Kentucky basketball sending Seven to 2015 NBA Draft

This year’s Kentucky basketball squad set records all throughout the season, but even though the college basketball season is over, the Wildcats look to set one final record, the most players drafted by one school in one draft class.

The current record stands at six in the 2012 NBA Draft, with Kentucky holding that record, along with the draft including the top 2 picks coming from UK.

Big Blue nation had an educated guess on who would announce they were leaving for the Draft prior to the 2:30 press conference held by Kentucky Basketball, but there was one who was still a toss up, that being Devin Booker.

The press conference opened up with Coach John Calipari giving the summarization of the process leading up to the decisions for his players, and then, he lead up to the moment everyone was waiting for, the decisions. Seven players sat at the table, those being Willie Cauley-Stein, Karl-Athnony Towns, Dakari Johnson, Trey Lyles, Devin Booker, and Andrew and Aaron Harrison.

Then, without further aduei, he said for all of the players submitting their name to the 2015 NBA Draft to please rise, and immediately all seven stood above the table, leaving their cushioned seats behind, finalizing all of the rumors, resulting that a mass exodus  would occur for Kentucky basketball.

Frosh Karl-Athony Towns is currently project as the number one overall pick according to NBA.com. Towns averaged 10.3 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 1.1 APG in his lone season at UK.

Next on the projection list is Willie Cauley-Stein, listed as going number eight. In his junior year at the school, Cauley-Stein averaged 8.9 PPG, 6.4 RPG, and 1 APG.

The next to guys are freshmen Devin Booker (10 PPG, 2 RPG, 1 APG), listed at #13, and Trey Lyles (8.7 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 1.1 APG) rolling right behind at #14.

The last man in the first round is sophomore Dakari Johnson, looking to go #30. While Johnson didn’t make the biggest impact on this team, but always provided strength down low in the post. Johnson rallied 6.4 PPG, and 4.6 RPG this season.

The final two guys who declared today were the Harrison, Andrew had 9.3 PPG, 3.6 APG, and 2.2 RPG, while his brother averaged 11 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.4 APG in their sophomore year at Kentucky. The brothers look to be picked up somewhere in the mid range of the second round of the draft.

The mass exodus means a lot for Kentucky basketball, a lot of leadership now gone, and more importantly, talent now in need of replacing. The notable Wildcats to remain on the squad are Alex Poythress, Marcus Lee, and the man Coach Cal wants to build around, Tyler Ulis.