Hamidou Diallo announced on Sunday that he will be the latest Kentucky basketball underclassman to test the 2017 NBA Draft waters.
What makes Diallo’s situation different than the rest, however, is that he never actually played a minute Wildcats.
Diallo was eligible to play the second half of the season after reclassifying and graduating from prep school, but head coach John Calipari ultimately decided it was best to keep Diallo off the court and keep his current team’s chemistry going.
Despite declaring, Diallo has not hired an agent so he can return to the team if he is not satisfied with the feedback he receives during the draft process.
“Playing in the NBA has always been the ultimate goal for me,” Diallo said in a statement.
“It’s part of what makes Kentucky so special is that it prepares you for the next level better than anywhere else. When I decided to enroll in January, my plan was to come to Kentucky to work on my game and to focus on school. At the end of the season, I knew I wanted to see where I was in the draft process and go through that so I could get a proper evaluation.”
Diallo joins Malik Monk, De’Aaron Fox, Isaiah Briscoe, Isaac Humphries and Bam Adebayo as Wildcats underclassmen to enter the draft pool.
Unfortunately for Kentucky fans, Monk, Fox, Briscoe and Humphries signed with agents and are officially done with their collegiate careers.
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Hamidou Diallo Declares For NBA Draft Despite Never Playing A Collegiate Game
