On Wednesday, five University of Kentucky basketball players announced they will be leaving school to enter the NBA Draft, including four freshman.
The four freshman leaving the Wildcats program are John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton and Eric Bledsoe. Junior Patrick Patterson also announced he will be leaving.
Those five players constituted the bulk of Kentucky’s offense, combining for 60.7 points of the Wildcats 79.4 per game average this past season.
Suffice it to say, coach John Calipari will need to replenish his roster to offset the personnel losses.
According to recruiting service Scout.com, the Wildcats have received commitments from two prep prospects.
Stacey Poole, a 6-5 small forward rated as the 58th best prep prospect in the nation, signed a Letter of Intent with Kentucky in September 2009.
In March, Calipari received a commitment from Enes Kanter, a 6-9 center from Tarzana, California.
Kentucky appears to be the front runner for the nation’s No.1 prep player, Brandon Knight. The 6-3 point guard will be a key replacement for the departing Wall
The Wildcats are also in the mix for several more of the nation’s best prep prospects. C.J. Leslie, a 6-8 forward from Raleigh, North Carolina, lists Kentucky and North Carolina State as his favorites.
Josh Selby, a 6-2 guard from Baltimore, appears to have narrowed his choices to Kentucky, Kansas and Arizona.
Terrence Jones, a 6-9 forward from Portland, Oregon is considering Kentucky along with UCLA, Oklahoma, Washington and Oregon.
Doron Lamb, a 6-4 guard from Brooklyn, New York, lists Kentucky as one of the schools he’s considering. Lamb is said to be high on Kansas and has also expressed interest in UConn and West Virginia.
The likelihood Calipari could get all of these players to sign with Kentucky is virtually zero, but Leslie seems to be leaning to the Wildcats and there’s an outside chance he could get Jones and Lamb.
With only Darius Miller, Darnell Dodson and DeAndre Liggins representing the bulk of Kentucky’s most experienced returning players, Calipari is getting a taste of what happened to the University of Memphis after he left that school to take the Wildcats job.
If ever there was a time he needed to put his recruiting skills to full use, this would be it.
Currently, Kentucky doesn’t rank among the top 25 recruiting classes according to Scout, Rivals or ESPN. In signing Knight and Leslie, Kentucky would more than likely find themselves in the top 10.
Ironically, the nation’s best class according to all three recruiting services belongs to the Memphis Tigers.
