Mo Dioubate Knows What He Can Add For Kentucky

Alabama transfer Mo Dioubate, right, plans to bring a toughness to UK that the Cats lacked last season. (UK Athletics Photo)

Alabama transfer Mo Dioubate is expected to be a physical, defensive addition to Kentucky and provide a toughness, especially on defense, that coach Mark Pope’s team lacked last season.

Dioubate admitted during a recent media session that the scouting report for Kentucky last season noted a lack of physicalness by the Cats.

“I knew that was something that they lacked a little bit. So once we’d seen that, we just apply the pressure to them every time we can,” Dioubate said.  “I’m happy that I’m able to play with Kentucky this year and bring it to this team.

“I sensed the dominance that we had in those games. The aggression that we had, the energy that we had, it was unmatched during some of those games. When you smell blood in the water, you attack it. That’s what a shark does, and that was the motto last year.”

Pope expects a lot more than just physical play from the junior forward.

“Coach Pope wants to get a lot of 3’s up, and he told me not to pass up any open 3’s. Any open 3’s that I have, do not pass it on,” Dioubate told BBN Tonight’s Maggie Davis.

Dioubate was a 46 3-point shooter last season at Alabama, but he only took 26 shots. He knows he will get more 3-point attempts than he did this season.

“I feel like that’s something that I always wanted to do is to get my shooting volume higher. Coach Pope is giving me an opportunity to do that,” Dioubate told Davis. “I just got to keep working and give him the trust for me to keep doing that. That’s going to bring my game to a different level that nobody’s seen so far.”

Mark Pope described Dioubate as a guy “who can really stir the drink for us” when he transferred to UK after being part of the Elite Eight and Final Four teams during his two years at Alabama.

“I’m easy to get along with. A lot of the guys know, I’m goofy off the court. I make a lot of jokes,” Dioubate told Davis. “I bring good camaraderie to the team and to the locker room. I feel like it starts with the chemistry off the court, and it brings it on the court. I feel like I bring the love and make people comfortable. But once you’re with me on the court, they know what time it is. Guys respect that. It makes us get along pretty well.”

Greg Williams Sr., the father of UK sophomore Kam Williams, said it was obvious at the UK basketball camps in early June that Dioubate was a team leader by the way campers and UK players followed his lead.

Maybe that leadership is easy for him because Kentucky was his dream school growing up in New York.

“If I could have came there out of high school, I probably would have, you know what I’m saying? The opportunity presented itself. Where I was at that point in my life, I feel like that was the right choice for me and my family. That’s why I came here,” Dioubate said.

“When I was younger, I was watching the NBA a lot. But when I got to start watching college, that happened to be the first team that I actually liked. The players they got? It was just so good, they were so good. That’s what I expected from college players, the Kentucky players I was watching when I was younger.”