Kentucky redshirt freshman Hamidou Diallo was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week after helping propel Kentucky to a 93-86 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday.
Diallo filled up the stat sheet for the Wildcats in their best victory of the young season. He scored 20 points, had five rebounds, knocked down a team-high four 3-poiners and corralled three steals.
He was particularly clutch for UK down the stretch. Ahead 75-71, Diallo made a 3-pointer with 4:54 to go to give UK its then-largest lead of the game at 78-71. Then, clinging to an 85-83 advantage, Diallo swished another 3 with 48 second left to keep the visitors at bay.
His four 3-pointers and three steals were all career highs. He’s posted three consecutive games with at least two steals and four consecutive outings with at least 19 points.
Diallo is averaging 20.3 points over his last four games and made 30 of 56 shots (53.6 percent) during that stretch.
The honor is the first of the Queens, New York, native’s career and the first weekly honor of the season for the Wildcats. It’s the deepest into a season Kentucky has gone without winning an SEC honor in the John Calipari era. UK has won more SEC Freshman of the Week honors and more total SEC weekly awards than any other school during Calipari’s nine seasons.
Diallo and the Cats return to action in the CBS Sports Classic in New Orleans on Saturday. UK will take on UCLA at 4 p.m. ET in the Smoothie King Center.
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