BTI's Rants and Ramblings: 7 More Lottery Picks in 2 Years?

by:Bryan13•12/16/10

#	Team	Player	H	W	P	School	C
1	LA Clippers	Perry Jones	6-11	235	SF	Baylor	Fr.
2	Sacramento	Harrison Barnes	6-8	215	SF	North Carolina	Fr.
3	New Jersey	Jared Sullinger	6-9	286	PF	Ohio State	Fr.
4	Minnesota	Donatas Motiejunas	7-0	224	PF	Lithuania	Intl.
5	Washington	Terrence Jones	6-8	244	SF	Kentucky	Fr.
6	Detroit	Derrick Williams	6-9	221	PF	Arizona	So.
7	Cleveland	Brandon Knight	6-3	185	PG	Kentucky	Fr.
8	Golden St.	Enes Kanter	6-11	261	PF/C	Kentucky	Fr.

2012 MOCK DRAFT

#	Team	Player	H	W	P	School	C
1	LA Clippers	Quincy Miller	6-9	200	SF	Baylor	HSSr.
2	Sacramento	Austin Rivers	6-4	189	PG/SG	Duke	HSSr.
3	New Jersey	Kyrie Irving	6-2	172	PG	Duke	Fr.
4	Minnesota	Michael Gilchrist	6-6	216	SF	Kentucky	HSSr.
5	Washington	Anthony Davis	6-9	187	SF	Kentucky	HSSr.
6	Detroit	Jereme Richmond	6-7	205	SF	Illinois	Fr.
7	Cleveland	Rakeem Christmas	6-9	226	PF	Syracuse	HSSr.
8	Golden St.	Tony Mitchell	6-8	215	SF	Missouri	Fr.
9	Philadelphia	Meyers Leonard	7-0	245	C	Illinois	Fr.
10	Charlotte	James McAdoo	6-8	210	SF/PF	North Carolina	HSSr.
11	Toronto	Kentavious Caldw...	6-6	190	SG	Georgia	HSSr.
12	Houston	Marquis Teague	6-2	165	PG	Kentucky	HSSr.
13	Memphis	John Jenkins	6-4	205	SG	Vanderbilt	So.
14	Phoenix	Doron Lamb	6-4	195	SG	Kentucky	Fr.

What you see above are the mock drafts presented by nbadraft.net, updated just yesterday. And if I read them correctly, they are projecting Kentucky to have SEVEN more lottery picks in the next 2 NBA Drafts. That would give Kentucky TEN NBA lottery picks over a 3-year span. For comparisons sake, Kentucky has only had 17 total players drafted in the NBA's first 14 picks (aka lottery) in it's history. I am not breaking any new ground with this statement, but Kentucky is currently stockpiling the greatest amount of talent over a 3-year span as any team in college basketball history. That is, if we consider being drafted in the NBA as the criteria for such a statement. The problem that John Calipari is facing is that, when it's all said and done, UK fans don't really give a darn what KIND of talent you bring to Lexington, just so long as it's winning talent. If we get through these first 3 seasons of Cal-ball and don't see a Final Four, you have to question whether UK is just a stepping stone to the NBA, or are we a top level college basketball program. With as much talent as Cal is putting on the floor, those have to be the expectations. Your thoughts?