Less than six months removed from prep school, Hamidou Diallo emerges as hot name at NBA Draft Combine

Video: Hamidou Diallo highlights
Athletic guard in action at the City of Palms Classic.

In December, Hamidou Diallo was with his Putnam Science Academy (Putnam, Conn.) teammates playing in the prestigious City of Palms Classic in Florida.

Thursday in Chicago, the New York native emerged as one of the hottest names at the NBA Draft Combine thanks to some off-the-charts numbers.

So how is Diallo – who hasn't played a minute of college basketball – draft eligible?

The 6-foot-5 guard completed his high school requirements last year and elected to spend an extra year in prep school. He enrolled at Kentucky in January but did not play for the Wildcats, though he was eligible to do so.

After Hamidou Diallo's first vertical jump attempt, they had to stop and raise the apparatus pic.twitter.com/8Rtr6QP5Fq

— Eric Crawford (@ericcrawford) May 11, 2017

Regarded as a Top 10 prospect in the Class of 2017 by 247Sports, Diallo is backing up the hype in the Windy City.
According to social media reports, he checked in at 6-5 with shoes on, possesses a 6-11.25 wingspan and a 44.5-inch vertical jump.

Diallo could elect to go back to Kentucky for his redshirt freshman season but his showing in Chicago could be making that decision tougher.