Nobody is mocking John Calipari’s platoon system now.
There was talk the system of using two groups of five players would backfire, and some suggested Kentucky’s whiffs during the spring recruiting season were the result.
But Thursday’s NBA draft was a Kentucky love-in, with four Wildcats taken among the 14 lottery picks — led by New Jersey’s Karl-Anthony Towns, who went No. 1 to the Timberwolves — and six altogether, equaling a draft record.
The Wildcats became the second program, after North Carolina, in 2005, to have four players go in the lottery.
The non-traditional move worked out perfectly, aside from the Final Four loss to Wisconsin.
“Now all [of a] sudden it’s like, ‘Holy cow, just being on the team you can get drafted, ’ ” Calipari said, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. “There’s a lot of stuff that I’ll struggle now [to comprehend] if I try to think of it.”
Kentucky began the season 38-0, before the crushing loss to the Badgers in Indianapolis. But there was nothing but joy in Brooklyn on Thursday night.
Towns was followed by defensive dynamo Willie Cauley-Stein, who went to the Kings at No. 6; well-rounded forward Trey Lyles, who was taken by the Jazz at No. 12; and sharpshooter Devin Booker, who was chosen No. 13 by the Suns. Wildcats guard Andrew Harrison was taken in the second round (44th overall) by the Suns and traded to the Grizzlies. Forward Dakari Jonson went 48th overall to the Thunder.
Kentucky fell short of having five players taken in the first round, as was the case in 2010, but that year they didn’t have as many players taken as high.
“Obviously, it’s just good for the program,” Cauley-Stein said. “There’s a lot of scrutiny on Coach Cal [that] he can’t get young guys and turn them into a team, make them win, still be there for each other and get drafted and play for their dreams.”
This is just the latest big draft for Kentucky under Calipari. He has produced three No. 1 overall picks — Towns joined John Wall (2010) and Anthony Davis (2012) — and 25 draft picks, 13 in the lottery, since arriving at the SEC powerhouse in 2009.
“It just shows that our team was special,” Lyles said. “It was unlike any other. It just shows that if you got to a team and you have a platoon like we did, but you care about the team and not just yourself, you’re going to be successful no matter what.”
At this time last year, the Kentucky kids were together, watching the NBA draft. A year later, they became millionaires, part of the greatest league in the world.
“The success of the team helped me out a lot,” Booker, a talented 6-foot-6 shooting guard, said. “One of the greatest teams — well, the greatest team — I’ve ever been on.”