Mo Dioubate Can't Believe He Gets To Play For His Dream School, Kentucky

Mo Dioubate has played at the highest level of college basketball at the Final Four. It’s the venue that kids dream of playing in. Right now, Dioubate is living the dream at Kentucky.

If you’ve followed Kentucky basketball, you’ve heard plenty of prospective high school recruits describe Kentucky as their “dream school.” It isn’t lip service for the Alabama transfer. He told BBN Tonight’s Maggie Davis that he idolized the Cats while watching college hoops as a teenager in Queens.

“Since I was a kid, Kentucky was my dream school. A lot of people don’t know that. Kentucky was my dream school. To wear the jersey and to play with it, it’s like the best thing that could have happened to me so far in my life,” Dioubate said.

“I always tell guys, don’t ever think you can’t achieve a goal or something. I even doubted myself for a while. I didn’t think I could play here. I didn’t think I was able to coming out of high school with the schools I was offered, where I was projected. I just can’t wait to put the jersey on and play in front of the fans.”

He was 13 years old when De’Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo, and Malik Monk were lighting up scoreboards. That’s what drew him to Kentucky. His love for the Cats grew exponentially when he saw another kid from Queens star for the Cats.

Dioubate won a National Championship at Putnam Science Academy. It’s the same school where Hamidou Diallo won a Prep National Championship.

Diallo was thrilled when he learned Dioubate would also wear Kentucky blue, and shared some advice to the forward. “Stay in the gym. There’s going to be a lot of distractions that come your way. Stay in the gym and stay focused,” Dioubate recalled.

During his first days in the Joe Craft Center, Dioubate paused for a moment of reflection.

“I was there by myself, and I was thinking, ‘Damn, I’m really here. It really happened.'” He added, “It still feels like a dream sometimes.”

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