Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Indiana Pacers Welcome C.J. Watson and Welcome Back David West

by Kent Sterling

Pacers President Larry Bird says what he feels with incredible consistency, so when he introduced David West at the press conference this afternoon to welcome him back, his effusiveness was almost touching.

“David has done more for this franchise than he can imagine,” Bird said. He also used words and phrases like “heart and soul”, “tough”, and “honest” to describe this “special player.”

Talking to West, who will be a guest on “Ahead of the Curve” this Saturday on 1070 the Fan (11a-1p), he understood the level of compliment that was being paid to him by one of the best players in NBA history, as well as the guy under whose authority he toils for the Pacers, but was mostly unmoved.

That’s always true of the people to whom the highest compliments are paid, as they usually hold themselves to such impossibly high standards that even generous praise from legends sound like criticism to them.

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West is a serious man with serious expectations for both the Pacers’ achievements and character. He spoke of continuing to play productively, but also of his joy in being a mentor for the young team.

Throughout the event, the word “culture” might have been used by Bird, West, coach Frank Vogel, and brand new back-up point guard C.J. Watson 300 times, and I never once thought it was lip service to woo a fan base that learned to loathe the previous iteration of the Pacers because of wayward behavior that led them to believe the players were unapologetically living the thug life.

Whether that was true then, it sure is not now. The culture of the Pacers was described by Vogel as “work hard, have fun,” just like it is by every manager for every business in America, but because of the life in Vogel’s eyes and the smile on his face when he says it that there is no choice but to believe he means it.

If this is all obvious to Pacers fans who’ve been here for awhile, my apologies. When I left Indianapolis after the 2010-2011 season, the vibe was entirely different, and not in a good way. The ways in which the Pacers appear to be operating on a different plane are too numerous to list, but the iron in West’s words, the enthusiasm in Vogel’s voice, and the obvious pleasure Watson took in describing why he came to Indy make showing up for press conferences very enjoyable – so enjoyable that Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson showed up and sat with the media.

There appears to be a buy-in on this team that doesn’t happen very often in professional sports, and listening to Bird talk about West, it’s easy to ascribe the credit for that to the 32 year-old power forward.

And the usually cynical media has bought it too. Mark Montieth has covered a lot of Pacers teams, and answered my question as to whether this new group was too good to be true by saying, “Best locker room I’ve ever been in.”

It’s tough to get young and rich men to buy into the all for one and one for all stuff, but it appears to be happening with the Pacers.

There is a palpable sense that something very special is happening here. If I didn’t know better, I would guess that I was intoxicated by the friendly access this group of players provides. I’m by nature very cynical, but I leave every one of the Pacers media events feeling like the guys doing the talking actually believe what they are saying. That’s something I haven’t felt in the Fieldhouse since 2000.

Whether or not the love and commitment toward one another the Pacers feel manifests itself in the home court advantage throughout the playoff that West spoke of several times this afternoon is to be seen, but for the fans who said they would stay away until the culture of the team changed, it’s time to come back.

The culture has changed, and it seems as long as West rides through the halls and hardwood like Chief Ten Bears in “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, it will remain “team first, work hard, and have fun.”

Matthew Stafford Extension with Lions – Pray for Owner William Clay Ford’s Sanity

by Kent Sterling

Matthew Stafford will be able to sort thousand dollar bills like I used to sort baseball cards because of his massively rewarding extension.

Signing a thoroughly mediocre quarterback who won my team four games last season to a three-year contract extension worth a guaranteed $41.5 million would cause a psychotic break from which I would never recover, and if it didn’t, my wife would cause enough blunt force trauma to my noggin that I would hope for psychosis.

We are currently looking for a TV that I told my wife might cost as much as $1,300. She gave me the look of immediate and profound negative judgment reserved only for my most inspired acts of stupidity.

Lions owner William Clay Ford has never known what financial concern is, but still there must be part of his brain that seized while signing quarterback Matthew Stafford’s extension, and if his brain is defected toward quarterbacks in the way mine is about TVs, there must be someone in his life willing to tell him no – although it is unlikely that his wife, the former Martha Parke Firestone (the granddaughter of the tire and rubber magnate), provides any checks and balances for spending.

