Through the Zoom Lens: Diallo Responds Why Not Washington?

The point guard from Tacoma is engaging and ready to embrace his local legacy.

UW freshman point guard Zoom Diallo met with the media this week. / Dan Raley

Danny Sprinkle invited media members for a look at his University of Washington basketball team and the first thing any of us felt compelled to do was call up a Husky roster on an iPhone and begin connecting names to the numbers.

For a good half hour, this collection of mostly unfamiliar faces played with a great sense of urgency, often receiving extra frank feedback from Sprinkle and his army of assistant coaches.

While it's not immediately clear if these new players can shoot adequately enough from 3-point range or make a difference with hard-nosed defense, they won't go lacking for effort. They played hard with outside eyes on them.

Looking around, the guy who wears No. 1, the player everyone wanted to meet and interview, was nowhere to be found -- the great Great Osobor was home ill, recovering from strep throat. These guys played on without him, though they don't want to make it a habit.

Next on my list at least was No. 9, Zoom Diallo, the freshman point guard from Tacoma, Washington, certain to be a fan favorite because of his local ties, his well-advertised smooth style of play and did we not mention he is extremely personable?

Asked why, with unlimited college choices, he stayed home to play for the Huskies, something not done with great fanfare since players such as Isaiah Thomas, Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson made it trendy, the 6-foot-4, 180-pound Diallo answered that question with a question?

"Man, why not?" he shot back with piercing brown eyes. "I ask you why not?"

As he explained himself, Diallo stood below banners hanging overhead that included the retired numbers for Thomas, another Tacoma product and No. 2 when he played, and Roy, from Seattle, No. 3 in his time and the most decorated Husky basketball player in modern times.

"If they did it, why couldn't I do it?" Diallo explained. "They're some of the Seattle greats, Washington greats. Why not just stay home and have your full circle, and have everybody you grew up with, just supporting you? That's one reason I would say I came to Washington."

He also arrived in Montlake with a sense of humor. Asked by FOX 13 sportscaster Alyssa Charlston-Smith, herself a former college basketball player for Idaho, about being the Seattle-area hoopster who stayed home, Diallo corrected her with a certain amount of deadpan.

"Sorry to cut you off -- Tacoma," he said.

Diallo actually committed to Mike Hopkins' Husky program well before the seven-year coach was fired at the end of last season and then reaffirmed his UW decision once Sprinkle took over. He needed a moment before choosing to continue on with the original plan.

"It took a lot of thinking," he said. "It was a big thought process for me and my family. After the first few conversations I had with Sprinkle, I knew that was just the guy i wanted to be my head coach. He was coming into this program and he had a different mindset and different goal with U-Dub basketball, and that's something I wanted to be part of."

Diallo told reporters he has been working on his outside shooting, that he is ready to play wherever and however Sprinkle wants him.

He also is coming to grips with the realization that his UW basketball career is about to unfold with an exhbition game against Western Oregon in two weeks and the season opener against UC Davis in early November. He is guided by the spirit of that local connection.

"It means a lot," Diallo said. "it was just like yesterday when I was, you know, watching guys playing in the tournament, just watching the throwback of Isaiah Thomas' [Pac-10 tournament] game-winner. Being able to to have guys like that that I'm close with and put on that U-Dub jersey, and the fact I'm going to be able to put it on in the next couple weeks, it's just a blessing, a dream come true."

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington