UK Basketball: Hamidou Diallo almost missed deadline to withdraw from 2017 NBA Draft

Hamidou Diallo’s lone season at UK was a rocky one

Diallo came to Lexington as a mid-year enrollee during the 2016-17 season, then opted to declare for the NBA Draft that offseason, despite never logging a minute at UK.

The Queens native went through through the pre-draft process, performed well at the NBA Combine and appeared likely to stay in the draft.

But on the final day to withdraw, Diallo tweeted that he was returning to UK.

However, Diallo didn’t submit the necessary paperwork to withdraw from the draft until after the midnight deadline, he revealed in an interview with KSR.

Diallo actually submitted the paperwork minutes after the deadline, but because he tweeted the news out prior to the deadline, he was allowed to turn in his paperwork a few minutes late.

Thankfully, it all worked out, and Diallo returned to UK and helped the Cats win 26 games and make the Sweet 16. While he averaged a modest 10 points per game, some of his biggest performances came in several of UK’s biggest wins, including 22 points vs Buffalo, 20 points vs Virginia Tech, 18 vs Texas A&M, and 14 vs Louisville.

While Diallo certainly had his ups and downs, UK would have been in a world of hurt without him in what turned into a fun season toward the end.

Now, Diallo is part of the 2018 draft for good, so there won’t be any deadline snafus this year.

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