Mike Miller, a blogger for NBC Sports, has already ranked his top 25 teams in college basketball going into next season. Premature? Yes. Intriguing? Not really. The University of Kentucky is absent from his top 25 because he has no idea who is going to be on the team next year. Fair is fair and I agree with Miller. He makes a special note to Kentucky fans because of the passionate nature that we all share. As of now the Cats have about four guys that are for sure coming back, two brand new top 25 recruits and one of those recruits, Enes Kanter, may have some eligibility issues due to him playing in professional leagues over seas.
What we don't know is who is coming back from last year's freshman class (nobody) and whether or not Patrick Patterson will stay for one more year (about a 5% chance). We also have a small but not solid idea about what top recruits the Cats may be getting, Brandon Knight and CJ Leslie to be specific.
April 28 is the deadline for players to state their NBA draft intentions. I think that we will know a lot sooner than that. I am looking into my crystal ball and I am thinking sometime by the middle of next week things should become more clear. Until then, let the speculation to continue.
By the time everything clears up and the team is set in stone, I think the Cats will be ranked somewhere in the top 15. I highly doubt that this recruiting class will be as big of a blockbuster as last year's class, but I expect it to be quite good. Louisville was not mentioned and will be somewhere in the top 40. Kentucky was in the same boat at the end of last year until Calipari worked his magic. Does Pitino have any magic left down his pants, I mean, up his sleeves? My crystal ball says, "Hell to the Nah".
I beat KSR on this post by 3 minutes. Go Sportsthat!
ReplyDeleteYour article does mention Louisville (I had just read this article and thought about posting it):
ReplyDelete"Also considered: Tennessee, BYU, New Mexico, Richmond, Temple, Louisville."