Kentucky basketball: Hamidou Diallo should lose his starting spot

Hamidou Diallo is an absolute freak athlete, but he no longer deserves to start for the Kentucky basketball team.

Hamidou Diallo is an athlete in every since of the word. At 6’5″, 190 pounds, Mark Stoops could throw some shoulder pads over Diallo’s head and put him into the defensive backfield with Chris Westry and Derrick Baity. However, Hamidou Diallo doesn’t play football, he plays basketball. But the redshirt freshman does not deserve a starting spot currently on the Kentucky basketball team.

When Hami first came to UK during mid-season of last year, there was a lot of speculation surrounding whether or not he’d ever play a game for Kentucky basketball. He sat out the second half of the 2016-17 season and then threw his name into the 2017 NBA Draft, only to remove it at the last minute and return to UK this season.

At the NBA Draft combine, Diallo posted the second highest vertical jump ever recorded at the event. The 44.5″ vertical is second only to former Memphis player D.J. Stephens. Stephens posted 46″ in 2013, only an inch and half higher than Diallo.

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Diallo has shown time and time again that he’s, insert Dick Vitale imitation, “A high riser, the elevator man, baby!” But, athletic ability will only take you so far. During Kentucky basketball’s non-conference schedule, Diallo averaged 15.3 points per game. Diallo scored in double figures in 9 out of those 12 games.

SEC Play

Since SEC play started, Diallo has seen his numbers fall off a cliff. The freshman phenom is averaging 7.9 points. That’s almost half the amount of points he was averaging out of conference. His minutes per game are down just slightly in conference play, but I believe that’s out of necessity. The three-game stretch without Quade Green forced John Calipari to play all his guards more, including Diallo.

In fact, the 21 minutes he played against Vanderbilt on Tuesday was his lowest since he played 16 minutes against Tennessee. And against the Volunteers he was in foul trouble the entire and in the end, fouled out.

Hami’s field goal percentage has taken a hit too. Over the past 6 games, Diallo is shooting barely 30% from the field and 27% from behind the three-point line. Diallo’s only points against Vandy came at the free throw line, which is another place he struggles. On the season, Hami is a 61.5% shooter from the charity stripe.

It’s been obvious over the last couple games that Kevin Knox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are Kentucky’s best players. Wenyen Gabriel gives them energy off the bench. Players like Green and PJ Washington can get theirs from game to game. Even Sacha Killeya-Jones and Nick Richards can be counted on to play their role on this year’s Kentucky basketball team.

With Jarred Vanderbilt starting to gain more playing time and Green back to playing meaningful minutes, I expect Diallo’s playing time to be affected the most. I don’t expect Calipari to bench him, even though he should, but I don’t think Diallo will see the floor in crucial, end of game situations.

He showed against Vandy on Tuesday night that he can be a liability defensively when Riley LaChance blew by him for a late score and gave the Commodores a 68-65 lead. Thankfully, we know that game ended positively for the Cats thanks in large part to Gilgeous-Alexander clutch play.

I fully expect Diallo to put his name in the hat for the NBA Draft at the end of college basketball season. This time I think he’ll keep it in. Diallo plays a brand of basketball that reminds me eerily of Archie Goodwin. He was a freak athlete, but he wanted to get his. I hope before the season ends that Diallo understands, in order to get his he must sacrifice for the entire team.