Summer practice is about to get underway as Mark Pope and his staff look to make some noise in his third season in Lexington. With a nearly full new roster, these upcoming workouts will be important for gauging this Kentucky Basketball team heading into the fall.
Luckily, they will get to do so with their full roster.
The men’s basketball Twitter account has been rolling out introductions of the players as they arrive back on campus, and we got one that may be a little surprising to the BBN: Ousmane
N’Diaye has already made it to campus.
Why is this a big deal? Because international prospects like N’Diaye often don’t make it to campus until later in the summer and miss most, if not all of the summer practices.
This was the case last year with Andrija Jelavic, who didn’t arrive until the middle of August and missed the entire summer practice season. That may or may not have contributed to Jelavic’s early struggles before he started carving out a consistent role in SEC play.
Thankfully, N’Diaye will now get a full summer of work with his new teammates, which very well may help him win the starting 4 spot when the season tips off. He’s going to get two extra months of development and chemistry building that Jelavic did not have last year.
N’Diaye seems to be the mysterious piece to the puzzle for this roster. With plenty of talent, the fanbase has yet to see an international player come in and make a major impact in Year 1.
Despite that, the hype around his game and his film should show he is vastly different than the other guys who have been Cats over the last several seasons.
With him now in Lexington, we will get some answers on his game sooner rather than later. Going to be a fun summer to follow along.
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