I get the need for a franchise quarterback, but other than volume (Stafford led the NFL in attempts and completions last season) I’m not sure in what way Stafford distinguished himself to the tune of $41.5 million guaranteed. After a similarly busy 2011, when Stafford was borderline elite with 41 touchdowns and a QB rating of 97.2 in leading the Lions to their first playoff berth since 1999, Stafford had a difficult 2012 with 20 TDs, 17 picks, and a QBR of 79.8.

Someone needs to rattle the cages of sports franchise owners to remind them that real money is being spent. Granted, CEOs of failing banks have been handed bigger bonus checks than what Stafford will earn through the duration of this contract, but a guy who led the offense of the 24th ranked team in the NFL cannot be worth more than one million per month for the 36 months of this deal (and he could earn up to a total of $53 million).

Media in Chicago blathered two nights ago about how smart it would be for the Cubs to sign pitcher Matt Garza to an extension for $15 million per year for three years. Garza is 62-62 in his career, and recently recovered from an elbow injury that kept him from pitching for nine months. That’s from the media covering a team who painted itself into a box by signing the thoroughly mediocre mistake hitter Alfonso Soriano to an eight-year, $133 million deal beginning in 2007 that won’t expire until the end of the 2014 season. Slow learners, those guys.

How about the money the Steinbrenner family continues to pay Alex Rodriguez – $28 million for playing zero games this season, and a minimum of $20 million for the next four years? That’s an all-time cuckoo investment. The Yankees only hope for recouping a chunk of that booty is a looooong suspension of Rodriguez for PED usage, or a calamitous injury that would force Rodriguez to retire – engaging an insurance policy payout for the remainder of his deal.

The Lions set the bar yesterday that has to make the agents for quarterbacks like Tony Romo and Sam Bradford salivate. Excellence being rewarded is an American tradition, but the relentless overspending to gather and maintain average performers is madness.

Like I keep telling Julie, it’s not the amount we drop on the TV that counts, it’s the enjoyment it generates. Maybe I should have been an NFL franchise owner.

Former Colts Center/WIBC Analyst Jeff Saturday to Join ESPN as Analyst

by Kent Sterling

This picture proves that if you are a good guy, people will eventually see it.

We had already spoken to a few people about the opening for Colts player/analyst prior to the 2000 season when center Jeff Saturday walked into program director Jon Quick’s office, but as soon as Jeff opened his mouth, it was clear he was our guy.

The others were either too slick, too awkward, or too dull. Jeff was interesting when he spoke, but more importantly, he was interested when others spoke. Listening well is much more important than speaking well when evaluating potential talent.

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ESPN knows what it’s doing, and saw the same thing we did 13 years ago. Saturday above all else is an absolutely authentic guy – if he has ever behaved as someone he’s not, I would be stunned. His comfort in his own skin translates into confident performance, and that’s the name of the game in radio or television.

Confident people listen. Insecure people prattle on and on whether they have something to say or not.

The moment that brought Jeff’s decency to America’s attention was when he hugged New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft during the sometimes contentious negotiations during the NFL lockout two years ago. Kraft’s wife had passed away five days earlier, and Saturday comforted him as they both spoke to the media after crafting the new labor agreement.

It was one genuine moment among the thousands in Saturday’s life, but this one was in front of every sports fan in America, and it cemented Saturday’s status as one of football’s all-time good guys.

It didn’t hurt Saturday’s resume’ that he spent his entire career snapping the ball to two of the NFL’s two premier quarterbacks – Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers, but what will give him staying power in Bristol is his ability to be exactly who he is.

Saturday is a great guy, and that will come through on both TV and radio.

The Emmis cluster of stations has been a launching pad for a number of national media members. Dan Dakich is still at 1070 the Fan, and one of ESPN’s lead analysts for college basketball. Trev Alberts worked first at Emmis during his rookie season with the Colts. Charles Arbuckle was a sportstalk co-host in the early 1994-1995 on WIBC. Clark Kellogg’s first media work was as current WIBC morning man Steve Simpson’s sports guy on WKLR.

