Talk about waiting until the last minute.
Five-star shooting guard Hamidou Diallo decided to withdraw his name from the 2017 NBA Draft just before Wednesday's 11:59 p.m. ET deadline.
Advertisement
He will join Kentucky's already crowded and star-studded recruiting class for next season.
Diallo, who graduated high school early, enrolled at Kentucky for the second semester, and practiced with the team during the second half of the season. He was thus eligible for the NBA Draft, which he entered without hiring an agent. After going through the draft process, Diallo decided a full year in college, and actually playing in games, would help his draft stock.
Unfortunately, he will now be on a team that resembles a junior NBA squad. Coach John Calipari will introduce seven of the top 30 recruits in the 2017 class, according to 247Sports.com's composite rankings, with Diallo topping the list as the No. 9 overall recruit.
The Wildcats have six five-star recruits in the 2017 class, as well as two four-star recruits.
Kentucky will also have former top recruits Wenyen Gabriel and Sacha Killeya-Jones returning for their sophomore seasons.
That's right, Kentucky will have at least 10 five- and four-star recruits expecting to start when the season begins next fall. Calipari will have a lot on his plate trying to juggle minutes next season, but it's hard to sympathize with someone who brought the problem upon himself.
It is a little surprising all these NBA hopefuls chose to fight for minutes at Kentucky when they could have easily starred somewhere else.
