Zoom Diallo, Former Curtis HS and Now Huskies B-Ball Guard

Zoom Diallo, former Curtis High School and now Washington Huskies basketball guard, joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about his decision to stay at UW, pressure to help turn around the program, being at a prep school recently, and his on-court skills.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Live from the R and R FoundationSpecialists Broadcast Studio. Now back to Softie
and Dick on your home for theHuskies and the Kraken Sports Radio ninety three
point three KJR FM. Here's thispass picked off. Zoom Dalla's going to
big one two and he will throwit down with two heads. Jallo's been
going and he hits again. Threeball answered by Sooomdallo. He's got thirteen

(00:25):
zipped the round ball loose, onesecond left and that will do it.
The curtis my gigs, hep godback to back. You know what.
You may have stumbled upon something rightthere, Dick, what's up when zoom
Diallo starts dropping thirty five foot threes? It's boom d'allo? I like that.
I wonder if our next guest agreeswith that, maybe for a nickname.

(00:47):
Joining us right now on the radioshows. Gonna be a new look
Husky basketball roster in the fall,no question. A bunch of transfers including
Great Usa Bor from Utah State,A Casey a Beckwave from Oregon State showing
up, DJ Davis from Butler,and this guy right here Curtis High School
out a prolific prep in Napa Californialocal hero coming back home to help out

(01:11):
the dogs. Zoom Diallo is withus right now on the radio station.
Zoom. How are you, man? Man, I'm doing good. How
you got doing right? Doing great? Man? We are so fired up
to have you on this basketball teamnext year. You got no idea.
Tell us about this entire process,my friend. Take us through the last
maybe year and a half, acouple of years for you. You're playing

(01:32):
basketball for Curtis. You heard thecall there from my buddy over here,
Dick Fane. Then you head downto NAPA, you commit to Mike Hopkins,
he gets let go, and nowyou're going to come back and stay
and play for Danty Sprinkle. What'syour life been like the last year and
a half or so? Man,Man, my life has been, you
know, filled with a lot ofblessings. Man, That's the first way
I can put him. Man,I've been blessed, you know, my

(01:53):
whole life thing. I appreciate abunch of stuff coming my way to summon
up. You know, had agreat junior year his high school end.
I went back to back with youknow, legendary coach coach Kelly. You
know, I felt like, youknow, what I What happened over there
at Curtis, you know, issomething I'll never forget. Ended up,
you know, having the opportunity tocome, you know, play at prolific

(02:15):
prep, you know, the preplevel one of the it was the opportunity
that I wanted to take. Cameover here Napa California, played with you
know, a bunch of top talent, you know, got better. That
was the ultimate goal. While Iwanted to come got better you know,
ended up falling short at the endfor a national championship, but uh,
it was all good. You know. Then throughout the season, you know,

(02:37):
I made my decision, you knowto come home when it become a
Husky, wanted to you know,stay home. And then uh, you
know, coach Hop ended up gettingfired. So then, uh, you
know, I was just trying tofigure out what I wanted to do.
But I always knew I wanted tostay home. Once I heard the other
potential coach Sprinkles thing, and Iheard nothing but good things about coach.
You know, I wanted to youknow, build a conversation with him and

(03:00):
you know, get things going.And then you know, I had a
few great conversations with him, andthen you know, I told myself,
man, you know what I wantto stay. I want him to be
my coach. So you know I'vebeen happy and excited to you know,
staying being a dog. Your originalcommitment, Zoom to you, Dub came
at a time where, let's faceit, the Husky basketball program was was
not doing great things, and Iknow you want to do great things.

(03:21):
So why did you originally commit toMike Hopkins in a situation that certainly wasn't
ideal at the time you committed.I mean, the biggest thing in my
recruitment was, you know, Iwanted to stay home. I wanted to
be very very close to our supportsystem and you know, me being from

(03:42):
Washington growing up, you know,always watch Husky basketball. I wanted to
be somewhere comfortable and you know,there's no there's no bad feeling staying home.
So that was the biggest, ultimatereason for me going home. I
knew that I was going to bestressed free, no matter what ups and
downs, I was gonna have familysurrounded by me. So that's really what
I wanted. Well, I gottatell you, man, I know I