Current Colts punter Pat McAfee is heading down the same road toward meaningful media work.

Working in the media isn’t for everyone, but for those professional athletes who have the energy, inclination, and authenticity to get in the media, and the work ethic to stay there, cash awaits.

Nobody is better than ESPN at finding the right people, and they sure seem to look toward Indianapolis to stock its shelves.

Good for Jeff, and good for ESPN.

Indy Star Columnist Bob Kravitz Is a Damn Good Man

by Kent Sterling

Today, sports columnist Bob Kravitz hosted his first annual golf outing to benefit the ALS Association, and I gave myself the afternoon off to play in it.

That’s because Kravitz is a good man – a really good man. He has a reputation among some sports fans in Indianapolis as a cantankerous guy who takes players and coaches to the media woodshed, and disagreeing with his take colors their opinion of him as a human being. That’s a shame because Bob is one of the best people I know.

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Bob investing the energy to host a golf outing to benefit the association fighting the disease that took his mom in 2007 would only be surprising to those who haven’t had the inclination or taken the time to get to know Bob.

The showing among media types and athletes serving as celebrities at the event speaks to the respect people who know him have for him as a man.

I got to know Bob while the program director at 1070 the Fan while Bob was our afternoon drive co-host, and while not a celebrity, I wouldn’t have missed an event that Bob is a part of.

Several years ago as a radio host, Bob said that he would walk to Kokomo if Jamaal Tinsley was on the Indiana Pacers roster the night of the 2008 opener. Program directors dream of talent saying anything that outrageous because it becomes a recurring bit for the show.

Despite being uninvited to participate with the Pacers in anyway, Tinsley was still on the roster for the opener, and we held Bob to his word. He agreed to make the walk as long as there was a way to drive some cash to the ALS Association Chapter of Central Indiana.

Because the walk to Kokomo is damn near 40 miles, and impossible to conduct safely in one long hike, we allowed Bob to walk the 40 miles on a treadmill in the lobby of the Emmis Building. He completed the last couple of miles on US 31 one afternoon prior to the show.

Money was raised, Bob was true to his threat, and the resulting radio shows were excellent. That’s Bob Kravitz.

Today’s event was also pure Kravitz. There was fun, and then there was a touching speech from Bob about how his life has been touched by the experiences and wisdom ALS brought to him and his family. That wisdom came with a steep price, but Bob shares it freely.

The professional side of Bob is equally good. Getting hammered in the media is expected by all but the most thin-skinned, but what they respect is a guy who will write about a guy, and then show up the next day to talk a little bit. They do not like media types who hide, and Bob never hides. Many times, Bob will explain to the subject why he’s writing a negative piece prior to writing it.

Bob is one of the best columnists in the country – self-effacing, modest, and utterly decent. He has a moral compass that is true, and I found working with him to be an interrupted pleasure.

I think so highly of Bob, that I paid 150 clams out of my own pocket to play in the outing. That unprecedented investment is because of my respect for Bob, and my hatred for what ALS does to everyone in effects.

If you’re a sports fan in Indiana, every time you get a little peeved at Bob, you should remember who he is, what he does, and how he does it. He holds players and coaches accountable because you deserve to have someone in the trenches doing that dirty work.

As a sign of thanks to Bob, or your willingness to help fight ALS, make a donation by clicking on this link.

Chicago Cubs – Chicago Media Is Derelict in Telling Truth to Fans

by Kent Sterling

It’s hard to tell whether the Chicago sports media is littered with morons, or if they’re nesting in the pockets of Cubs executives who are understandably averse to being outed as free spending and irresponsible.

To suggest Matt Garza should be given an extension paying $15-million per year is only explainable by one of those options.

Everything the Cubs had done prior to the signing of pitcher Edwin Jackson seemed designed to build for the distant future – an understandable counter strategy to the win now boobery proffered as an answer to entrenched mediocrity by general manager Jim Hendry from 2003-2011.

