BY RICK BURCHFIELD
The season is over. Kentucky’s championship hopes ended with an unexpected run to the Final Four, where they met a foe that had previously bested the ‘Cats all the way back in November in a tournament that took place in Hawaii. Yes. The 2011 National Champion Huskies of UConn and their standout player Kemba Walker were 2-0 this year against the Wildcats. Once in the preseason Maui Invitational tournament and again in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. If you ask Kentucky fans which one they’d have back, I’ll give you three guesses as to which one they’d take, and the first two don’t count!
The season ended in traditional bracket busting fashion, seeing the Wildcats, a No. 4 seed, reach a historic Final Four that didn’t feature a No.1 or No. 2 for the first time. For Kentucky basketball fans, the only thing left to do now is look ahead to next season. Once again, John Calipari and his staff have rounded up and signed some of this years elite high school prospects and for the third straight year will bring the No. 1 recruiting class in the country to Lexington. All the players are 5-star recruits, and were heavily recruited by some of the nations top programs, but decided that Kentucky was the place for them next year.
Even more, all of the incoming class of players recently put their skills on display at the star-studded USA Men’s Nike Hoops Summit in Portland, Ore. All of Kentucky’s 2011 class were present, and they fared quite well, leaving a sense of excitement I’m sure any Kentucky basketball fan would welcome wholeheartedly.
- Kyle Wiltjer (F) – had 12-points, two were from beyond the arch.
- Michael Gilchrist (F) – had 16-points and 5-blocks.
- Anthony Davis (F) – led the USA team with 16-points and 10-rebounds.
- Marquis Teague (G) – had a poor shooting game and went 3-10, but was a starter.
“The greatest thing is that all four kids are great kids,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said Monday morning. “It’ll be fun. They want to do this together. They take on a roll, a swagger and an arrogance, but that’s based on their talent. They’ve got a ways to go. They all want to win, not just want to play.”
So, we know these guys are coming to Kentucky, but who will they be joining in the blue and white next year?
Interestingly, Kentucky freshman point-guard Brandon Knight, who hit game-winning shots to beat Princeton and Ohio State in the NCAA tournament and led the Wildcats in scoring at 17.3 points per game, along with freshman classmate Terrence Jones, who averaged a second-best 15.7 points per game, haven’t yet decided whether or not to declare for the draft.
Calipari talked to both players last week after returning from the Final Four, and said he would meet with them again Monday or Tuesday. Underclassmen have until April 24 to declare and May 8 to withdraw from the draft.
“They probably need to test the waters and see where they are before they make a decision,” Calipari said. “They have to find out where they would fall. But this [NBA] lockout looms. Normally I would suggest that you’ve got to do this, but if an agent is paying you [during the lockout] then you’re going to have to pay him back and probably with interest.
“I’m not going to influence them — I’m going to give them my opinion,” Calipari added. “These kids have to live with any of these decisions. I don’t want a player coming back if his heart isn’t into it or thought he should have left. Daniel Orton chose to leave [last year]; no one forced him out the door.”
Now that the NCAA tournament is over and college basketball is done for the next six months, Kentucky fans are playing the waiting game to see who stays and who goes. Well, there are some influences in play, like ESPN’s Top 100 draft board that has freshman guard Brandon Knight going in the first round, 10th overall as a lottery pick. And fellow freshman Terrance Jones going right behind him, 11th overall, also as a first round lottery pick. What does this mean? Nobody knows for sure. But what might be more interesting to see is that a player who was supposed to be a contributor on the court for Kentucky this year and was ruled ineligible, and didn’t play a single second as a Kentucky Wildcat, Enes Kanter, is projected as the 7th overall pick in the draft, above both freshman standouts Knight and Jones. Obviously NBA scouts believe Kanter’s ability to play at the next level is unwavering, despite the fact that he hasn’t been in a basketball game the whole time he’s been in Lexington.
Nevertheless, the fact is that the deadline to declare for the NBA draft is April 24. So, Kentucky basketball fans, we must sit. Sit and wait for the news to break. Of the six players who played pivotal roles for this years Final Four Kentucky side, only one, Josh Harrellson, is a definite leave, since he was the only senior. The rest, Knight, Jones, Lamb, Miller, and Liggins, all have the option to come back next year. If they do decide to stay, many people say it would be one of the most talented Kentucky teams in history, if not the most talented. Even bettering, if I dare say, the 1996 “Untouchables” Kentucky side that brought home an NCAA national championship and saw nine players eventually play in the NBA. Maybe they would be one of the best college teams to ever take the court, well, here’s to hoping. Either way, next season promises to be another exciting and electrifying one, as they have been since the Calipari era, regardless of who stays around from this years squad.
So, how good could Kentucky be if we saw the freshman stars and the other starters stick around for awhile? Great? The greatest? We don’t know yet. But what we do know is there certainly are some high hopes in Lexington and this is just another chapter being written in the saga and tradition that is Kentucky basketball.
QUOTES COURTESY OF: ANDY KATZ and www.espn.com
