Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Farewell to Hamidou Edition

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Morning Quickies.

The big news of the week so far is Hamidou Diallo’s decision to leave Kentucky for the NBA Draft. As Jason wrote, Calipari doesn’t seem to be all-in without reservation on his call, and it’s easy to understand why. Diallo is probably a decent season away from a mid-first round pick, and going this year is going to likely land him in the second round somewhere.

But honestly, I think it’s a good call for Hami. He has tremendous natural athleticism and excellent size for his position, and if he’s willing to work, I can see him emerging from the G-League as a significant role player in a couple of years and possibly even a starter five or six seasons from now. What he lacks is a feel for the game and consistent shooting, but those are both things that players learn fairly quickly at the next level. Assuming that happens for him, he’s going to be too physically gifted to keep off a roster once he learns the fundamentals of the game, which showed up as clearly underdeveloped this season for UK.

So with that, I wish Hami the best of luck going forward, and if he works hard, I think he’ll be very lucky indeed.

Tweet of the Morning

Sweet! We got us a shootah!

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kentucky loses a pair of defensive player to transfer.
• UK linebacker Kash Daniel has a “hip” summer plan to ensure he winds up as a starter.
• John Clay reviews spring practice qirh Jennifer Smith.
• Defensive end with impressive offer list has high interest in Kentucky.
• Five Wildcats who made a statement in the spring.

Kentucky basketball

• Kevin Knox might want to consider a political career after the NBA.

• Where UK’s recruits landed in the Rivals final rankings for 2018.
• Calipari ‘cruitin’:

• James Wiseman, 2019’s top recruit, recaps his visit with Coach Cal.

Other Kentucky sports

• The #6 Bat Cats take on Louisville in the River City tonight. First pitch 6:00 PM.
• Should be one heck of a series.

• More Bat Cats: Chris Machamer named SEC Pitcher of the Week.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links

College football

• Missouri (along with many other SEC schools) looked into hiring Hugh Freeze in the off season. Apparently, the SEC stepped in and discouraged it.
• Changes are coming to the NCAA transfer rules. How drastic will they be?

College basketball

• Romeo Langford is the sole uncommitted top recruit for 2018. He has a really interesting top three: Kansas, Indiana and Vanderbilt.
• Final ESPN high school rankings.

• Former Duke coach Vic Bubas has died.
• Duke’s Wendell Carter Jr. declares for the NBA.
• Calipari’s not the only SEC coach hitting the trail.

Other sports news

• Kentucky Derby media poll has seven contenders getting first-place votes.
• Bam Adebayo “did OK” in his playoff debut, but it wasn’t enough.
• Rajon Rondo finally free to call the shots for the Pelicans. That can only be a good thing for the team.

Other news

• Heavy metal for detecting grav waves.
• Returning to the Star Wars universe, Yoda is.
• Answering the important questions: Why do bubbles in stout beer appear to defy the laws of physics?