Kentucky basketball: Player grades for 2017-2018 season

Hamidou Diallo may have been the most enigmatic player on the Kentucky basketball team in 2017-18. I think Coach Cal expected Hami to be the leader of this young team. His talent and athleticism, combined with his experience on Kentucky’s team last season, gave sound reasoning for Cal’s assumption. Unfortunately, Diallo never got on track this season.

Diallo had a hot and cold season. Are you sensing a theme here Kentucky fans? Hami was explosive at times. Hami had a 6-game stretch in December where he looked, every bit the part, of the leader of this year’s team. Then it all came crashing down.

Once SEC-play began, we started to see “Good Hami” and “Bad Hami”. Against Texas A&M we saw “Good Hami”. In that game, Diallo had 18 points in 34 minutes on 6-of-9 shooting. Against Tennessee we saw “Bad Hami”. Diallo laid an egg in a 59-61 loss to the Volunteers. Hami had 0 points, 2 fouls and 2 turnovers in 13 minutes.

Diallo was disappointing this season. He’s an incredibly gifted athlete who appears much too eager to make the big play. Rather than letting the game come to him, Diallo tried to force the ball into teammates or into the basket, often with disastrous results.