A lot of the praise this offseason has centered around Kentucky’s backcourt, namely Zoom Diallo. By all accounts, the Washington transfer has established himself as a vocal leader so far, quickly earning the trust of his teammates and embracing the challenge of being Kentucky’s floor general. On Friday, we got another example of that from Mark Pope, who continues to be impressed by Diallo’s drive and demeanor — even when he isn’t feeling well
“Zoom Diallo is a special individual,” Pope said on Friday. “Zoom was really under the weather yesterday. It’s kind of been going through the team. He did not feel good, wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to practice, and he just went out, and not only did he practice yesterday, but there was never — you could tell he was feeling awful, but he would refuse to let that impact anything that happened, and it was a tough practice. It was a physical, full live-play practice.”
Kentucky didn’t practice today, but had a team lift and film session this morning. After going so hard in practice while he was under the weather on Thursday, Pope didn’t expect much from Diallo on Friday — only to find him in the gym when he arrived at work
“I’m like, What am I going to get? Is he going to be curled up in bed, just barely getting through?” Pope said. “I walked to the office at 6:15 this morning, really wondering about who this kid is, and walked into my office, and the lights in the gym are on, and he’s in a full sweat at 6:15 on his own, the day after being really, really under the weather
“Not asked by anybody to do it, but just because that’s how dedicated he is to this deal. When you have a lead guard like that, that represents like that, you get pretty excited.”
Throughout the summer, Diallo’s teammates have raved about his leadership and energy. So did Goose Givens after sitting in on some recent practices. At Washington, Diallo put up good numbers last season — 15.7 points and 4.5 assists per game — but the Huskies went 16-17. Now at Kentucky, he wants to win, and he’s dragging his teammates with him
“I’m just a guy that I don’t want to lose,” Diallo said last month. “Just being a leader and being the point guard when you have to lead — everybody looks at you as an example. So I feel like if I’m intense, I feel like it’s gonna put more fuel into my teammates, and again, it’s more positive fuel
“Trying to instill confidence in my guys, and just let them know, like, hey, we can go do this, let’s go ramp it up, let’s be intent, let’s be active, and let’s go defensively and offensively. It’s just my competitive nature, to be honest with you.”
Clearly, Diallo’s drive is contagious, but let’s hope that illness going through the lodge has run its course
