It only took a few exhibition games, but after some early struggles, a number of Kentucky fans were started to criticize Zoom Diallo and with Mason Williams playing the way he has been over the last few weeks, some even questioning him starting moving forward. The light criticism is fair, but it's worth noting that we're only one game into the regular season.

Diallo struggled early during Kentucky's exhibition slate, but that's to be expected when you're coming in and learning an entirely new system than what he played in at his previous school. Mark Pope noted that after Kentucky's preseason games concluded when asked about his struggles.

"Zoom, like, all of our guys are learning a new way to play and it's actually inspiring to watch them learn and grow, and Zoom is trying to make his game as simple and forceful as he can," Pope said after Kentucky's win over UCF. "He's got a chance to be an elite-level floor general for us. He's seen a new challenge all three games and I'm telling you, he's gonna have big moments for us and make huge contributions."

After the season-opener against Manhattan, Pope was asked about the cheers that Diallo received pregame and what that meant to him, as he made some big plays during the game, even comparing his point guard's mindset to a recent story he heard.

"Zoom is an integral part of this team. Sometimes you nitpick individual plays or individual stats or individual things, and we are all drawn to that because those are the easy stories to tell. Zoom is like the great connector of our team. I heard a great sermon a couple of weeks ago about a gentleman talking about a story where his buddy asked him to go on 100 miler with him. He ran the first 90 miles, and he dropped underneath of a tree ust about dead, like, I can’t do it. His friend knelt down beside him and gave him a hand. They staggered the last 10 miles, if you could imagine the last 10 miles together. And they actually finished right before the finish line and his friend said, hey, you go enjoy this finished by yourself, you did this. So, he saw a picture months later that was taken just at that exact moment when his friend, who kind of carried him through the race, told him to go finish by himself. And he saw for the first time that his friend was not just carrying his pack with all of his water and nutrition and everything else, he was carrying his also. He carried it the last 10 miles. That is Zoom Diallo. That’s who he is. He is carrying the pack for every guy on this team."

Seeing the fans get behind Diallo fter a week of what felt like just a ton of bashing coming from a portion of the fanbase was really great to see. That fueled him to a 12-point performance and a lot to build on early in the season.

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