The speculation is over, and the Big Blue Nation’s suspicions are confirmed.

Wednesday, the University of Kentucky announced that five, yes five, UK players will enter their names in the NBA draft before their eligibility is up at the school.

As expected, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Daniel Orton and Eric Bledsoe will all leave school prematurely seeking NBA riches. We wish them nothing but success.

No word has been released yet on which of them will hire agents, though Orton has previously stated that he will not, meaning that he’ll retain his eligibility if the draft doesn’t go to his liking.

The BBL has contended for some time now that all five of these players would be potential lottery picks when they decided to leave. We feel the same way today.

All in all, it would be a pretty epic and unprecedented sight to see five players from the same team go in the first round of the NBA draft.

But at what cost does this come for the UK basketball program?

It is our belief, first off, that Coach Calipari has foreseen this scenario for quite a while now. As of earlier this week, Cal also scoffed at rumors of his departure to the NBA, stating in more or less terms that recruiting was still looking good.

So what is the truth? How are the Cats going to look next year?

We aren’t completely sure. But we firmly expect two or three more impact commitments and at least one or two JUCO players.

Kentucky will also need to wait a little longer to find out what happens to Darnell Dodson and Jon Hood, both of whom have hinted that they intend to transfer.

The fact of the matter is, a huge turnover must be expected. But on the bright side, Kentucky turned over its roster last year, and the Cats won 35 games.

If anyone can engineer a quick fix, it’s the guy who is better known than anyone else for recruiting the one-and-done, instant impact players. Yeah, that’s right, the guy who coaches at Kentucky today.

We’ll discuss this more in depth as the story develops. But we want to sign off by offering up a thanks and best wishes to the players departing Kentucky. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see enough of them, but their short tenure at the school will not soon be forgotten.

The Kentucky Wildcats get a chance to relax and scout the competition today as the first round of the SEC tournament tips off in Nashville.

The Cats will play Alabama tomorrow at 1 p.m est, after the Crimson Tide defeated South Carolina in the first game of the bracket. This will be the second meeting of the season between these two, and as we know, Bama gave the Cats all they could handle in Rupp Arena last month. Should be an interesting game.

For now, here is what we would like to see from the Cats in this tournament:

Good perimeter shooting
Having good outside games from Erick Bledsoe, Darius Miller and Darnell Dodson would be a great sign heading into the NCAAs.

Post dominance
The Cats have crushed the opposition all year, as the nation’s leader in rebound margin and a top five shot-blocking team. Getting offensive boards and fouling out opposing big men, two staples of this season, are the best remedy for poor shooting–which UK often struggles with.

The John Wall show
Wall must continue to grow and understand game situations, when to push the ball and when to slow it down. Keeping his turnovers to a respectable sub-four per game would be big.

Patterson’s production
The BBL thinks at this point that Patterson could essentially dominate and score at will if he chose to. He just lacks that fiery take charge attitude. Not that it will hurt Kentucky, as PP is ultimately all about unselfishness and winning games. Scoring in the 15 point range will keep UK in games.

We’ll be back soon with predictions and post-season speculation.

So now that Kentucky has returned from the muddle of mediocrity and landed back on top of the college basketball world, the work for 2009-2010 is done and we can shift focus to next year’s team…

Ok, we’re only kidding. But it is true that with the runaway success of Calipari’s first Kentucky squad, there has been surprisingly little ink given to any speculation or discussion of what his second UK edition might look like. Moreover, given the hype and hoopla surrounding this year’s on-court Wildcats, the recruiting trail has been ominously devoid of major news and rumors.

And so we thought we’d take a moment to offer a ridiculously premature look at what Cat fans might be able to expect for next year.

What the Cats Lose
First, it must be said that the roster Kentucky is currently suiting up looks more and more like a once in a generation collection of talent. Regardless of how these Cats finish, it would not be fair to expect this level of overall ability every year, or even every 10.

Next year’s roster will probably play out a lot more like the bulk of Cal’s very solid Memphis teams. That is to say that it will feature good overall talent and depth, veteran leadership and a slew of long, rangy combo guard-forwards well-suited for the dribble drive motion.

At this point, the BBL is highly confident that Kentucky will see four players selected in the first round of the 2010 NBA draft. Add to that the loss of three seniors, and there is going to be some significant turnover.

