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SEC Basketball Preview: #1 Kentucky Wildcats

By Jacob Rude

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2013 Season Results: 29-11 record, 12-6 SEC, 2nd place in SEC. 60-54 loss to Connecticut in NCAA Tournament Championship game.

Key Losses: Julius Randle (entered NBA Draft), James Young (entered NBA Draft)

Key Returnees: Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Willie Cauley-Stein, Alex Poythress

2014 Recruiting Class: Trey Lyles (#6 overall), Karl Towns Jr. (#9 overall), Devin Booker (#18 overall), Tyler Ulis (#25 overall)
all rankings according to ESPN

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Let’s be honest: Kentucky is absolutely loaded with talent. It’s not often you get to the NCAA title game like Kentucky did last season and then field a BETTER team the next season.

After losing both Randle and Young, the Wildcats promptly replaced them with the second best recruiting class in the nation. On top of that, Cauley-Stein, the Harrison twins, and Poythress, all potential first-round picks, returned to Coach John Calipari’s program.

The result is a roster so loaded with talent that Coach Cal is hosting his own NBA Draft combine for his team, something that sounds so extraordinary that only Calipari could manage it. And he has a rightful reason to, with nine players ranked in Draft Express’ top 45 prospects for 2015.

Few people will have the size of Kentucky this year. With Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson, and Towns, the team will essentially have three seven-footers, all future NBA draft picks. Cauley-Stein is entering his junior season, having anchored the defense with 2.9 blocks per contest in 37 games.

Add in Johnson, who came alive down the stretch, scoring in double figures twice in the NCAA tournament, and Calipari is going to have a wealth of size down low. None of this is even including Towns, who comes in highly touted. Twice in high school the big man achieved quadruple-doubles, which is impressive at any level.

On the perimeter, they’ll likely be led by Aaron Harrison, who etched his name in the storied lore of Kentucky history with some of the most clutch shots in program history during the Big Dance. With an extra year under his belt, Harrison will likely lead the team in scoring this season. Brother Andrew Harrison is the second leading scorer returning and will also help shoulder the load offensively.

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The boost from newcomers will be big. Other than Towns, Lyles will compete for minutes in the front-court. For essentially any other team in the country, Lyles and Towns would dominate the front-court minutes, which just goes to show how loaded Kentucky is.

The most likely incoming freshmen to start this year will be Ulis and Booker. With Young’s departure, there are minutes and points to be replaced, and Booker is fully capable of filling in those minutes and helping with the scoring load. However, with the Harrison twins ahead of him, those minutes are going to be hard to take outright.

It is Ulis most likely to step in and find the starting lineup right away. A natural general on the court, Ulis could be exactly what Kentucky needs at the point guard spot. With so much talent, Calipari will need someone to organize his offense, and Ulis appears most likely to do that.

The most intriguing aspect about this season is the plan Calipari hinted at earlier this week, talking about the possibility of running two separate five-man units. In theory, it’s a genius strategy if you have the personnel, and Calipari has just that this season. If executed correctly, Kentucky could become all the more impossible to defeat.

As is stands, Kentucky is not only top of the SEC, but likely top of the nation. Very few teams can match the talent level of Kentucky, and even fewer can match their depth. For all intents and purposes, it appears in the pre-season that this is Kentucky’s title to lose.

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