The Cubs were hamstrung by horrifying deals with players assembled like a nine-year-old’s fantasy baseball team. Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano, Milton Bradley/Carlos Pena, Kosuke Fukudome, and on and on and on made building an immediately competitive roster impossible. The farm system, as thin as it was, was used by Hendry to acquire more mediocrity.

When owner Tom Ricketts spent big to attract supposed young geniuses Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer, the company line was that the Cubs would suck for awhile as the farm system was restocked with prospects – a process that would take years.

Okay, that I get. Undoing the harm wrought by Hendry would be a longterm process.

Then, the Cubs overreacted to a dearth of pitching after the 2012 season as they signed the thoroughly mediocre Edwin Jackson to a four-year, $52 million dollar contract. The Nationals had signed Jackson the year before to a one-year, $11 million deal after Jackson helped the Cardinals win a World Championship. The Cubs are Jackson’s eighth team, and he won’t turn 30 until September 9th, but the Cubs decided to affix his value two million higher than the 2012 deal because of his 10-11 record for a team that finished 34 games over .500.

Last night, panelists on Chicago Sportstalk Live advanced the notion that starting pitcher Matt Garza should be signed to an extension to the tune of $15 million per year for three years, and I yelled a string of creatively combined obscenities at the television.

The media has a responsibility to use their brains and cry “Bull**it!” when the stooges in charge try to pass off idiocy as nonsense. This is true in government, business, and sports. The media are supposed to figure things out for those with real lives who don’t have the time.

Thank God for the Chicago Sun-Times Cubs beat reporter Gordon Wittenmyer, who scoffed at the question of a Garza extension, saying that the Cubs were shopping Garza with vigor.

Of course, the Cubs should shop Garza. They have no chance to contend in the National League Central for until 2016 at the earliest. The Cardinals are stocked with talent at every level, and as long as Yadier Molina is healthy enough to squat, they will have a catcher with the ability to get the most out of the pitching staff. Catching the Cards is going to take a lot of time.

Garza’s value will never be higher than it is at this moment. He’s 4-0 in his last five starts, yielding only four earned runs in 37 innings. This run brings Garza’s lifetime record to the very definition of mediocre – 62-62. A free agent after the season, Garza is a perfect low-risk rent-an-arm.

There is another bad reason for the Cubs to consider keeping Garza – if they tender Garza a one-year contract at $13.4 million following this season, but he signs elsewhere the Cubs would be do a compensatory draft pick first round pick. That’s what the Cardinals did after last season with Kyle Lohse.

The difference between Lohse and Garza is that Lohse was entirely healthy, while Garza is one pitch away from a shredded elbow which would render him valueless – or at least far less valuable than the $13.4 million needed to kick the draft pick comp into effect.

To suggest that Garza is worth exactly the kind of inane risk that defined the last five years of Hendry’s tenure shows an intellectual frailty that explains the reason viewers/listeners/readers have lost all respect for a lazy media that believes noise = insight.

Chicago sports fans deserve much better than was offered last night on Comcast, minus the very good Wittenmyer.

[Dave Kaplan was off last night. He is the usual host who seems to normally have his head screwed on straight. Without him, the inmates lost their minds.]

Indianapolis Colts – Fans Should Dial Back Expectations from 11-5

by Kent Sterling

In the history of the NFL, only one team has one 11 or more games while being outscored by its opponents. That was the 2012 Indianapolis Colts.

There is an undeniable statistical likelihood that point differential determines success or failure, but because of the limited sample size represented by the 16-game season, it can be overcome for one year but almost never two.

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Last year, the Colts were 9-1 in games settled by seven points or less.

