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Kentucky Basketball: The Stairway To The NBA

By Cody Daniel

Sep 13, 2015; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Willie Cauley-Stein (00), forward Karl-Anthony Towns (12) forward Trey Lyles (41), and guard Aaron Harrison (2) look on during the Alumni Game against North Carolina at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 13, 2015; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Willie Cauley-Stein (00), forward Karl-Anthony Towns (12) forward Trey Lyles (41), and guard Aaron Harrison (2) look on during the Alumni Game against North Carolina at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s become a routine at the University of Kentucky: John Calipari handpicks a healthy helping of the nation’s most coveted high school talents, leads UK to a deep NCAA Tournament run, and then sends packs of Wildcats only a year or two out of high school off to live out their dreams in the NBA. The cycle then repeats.

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Since 2010, 109 different college basketball programs have seen at least one player selected in the NBA Draft. And since 2010, 108 college basketball programs have fallen short of the success Calipari has seen by sending his seemingly countless recruits to the NBA, and the numbers certainly support this claim.

As you narrow the results down, fewer and fewer teams have any refutation against Kentucky’s sheer dominance:

  • 71 schools have seen at least one player drafted in the first round
  • 37 schools have seen at least one player drafted in the lottery
  • 12 schools have seen at least one player drafted in the top five
  • 4 schools have seen at least one player drafted No. 1 Overall (Kentucky, Duke, Kansas and UNLV)

Duke sent Kyrie Irving in 2011, UNLV sent Anthony Bennett in 2013 and Kansas sent Andrew Wiggins in 2014. Kentucky provided John Wall in 2010, Anthony Davis in 2012 and Karl-Anthony Towns in the recent 2015 draft. And while it didn’t shape up that way, Nerlens Noel would have quite likely gone No. 1 overall in 2013, had it not been for a torn ACL he suffered late in the season.

Jun 25, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA draft pickKarl-Anthony Towns walks off the stage after being picked first in the 2015 NBA draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 25, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA draft pickKarl-Anthony Towns walks off the stage after being picked first in the 2015 NBA draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /

That’s three No. 1 picks in six years, and an injury shy of improving that impressive rate to four top picks. There’s simply no other program in the nation that can boast such accolades. And when you consider many project Kentucky’s freshman center, Skal Labissiere, as the 2016 No. 1 overall pick, it stakes claim to a case that’s simply inarguable.

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Consider each the last six NBA Drafts — Kentucky had the most players drafted in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015. In 2013, six teams were tied at two draftees a piece, with Kentucky and Michigan as the headliners with two first round selections each. The only year Kentucky fell short was 2014, and it still managed to churn out two first round picks, including a lottery selection in Julius Randle.

Over that same six-year sample, only two programs sent at least one player to the NBA: Kansas and…you guessed it, Kentucky. But yet again, Kentucky’s NBA donations are far superior to that of Kansas, with 25 Wildcats drafted during this period, as opposed to only 12 for the Jayhawks.

But let’s be honest, how do you compete with a program that’s sending seven guys to the NBA after a single season, which UK did after a historic 2015 campaign?

Regardless of how you break it down, Kentucky is going to come out on top when it comes to putting kids in the NBA, with very limited exceptions. And it’s a trend that likely has no end in sight. In Draft Express’ latest 2016 NBA Mock Draft, five Wildcats are projected to hear their name called in the Barclays Center next June — Labissiere, Jamal Murray, Isaiah Briscoe, Marcus Lee and Alex Poythress — with four being projected as first round selections and Labissiere as the No. 1 overall pick.

If the draft panned out this way, it would be yet another exclamation mark to strengthen Calipari, the basketball program and Kentucky’s ability to transform high school talent into NBA talent in very little time.

Of course, recruiting elite talent certainly aids in sending kids who are basically destined for the league to the league, and as you could expect, it’s another area of college basketball that’s simply being overwhelmed by Calipari and the Wildcats.

It would be unjust to label this recruiting dominance as an unfair advantage over the rest of the college basketball world, although it certainly pays off when the draft rolls around. But it’s essentially a benefit of Calipari and Kentucky reaping what they sow.

When you have the history of winning and roster turnover due to NBA departures Calipari does, it’s not hard to figure out why the best high school talent the country has to offer often elect to attend the most prolific NBA-generating machine college basketball has to offer.

Until Calipari takes a leave for the NBA, or calls it quits after a remarkably successful college coaching career, this trend will continue to be a reality the rest of the college basketball world takes a back seat to.

Next: The NBA's 50 Greatest Players of All-Time

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