Legendary broadcaster Dick Vitale believes the Kentucky Wildcats will be a tremendously young team next season.
After a conversation with head coach John Calipari, Vitale took to twitter to say he believes all five Wildcats with NBA Draft decisions will declare.
Had great chat with @UKCoachCalipari earlier & my gut tells me that all 5 / Quickly/Richards/Hagans/Maxey/Montgomery will enter @NBA draft / I asked Cal about that & he basically said We UK will be fine . He said he hopes all leaving early if not 1st rd picks get guaranteed $.
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) April 6, 2020
As of Monday evening, Ashton Hagans and Tyrese Maxey have already declared for the draft, but Immanuel Quickley, Nick Richards and EJ Montgomery have yet to make their decisions public.
In NBA Draft Net’s latest full mock draft, Quickley is a projected first round pick of the Miami Heat, Richards is a projected second rounder Philadelphia 76ers, while Montgomery is nowhere to be found.
Thus, the risk of going undrafted or at least securing a guaranteed contract seems much smaller for Quickley and Richards than it does for Montgomery.
Regardless, Vitale is likely correct that UK will lose all five of their starters from last season. That leaves them with their six-man freshman class of Terence Clarke, BJ Boston, Isaiah Jackson, Lance Ware, Cam’Ron Fletcher and Devin Askew.
The group will join a sophomore Keion Brooks and redshirt freshman Dontaie Allen as Calipari will look to put together the team that earns UK’s ninth national championship.
Of course, we should expect UK to add at least one more player via transfer and/or high school recruiting.