New route to high pick? Don’t play

Ky. coach urges potential ‘none-and-done’ player to keep scouts’ expectations high

CHICAGO — Hamidou Diallo hasn’t played an organized basketball game since his final one with his Connecticut prep school, Putnam Science Academy, at Florida’s IMG Academy four days before Christmas. That was nearly five months ago. Diallo, a highly recruited swingman from New York City, didn’t play a single game for the University of Kentucky after enrolling there in January. And this week he did not compete in 5-on-5 play at the NBA’s draft combine here.

So why does his stock appear to be on the rise before next month’s draft? The master of the one-anddone, coach John Calipari of Kentucky, thinks he understands the thinking.

“They don’t know,” he said. “Well, don’t show them. They all like you without watching you. Good. The more you don’t play, the more they like you, the more they’re impressed.”

“If someone takes him in the lottery, I will retire. Four months, doesn’t play, lottery pick, I’m done. I’m stopping,” he said.

The NBA stopped allowing players to go straight from high school to the league beginning in 2006, effectively forcing players to attend at least a year of college before turning pro and creating what became known as the “one and done” rule.

Calipari has become the acknowledged master of the rule; he has produced 18 one-and-done players during his time at Kentucky. He also has coached several No. 1 picks, including Anthony Davis and John Wall at Kentucky and Derrick Rose at the University of Memphis. But with Diallo, a 6-foot-6 swingman who posted an eyebrow-raising 44½-inch vertical leap, he may outdo even himself by coaching a none-and-done. Last year Thon Maker went straight from doing a postgraduate year at Orangeville Prep in Canada to becoming the No. 10 pick in the NBA draft. Diallo appears to be following the lead of Maker, who found a way around the NBA’s ban on high-school-to-the-NBA moves by playing a postgraduate year at Orangeville Prep in Canada and then entering the draft. Milwaukee selected him at No. 10.

Hamidou Diallo, now with Kentucky, joined the Wildcats in January out of high school but never got in a game. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Diallo did half of a postgraduate year at Putnam Science before enrolling for the spring semester at Kentucky, where he only practiced with the team as it advanced to the NCAA Tournament, even though he would have been eligible to play.

“It was mostly my choice,” Diallo said of sitting out. “Just coming into a season with a team that has some chemistry flowing, a team that’s been together a whole summer and a semester, just coming in and trying to input myself right away wouldn’t be right for me and wouldn’t be right for those guys.”

“It maybe could’ve worked, or it maybe couldn’t have worked,” he added. “So it would’ve been a really tough decision. It could’ve put me in a bad spot or it could’ve put the team in a bad spot, so we just thought that ultimately the best thing for me to do was to sit out.”

Diallo conceded that what Maker did last year opened his eyes about his options, but he demurred on the larger question of whether high school players should be allowed to jump straight to the NBA.

“I don’t think that’s something for me to speak on,” he said. “I’m not a person that evaluates talent. I’m a basketball player. I think there’s great high school players that could be in the NBA one day, but I’m not a person to tell you if they should make that a rule or not.”

Diallo is projected as a second-round pick by DraftExpress.com, but Fran Fraschilla of ESPN said he could move into the first round because of the combination of his age (Diallo turns 19 in July) and uncommon athleticism, especially if he catches the eye of a team with multiple first-round picks. The Los Angeles Lakers, for example, are set to pick in the Top 3 and then again at No. 28. The Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, Utah Jazz and Brooklyn Nets also have two selections. The Portland Trail Blazers have three.

“I would not be surprised myself if his combination of athleticism and skill opens some eyes, and then he’ll have a tough decision,” Fraschilla said. “Do you want to be the 25th pick in this year’s draft, or do you want to have a chance to maybe be a Top 10 pick after your freshman year? I don’t think there’s any question a team will take him in the first round, based on just his age, his size for a guard and that crazy combination of skill and athleticism.”

Diallo is testing the NBA waters without having hired an agent, thus retaining the option to return to Kentucky next season, but he hinted that Calipari was one of the people who advised him not to play at the combine.

“What that guy says I definitely have to trust 100 percent, because I feel like he’s been through more than anyone that I know,” Diallo said.