Hamidou Diallo is going back to Kentucky. The 18-year-old shooting guard prospect could have entered the 2017 NBA Draft, but decided to play college basketball next season for for John Calipari’s Wildcats, according to ESPN’s Jeff Goodman.
Hamidou Diallo is bypassing 2017 NBA Draft to return to Kentucky, per report
Diallo could have made the prep-to-pro jump. He’ll stick with Kentucky instead.
Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Diallo was able to enter the draft as a prep school player one year removed from high school graduation. He could have followed the same loophole that Thon Maker used to enter last year’s draft where he was selected No. 10 overall by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Diallo committed to Kentucky at the end of the first semester last season and immediately joined the team in practices. He didn’t play in any games before the Wildcats were eventually eliminated in the Elite Eight by North Carolina.
He then declared for the draft and went through the process before Wednesday night’s deadline for early entry players to pull their name out. Diallo’s physical gifts made him a possible first rounder. He’s a 6’5 shooting guard with a 6’10 wingspan and explosive athleticism. At the NBA draft combine in Chicago, Diallo registered a 44.5-inch vertical jump, which is the second-best mark in the history of the event.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported that several teams selecting in the 20s of this year’s draft were “serious” about Diallo, but that he didn’t get the guarantee he was looking for.
Diallo was projected as a second rounder by DraftExpress as the No. 35 selection in the draft.
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