catmandoo
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Member # 1284
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posted 04-15-2020 07:55 PM
Kentucky has lost a player to the NBA Draft for the third consecutive day. On Monday, it was Immanuel Quickley. On Tuesday, it was Nick Richards. On Wednesday, it was EJ Montgomery. So now the Wildcats will be without the top six scorers from this past season's team that won the SEC by multiple games. Literally the only player set to return is Keion Brooks. He averaged 4.5 points in 15.1 minutes per contest.
Obviously, this is not ideal.
But it should be noted that this isn't really unfamiliar territory for John Calipari. He's actually lost his top six scorers from a team three previous times — in 2012, 2015 and 2017. Here's how Kentucky did in the subsequent seasons to those seasons:
2013: 21-12 (55th at KenPom)
2016: 27-9 (6th at KenPom)
2018: 26-11 (17th at KenPom)
The 2013 team is the team that spiraled after Nerlens Noel tore his ACL. But, remember, those Wildcats were 17-6 and 18th at KenPom before Noel was lost for the season. So they were good until they lost their best player. And that, combined with how Kentucky did in 2016 and 2018, is why it's reasonable to assume the Wildcats will be good — probably not great, but at least good — again next season thanks largely to a top-ranked recruiting featuring three five-star guards. But, based on the projected roster at the moment, I've still opted to drop Kentucky out of the top 10 of Version 8.0 of the 2020-21 CBS Sports Top 25.
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http://www.ukfightsong.com/
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