Next Year’s Nucleus
The nucleus of the team will lie with three juniors, Darnell Dodson, Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins (we can already envision the “3D” label being applied as the season gets going), each of whom is a potential star when not sharing the ball with an NBA-laden roster. We expect these three to receive the bulk of the minutes at the 2 and 3 positions, with Liggins potentially logging some minutes at the 1, as well.

The Cats will also expect a huge step up from freshman Daniel Orton, who has the physical tools to be a future lottery pick in his own right. Josh Harrellson will add size and experience, and if Jon Hood gains strength and improves his long distance shooting touch, he could be a standout performer in the SEC.

Despite the heavy personnel losses and substantial drop in talent that Kentucky is likely to experience next season, these six players alone would constitute a legit top 25 worthy contender. But they’ll have help, too.

Another Huge Class?
One of the givens about Coach Cal is his ability to attract blue chip talent and next year should be no exception. Unfortunately, due to the uncertain nature of having multiple potential early entries, the Cats haven’t exactly loaded up on signees to this point, with only 6-5 wing Stacey Poole having committed thus far.

With that said, we expect the Cats to sign at least two more, and possibly three, immediate impact players for next year and probably another two or three project players. Pretty much all of Kentucky’s top targets fit the bill of the 6-4 to 6-8 long athlete who can defend and play more than one position.

The latest rumors seem to indicate that the nation’s top scholastic player, 6-3 Brandon Knight, will hold off on announcing his choice until March or April. If that’s the case, this will strongly favor Kentucky, as Bledsoe and Wall’s fates will have been decided by then, opening the door for another big time PG.

Our prediction is that UK will land at least one of Brandon Knight and PG stud Josh Selby, to go along with three forwards, led by C.J. Leslie, who was John Wall’s teammate in high school and is said to love it in Lexington.

BBL Take
All in all, we think the Cats will suit up another top 10 team with Final Four potential, but once again will have to depend on youth in key positions. A rotation of Liggins, Dodson, Hood and Knight/Selby in the backcourt, to go along with Miller, Poole, Hood, Orton, Harrellson and Leslie in the frontcourt would certainly contend for an SEC championship and high NCAA seed.

The BBL is incredibly excited about the transformation on display from DeAndre Liggins.

Liggins came to UK as a consensus top 25 high school recruit but was thoroughly handcuffed and stymied during his freshman year by former coach Billy Gillispie. In Gillispie’s grind it out, yeoman style, Liggins’ tendency to try to force the spectacular play did not do him any favors. By the second half of the SEC season last year, D-Liggins was all but an afterthought in Kentucky’s rotation.

At the start of this season, Liggins faced the prospect of sitting the entire semester as punishment for off-court issues, possibly academic in nature. No one other than Coach Cal and DeAndre himself know what the real story was behind his unofficial suspension. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Since becoming “eligible” Liggins’ emergence as the team’s sixth man has been nothing short of remarkable.

His play off the bench has been marked by high energy and outstanding hustle. He’s also become an absolute defensive stopper. Every time out, he offers a flurry of deflections and batted balls, and he has shown a knack for the blue collar play, diving on the floor and fighting for every loose ball. With his non-stop ballhawking, Liggins seems to be everywhere at once and his defensive intensity is currently best on the team.

We’ve always known him to be an excellent passer with amazing court vision. That part of his game was already on display last year. But now he has improved his jump shot to the point where he can consistently make the open three. In fact, his form is good, and if his feet are set he is deadly from behind the arc. With his long, athletic 6-6 frame, he’s also a solid rebounder who can mix it up in the paint. All in all, Liggins is on the verge of becoming a bigtime weapon.

It’s clear to the BBL that Calipari has been instrumental in his improvement. He is focused and playing much more from within the team concept. Everyone knows how good Cal is at assembling the pieces to a great team. But he deserves a ton of credit for his personnel management and ability to get kids to buy in. Liggins is a case study of this fact.

Right now he’s a little tentative as a ballhandler and creator, but that is understandable given the talent and skill level of the players around him. Still , we look for great things from DeAndre in the future and wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him become UK’s featured player by his senior season.

The BBL is excited to be in attendance at Madison Square Garden tonight for the SEC-Big East Invitational matchup between titans of the college basketball universe Kentucky and Connecticut.

This will be our first chance to catch the Cats live this season, and we are licking our chops at the opportunity. Hopefully, we’ll bring back some stories, picture and video from our experience, but going into it, here are our keys to the game.

