Keeping up with Ousmane N'Diaye's ongoing professional season in Italy

Before Ousmane N’Diaye makes his way to Lexington, he has a professional season in Italy to complete.

One of Kentucky’s newest signees for the 2026-27 college basketball season, N’Diaye is nearing the end of his current stretch with Vanoli Basket Cremona, which plays in Lega Basket Serie A (Italy’s top professional basketball league). In fact, the 6-foot-11 forward only has one more regular season remaining on the schedule following Sunday’s home game against Reyer Venice.

Let’s talk about that game for a second before we look ahead. N’Diaye came off the bench in Vanoli Cremona’s 111-88 blowout loss, finishing with four points and nine rebounds on 2-7 shooting (0-3 3PT) in 22 minutes. Both of his buckets came right around the rim, one a powerful putback dunk. It was actually the first time the 22-year-old was not in the starting lineup this season since his second game, which came all the way back in October. N’Diaye’s squad even lost to a familiar face, Kyle Wiltjer, who went for nine points and three rebounds in 20 minutes for Reyer Venice.

Vanoli Cremona has now picked up three straight losses — the timing couldn’t be worse for its postseason outlook, either. Only the top eight teams out of a 15-team league make the LBA playoffs. Vanoli Cremona (10-17) had a chance to sneak its way into the back end of the bracket, but now sits in 11th place in the standings with only one more regular-season game left and no shot of making the postseason. As it turns out, this was actually the final home game the club will ever play in the city of Cremona.

N’Diaye will finish his season with Vanoli Cremona this Sunday against Trieste Basketball. Through 27 games, the future Wildcat has averaged 9.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per outing while shooting 52.7 percent on two-pointers, 29.6 percent on three-pointers, and 82.8 percent on free throws. Once his playing time in Italy is officially in the books, the hope will be to get him on campus with the rest of his teammates sometime in June.

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