Pope says freshman Diallo is key to Kentucky’s season

Mark Pope calls Zoom Diallo an 'integral' part of this Kentucky team.

It only took a few exhibition games, but after some early struggles, a number of Kentucky fans were started to criticize Zoom Diallo.

With Mason Williams playing the way he has been over the last few weeks, some even questioned him starting moving forward.

The light criticism is fair, but it's worth noting that we're only one game into the regular season.

Diallo struggled early during Kentucky's exhibition slate, but that's to be expected when you're coming in and learning an entirely new system than what he played in at his previous school.

Mark Pope noted that after Kentucky's preseason games concluded when asked about his struggles.

"Zoom, like, all of our guys are learning a new way to play and it's actually inspiring to watch them learn and grow, and Zoom is trying to make his game as simple and forceful as he can," Pope said after Kentucky's win over UCF.

"He's got a chance to be an elite-level floor general for us.

He's seen a new challenge all three games and I'm telling you, he's gonna have big moments for us and make huge contributions."

After the season-opener against Manhattan, Pope was asked about the cheers that Diallo received pregame and what that meant to him.

He made some big plays during the game, even comparing his point guard's mindset to a recent story he heard.

"Zoom is an integral part of this team," Pope said.

"Sometimes you nitpick individual plays or individual stats or individual things, and we are all drawn to that because those are the easy stories to tell.

Zoom is like the great connector of our team.

I heard a great sermon a couple of weeks ago about a gentleman talking about a story where his buddy asked him to go on 100 miler with him.

He ran the first 90 miles, and he dropped underneath of a tree just about dead, like, I can't do it.

His friend knelt down beside him and gave him a hand.

They staggered the last 10 miles, if you could imagine the last 10 miles together.

And they actually finished right before the finish line and his friend said, hey, you go enjoy this finished by yourself, you did this.

So, he saw a picture months later that was taken just at that exact moment when his friend, who kind of carried him through the race, told him to go finish by himself.

And he saw for the first time that his friend was not just carrying his pack with all of his water and nutrition and everything else, he was carrying his also.

He carried it the last 10 miles."

Diallo spent the previous two seasons at Washington before transferring to Kentucky.

In the season opener against Manhattan, Diallo added 12 points as part of a balanced scoring effort.

Three of the six transfers Kentucky landed in the offseason scored in double figures Tuesday.

Milan Momcilovic led the Wildcats with 24 points, which ranks fifth in school history for a player making his debut.

The top Division I 3-point shooter last season at Iowa State went 6-for-9 from distance in the win.

Alex Wilkins, another transfer, finished with 11 points and five assists.

The Furman transfer also had a career-best seven steals, one off the school record held by four players.

Kentucky beat Manhattan 85-57, controlling the game after starting 4-for-12 from the floor in the first eight minutes.

But even as Kentucky led big, there was a time when Pope called a timeout in the closing minutes to express his displeasure after what he felt was a stretch with too many several careless turnovers.

Pope's team led by as much as 39 with five minutes remaining before Manhattan finished with a 13-2 run.

The Wildcats also committed 14 turnovers, one more than the Jaspers.

"For us right now, we are a young team and we are a team with a really high ceiling," Pope said.

"We are not even close to it right now.

We cannot waste a possession, and so, for us to be cavalier with possessions in the second half is not acceptable here.

It never will be."

No. 23 Kentucky returns to action on Friday when it hosts James Madison in Lexington, Ky.