Kentucky men’s basketball will lose its fourth player in the midst of the offseason, with 6-foot-7 forward Mo Dioubate announcing his intention to enter the transfer portal on Monday afternoon.
Dioubate’s time as a Wildcat was short-lived as he spent just one season in the bluegrass.
Dioubate transferred to UK last off-season after spending his freshman and sophomore seasons under head coach Nate Oats at Alabama.
While wearing blue and white, Dioubate played in 31 of UK’s 36 games and earned 10 starts, with most of them coming towards the beginning of the season.
Dioubate averaged 8.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal per game, and capped the year off with a 54.2% field-goal percentage and a 65.2% free-throw percentage while getting to the line an average of 3.6 times per game.
The Queens, N.Y. native is known for his hard-nosed style of basketball, and we saw a paramount example of that when Kentucky downed Indiana 72-60 back on Dec. 13.
Against the Hoosiers, Dioubate exploded for 14 points, 12 rebounds and five steals, which was statistically his most complete all-around showing of the season.
“I always had that (grit) to my game, just bringing energy,” Dioubate said after the win. “No matter where I played, I have always had that spark. Once I committed, I knew I would be bringing that to the team. I just try to make it contagious. Like today, it was very contagious. Everyone was playing to that standard.”
Dioubate reached a season-high 20 points twice this season (against Eastern Illinois and Bellarmine) but reached 15-plus points five total times, showing a strong level of consistency at times.
Aside from just scoring, Dioubate totaled six-plus boards in 13 different contests and recorded more than one steal in six different games, playing a significant role outside of just putting the ball in the hoop.
In the SEC Tournament, over the course of three games where UK beat No. 16 seed LSU and No. 8 seed Missouri before losing to No. 1 seed Florida, Dioubate amounted a total of 30 points, 17 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and one steal.
In the NCAA Tournament, over a two-game span, where UK beat No. 10 seed Santa Clara before getting its season snipped by No. 2 seed Iowa State, Dioubate totaled 21 points, 11 boards, three assists, four blocks and two steals.
Dioubate joins guard Jaland Lowe and guard Jasper Johnson as one-year Cats to hit the portal, while forward Brandon Garrison, who was at UK for two seasons, is also entering his name in the transfer portal as well.
While players can reveal their intent on transferring, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope and all other coaches across the nation can’t officially contact or engage with the transfers until the portal officially opens on April 7.
