Who knew that the University of Washington basketball backcourt this past season was one part Kentucky ready and another part Arizona capable?
People would say that was a high-grade guard tandem that should have made only glorious things happen in Montlake and sent the program in a positive direction going forward after so many down years.
Instead, sophomore combo guard Zoom Diallo on Wednesday announced he had committed to Kentucky, with this disclosure coming two days after freshman point guard JJ Mandaquit cast his lot with Arizona.
Everyone would agree that a lot of hoop talent just left town for destinations blue blood and far more stable.
Losing the 6-foot-4 Diallo was especially painful for coach Danny Sprinkle’s rebuild because this Tacoma product was a local guy and the team leadership had been placed firmly in his hands.
Plus he had that catchy nickname, Zoom, short for Vazoumana, which the SEC will find intriguing.
It’s still not exaclty clear, outside of a mediocre 16-17 season fraught with nonstop injuries, why Diallo and Mandaquit gave up on Sprinkle’s vision of rebuilding the Huskies.
Maybe that it was going to take a lot longer than everyone envisioned and these guys wanted to win big right now.
Maybe teir NIL money reimbursements were no longer as lucrative.
Sprinkle certainly made the Huskies Zoom’s team over the latter half of the season, letting him control the offense and by having everything run through him.
As for Mandaquit, he was Sprinkle’s first big recruiting commitment, lined up even before German forward Hannes Steinbach agreed to come on board, and he seemed to match the coach’s basketball personality.
Sprinkle was a hard-nosed guard when he played for Montana State.
Diallo, who averaged 15.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game this past season, originally committed to Mike Hopkins’ UW coaching staff and then re-upped when Hopkins was fired and Sprinkle took over.
He considered leaving after Sprinkle’s first season, when the Huskies finished 13-18 and in last place in the Big Ten, but he along with center Franck Kepnang were the only two returnees as the Huskies revamped that roster.
Diallo will now join a Kentucky team headed up by Mark Pope, who likewise transferred from the UW after two years to the Wildcats.
The Huskies, experiencing a difficult couple of weeks, will try to regroup after losing a pair of guards everybody else wanted.
The basketball richer got richer and the Huskies, well, they’re still wondering when and if the program will regroup and when.
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