There are two pieces of guidance I trust concerning the 2013 Colts. One is Bill Barnwell of grantland.com put together an excellent statistical analysis of teams that deviate significantly from what record their point differential predicts – and it’s not good news for Colts fans. The other is NFL defensive mastermind Rick Venturi, who talks about the men playing the game, rather than the numbers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slWc1P1S6JY

Indiana Basketball – Tom Crean Has a Decision to Make and It Will Be an Easy One

by Kent Sterling

This morning I wrote about the Indiana Basketball program, and how it needed to cover its ears to protect itself from the silent song of the one-and-done player quick fix.

Dante Exum is a gifted basketball player from Australia who is considering an offer from Crean to join the Hoosiers next season for what would likely be a one-year audition for the NBA, but given his eligibility for next year’s NBA Draft, who knows. Exum might be one of those weirdos who understand that college is worthwhile, fun, and that the NBA will wait.

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Draftexpress.com ranks Exum the third best player of those who might declare for the 2014 draft, and likely lottery picks don’t often return to school to exhaust their eligibility.

The decision that awaits Crean is whether he will welcome players so good that if not for the NBA’s absurd rule restricting the age of players eligible for the draft, they would enter the league, or try to focus recruiting efforts upon players who are expected to stick around through graduation.

Indiana’s academic progress rate, as measured by the NCAA, has been a perfect 1,000 for the past three seasons, and athletic director Fred Glass makes sure Hoosiers getting out of their college experience what coaches promise is the law of the land. The Excellence Academy at IU shows an intense pride in making the collegiate experience pay lasting dividends for student-athletes.

All that said, Crean is the highest paid public employee with a salary and bonuses of $3.16 million for a reason other than making sure the 13 scholarship athletes in his charge at any given time get their degrees and leave Bloomington better men than they were upon arrival in Bloomington (although there are bonuses for APR, team GPA, and graduation rates).

He is paid to win, and the longer Indiana goes without hanging a championship banner next to the five the Hoosiers have earned over the past 71 years, the more fans’ attention will begin to wander toward other men they feel might be better suited to lead IU back to a promised land 26 years removed.

That’s the life of a coach. The best day is your first, and then it’s mostly downhill until you are handed a severance check. There are unique outliers like Mike Krzyzewski, but for vast majority, it’s a matter of doom avoidance. A good coaches credo is, “ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Principle is fine, but talent wins games, and while Exum appears to be exceptionally intelligent – a likely excellent student, it’s his length, quickness, and dexterity that attracts coaches.

It’s unreasonable to ask a man like Crean in a cut-throat profession to do more than he already does. Indiana demands that the program is built with rigid adherence to NCAA rules, leads the pack academically, and wins. To enforce a guideline that the wins come from a group of bonafide college students as committed to earning a degree as they are to improve their on-court skill level would almost be cruel, and certainly unreasonable.

Because I am admittedly unreasonable, that’s what I believe college basketball should do at all levels. The draft eligibility rules should be changed to reflect those used by Major League Baseball – either jump straight out of high school or wait until the end of the third year of college – but I would like schools to hold students to that standard of staying through year three regardless.

Universities are not designed to be an inexpensive minor league for the NBA, and coaches, regardless of their circumstance, should not treat them as such. To win a championship with a player or team of players who spend a total of eight months on a campus is hypocritical and against the standards for which an educational institution should stand.

While it’s inconceivable to blame Crean or any coach for taking a bite or two out of the tempting apple represented by the kid who only wants to go to college because he has no alternative for the year following his high school graduation, it’s a moral imperative to do exactly that.

I’m well aware that tilting at this windmill is a fool’s errand, but pragmatism has no place in a discussion about what is right for student-athletes who are most often the most visible representation of the conscience of a state’s educational system.

Indiana fans want wins, and they believe Tom Crean was hired to make that happen. I like to think coaches are hired to enrich the lives of the student-athletes entrusted to their cares. There are special coaches who can fill both roles.

I’m going to continue to hold Tom Crean and all basketball coaches to that standard. Whether that means Crean should take Exum or not can only be answered by Crean and Exum.

Australian Dante Exum Will Determine Whether Indiana Basketball Is About Winning or Education

by Kent Sterling

Winning a national championship is not worth turning Indiana Basketball into a de facto AAU team where players are gathered to exploit their basketball talents, while waiting for earliest possible payday.