(04:04):
said this in the open. I'llsay it again. Zoom Diallo is with
us. I just speak for meand Dick and Jackson, our producer,
that we are so fired up foryou to come to this basketball team.
And I've mentioned before, just goingback like fifty years, you know,
Don James got a running back namedJoe Steele from Blanchett High School to stay
home. It was kind of thecatalyst. Chris Peterson got Buddha Baker to
stay home and turn down the OregonDucks. And I've said many times,

(04:27):
zoom on this show, Danny Sprinkle, getting you to stay here and help
him get this whole thing turned aroundcould be just like what those players did
for the football side. But Idon't want to put a bunch of pressure
on you, for God's sakes,right, I mean, you're you're seventeen,
eighteen years old. Do you feelthat do you feel any of that
pressure to kind of really be thecatalyst to kind of help turn this basketball

(04:47):
thing around. I mean, I'llbe lying to saying if there's no pressure
at all. But you know,again, I feel like we have,
you know, with the new staffand the new group of guys, I
feel like we have a group that'sreally ready to turn this around. This
is not only a thing that's juston me. This is a team effort
from the athletic trainers, from thecoaching staff, and the players. I

(05:10):
feel like we all have a chanceto, you know, be ready to
turn this thing around, and I'mvery excited to get it in with the
guys. Zoom. You had agreat junior year with a great coach.
I mean, I've known Tim Kellyfor decades and I think he's one of
the best high school basketball coach asthe state has ever seen. But you
decided to go down to NAPA.Talk about that decision. Why you decided
to leave, you know, thetraditional high school setting for the prep school

(05:34):
right. You know again, Iended up winning my back to back state
championship, Zach Curtis, which issomething that I will never forget. And
like you said, legendary coach Kelly, a person who I grew up watching
he coached. My brother always wantedto play for coach Kelly. You know.
After me, you know, winningmy second state championship, I decided

(05:56):
that I really wanted to take thenext step in my game and kind of
get prepared to my freshman year incollege. So, you know, me
and my family then had a talk. Uh, there's a few opportunities come
my way, and again I knewI wanted to stay very close to home.
So you know, a prolific prepthey called, uh, gave me
their pitch and again not too farfrom me from Washington, not too far

(06:16):
from Washington at all, and youknow, just everything that I wanted.
So I ended up making the moveand I feel like it was the next
step for me to you know,get to the next level. So can
you talk a little bit more abouta prep school because I think, you
know, the general public might thinkof prep school is like, Okay,
it's a basketball factory. You don'tdo any school, You just play basketball.
What is the what is the realityof what a prep school is like

(06:39):
and why it's different than your publicschool. I mean, a prep school
basically how to put it, kindof like how you just said it,
it's really really mainly focused on basketball. Again, your schedule is really surrounded
around basketball. Again, classes,you know, there's certain there's certain different

(06:59):
class actually depending on prep schools.You know, some schools have a high
school, some school do online school. We actually had a high school,
so you know, we actually hadto attend classes. But again, prep
school is basically surrounded by just yourbasketball schedule. I mean you're traveling almost
every weekend, going to different statesin the country, playing against high level
talent. You're kind of getting preparedto kind of be on your own.

(07:21):
Really. I mean most people thatcome to prep school that are going away
from home, so you're kind ofbeing able to live on your own,
being way more responsible, being mature. So that's really what I wanted to
do. You know, going intomy freshman year, I knew that I
was kind of going to be livingon my own, having to grow up,
So I just told myself, whynot just start early? Why not
just start early? Why not justyou know, compete with top level guys.

(07:44):
That also what the same goal asme, which is to get to
the next step after college, isthe NBA. So that was really much
the best way to put up prepis really surrounded by basketball. So yeah,
well, dude, I'm getting firedup hearing you talk. I can
wait to see you on the Icannot wait to see you as a representative
for Washington. I mean, youcan see your highlights all over the internet,

(08:05):
and when I see you, Ijust see a difference maker. I
see a playmaker. I see aproducer on both ends of the floor.
For those that have not watched youplay, it's kind of hard to like,
you know, do do a scoutingreporting yourself. But tell people what
Zoom Diallo brings to this basketball team. Man. First thing, first,
I would say winner. You knoweverything about me, everything about me has

(08:30):
winning traits. You know, Ido everything on the court to you know,
get the job done, which isthe win. You know, quick
way to describe my play style.You know, I'm a playmaker. I'm
I'm the dude on the court that'sgonna make plays not only for myself but
for others. You know, I'ma real vocal leader, you know from
my position of being a point guard. That's what I learned at an early
age, having to be a vocalleader. So, you know, me

(08:52):
coming in as a freshman, youknow, I'm ready to, you know,
just show everybody that you know,I'm not just I'm not just the
freshman. You know, I wantto you know, make big steps and
you know, help the program.So you know, I'm just going to
be the guy that, you know, continue to make plays, even if
that's on the offensive side, onthe defensive side, and you know,
Yeah, that's pretty much it toput it in some of it up.

