Spencer McCord

Staff Writer

Kentucky has the No. 2 recruiting class with a Bam, as in Bam Adebayo. Kentucky fans are excited to get to see these new incoming freshmen that’ll be headlined by Malik Monk, De’Aaron Fox, and Adebayo.

These latest freshmen will be competing with a few return players like Isaiah Briscoe, Isaac Humphries, and Derek Willis.

Many fans of the game believe that Calipari has brought in another class of one-and-done talents.

Calipari has been one of the more successful coaches at bringing in young talents and getting them NBA ready, while also winning games and competing for a national championship at the same time and losing the players to the NBA after the season.

John Wall, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Nerlens Noel are just a few of these players that some of the incoming freshmen strive to compete with in the NBA.

With the new rules for declaring for the draft, all will declare for the NBA but Kentucky will lose Fox, Adebayo, Monk, Briscoe, Wenyen Gabriel, Dominique Hawkins, Mychal Mulder and Willis with the rest of the team returning the next year.

While Hawkins, Mulder and Willis will all depart as part of the senior class this year for Kentucky, I can only imagine Willis having a legitimate shot as a second round pick in the NBA but the other two will still play professionally but just not in the NBA.

But this year there is one freshman that gets a lot of attention as a walk on. That is Brad Calipari, the son of Coach Calipari. Brad Calipari isn’t really here to be a major part of this basketball team but to learn more from his father on how to run a top program and how to coach a team.

The Wildcats come in ranked number two in the preseason AP top 25 polls and are looking to bounce back from a second- round loss to Indiana in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Most NCAA basketball analysts don’t even have Kentucky in their preseason final fours. While these final fours they’ve created don’t mean anything this team shouldn’t be overlooked.

With this incoming talent pool and the return of some players from the previous year, this team will be one of the best in the NCAA.

They are one of the fastest and explosive teams in the NCAA. This team has already shown they can score as they did in a lopsided 156-63 victory over Asbury.

They may be young and unexperienced when it comes to the college game but with their talent and being coached by hall of fame coach John Calipari they can make up for the lack of experience and be a real contender in the college game.