Kansas Jayhawks: Cheick Diallo Watch Continues

As Kansas Jayhawks basketball awaits news on freshman Cheick Diallo, the NCAA continues to maintain radio silence on the status of the big man who could make Kansas the betting favorites to win the 2016 NCAA Championship.

Coach Bill Self is ‘confident’ that Diallo will be cleared to play his freshman season, according to Gary Bedore of KUSports.com:

"As to when the word will come down … “I have no idea,” Self said at his Boy Scouts benefit golf tournament at Lawrence Country Club.“The thing about it is … it’s been mis-reported a lot — that there’s been good news, bad news. There hasn’t been any news because the NCAA hasn’t told us no on Cheick. They haven’t told us yes."

Frustrating as it is, we know nothing at this point.

The NCAA is investigating Diallo’s high school Our Savior New American in New York, and whether the classes Diallo completed there meet academic requirements to play college ball.

But mostly Kansas needs Diallo protecting the rim.

This waiting game wasn’t unlike the Ben McLemore situation in 2012 when he was ruled a partial qualifier by the NCAA. KU basketball fans are just hoping this isn’t déjà vu.

Diallo appears to be the final piece to one of KU’s strongest, oldest, deepest rosters since 2008.

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He’s the ultra-athletic, rim-protecting big that Kansas desperately lacks. Well, they’d probably be ‘fine’ without him, but with him, they could be over-the-top good.

Diallo is 6-feet 9-inches tall with a 7-feet 4-inch wingspan, according to DraftExpress.com.

He’ll give the Jayhawks all kinds of energy defensively and on the glass, and he’ll open up the floor with his ability to run. But mostly Kansas needs Diallo protecting the rim.

According to Bedore’s article, Self had some serious praise for Diallo so far:

"“We’ve never had a big guy that could run like this,” Self said. “It’d be nice to have a mindset to play at a much faster tempo than we have in the past … Cheick forces a pace that nobody has ever forced here. He can create pace better than any point guard we’ve ever had here. Just because the dude from rim to rim is as good as I’ve seen."

It feels like Self says stuff like this about a player every year, but it also feels like Self signs a ridiculous talent like Diallo every year.

Diallo would join senior Perry Ellis, and juniors Frank Mason III and Wayne Selden Jr. on a roster that’s loaded with talent.

According to The Kansas City Star‘s Rustin Dodd, a high school teammate of Diallo’s at Our Savior New America, freshman Davon Dillard, has reportedly been cleared by the NCAA to play at Oklahoma State this season.

Encouraging, but not promising. And so Diallo Watch wages on…

Next: Kansas Jayhawks: Sasha Kaun Signs With Cavs

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