But it’s not hard to see why Indiana coach Tom Crean would be going hard after Dante Exum, a 6’6″ point guard from Australia. He’s long, quick, and two-handed around the bucket.

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Exum spoke to draft express.com, and singled out Indiana as the school that is going after him the hardest.

Interestingly, Exum says that, depending upon the school he chooses and when he decides to commit, he could join a roster in December or for next year.

Indiana is full right now – using their full allotment of 13 scholarships – but have only used one of the two scholarships currently available for 2014-2015 with the expiration of eligibility of Will Sheehey and Evan Gordon.

Exum is eligible for the 2014 NBA Draft because he was born in 1995, and is from a foreign country. He is projected in mock drafts as high as #3, but says that his focus is on playing in college.

There appears to be no way at all that Exum will remain at Indiana through the completion of his degree – or as close as former Hoosier Cody Zeller is – before jumping to the NBA like the kids recruited by so many programs that clearly value winning basketball games over providing student-athletes with an experience where they are allowed to mature, learn, and finally, put in a position to graduate.

As good as Dante Exum is, I hope that Indiana continues to build its program with student-athletes who aren’t just committed to improving as a basketball player.

Exum might be the exception to the rule as he appears focused on attending school rather than declare for the first NBA draft for which he is eligible, so if he wants to wait for his first NBA paycheck, this decision is easy.

Winning at the expense of the charter of a university is not what Indiana was, and it shouldn’t be what Indiana is.

Watch the video to hear a smart kid who is incredibly talented talk about his future. If you were Crean, could you resist the temptation of the short-term greatness his signing could represent?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51-3AsKP59Q#at=39

Chicago Cubs Trade Scott Hairston – Rudderless Circling Continues

by Kent Sterling

Scott Hairston should be smiling after picking up two positions and 8 1/2 games in the standings by sliding to the Nationals.

Maybe I have seen this kind of idiocy for too long to see the trade of platoon outfielder Scott Hairston as nothing but the continuation run of directionless talent acquisition and dispersal by a franchise that needs to be focused on the distant future.

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Hairston signed a two-year, $5-million deal shortly before spring training began, and now the Cubs are dealing him to the Washington Nationals for a pitcher in A-ball. Reports are that the Nats will take on the remainder of Hairston’s deal this year, but that the Cubs will need to kick in $500K toward Hairston’s $2.5 million next year.

So, the signing of Hairston amounts to the Cubs spending approximately $1.8 million to acquire right-hander Ivan Pineyro (21, recently called up to high-A Potomac) – the kind of Single-A pitcher who gets shuffled for a 33-year-old part-time outfielder mired in the kind of slump that turns players into media members.

This isn’t about Hairston’s .172 batting average and .232 OBP. It’s about what possibly could have motivated the expense associated with a player who is a small piece of a winning culture, or a big piece of a loser.

The Cubs were going to lose this season regardless of whether Hairston or Iowa Cub and Chicago native Brian Bogusevic played part time . That Bogusevic is left handed while Hairston bats right handed is meaningless. If an outfielder swung a bat through his legs like a croquet mallet, the Cubs would still not win or lose much more than they were destined to prior to the season.

It’s an insult to Cubs owner Tom Ricketts’ money that the Cubs spent $1.8 million when the upside was negligible. I won’t mention the $5.5-million pitcher Scott Baker is being paid this year to play catch and throw simulated games because my head will explode. I can’t imagine Ricketts is thrilled when he signs the checks. If healthy, the Cubs still don’t contend with Baker, so what the hell kind of strange conversations occur in the conference rooms at 1060 West Addison?

The only reasonable explanation is that the Cubs front office spends a significant portion of the offseason trying to build hope among fans when they are well aware none exists.

Cubs President Theo Epstein and General Manager Jed Hoyer have done an excellent job building resources they are using to sign Latin players this season before Major League Baseball decides to enact a draft for international players.

