The new ‘heart and soul’ of Kentucky basketball? It could be this guy
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky signed Mouhamed Dioubate to expand offense and dominate boards.
- He posted elite efficiency, rebounding and rim protection in limited minutes.
- Coaches expect Dioubate to start, raise physicality and set team identity.
All the numbers say Mouhamed Dioubate is sitting on a big season for Kentucky.
He was a key contributor on a couple of very good Alabama basketball teams the past two years, though his time in Tuscaloosa was spent being largely overshadowed by teammates.
To watch him play was to be impressed, but it took a much longer look to develop a full appreciation for what he brought to the Crimson Tide. And most of the time, longer looks were difficult to come by.
Dioubate never made a start in 70 appearances at Bama. That won’t be the case at Kentucky.
“I can’t wait for it,” Dioubate said. “That’s all I asked for. That’s all I’ve been asking for. … This is the part of my game, my career, where I feel like I should take the next step. So I can’t wait to get after it.”
Back to those numbers.
Dioubate’s output as a sophomore at Alabama last season has turned him into an analytics darling heading into this one. He had an effective field-goal percentage of better than 65%, an 18.8% rebounding rate and steal and block rates both over 3%.
That combination had never been achieved in college basketball.
Yet Dioubate played only 16 minutes per game last season, averaging 7.2 points and 5.9 rebounds and shooting 64.7% from the floor in that relatively limited amount of time on the court. His numbers in SEC play were nearly identical.
In the eight games when Dioubate played more than 20 minutes, these were his numbers: 13.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks, with a 71.2% shooting rate from the field. He played more than 25 minutes only twice. He never played more than 30. And seven of those eight 20-plus-minute games came against high-major competition.
The 6-foot-7, 220-pound physical force didn’t merely beat up on lesser competition. He beat up on everybody.
Kentucky’s coaches are known to study the numbers. Mark Pope and longtime assistant Cody Fueger often talk about analytics, incorporating advanced metrics into their roster-building efforts and gameday plans.
So, with all of these numbers in mind, what stood out most to the UK coaches when they decided to go all in on Dioubate in the transfer portal?
None of them.
“Not anything specific, numbers wise,” Fueger said. “We just felt like he was such an impact guy. When there needed to be a rebound, he was going to get it. When there needed to be a play that happened, he was making that play.”
The UK assistant was sitting in his office, a pile of papers on his desk, some of them box scores from recent practice scrimmages. Lots of numbers to sort through. Earlier that day, Fueger had been watching film of Kentucky’s loss to Alabama last season — the first of three to the Tide — a 102-97 defeat in Rupp Arena in which Dioubate had tallied eight points, eight rebounds and three assists in just 15 minutes on the court. He fouled out that day, imposing his physical strength on the Cats in the limited time he knew he would be playing.
Fueger loves numbers, but he didn’t need them here. The eyeballs tell Dioubate’s story.
“Well, toughness, rebounding, winning — that’s everything that he is, right?” Fueger said. “He can score, but he’s not gonna score 40 every night. But he’s a guy that’s like, ‘Whatever it takes to win.’ That’s what he’s all about.
“I actually just watched our game against Alabama, just because I wanted to watch how they were guarding us and different things like that. And I was just like, ‘Oh, that’s Mo that made that play!’ It just re-emphasized all the things he can do. He can do so much that just helps your team win, no matter what it is. He’s a winner.”
Mouhamed Dioubate comes to Kentucky
Diuobate — it’s pronounced “dee-ah-BOT-TAY” but everyone just calls him “Mo” — was looking for something new when he hit the transfer portal. There are many layers to his game, and he wanted to find a place where he could put that talent on full display.
That should happen this season in Lexington, where Dioubate’s minutes are likely to nearly double as a day-one starter for the Wildcats.
He wants to shoot the 3 more — 46.2% last season, with only 26 attempts — and Pope will encourage that. He’s been working on his passing, especially from the perimeter, all summer and fall. His teammates have spoken highly of that aspect of his game. Dioubate called ballhandling his most underrated skill. “Tight handle,” UK star Otega Oweh confirmed.
Dioubate got to do some of that at Bama, but he was mostly known for his physical presence.
Pope loves that side of him, but he’s also called him a “point forward” for the Cats.
“He was straightforward with what he wanted and what he needed, and they kind of matched with what I was looking for,” Dioubate said of the transfer process. “I wanted to expand my game. I wanted to do more on offense and defense. And I wanted to win. And that’s one of the things that caught my eye. I saw how much he wanted to win as well.
“It didn’t take much talking for me to commit here.”
And while that growing game will be something to watch as this season unfolds, his impact on Kentucky’s program will still be grounded in grit.
“When there’s these big matchups, big games — some guys, you don’t know who’s going to show up,” Oweh said. “You don’t know if, ‘Oh, the lights are too bright.’ Or if the other team is too big or too physical. With Mo, it doesn’t matter what the game is, he’s gonna leave his impact. That’s the type of player that he is.
