NBA News: University of Kentucky Wildcats Coach Holds “Pro Day” For NBA Head-Hunters

NBA News: University of Kentucky Wildcats Coach Holds "Pro Day" For NBA Head-Hunters

Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari hosted this weekend at the University's practice facility what he termed a "pro day," a Kentucky-only mini-draft combine for the benefit of the 90 or so NBA talent scouts and executives who came to window shop for draft prospects. It was also even partly televised courtesy of ESPN which sent Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Avery Johnson to cover the event according to the New York Times.

Scott Anderson of CBS Sports joined in Calipari's first-of-its-kind marketing campaign for his wards at the university. Anderson said that "Kentucky has 10 legitimate prospects that could eventually make the NBA." Of them, he ranked power forward/center Karl-Anthony Towns, who has a 6-foot-11 frame with a 7-3 wingspan. Said he of his top pick candidate from Kentucky: "Towns is one of three players in the top tier of my draft board, along with Duke's Jahlil Okafor and former SMU prospect Emmanuel Mudiay, now playing in China. Towns is a skilled, fluid athlete for his size that can both attack from the midrange and step out and hit a collegiate three-pointer. He's the ideal modern NBA big man. Not only can he step out and space the floor so attacking guards don't have to go up against the trees in the paint, but he can also protect the rim on the other end of the floor and make it difficult to finish over him. He's not an Anthony Davis-level athlete (who is?), but at 250 pounds he's much better equipped to play the center position in the NBA. It wouldn't surprise me if Towns is the runaway number one pick by the end of the season. His potential is that vast. But for now, he settles in as the number two overall prospect behind Okafor."

Adam Himmelsbach of USA Today asked an NBA scout who requested not to be named for his own top pick candidate and he also chose Towns. Reportedly, the scout said of Towns: "For sure, he is a talented kid who can do a lot of different things at both ends of the floor. He moves really well, his body is maturing. Watching him, he should be a main focus of what they do this year. He's gonna be fun to watch."

Calipari maintained that the scouts for the NBA teams would be coming to the practices anyway so he just opted to invite them over where he can better control the process. USA Today's Himmeslbach who agrees with coach wrote: "(The combine) wasn't too much different than going to watch them practice for a few days. You know, it's a great first impression to get a feel for the young men, but then also the routines and how they might have improved over the summer. I wouldn't say there's anything hugely different that we got out of it that we wouldn't have gotten from a normal practice."

However, ESPN's Bilas, according to the New York Times, found himself in a quandary as to "whether Kentucky's advantage was fair and suggested that it took a 'third-grade mentality' to say it was 'not fair, not fair.'" He added that "maybe the N.C.A.A. will say no to the next university that tries it." 

 

 

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