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Happy 4th of July!
Now, imagine a scenario in which the draft of every sport was combined, and a ranking was established to determine which colleges were the most successful in producing draft prospects.
Seems like a bit of a complicated system, right? Well it is, but ESPN did this exact type of ranking anyway, and Kentucky ranked pretty high.
The Wildcats were fourth, as UK athletics has produced 93 draft picks in the last 10 draft classes across these leagues: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, WNBA, MLL (lacrosse) and NFP (softball). That gave them an ultimate draft score of 1351.9.
Obviously, the influx of Kentucky players in the NBA Draft has a lot to do with this, but the Wildcats have produced plenty of pro athletes in other areas. Here’s what ESPN said about the Wildcats.
It’s clear that Kentucky is fourth in these rankings because of its elite recruiting ability in men’s basketball. Since taking over in 2009, coach John Calipari has produced a whopping 36 NBA draft picks, by far the most in the nation. That’s 14 more than second-place Duke’s 22. Perhaps surprisingly, Kentucky’s baseball program has had 31 players drafted in the first 10 rounds over the past decade, and its football program, which hasn’t won more than seven games in the past 10 years, has had 12 players selected in the NFL draft.
North Carolina was No. 1 in this ultimate draft with a score of 1706.6. Maryland was No. 2 with a score of 1580.4, Duke was No. 3 with a score of 1482, and Notre Dame rounded out the top five behind Kentucky with a score of 1291.7.
You can see more of the list here, and a description of how the list was ranked.
Tweets of the day
Bam Adebayo throwing down the lob. pic.twitter.com/bvNOys2u76
— Scott Charlton (@Scott_Charlton) July 4, 2018
It’s former Wildcat Summer League Highlight SZN.
To the CITY and FANS of Nola, Thank you! pic.twitter.com/qZhVBHAth4
— DeMarcus Cousins (@boogiecousins) July 3, 2018
Your quickies
UK Basketball Preseason #4 In NBA Eastern Conference | Kentucky Sports Radio
Editor's Note: The following was written by Harold Leeder, editor-in-chief of The New Circle Circular, Lexington's #1 source of fake news you can't count on. NBA Recruiting is in full-swing right now and John Calipari has positioned the Wildcats well once again.
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