Mark Pope and Kentucky have secured their third transfer portal commitment of the offseason. On Monday, Alabama transfer power forward Mouhamed Dioubate picked the Wildcats.
Dioubate, a Queens, New York native, who will have two seasons of eligibility to use at Kentucky, spent each of his first two college seasons at Alabama, playing for coach Nate Oats.
As a freshman, he helped the Crimson Tide reach the Final Four, averaging 2.9 points and 2.4 rebounds while shooting 47.4 percent from the field in 33 games off the bench.
While he played a limited role, he did come up big in the Crimson Tide’s Round of 32 wins over Grand Canyon as he scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds, picked up two steals, and dished an assist.
This past season, he played in all 37 games off the bench, averaging 16.0 minutes of playing time. He averaged 7.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 0.9 blocks per game while shooting 61.7 percent from the field and 46.2 percent (12-for-26) from three.
Dioubate had two strong performances against Kentucky as he scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds in an SEC Tournament win over the Cats and went for eight points, eight rebounds, and three assists in a victory inside Rupp Arena.
He logged six double-doubles on the season, including going for 12 points and 12 rebounds against Florida in the SEC Tournament semifinals and 18 points and 10 rebounds in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 64 against Robert Morris. Dioubate scored a season-high 22 points in a regular season win over Vanderbilt, which saw him add 10 rebounds.
Dioubate’s 24.0 percent defensive rebound percentage ranked fifth-best in the SEC per KenPom, while his 10.8 offensive rebound percentage ranked 16th best in the conference.
He will help bring much-needed physicality and athleticism to the Wildcats and is no stranger to playing in the fast-paced offense run by Pope at Kentucky as Alabama under Oats played at the quickest tempo in all of college basketball this past season.
Dioubate will become just the fifth in school history to play for Kentucky after transferring in directly from a conference rival joining Sahvir Wheeler (Georgia), Maurice Bell (Alabama), George Zerfoss (Vanderbilt) and Twany Beckham (Mississippi State).
Jaxson Robinson, who played for Kentucky this past season, spent time in the SEC at Texas A&M and Arkansas but came to UK from BYU along with Pope.
Kentucky currently has two incoming transfers committed in Pittsburgh point guard Jaland Lowe and Tulane guard/forward Kam Williams. Pope and the Wildcats are still on the market to add one or two more pieces via the portal with another front court player and sharpshooting shooting guard being the two biggest positions of need.
So far this offseason, Kerr Kriisa is the only 2024-25 Wildcat that has entered the transfer portal so far this offseason. Kriisa committed to Cincinnati Sunday.
Keep up with all Kentucky transfer portal news with CatsPause.com’s transfer portal tracker.
