Cats Talking NBA

The Courier-Journal's Sunday College Basketball Notebook

January 23, 2010

Contributing C-J writers this week: Brett Dawson, C.L. Brown and Michael Grant.

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

Calipari says Cats may have to reload
The UK men's basketball team has its sights set on the school's eighth national championship, but last week the Wildcats took some time off between games, and the NBA draft became a hot topic.

In separate interviews with different media outlets, junior Patrick Patterson and freshmen Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins talked about the possibility of jumping to the NBA after this season.

Patterson told The Courier-Journal he hasn't ruled out a return for his senior season. Cousins — who told the Lexington Herald-Leader in the summer that if the opportunity arose to turn pro after his freshman season, he would take it — insisted that the NBA is “not even on my mind right now.”

Bledsoe told the Kentucky Kernel, UK's student newspaper, that he likely would return for his sophomore season unless he's projected as a top-10 pick in the June draft.

And though freshman John Wall was off-limits to reporters last week, coach John Calipari said during an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Thursday that he'll encourage Wall to turn pro if — as expected — he's considered the likely No.1 pick in the draft.

On Friday, Calipari seemed to brace UK fans for the possibility that the Cats could take a hit from early NBA entries after the season and seemed to indicate the numbers could be based, in part, on whether his team wins the national title.

“If we do something unique and special, then we're going to lose a lot of guys,” he said. “Would you be happy? I'm happy. If we don't, then we're not going to lose a lot of guys. We'll lose a couple. But if something unique and special happens here, it's ‘Reload. Let's go. Who's next?' And I'd be happy.”

Stay focused, guys. Listen to Coach. The season's not over by a long shot.