By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Hamidou Diallo is looking forward to returning home. So is Nick Richards.
A native of Queens, New York, the Kentucky freshman forward will get a chance to play in front of family and friends when the eighth-ranked Wildcats take on Monmouth in a noon contest set for Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s going to be great,” Diallo said. “I haven’t played there in a long time. It’s just going to be a great experience to see all who’s coming out. I’ve got a lot of family coming that haven’t seen me play in person in a long time. It’s going to be a great atmosphere because Monmouth has a couple of New York guys on their team as well. It’s just going to be a great atmosphere and I’m going to enjoy it.”
Hamidou Diallo will be playing at Madison Square Garden for the first time when he returns to his home state Saturday. (Jeff Houchin Photo)
Although Diallo will be familiar with his surroundings this weekend, it will be his first time playing at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s every kid’s dream who’s from New York to play there,” Diallo said. “I’m just going to go out there and treat it like it’s another game.”
Much like Diallo, Richards, also a freshman will return to his home state. Richards, from Manhasset, New York, played at The Patrick School in New Jersey. Richards is looking forward to returning to New York and will compete against former high school teammate Marcus McClary.
“It’s going to be the same as when I played against Harvard when I played against (former high school teammate) Bryce Aiken,” he said. “You’re friends off the court and after the game and right before the game, but we’re going to compete as basketball players during the game.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari said the brief excursion to New York gives his team a chance to “get away” before completing final exams next week.
“Going into the Garden, going into the Barclays (Center), we try to do it every year,” he said. “It’s a good trip. We have guys from there on the team, whether they’re bringing family from up in New England or Philadelphia or New York area, they get to be with family. I wish it was a later game so we could maybe even stay overnight, but it’s a noon game so we’ll probably leave right after to come back. They do have finals next week, so most of the rest of Saturday and Sunday will be—and they’re all loaded up. They all have one or two finals on Monday.”
The contest will be Kentucky’s first noon game of the season and Calipari is more interested in his team performs rather than focus on Monmouth (3-5) which carries a two-game losing streak into the Citi Hoops Classic. The Hawks, coached by former North Carolina standout King Rice, lost at Connecticut 84-81 in overtime and dropped an 85-84 loss to Hofstra earlier this week.
Calipari said Monmouth has “really good guard play” and “really big and physical inside” and added his team had “better show up and play.”
“I’m more concerned about just let’s go 40 minutes and see what happens. It’s a noon game. Hard to play at noon. Normally at noon whoever shows up to play wins the game. So let’s just hope we’re showing up to play, and we have a chance to do what we need to do.”
The past two weeks gave Calipari and his staff an opportunity to spend more time on the practice floor. Calipari has been pleased with his team’s progress, but added the Wildcats (6-1) also like to revert back to old habits.
“That’s how this has been,” the Kentucky coach said. “I don’t want to be the guy that has to go crazy to get them to compete and play, because if I am that means they’re real close to letting go of the rope. And when we get in the game and it’s really hard, the other team’s giving it, that’s when that team lets go of that rope. You’re seeing teams, some of them lose to mid-major teams, you’re seeing it now. I mean these teams we played, they all had a chance to beat us, but we fought to win.”
Gametracker: Kentucky vs. Monmouth at Madison Square Garden, noon, Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPNU, 98.1 FM, WBUL, Lexington.
Keith Taylor is sports editor for Kentucky Today. Reach him at keith.taylor@kentuckytoday.com or twitter @keithtaylor21.
