There's no surprise here. Coach John Calipari has made an art form of the one-and-done college player —- it's not his fault, he's just better than anyone at playing by these rules —- and today, UK announced their top seven(!) players are making themselves available for the NBA draft.
Karl-Anthony Towns, who could No. 1 overall; Devin Booker, Trey Lyles, the Harrison twins, Dakari Johnson and Willie Cauley-Stein are all leaving. Towns is a strong rim protector who can defend the low post, but needs work on his offense. Kentucky will lose even more height with 7'0" junior Cauley-Stein and 7'0" sophomore Johnson also declaring. And UK will need to replenish elsewhere, as sophomore guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison —- the Harrison twins —- two freshman forwards, Trey Lyles and Devin Booker are also bolting. Kentucky got a little creative with how it went about declaring as well:
“If you’ve decided to put your name in the NBA Draft stand up.” - Calipari pic.twitter.com/GAa48GENbb
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) April 9, 2015
Alex Poythress is still deciding if he wants to leave Kentucky for the pros. He is still recovering from a torn ACL
That's one hell of a team, and most programs would collapse with that type of talent exodus. But not UK. The Wildcats have already signed three of the top 50 prospects for next season. And with a bevy of undeclared top prospects, UK could still land more players to fill in the gaps.
Here's how the newly declared NBA prospects stack up on Chad Ford's Big Board:
We’ll probably be seeing these players on June 25 during the NBA draft pic.twitter.com/6CFuQIAiDF
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 9, 2015
And if you were wary of freshmen declaring too early maybe you want to consider this:
3 Kentucky freshmen (Towns, Lyles, Booker) declare for draft. All 9 freshmen who declared last year were taken in 1st rd – 7 in the lottery
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 9, 2015
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