Youth vs. Youth – Both teams are very young. Kentucky starts three freshmen, while UConn is expected to start at least one true freshman (Alex Oriakhi) and a sophomore (Kemba Walker). The bulk of UConn’s bench is very young, as well. The primary difference, from an experience standpoint, is that Coach Jim Calhoun has been reluctant to use his bench much in the early season, while Kentucky routinely plays 10 guys. As has been the norm in the first month of the season, expect another sloppy game.

Friendly Confines - UConn is used to playing in the Mecca of college hoops. In fact, they make an annual trip to the Big Apple for the Big East tourney and have already played two games there this season. This familiarity might give the Huskies a slight edge. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see whether the now revitalized Big Blue Nation shows up in full force for an early December game on a Wednesday night in New York.

Charity Stripe – UConn has been woeful from the line so far this year, shooting about 69%, with a low point coming in a loss vs. Duke when the Huskies shot 15-28 in a 9 point loss. Of course, Kentucky has been worse, shooting only 66% from the stripe. The difference has been that the Cats have knocked them down when they count–late FTs vs. Stanford and UNC saved both games.

Wear ‘em Down – All of Connecticut’s five starters are averaging more than 30 minutes per game. After that, the next biggest contributor is freshman Jamal Coombs-McDaniel. Don’t be surprised to see Coach Cal run bodies in waves at UConn and try to tire them out or get their bigs in foul trouble. UConn will struggle mightily in the Big East this year if they don’t start developing some depth.

Perimeter Defense - UConn isn’t a dazzling outside shooting team, but they do fire up about 10 a game and hit more than 35%. This is a recurring challenge for Kentucky so they will need to limit open looks from Walker and leading scorer Jerome Dyson (20.1 ppg). On the other side of the ball, UConn’s athletic backcourt should be able to have success slowing up UK’s lightning quick guard duo, at least relative to what is humanly possible.

BBL’s Take - UConn has a talented starting five, all of whom have the potential to play NBA ball in the future. Walker and Dyson are fast and can get the ball to the rack, while Stanley Robinson is one of the highest leapers in college hoops. Throw in big bodies Gavin Edwards and McDonald’s All-American Oriakhi and it’s clear this will be an evenly matched game. Kentucky will need to rebound well and keep UConn’s bigs from getting putback dunks and tip-ins. If the Cats continue to get decent 3-point shooting from Miller-Dodson-Bledsoe and Wall and Patterson do their normal thing, Kentucky should be in good position to pull out a W.

Look for the game to start off as an up and down affair. UConn has had trouble in halfcourt games and will want to turn the inevitable slew of UK turnovers into fast break points. Dyson, who is a dynamic slasher/shooter will look to get involved early. He can heat up quickly and score in bunches. Ultimately, Kentucky should be able to outlast UConn by pounding it inside with Patterson-Cousins-Orton. Regardless of outcome, look for John Wall to contribute a few highlight reel plays to the storied annals of Madison Square Garden hoops lore.

See you in New York

No John Wall? No problem.

Kentucky ushered in the John Calipari regime Friday night with a no-nonsense domination of Morehead State, showing off its impressive stable of young talent in the process. With superstar-t0-be John Wall sitting out a one-game suspension, the Cats turned to Eric Bledsoe…and he did not disappoint.

Bledsoe dropped 24 points in a 37-minute debut, and wowed the crowd with circus shots and a head-spinning display of open court ball handling.

Meanwhile, UK shuffled bodies in and out of the game, and saw fantastic performances from Patrick Patterson (20 points, 12 rebounds) and several of the newcomers.

All in all, here are the major takeaways as UK heads into tonight’s game with Miami of Ohio:

Turnovers - Cats need to take care of the ball better. They turned it over 24 times, including 7 by the otherwise impressive Bledsoe.

Frontcourt - Cousins and Orton complemented each other well, combining for 11 points and 9 rebounds. With PP expected to have a big year, adding these twin talents with a sprinkling of Stevenson and Harrellson is going to make this a tough interior matchup for anyone.

Free Throws – Many are expecting UK to mirror the poor foul shooting of past Calipari teams. We’re not sure just yet. The Cats went 19 for 28 from the stripe in the opener.

The Enigma of Miller – Darius Miller managed 0 points and 5 turnovers in 32 minutes. With Dodson, Hood and Liggins breathing down his neck, he’ll need to turn things around quickly in order to keep his starting job safe.

It’s hard to evaluate UK’s team after a 74-38 win over an incredibly overmatched opponent in NAIA Campbellsville. But UK’s talent, size and depth meet the hype.

