Who stays, who goes for UK basketball?
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – In what has become an annual tradition for John Calipari’s Kentucky teams, as players still tried to process the immediate aftermath of a season-ending 75-73 loss to North Carolina on Sunday the question of what’s next for each of the Wildcats quickly surfaced to the forefront.
To a man, UK players each said he had made no final decisions and would meet with families and coaches in the coming days before ultimately deciding what was best for his future.
Still, many of the underclassmen in the locker room are not expected back next season.
Freshmen guards De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, who are both widely projected as top-10 NBA draft picks, are considered locks to leave but said they have not made a final decision. Freshman forward Bam Adebayo seems likely to join them despite dropping to No. 30 on DraftExpress.com’s most recent 2017 mock draft.
Adebayo said he would likely make a decision about his future in the next week.
No other UK players are included in the mock draft, but sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe, who declared for the draft after his freshman season and worked out for teams before electing to return to school, has also been widely projected to start his professional career. As he sat with his head down fielding questions about the loss, Briscoe said he was not thinking about the draft yet.
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► Who stays, who goes for UK basketball?
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Freshman forward Wenyen Gabriel and freshman guard Hamidou Diallo, who did not play this season after enrolling for the spring semester with the plan to practice in preparation for the 2017-18 season, could also take advantage of the NCAA rule adopted last year allowing players to declare for the draft but return to school after working out with teams or attending the NBA scouting combine as long as they do not hire and agent.
Gabriel and Diallo each said he will consider his options now that the season is over, but with Calipari encouraging all his players to take advantage of the new early entrant rule last season each seems likely to at least work out for teams and garner feedback before making a decision about whether to return to UK.
Sophomore 7-footer Isaac Humphries acknowledged recently he will weigh his options for his future after playing a smaller-than-expected role as a sophomore. Humphries is eligible for the NBA draft for the first time but is not listed among the candidates to be drafted in 2017, according to most projections. After posting the best performance of his career with 12 points and five rebounds off the bench against North Carolina his decision suddenly seems much more important for the 2017-18 Wildcats.
Calipari mentioned earlier this season a scout from the Australian professional league had attended practice to see seniors Dominique Hawkins, Derek Willis and Mychal Mulder and Humphries, a native Australian.
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“I have nothing yet,” Humphries said. “Now that we’re kind of done, I’m obviously going to assess every option that I have, but I have nothing yet.”
Freshman forward Sacha Killeya-Jones, a former five-star recruit who has not played since Jan. 21, may also have a decision to make about whether to stay at Kentucky with Calipari already set to add two more five-star post players to the roster in the 2017 class and still recruiting at least one more player at that position. Redshirt freshman forward Tai Wynyard, a New Zealand native, passed Killeya-Jones on the depth chart this season but has played just eight minutes since the start of February.
In a recent interview with The Courier-Journal, Killeya-Jones said he was staying positive despite his limited minutes.
Players have until April 23 to declare for the 2017 NBA Draft and can return to school up until May 24, 10 days after the end of the NBA combine, if they do not hire an agent.
For much of the season, Calipari has foreshadowed a massive exodus. With at least seven players expected to leave the team, pressure will once again be on a group of star freshmen to carry the load next season. UK’s 2017 recruiting class, which includes five-star prospects Quade Green, P.J. Washington, Nick Richards and Jarred Vanderbilt and four-star prospect Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is currently ranked No. 1 nationally by the 247Sports Composite. Diallo is also listed as a 2017 recruit since he enrolled at midseason.
Calipari’s remaining top target is believed to be five-star forward Mohamed Bamba, a 2017 McDonald’s All-American. UK is also recruiting five-star small forward Kevin Knox, though 83 percent of pundits in 247Sports’ Crystal Ball have projected he will sign with Duke.
Adding another guard, especially one considered a strong shooter, to play alongside Green and Diallo (if he returns) in the UK backcourt could also be a priority, though there are few remaining candidates in the 2017 class to fill that role, and Calipari has seemingly closed the door to adding a graduate transfer to the team.
If he does return to UK next season, Diallo will be counted on to serve as a young leader on an inexperienced roster after his semester practicing with the team.
In that scenario, he plans to use the North Carolina loss as fuel moving forward.
“Don’t want to have this feeling again, so just always think about this in the gym grinding,” he said. “This is motivation for sure.”
Email Jon Hale at jahale@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter @JonHale_CJ.