UK Basketball program makes history again
| July 2, 2012 | Posted by GoBigBlue under Uncategorized |
John Calipari sat like a proud parent Thursday as two of his former players heard their names called up first.
The Kentucky Wildcats were all about making history in the 2012 NBA draft.
Anthony Davis (New Orleans Hornets) and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Charlotte Bobcats) went 1-2, marking the first time in the common draft era in which teammates were selected with the first two picks.
Then Terrence Jones, Marquis Teague, Doron Lamb and Darius Miller heard their names called for new NBA homes. That tied an all-time high with six picks from any school.
You'd think a national championship in April and a trademark unibrow were enough.
And you'd think Calipari was done making history. In 2010, the Wildcats had five first-round picks. He's now coached seven top-5 picks in his career, including top picks Davis, John Wall and Derrick Rose.
At this point, does Calipari even need to make a recruiting pitch when he's talking to a phenomenal high school player? The play-for-me-to-get-to-the-NBA pitch is transparent to any recruit in any household.
In the past three years, Kentucky has had a total of 14 players drafted, a high for a school over any three-year span.
Davis became the fifth player to be drafted No. 1 overall after winning a national championship, joining Danny Manning, James Worthy, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Not bad company.
Any normal season, North Carolina would have been the school with the most draft picks. Four UNC products were drafted among the first 17 players. Harrison Barnes (Golden State Warriors) went seventh, Kendall Marshall (Phoenix Suns) went 13th, John Henson (Milwaukee Bucks) went 14th and Tyler Zeller (Cleveland Cavs via Dallas Mavericks) went 17th.