(09:13):
Well, some of what impresses methe most about you is that I love
point guards that don't look for theirsfirst. They look for their teammates first,
and then they can score. Theyhave the ability to score, and
you do that, you look forother guys first. When did that kind
of first start? When did youtruly become a distributor of the basketball?

(09:35):
Man? It has to go.I have to give credit to, you
know, my long term trainer mentorPJ PJ Price. You know, I
grew up, you know, surroundedby basketball, and you know one thing
that hate the emphasize about me was, you know, again, everybody can
score the ball. You know,everybody is going to be worried about putting
the twenty points to thirty points.What are you gonna do to what are

(09:58):
you gonna do to be different?What are you gonna do to show that
you're a winner, that you're gonnamake winning plays. So, you know,
I kind of grew up with youknow, him being in my ear
saying, hey, you know,you're not always gonna have to be the
guy that always gets thirty points twentypoints. You know, why don't you
make your teammates, why don't youmake sure that everybody around you is happy
to play with you feel good playingwith you. So you know, me

(10:18):
seeing other people you know put theball in the basket, it only not
makes me feel good, It makesmy teammates feel good and they give them
confidence. And that's what you wantedto point guard. You want to give
your teammates confidence and you know,be that leader. Well, I gotta
tell you, man before you go, And again, dude, thanks for
doing this, looking forward again toknow you when you get back to campus.
So you're graduating soon from your prepschool, So congratulations on that.

(10:39):
By the way, Zoom Diallo numberfive point guard in the country via two
four seven is with us on theear And I love asking guys like you,
who did you just say no to? Who did you turn down?
Who was number two on your listwhen you came to you, dumb number
two on my list? Tell meit was good, Zaga, and you

(11:01):
can call them again and say noagain, man, Yeah, number two
on my list? Uh yeah,I mean really the truth it was you
got your wist, dad, yougot your wish, but no, yeah

(11:22):
it was zag boom, Hey,hilarious. Zoom. It's great to have
you on the air. Looking forwardto talking more down the road. What
do you think about the idea whenyou drain a big thirty five foot three
Tony Casher come boom dallo instead ofzoom dallo. You cool that? Oh?
Yeah, for sure. We canget that on T shirt right there?
Man. That fund good. Hey. I'll call my guys at Simply

(11:45):
Seattle and they'll have it up tomorrowon their website. If you want to
do that, we can make thathappen. By the way, like two
years ago, I would have beenarrested for saying star. That was a
whole new world. Man. Hey, listen, great stuff. Congratulations and
everything you've done so far. Godogs and we'll talk to you right man.
I appreciate you guys for having I'mvery thankful. Thank you again.
Love it. Man. God darnare you kidding me with that guy.

(12:09):
We just found the representative for Huskybasketball for twenty twenty four to twenty five
right there. That's him. That'sthe leader of that basketball team. That
dude, there's no question about it. I mean, you've got and what's
great is you've got this guy whosounds like he's twenty two, right,
I mean he sounds like a fifthyear senior. And then you actually do

(12:30):
have a fifth year senior that's goingto be an All conference player in great
osabord I mean inside outside game.I'm telling you right now, this team
is playing in March in the bigbracket. Okay, just book it right
now, and the Big Ten isnot going to be able to handle this
basketball team. First of all,you're a million times better than you were

(12:52):
last year, and you're going intoa conference that's not as good. Now,
I'm just trying to think in mymind's eye, how many Big Ten
teams have athletes like that. Imean they play they play a Bob Coosey
nineteen fifties style of basketball. Theirbest player was seven to six, right,
And these guys will show up andthey will start running them to death
in that conference. So I'm withyou, man, totally with you.

(13:15):
All right. For forty one,we're gonna break textimonials and then Brett Boone
we go from Boom to Boone atfive on ninety three three kJ A RFM