Those 16 year-olds like pitchers Jefferson Mejia (Dominican) and Erling Moreno (Colombia), Dominican shortstop Gleyber Torres, outfielder Eloy Jimenez are going to take a minimum of five years to develop, meaning that a significant portion of the fans overspending for tickets today will be dead by the time the Cubs are ready to compete.

My issue is obviously not with the way the Cubs are stockpiling top ranked prospects for the distant future, but the idiocy that drives meaningless spending like that which brought Hairston to Chicago.

The Cubs are woking the international system to compete with the Cardinals in 2019 as the best organization in baseball, and spending to try to win 72 games instead of 69 in 2013 is wasteful and representative of the duplicity that has been the hallmark of the Ricketts ownership and the Epstein regime.

The selling off of their roster is good business. Starting pitcher Matt Garza should be dealt to fortify the farm system, and if they can get more international player pool money in the bargain, that’s wonderful, but don’t spend cash on free agents in the offseason to dupe fans (saps) into believing that winning today is possible or that buying tickets is logical outside the fun and nostalgia of visiting Wrigley Field.

Cubs fans understand that 105 years of misery will not be reversed with quick fixes, so instead of signing an expensive every guy like Hairston, bring up some cheap mediocrity from Iowa, and use the savings to reduce ticket prices so we can relive childhood afternoons of watching Ernie, Billy, Ron, Kingman, Ryno, Greg, the Hawk, and Gracie without quite so much financial pain.

Kentucky Lands Unprecedented Seven in Chad Ford’s First Round for 2014 NBA Draft

by Kent Sterling

Here are the six 2013 Kentucky recruits that basketball fans will be talking about for decades.

The anti-Kentucky faction that enjoyed watching John Calipari’s Wildcats take a first round NIT beatdown at Robert Morris last March might need to savor that moment for awhile. All five starters and two bench players are projected in the first round of next year’s draft by ESPN expert Chad Ford.

Here are the seven:

2 – Julius Randle – 6’9″ power forward – Freshman

7 – Andrew Harrison – 6’5″ point guard – Freshman

13 – Willie Cauley-Stein – 7’0″ center – Sophomore

20 – James Young – 6’7″ small forward – Freshman

21 – Alex Poythress – 6’7″ small forward – Sophomore

25 – Dakari Johnson – 6’10” center – Freshman

30 – Aaron Harrison – 6’5″ shooting guard – Freshman

From there, a significant gap opens to the 72nd ranked Marcus Lee – another freshman, who despite being the ninth ranked power forward and 25th best player in the class, might not play much.

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PF Kyle Wiltjer has announced his intention to transfer – kind of, but may choose to return. If he enjoys playing for a really good team rather than having excellent seats for watching one of the most talented teams (on paper) in the last 30+ years, he will pack a bag and never look back.

Nerlens Noel’s injury derailed Kentucky last year, but this year’s group appears to have depth that can withstand a rash of injuries unseen since hobbling was all the rage in the penal systems of the Old West.

Twenty former Kentucky players opened the 2012-2013 season on NBA rosters. That number is likely to bump by seven for 2014-2015, if Ford is correct in his assessment. Over the past 15 years, Kentucky has sent 23 players to the NBA.

LSU and Florida have sent eight and 15 players to the league respectively in those same 15 years. None of the rest of the SEC teams have sent more than seven. Kentucky will get that done in one year, according to Ford.

It’s curious that six members of ESPN’s top 25 would all choose to pledge Wildcats simultaneously with only five starting spots available on the floor.

This level of success is unprecedented in collegiate basketball recruiting. Never have so many players with enormous potential chosen to attend one school simultaneously. John Calipari must be one charismatic fellow to attract that kind of gifted bounty.

I understand that Kentucky has developed a reputation for sending kids to the NBA, but if Kentucky is the launching pad, why is Andrew Wiggins ranked as the #1 player in the 2014 mock draft?

In the history of basketball, this level of talent has never been accumulated simultaneously, so Kentucky fans need to enjoy this one season that so many will be paying very close attention to.

It’s possible that people will be talking about this class for a very long time.