As a Kentucky fan, I am plainly disappointed that Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, and DeAndre Liggins have announced their intention to apply for the NBA Draft. I am assuming that Knight and Jones are gone. Due to the fact that so many other great college players are returning, Knight and Jones have moved up in the draft, and I suppose they will be drafted in the first round. They brought me great joy over the last year -- and I will remember them for years to come. If they do not return, I wish them God Speed.
I have no idea what will happen with Liggins. I'm afraid he is going to get a whole lot of bad news over the next few weeks, because I don't think he has any chance of being drafted in the first round, and I think it's extremely likely he will not be drafted at all. After he gets news like that, will he really want to come back to Lexington and play for the Big Blue? Mightn't he just try for Europe? And even if he does come back, will he be too distracted to help us? I don't know. To me, this is the biggest question mark hanging over UK at this point. If Liggins, Lamb, and Miller all came back -- and were all willing to play as hard as they did last year -- then I think UK could be very, very good. But Liggins is an important piece of the puzzle, and we will miss him if he's not around (or if he's not at his best).
With that out of the way, I would like to make three points:
1. Kentucky's inability to keep any NBA-quality players even for one extra year is a huge, huge problem when it comes to winning the National Championship -- particularly given the success of other big programs at retaining similar players. Nolan Smith and Tyler Hansbrough each played four full years at Duke and Carolina, respectively. And Carolina is bringing back its whole team next year, including Harrison Barnes, a guy who was clearly better than Terrence Jones or anyone else on our squad. Meanwhile, Jared Sullinger -- who most people had as the number one guy in the whole draft -- is returning to Ohio State. (Imagine what UK would have been like this year if John Wall had returned.) I don't know what to do about this, and I hope Coach Cal does. He has gone 64-12 in two seasons, so I think he knows what he is doing.
2. Despite my concern that we are losing so many guys early -- this will be eight in two years, assuming that Liggins doesn't return -- I strongly believe that we do not want anyone at UK who doesn't really want to be there. Kentucky basketball is all about passion and intensity, and we only want guys who are fully committed to playing for us. Guys like Roderick Rhodes and Randolph Morris, who played with one eye on the Association, just don't work out for us. So I do not want Cal, the UK fans, or anyone trying to pressure kids to stay in Lexington who don't want to be there.
3. I hate, hate, hate this process, and I blame the NBA for adopting such a silly set of rules on eligibility. Personally, I would like to see a rule whereby you can either go straight to the pros or go to college -- but if you go to college, you have to stay there for at least three years. Maybe something like that will come out of the new labor agreement. In the meantime, we just have to try to win under the current rules.
On your 3rd point this is something that Kornheiser and Wilbon have talked about and Wilbon, who agrees with you, says from what he is hearing there is not even talk of something like this.
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