection, even going so far as to threaten to sub him out for taking an out-of-rhythm 3-pointer. After Diallo registered career highs in both attempts and makes from deep, there was no such talk.
“He was never on me about shooting 3s,” Diallo said. “It was just the type of 3s I was taking and improving the quality of my shots. That’s what I have been working on and I’m just going to keep trying to improve on that and keep practicing the way I have been practicing and just keep being motivated.”
As a team, according to Diallo, the Wildcats are doing the same. Facing a difficult stretch of games – but one that allows for a week of practice and improvement between each matchup – he sees a team that’s finding its feet.
“I would just say that we knew it would take a little while for us to start jelling and bonding with each other,” Diallo said. “We have a bunch of players that always were the number one option on their team. So for all of us to be on one team now, we gotta buy in and it’s going to take time. We’re just going to keep getting better at it, keep practicing the way we’ve been practicing and just keep trying to get better.”
Now, what has been a culprit for its steeper learning curve – a wealth of options – is becoming its greatest strength.
“I just feel like we have a bunch of players that can get going,” Diallo said. “We have a bunch of players, we have a bunch of options and we’re really good defensively. We did good today in our press and we’re just going to keep getting better at that. We haven’t even really worked on it a lot. We just did really good at it. It’s just going to be fun to see how these next couple months go.”
