NCAA Basketball: 10 teams with most to lose with pending 2023 NBA Draft decisions

5. Kentucky Wildcats

Players to watch: Oscar Tshiebwe, Antonio Reeves, Chris Livingston

If I was ranking this by overall production, Kentucky would be much higher on this list. And that’s because the chance to bring back a former National Player of the Year is extremely rare, something the program did this past season with Tshiebwe. He had another big year for the Wildcats, leading them with 16.5 ppg and 13.7 rpg.

It’ll be a tough sell to get Tshiebwe to come back but reportedly, he’s making via NIL than he would if he goes pro. Another frontcourt player to watch is Livingston, who only averaged 6.3 ppg as a freshman but showed flashes of being a breakout star next year if he comes back.

The guy that’s flying under the radar is Reeves, who was second on the team with 14.4 ppg and shot 40% from three-point range last season in his first year at Kentucky. He’s a veteran with experience and a quality shooter and that’s not something they can easily replace.

Regardless of who the Wildcats lose, they have several five-star freshmen joining the team that can mostly replace each of them talent-wise. But this team would prefer to have some veterans and proven production on the roster in order to feel good about their odds at a Final Four run a year from now.