CHICAGO — Hamidou Diallo hasn’t played an organized basketball game since his final one with his Connecticut prep school, Putnam Science Academy, at Florida’s IMG Academy four days before Christmas.
That was nearly five months ago.
Diallo, a highly recruited swingman from Queens, didn’t play a single game for the University of Kentucky after enrolling there in January. And this week he did not compete in 5-on-5 play at the N.B.A.’s draft combine here.
So why does his stock appear to be on the rise ahead of next month’s draft? The master of the one-and-done, Coach John Calipari of Kentucky, thinks he understands the thinking.