KU Basketball: Cheick Diallo Worth The Wait
By Alec Tilson
KU Basketball freshman Cheick Diallo showcases ridiculous talent, stirs excitement in Allen Fieldhouse debut.
The No. 4 Kansas Jayhawks (5-1) won by 33 points last night over the Loyola Maryland Greyhounds, but the real winner was Cheick Diallo. The wait finally ended for Diallo and KU, and apparently it was worth every second.
While Bill Self won his 436th game at Kansas, Diallo won his first. In one of the most anticipated freshman debuts in Kansas basketball history, the big man from Mali validated all of the preseason hype and regular season frustration.
Diallo is as advertised.
The measurables? Long, athletic, quick, smooth, bouncy. All of the above. The other stuff you can’t measure? Energy, passion, impact, awareness, effort. Check.
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It took him until the second half to get going, but Diallo ended his first career collegiate game with 13 points on six-of-eight shooting, added six rebounds, three blocks and four personal fouls for good measure. All of that in 16 minutes off the bench.
Keeping in mind that this was against an over-matched, undersized one-win team in one of the toughest places to play in all of NCAA hoops, there’s no sense in blowing things out of proportion. The Jayhawks got outplayed for the first 20 minutes. But any unbiased observer last night could see that the guy wearing the No. 13 jersey in white was the most gifted athlete on the floor.
Not that Diallo was the most polished or the best prepared or the player with the most advanced basketball IQ, but just that he was a superior athlete. He’s different – in the best way.
He wasn’t the best player on the court, though, according to The University Daily Kansan:
"Jamari was the best player in the game tonight" -- Bill Self
— Scott Chasen (@ChasenScott) December 2, 2015
Keep working, Cheick.
Diallo has a lot to live up to if he wants to reach the level of former Kansas big man Joel Embiid, perhaps the only worthwhile comparison in KU Basketball’s recent memory. Embiid shot 63 percent from the field his freshman season, he averaged 8.1 rebounds and quickly established himself as one of the nation’s best defenders.
Either way, Diallo gives an already deep Kansas team an equalizer in the paint. Of all the things KU did have before last night, they didn’t have the rim protector, the up-tempo big man, or the athleticism in the paint to flat out run teams into submission. They might just have that now.
Time will tell how Diallo holds up in his first go-round of high-level competitive basketball, but last night was an indication of the potential he does have.
Next: What Cheick Diallo Brings To Jayhawks?
KU Basketball will pick up where it left off against the Harvard Crimson this Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse, and Diallo will get his second chance to make up for lost time. What were your initial reactions to Cheick Diallo’s KU Basketball debut?