“And you love playing with guys like that, because you just know they’re gonna go out and compete every single night.”
That’s Mo’s M.O. Get on the court, get to work and make everyone else pay the price.
At 7-feet-tall and 250 pounds, freshman Malachi Moreno has been the biggest player in UK’s preseason practices. He has five inches and 30 pounds on Dioubate, but that’s often not enough to get the job done in the Joe Craft Center.
“He’s a bull in a china shop, man,” Moreno said.
Even though they play different positions, the two have been paired up plenty on the practice floor. Fans got to see them battle for position in the Blue-White Game this preseason. The sight of Dioubate imposing his will in the paint must have been a welcome one after last season’s team often got pushed around down low. Moreno watched a lot of those games as a recruit in the stands.
“I noticed it from day one,” he said of actually practicing against Dioubate. “... I mean, you can just tell by the way he looks that he’s just a big athletic freak.”
Statistically, Oweh’s two worst games last season came in losses to Alabama, and Dioubate’s defense and physicality played a big part in that. Brandon Garrison — the Cats’ starting center this season and the squad’s biggest practice instigator last season — smiles at the mere mention of Dioubate’s name, happy they’re on the same side now.
Pope has delighted in unleashing Dioubate on his own roster.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve coached a team where the guy that beats everybody up physically is the most beloved guy on the team,” Pope said. “He’s got this genuine authenticity about him. Because he is a genuine person. And he’s got this inner code about playing hard. It’s just his DNA. It’s just the way God made him, or his parents raised him, or both.
“And I think he’s a great — I need to find a better way to say this — but I think he’s a great lover of his teammates. I think he cares about people.”
UK basketball’s heart and soul
Even the teammates that Dioubate left behind in Tuscaloosa agree with Pope’s assessment.
At the NBA Combine over the summer, three of Bama’s most celebrated players — Mark Sears, Grant Nelson and Labaron Philon — had nothing but love for Dioubate.
Sears compared him to Dennis Rodman — arguably the best rebounder in basketball history — only with more skill. Nelson said nobody went harder in the team’s practices. All three expected him to show much more of his game in Lexington. “There’s no doubt in my mind,” Philon said.
At SEC media day more recently, Houston Mallette and Latrell Wrightsell were just as effusive in their praise for Dioubate, the player and the person. “That’s my dog,” Wrightsell said with a grin, before adding a few seconds later: “He’s willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
Mallette was Dioubate’s roommate on road trips last season.
“Mo D is the best, man. I’m happy for him,” he said. “… I love him. I have all the respect in the world for Mo D. He’s amazing. I’m going to miss him. Kentucky got a heck of a player. I mean, he plays super tough. He’s all about blue-collar basketball.”
Everybody involved knows that was not the Cats’ identity in year one of the Pope era.
“He dominated them last year, in terms of that,” Wrightsell said. “So, I mean, why not go get him? He’s gonna play hard and give it all he’s got.”
It didn’t take long for his new teammates to see it.
After the Blue-White Game, the UK head coach sat at a table answering questions, with Dioubate sitting to his right and freshman guard Jasper Johnson to his left. Pope has been talking about his team’s heightened competitiveness level all preseason, and the group was asked if there was one specific player who initiated that in practices.
Pope and Johnson both turned to look at Dioubate, who by that point wore a wide grin. All three started laughing. Pope playfully hit Dioubate with an elbow as Johnson started singing his praises. Sometimes, the freshman said, when a shot goes up early in practice, Dioubate will just hit somebody. And everyone in the gym takes it up a notch as a result.
“I just try to bring the energy to practice every day,” Dioubate said. “I understand how much these guys want to win. And, for a guy that’s played at this level before, I know what it takes to win.”
That’s why he’s here.
A week later, after Dioubate outmuscled No. 1-ranked Purdue, setting the tone in an exhibition victory in Rupp Arena, the UK coach summed up his player’s approach.
“He just plays with all his guts spilling out all over the floor. He just plays hard,” Pope said. “He’s got a lot of fans in my own family right now that are like, ‘We love this Mo Dioubate.’ And I do too.”
Last season, it didn’t take long for Lamont Butler — a fifth-year point guard — to emerge as the “heart and soul” of Kentucky’s roster. Those were Pope’s words. He said them often. Butler’s teammates agreed and repeated them, and while they managed some magical moments while he was out due to injury, that UK squad was undoubtedly at its best when Butler was on the court.
Might Dioubate be the heart and soul of Pope’s second group of Wildcats?
The UK coach considered the question for a moment, clearly not wanting to pass out such a lofty accolade before a single game had been played while knowing he’d inevitably arrive at that point.
“He could be. He could be,” Pope finally acknowledged. “That’s going to develop itself as we go through the season. But, yeah, he definitely fills that space, for sure.”
