ROSELLE, N.J. — Kansas coach Bill Self said he expects freshman forward Cheick Diallo to hire an agent and head to the NBA Draft.
On March 28, we reported via soures that Diallo would test the NBA Draft waters but wouldn’t hire an agent.
“I expect that right now [that he will hire an agent], but that hasn’t been 100 percent confirmed to me,” Self told SNY.tv on Friday at the New Jersey coaches’ clinic at Roselle Catholic, where he was joined by Kentucky coach John Calipari and SMU coach Larry Brown, among others, in speaking before 250 college and high school coaches. “But all indications were that that that was route they were going to take.”
The 6-foot-9 Mali native is the projected No. 36 pick by DraftExpress.com.
Diallo was the MVP of the 2015 McDonald’s All-American Game out of Our Savior New American, but played a limited role for Kansas this season. He averaged just 3.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in 7.5 minutes per game. He did not play at all in Kansas’ last three NCAA Tournament games.
“I don’t have any regrets about doing that [recruiting him],” Self said. “We’d recruit Cheick again hard if we did. It was a situation with him where he got behind early and he just had a hard time catching up and the other guys that play in front of him, I mean hell they got better.”
Diallo had several experienced bigs like Perry Ellis, Landen Lucas and Jamari Traylor playing ahead of him at Kansas, which lost to eventual NCAA champion Villanova in the Elite Eight.
“Cheick was a guy and he still will be moving forward, his best ball and his potential is very high,” Self said. “So these NBA teams, they’re not going to draft a guy based on how he looks at age 19. They’re going to draft him based on how they think he’ll look at age 22, 23, 24. and Cheick has done nohting to dampen that. His ceiling’s still the same, he’s just so young in learning the game.”
Kansas coach Bill Self said he expects freshman forward Cheick Diallo to hire an agent and head to the NBA Draft.2016-04-08T19:37:45-0400
