Kentucky Wildcat vs North Carolina Tar Heels can feature 9 First Round NBA Picks in 2012
By Paul Jordan
It’s a mind boggling possibility, but nine of the first 25 picks in the 2012 NBA Draft could be either Kentucky Wildcats or North Carolina Tar Heels. Let’s look at it a different way. 36% of the first 25 NBA picks will be on the floor Saturday. Still an insane stat, but that is how NBA Draft.net is seeing it , assuming of course, there is no two year rule. Here is how they see the draft breaking down:
KENTUCKY:
#3 – Anthony Davis
#9 – Marquis Teague
#11 – Terrence Jones
#13 – Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
#14 – Doron Lamb
UNC
#4 – Harrison Barnes
#17 – John Henson
#21 – Kendall Marshall
#25 – Tyler Zeller
The mock draft also looks at the second round and there is no mention of Darius Miller. I find it hard to believe Miller won’t get his name called and that would make six Wildcats drafted in 2012.
As much as I dislike it, tomorrows UK/UNC matchup at Rupp could be the last regular season meeting between these two teams for a while. If the schedule was renewed as scheduled, Kentucky would play at North Carolina next year. Keep in mind, UK also has a road game at Louisville next year, along with a Madison Square Garden date versus Duke, and a yet to be determined road game in the SEC/Big East Challenge. For a team having to replace as many as eight players, that is a very daunting task. Keep in mind that you could be adding two SEC games versus Missouri (currently the #13th ranked team) and any other early season tournament and the fact that Indiana should be a top 15 team by then and you have a very tough schedule next year before you add the Tar Heels.
With that much turnover, that is too much to schedule. Keep in mind, North Carolina will be adding Syracuse and Pitt to their ACC schedule in 2012-13 and you also have UNC reconsidering their out of conference schedule. I hate it, but UK/UNC may be a casualty of the new “super conferences”.
You know …. I’m really not one to bash on recruits. I tend to remember they are 16-17 year old kids and remember that I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was 16 and 17. But it looks like 2013 recruit Chris Walker may be following the lead of Quincy Miller and Tony Wroten and tweet himself out of an offer to Kentucky. I get it, Chris, you are really good and deserve some love from Coach Cal, but if you follow Calipari like your hundreds of tweets about Kentucky suggest you do you would realize a couple of things
- Coach Cal tends to go for team oriented players that are not constantly promoting themselves on twitter 24/7. Don’t believe me? Check out the twitters of last years recruiting class and then of the guys that did not get an offer (Miller and Wroten).
- We love that you want to come to UK, but realize that Calipari may have EIGHT spots to fill next year (Miller, Vargas, Jones, Lamb, Teague, Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, and Poole) and as of now has just three of those spots filled. So Cal has his work cut out recruiting for the 2012 class. Relax. You are the 3rd ranked player in 2013. You will get an offer eventually, but you will not step on campus till August 2013. Relax, son.
Maybe Walker should follow the lead of 2012’s top player Shabazz Muhammad who tweets about Kentucky all the time but does not use twitter as a venting post. We know you are watching the Big Blue Shabazz …. and we are watching. Congrats on dropping 50 the other night.
Finally, congrats go out to 2012 UK Football commitment Patrick Towles who was named Kentucky’s Gatorade High School Player of the Year. In addition, Towles will attempt to win a 4A State Title with his 14-0 Highlands Bluebirds playing Franklin Simpson tonight in Bowling Green versus Franklin Simpson.
Towles has put up insane numbers this year, passing for 3637 yards with 41 TD’s against just one interception on the season. Towles also added 14 rushing TD’s and 467 yards on the ground. If that is not crazy enough, consider the fact that Towles was on the bench by halftime in several games this year so those numbers could be even crazier.
And finally (really this time) a bonus item for your “5 For Friday” today in honor of the six points I am picking UK to beat UNC by tomorrow. There is a lot of buzz and speculation that Tennessee is going to go after UK’s Tee Martin hard to join their staff next year as a WR coach. And there is a buzz that Martin will accept the job if offered.
Granted, UK needs to hold on to Martin if they can. They already held on t0 Martin when Alabama came calling and since Martin is the head of UK’s football recruiting, it is pretty critical that UK keep him. It will be tough but there is speculation that UK offer him the offensive co-ordinator position if Randy Sanders is let go. On the same page, others have suggested that Martin is gone anyway if Sanders is let go. It’s an interesting thing to watch and see what happens.