As summer practices get underway, practice reports are beginning to surface, and more insights are emerging about this Kentucky Basketball squad. One name that keeps coming up repeatedly throughout the week is Zoom Diallo.
Mark Pope, who prefers to start building his roster with a point guard, targeted the Washington transfer early in the portal process, and Diallo ultimately became the Wildcats’ first transfer commitment of the offseason.
Now that he’s arrived on campus, he’s not only making an impression with his skills on the floor but also through his leadership qualities.
According to one source, “Zoom has been one of the purest forms of a floor general early on. These guys rally around him. He’s the voice of the team in the early stages and backs it up by going the extra mile.”
That sentiment has been repeated by my assistant coach, Mikhail McLean, on several occasions this week.
“Zoom’s been my favorite so far,” he said after the first day of practice, and he expanded on that Thursday during an appearance on BBN Tonight, drawing a comparison to a quarterback.
“He’s just a connector,” McLean said. “If you know what a quarterback is like, where they just kind of connect everybody. He has a bubbly energy and personality. He’s humble enough to accept who he is as a person. He gasses and encourages everybody to be the best version of themselves, and that’s how he gets the best version of himself.”
Diallo’s teammates have also offered praise, including Malachi Moreno, who was involved in recruiting Diallo to Kentucky.
“I had already known Zoom for a while,” Moreno said on Thursday. “We had been in the Adidas Euro camp together, and being on the Adidas circuit, we’ve been good friends for a while. We always wanted to play together. He ended up at Washington, and I ended up here, but the stars aligned and now he’s here with me. I got my favorite point guard.”
When it comes to Diallo’s on-court game, Moreno pointed to his passing ability and his knack for involving teammates, but also described him as a “bully guard,” drawing a parallel to Otega Oweh.
“He’s a high-assist-rate guy,” Moreno said. “He makes plays, and he earns shots for his teammates, and he’s also a bully guard.”
“I think that also helps in the SEC as well, being one of those bigger bully guards. You saw how Otega was last year. He was able to be so good because he was such a bully and able to muscle his way through the paint and really earn shots for everybody, earn shots for himself. I think having a guy like Zoom like that as well, it’s just a recipe for success.”
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