The Cats appear to have one ugly and glaring wart—a lack of perimeter marksmanship. UK’s size and athleticism in the post is something to behold so if they dominate the offensive glass, their lack of outside shooting might not be such a weakness. Even the guards are long and athletic enough to grab long rebounds off missed shots.

DeMarcus “Big Cuz” Cousins scares us because he is so talented and appears to be so volatile and high strung. We’re sensing potential chemistry issues. He is not as athletic as Orton or Patterson and we see him struggling a bit down the road when he’s matched up with quality size and better athleticism in the post. He also needs some time in the weight room to work on his legs. Right now he’s getting by on his natural athleticism and talent. But there is all-world talent.

Darius Miller’s first move to the basket in the first half was a thing of beauty with a dribble drive, spin and perfect 12 foot floating jumper in the lane. Then he disappeared for the next 30 minutes. He continues to play lock down defense and can handle the ball adequately as the third point guard. We’d love for him to become more assertive.

Ramon Harris played a bit but we don’t imagine that he will get major minutes this year. He had a couple of turnovers in the first half. Can’t dribble or pass and that is something that can’t be overcome in the DDM offense. He will likely see spot minutes all year because he is a senior and he plays good defense.

With comparisons between this year’s roster and the ‘95-’96 team sure to be made, we thought we’d take a few short moments to recognize the uncanny talents of Rick Pitino’s national title winning squad of 13 years ago.

This montage reminds you of what Kentucky is trying to get back to.

Don’t be mistaken. The BBL is not attempting to make our own comparison between Coach Cal’s Cats and the team dubbed the “Untouchables.” There is a long way to go before this year’s group can come anywhere close to that.

But at the very least, it’s a welcome sight to have the talent level back to where it was in the Ricky P era.

Seeing how the Wildcats adapt to the Dribble-Drive Motion Offense should be one of the more interesting developments to watch this season in Lexington. The BBL gives you a closer look at this trendy offensive strategy created 12 years ago by JUCO coach Vance Walberg.

The Dribble Drive Defined
In essence, the DDM is an uptempo variation of the Bobby Knight-style motion offense with several wrinkles. The philosophy is predicated on relentless dribble penetration where a ballhandler drives the lane and then has three options. He can finish, dump the ball off in the post, or kick it back out to the wing, where another player more or less starts the same process over again.

Typically, a successful DDM offense needs four wings and one post player. It does not rely on screen and rolls or a heavy amount of cutting without the ball. It is an aggressive attacking offense that commonly results in high scoring affairs and, with the right personnel, a liberal dose of highlight reel plays.

Keys to Execution
There are three primary keys to the DDM–ballhandling, spacing and shooting ability. Because the offense is built around consistent dribble penetration, a team running it needs at least four men on the court who can be counted on to drive the lane. In particular, the DDM flourishes with a rangy athletic PG who can fearlessly take the ball to the rack.

Spacing is critical as players must be aware of where they stand on the floor in order to open driving lanes for the ballhandler. Good spacing will also allow athletic teams to crash the offensive glass hard in the DDM. As for shooting ability, the bulk of the scoring in the DDM comes from shots off of kickouts, so at the very least, a good midrange shooting game is a prerequisite for success in this offense.

Why UK Fans Should Be Excited
The speed and quickness of John Wall and Eric Bledsoe make them ideal for this offense. If you need evidence of how athletic PGs can thrive in the DDM, look at Coach Cal’s last few Memphis teams, where NBA lottery picks Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans first made their names. Look for UK’s dynamic backcourt duo to continue that legacy.

In addition to UK’s phenomenal guard talent, Darius Miller, Deandre Liggins, Darnell Dodson, John Hood and Ramon Harris, all over 6-6, make ideal combo guys who can play the 2, 3 or 4 positions in the DDM set.

Why UK Fans Have Cause for Concern
There are some major potential stumbling blocks. For one, UK’s big men are mostly back to the basket scorers. It will be tough to keep two of them on the floor at once without requiring some perimeter ballhandling.

But more concerning is UK’s search for an outside shooter. If a reliable midrange or deep threat does not emerge, opposing defenses will be able to pack up the interior and essentially shut off driving lanes, leaving UK’s guards to single-handedly create the majority of the offense–but that might not be the worst thing in the world, given these guys’ ability.

BBL Prediction
Calipari has said that no offense is better than the DDM at “unleashing” players. With a roster this rich in talent, that can only be a good sign. But we firmly expect some early struggles, particularly in conference play. By March this squad should be running the DDM as well as the Memphis teams of the recent past.