[URL=”http://basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1812″]Basketball Prospectus has listed the Top 100 players [/URL]for the upcoming season in college basketball, and there are 5 Kentucky players listed in the top 62.
Terrence Jones is ranked the highest, coming in at #4.
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You can read about each player below.
[B]62. Marquis Teague, Kentucky (Fr., PG)
[/B]With Brandon Knight off to the NBA, Teague should take the ball from day one at UK. He’s an incredible slasher with great speed and athleticism. Teague’s not a real shooting threat and his decision-making has been questioned, but he seems like such a can’t-miss scorer that I still feel comfortable putting him this high.
[B]43. Doron Lamb, Kentucky (So., SG)
[/B]When I talked about Terrence Ross ([URL=”http://basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1796″][COLOR=#005daa]No. 79[/COLOR][/URL]) I noted that one skill it’s tough for a scout to catch is extreme avoidance of turnovers. Another is three-point shooting, though not to the same extent. You run into the kid who shoots great from flat feet in workouts, the kid whose shot looks goofy but goes in, the kid whose shot is actually goofy but it’s sure going in today, and all kinds of cousins of all of the above. That’s why I was excited to learn that the Nike EYBL AAU league was keeping full stats this season. I haven’t seen them in their entirety (if I do you’ll certainly be hearing from me), but what little I did see made one thing very clear: There’s a rising senior in Minnesota named Isaiah Zierden (son of Wizards assistant Don Zierden) who is a freak shooter. He made 40 percent of his threes while shooting nearly nine per game in the early going of the EYBL. Zierden is generally regarded as a good shooter, but I haven’t heard anybody rave about him, and that’s my point. It’s tough to pick out which kid is consistently making threes because you’re judging them off five or six shots a game. Lamb was sometimes considered streaky or worse from beyond the arc in high school, but he was only two makes from hitting 50 percent of his 140 three-point attempts in 2011. A role expansion would normally be in order, but Marquis Teague, Terrence Jones, and Anthony Davis will probably leave Lamb the Wildcats’ fourth offensive option. He’ll just be the best one of those in the country.
[FONT=Georgia][B]29. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kentucky (Fr., SF)[/B]
In the summer of 2009 Kyrie Irving, Jared Sullinger, Harrison Barnes, Brandon Knight, Tristan Thompson, Terrence Jones, Perry Jones, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were all at NBA Camp for four days. And, with a deafening lack of argument, the Most Promising Prospect Award went to Kidd-Gilchrist. His combination of terrifying athleticism and unwavering competitiveness is exceedingly rare. Both tools are elite, separately. Kidd-Gilchrist’s scoring comes in the flow of the offense, though his long-range jumper leaves something to be desired. Money quote from Kidd-Gilchrist’s ESPNU profile: “[Kidd-]Gilchrist takes defending and rebounding personally and wants to be the dominant player on the floor in all areas.” A No. 29 ranking on this list pegs him as a second-team all-conference guy in an SEC that will be loaded at the top in 2012. Jumping to the first team or falling to honorable mention would be unsurprising. I would be surprised if he was better or worse than that range, though.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Georgia][B]21. Anthony Davis, Kentucky (Fr., PF)[/B]
Obviously I don’t wildly disagree with Gary Parrish’s preseason All-American teams: I have seven of his ten players in my own top ten, and Davis carries the lowest ranking of any of the three Parrish players that I omitted. I do think, though, that people are beginning to give too much credit to impact freshmen before they step on campus. Of the top-5 talents from the recruiting classes of 2006 through 2010, college basketball reaped seven All-Americans (Jared Sullinger, DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley, and Kevin Love), six all-conference selections (Tyreke Evans, Harrison Barnes, Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon, O.J. Mayo, and Brandan Wright), seven high-major starters (Avery Bradley, Jrue Holiday, Samardo Samuels, Derrick Favors, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Hawes, Ty Lawson), three high-major nonstarters (Byron/B.J. Mullens, Josh Selby, John Henson), and two guys who never played in the NCAA (Brandon Jennings and Enes Kanter). That’s a high bar. More than half of those 25 guys were all-conference. But I see way too much potential in the Derrick Favors route to put Davis much higher than 21. Don’t get me wrong, Davis is a serious talent with tons of upside. I think he’s ready to play and contribute in the SEC right now. Davis was a guard less than two years ago, and he still has legitimate guard skills. He’s a scary defender. It’s just that I’ve seen him on teams with less talent than the 2012 Kentucky Wildcats will have, and on those teams he’s been forgotten on offense for long stretches. If Davis demands the ball and takes a measure of control of this UK team, he’ll have a tough time staying off the All-America list at the end of the year. But there’s a very real chance that he doesn’t, even though he could easily find himself an integral member of an NBA rotation in 18 months. My expectations for Davis are high, it’s just that everyone else’s have gotten really, really high. Of the last five No. 1-ranked entering freshmen, just one became a freshman All-American: Greg Oden. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Georgia][B]4. Terrence Jones, Kentucky (So., [URL=”http://www.basketballprospectus.com/glossary.php?search=PF”]PF[/URL][/B][URL=”http://www.basketballprospectus.com/glossary.php?search=PF”][/URL][B])
[/B]Jones’s decision to return for his sophomore year surprised me more than any other player’s. The lefty made first team All-SEC, was high on every draft board, and spent his freshman year under John Calipari. It seemed like a given he’d be playing NBA ball this November (or at least waiting for the lockout to end). But fresh off co-leading a young team to the Final Four, he’s still at UK. Jones is a very good rebounder who can get to the line and rarely turns the ball over. His shooting percentages last year were just 47/33/65; if he lives up to this billing it’ll be because those numbers improve. He projects to have significantly scarier frontcourt mates in 2012, where the departed Josh Harrellson and DeAndre Liggins will be replaced with top-3-ranked freshmen Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis. Defenses won’t be able to key in on Jones like they could last year. With a little more help and slightly smarter shot selection, he should be SEC Player of the Year.[/FONT]
