When Mark Pope is evaluating players out of the transfer portal he looks at a variety of qualities.
As he's said before and did most recently in a Wednesday conversation with Jon Rothstein, Pope talked about the importance of shooting, decision-making, and defensive communication.
Pope likes that it's easier to evaluate players out of the portal because there's a track record at the college level. A track record on the court, with teammates, on social media.
But in at least a couple of cases, very little digging was required. The evaluation came easy. Pope saw Denzel Aberdeen with the Gators and Mouhamed Dioubate with Alabama in his first season coaching the Wildcats.
In fact, when it came to Aberdeen, Pope didn't need to see anything at all.
"There was no evaluation," Pope told Rothstein in that interview this week. "My evaluation came in the two weeks we were trying to do background prep and then prep for our game against Florida. It was the first game of the SEC season. So I had some familiarity with their team but as I dug more into their film I was like, 'This cat coming off the bench is terrifying to me.' He certainly proved it throughout the course of the season."
Aberdeen averaged 7.7 points in 19.7 minutes per game for Florida, which won the national championship, and he shot 35% from three-point range in the process.
Aberdeen scored four points (2/5 FG) in 15 minutes in a 106-100 loss to Kentucky at Rupp Arena last season. But he had a bigger impact and played more minutes in most of Florida's other SEC games.
Mouhamed Dioubate may have only played 16 minutes per game for Alabama last season, but Mark Pope lights up when he talks about the Crimson Tide transfer.
Part of that is surely because Alabama had a deep, talented team, so simply earning rotation minutes for Nate Oats is a sign you can play.
But there's more to it than that, something more specific to the qualities Dioubate brings, that seems to animate Pope. Dioubate is the kind of player whose internal wiring shows up in the way he plays the game. It's evident in his highlights from last season.
"He punished us. I don't like to say it but he punished us three straight games this season," Pope said. "It was not a happy time for us."
In Alabama's 99-70 win against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament, Dioubate played 22 minutes and had 13 points on 5/6 FG with eight rebounds. He had four points and five rebounds in only 14 minutes in Alabama's home win against the Cats.
In the first meeting between the teams Dioubate scored eight points and had eight rebounds, committing five fouls in only 15 minutes. But he sparked Alabama. The Tide was +21 in those minutes.
"He shot the ball at a ridiculous clip on low volume," Pope said. "He was a 43% three-point shooter on low volume. But where he was most dangerous, clearly he's an elite level defender 1 through 5, very much a Draymond Green feel defensively. His ball screen derived offense on limited possessions, just less than 20 possessions, is in the top two percent in the country as the pick and roll ball handler. His ability there is terrifying, it's joyful for me as a coach. He is a guy who can really stir the drink for us. The way we invert the game when we have our bigs carrying such a load as decision makers on offense, he is tailor made for what we do. And he's got these big shoulders and just rams through your chest. His physicality is elite on both the offensive and defensive side. He's a gamer."
