catmandoo
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posted 06-19-2018 01:10 PM
Most of John Calipari’s players at Kentucky have relatively easy NBA draft decisions. He’s had 31 players picked, 24 in the first round and 17 in the lottery over the last eight years. But what about the guys on the fringe?
That’s where freshman Jarred Vanderbilt and sophomore Wenyen Gabriel found themselves last month as they weighed whether to come back to school or risk slipping into the second round — if they’re picked at all — in the 2018 draft on Thursday night in Brooklyn. Calipari was there to talk them both through those difficult decisions.
“I think you try to be honest, which is what we do in the recruiting process,” the coach explained on Monday. “I’m not going to oversell. I’m not going to tell you, ‘If you come back, I’m going to do this, that and the other.’ It’s not what I do. It’s [about] what they do. So I think you’re honest with the young man and you say, ‘Look, there’s a good chance you’re not going to get drafted.’ ”
Sometimes that doesn’t matter. Both Vanderbilt and Gabriel elected to stay in the draft. While Kentucky teammates Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kevin Knox are projected lottery picks and Hamidou Diallo looks like an early second-round selection, Vanderbilt and Gabriel are on less certain footing (literally, in Vanderbilt’s case).
The latest ESPN mock draft has Vanderbilt going 46th overall (right in the middle of the second round) and Gabriel going undrafted. Vanderbilt’s is a question of health, having injured his left foot three times since high school and playing just 14 games for the Wildcats last season. Gabriel’s is a question of production as a former 5-star recruit who couldn’t hold down a starting job in two seasons at Kentucky.
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http://www.ukfightsong.com/
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