Mo Dioubate becomes 4th Kentucky player to enter Transfer Portal amid roster rebuild

Kentucky basketball will be looking for another tough defensive big after Mo Dioubate confirms he with Joe Tipton that he will be entering the Transfer Portal. He joins Jaland Lowe, Brandon Garrison, and Jasper Johnson as players who have announced their plans.

Mo's season in Lexington wasn't what either side anticipated. The junior big man shot 46% from deep in his last season with Alabama, but it was only on 26 attempts.

Before the season, Dioubate spoke on what Mark Pope saw in his offensive game, "I know the work I put in at the end of the day. I know how much trust coach puts in me," Dioubate said. "He keeps telling me to be aggressive and play off two feet."

And he was very aggressive this season, but the results were mixed.

Mo Dioubate's shooting hinders a bad shooting team

After Kentucky opened the season, you could clearly see Dioubate was not going to be able to match that kind of shooting production. Dioubate ended up shooting 6-of-28, and teams refused to guard him on the perimeter. That kind of shooting split made it so much harder for Kentucky's offense to really get good looks. Mo wasn't a great passer either, so a lot of his offensive possessions ended up with a straight line drive to the rim.

It was made much worse when he was played with Brandon Garrison and Otega Oweh. All 3 operated much better in the midrange and in, so teams could really sit in the gaps and wait for any drives. Kentucky as a team shot it at just 34%, and if you took Collin Chandler out, it got scary. The Cats were just 31%.

But what he lacked in shooting, he made up for in toughness and defense. Kentucky was a much better rebounding team with Dioubate on the floor. In fact, there were some nights that he was the only big man who rebounded at all. He gave everything he had when going after loose balls, and he fought guys who had a 6-inch height advantage.

He ended up averaging 8 points and 5 rebounds a night; his best two games came early on in the season. Against Eastern Illinois, the former Alabama big man had 20 points and 11 rebounds; he would never hit the 20-point mark again in the season. But he did get his only other double-double in a big win over Indiana, finishing with 14 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 steals.

The truth is, you can find the kind of production Mo Dioubate brings, but the defensive effort and the physicality may be tough to replace. But that is Mark Pope's job, and the portal opens tomorrow.

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