Kentucky Wildcat 5 for Monday: After "will he or won't he" period, Liggins departs for the NBA

After a few hours of internet confusion last night, it now seems to be official that DeAndre Liggins is leaving his name in the NBA Draft and he will make this news official at a 2PM press conference today.  As we have learned from being Wildcat fans, scheduled press conferences are generally a bad thing, so by now , all people seem to be in agreement that Liggins will be gone.

To be honest, it is a weak draft this year and DeAndre very well could have found a few teams to make that first round commitment to him ala Daniel Orton last year.  And from Liggin’s statement, it appeared that he got the news he wanted to hear from the NBA types and that John Calipari encouraged him to stay in school:

“Coach (Calipari) encouraged me to come back for my senior season, but based on the feedback I got from NBA personnel, I felt it was in the best interests of me and family to stay in the draft.  I learned a lot in my three years here at Kentucky, and I appreciate all the support I got from the people at UK as well as the Big Blue Nation.”

All of us here at the WBN and across the BBN wish DeAndre, Brandon, Josh and Enes the best of luck in the NBA next year and hope they make us proud.

With the NBA decision made, the focus now turns back to recruiting.  Former NC State Wolfpack Ryan Harrow will be on campus this week in Lexington and he is kicking off a whirlwind tour of his remaining possibilities.  He will visit Kentucky, Louisville, Georgia, Texas, and St. Johns over the next 10 days and presumably have a decision by the end of the month.  Harrow can not play until 2012, but he would be able to practice with UK and Marquis Teague this year, which would be key in giving Teague a highly rated practice foe.  Some pundits have Kentucky as the team to beat.

It’s not official, but there are rumors that Eloy Vargas is going to head to China this summer and take part in the same exhibition series that Josh Harrellson did last summer.  We first saw glimpses of Jort’s busting out last summer in China and one hopes that the trip can be a similar boost to Vargas.

But we can not forget the big news of the weekend …. that Terrence Jones is returning to Kentucky!  It just proves that some top rated players that Calipari will get will not fit that “one and done” mold and can benefit from another year in school.  Also Jones’ decision has far reaching implications for next year and it is OK to officially start getting excited:

"Jones’ decision had import beyond next year’s national championship hopes. It showcased what Calipari’s recruiting style can optimally do. After his first year, where all four freshmen who thought about making The Leap successfully did, the one-and-done strategy was derided. Too much yearly roster turnover would make it impossible to construct a team steeped in both the necessary talent and experience to win a championship. One year’s freshmen class would make costly mistakes when it mattered, and then next year’s freshmen class would then do the same thing. This year proved that to a degree; Calipari admitted that the Reliant Stadium lights were too bright in the Final Four (not literally), and UK largely shot its way back to Lexington."

Will the last Tennessee Volunteer player to Knoxville, please turn the lights out?  As we knew earlier, Tennessee has lost commitments Kevin Ware and Joseph Uchebo as they have decommiettd from UT, and now Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris are leaving their name in the NBA draft … leaving the Vols with… well, nobody to play next year.  Should we feel bad?

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