LAWRENCE
Late Sunday evening, in the hours after the Kansas men’s basketball team had left a weekend practice at Allen Fieldhouse, Cheick Diallo pulled out his cell phone and tapped out a text message for his head coach.
For months, this had become a nightly routine. As Diallo, a 6-foot-9 freshman, waited for an update on his status from the NCAA Eligibility Center, he took solace in a nightly correspondence with Bill Self. On most nights, Diallo says, he would send a simple four-word message: “Hey Coach, what’s up?”
Self knew exactly what Diallo was asking, knew that the centerpiece of his recruiting class was hurting, and for close to three months, he had no answer.