Nerlens Noel: Star Recruit Will Ease Pain of Kentucky's Mass Defections to NBA

We know for certain that John Calipari will welcome one of the best—if not THE best—recruiting classes in college basketball to Kentucky in the fall, now that Nerlens Noel has decided to sign with the Wildcats.

We don't yet know who from the 2012 NCAA tournament champions will leave Big Blue for the 2012 NBA Draft, aside from seniors Darius Miller and Eloy Vargas, the latter of whom spent most of the season riding the pine.

But we can comfortably assume that Anthony Davis—the Final Four MOP and near-unanimous National Player of the Year—and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist will leave school to become top-five picks in June. They figure to be joined by fellow freshman phenom Marquis Teague and sensational sophomore Terrence Jones, with Doron Lamb seriously weighing his options.

Either way, Coach Cal will go into the fall with yet another legitimate national title contender, with Noel as its centerpiece.

Like Davis before him, the 6'10", 215-pound forward is a lean, mean, shot-blockin' machine with the length and athleticism to challenge nearly every attempt at the basket, and the defensive instincts to do so intelligently. He's not quite as skilled offensively as Davis was, but he's still more than capable of throwing down thunderous dunks with a jump hook and a shot from the elbow on occasion.

Not that Noel need concern himself with filling the scoring column during his upcoming UK days.  

The top prep player in the nation, according to ESPN and Scout.com, will arrive in Lexington alongside fellow high school stars Alex Poythress, Archie Goodwin and Willie Cauley, the former two of whom are well-versed in the ways of "bucketeering" on the court.

They'll be joined by sophomore transfer Ryan Harrow, a 6'2" guard who left North Carolina State after averaging 9.3 points and 3.3 assists in 23.0 minutes during his first season under now-ex-Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe.

And that's to say nothing of Kyle Wiltjer, the sophomore-to-be from Oregon who scored in double figures five times this season despite playing only sparingly. He was a star in his own right coming out of high school and figures to be given an opportunity to shine now that his recruiting classmates will be gone.

The one constant, of course, will be Calipari. Not only did he lure the pieces of his first (and Kentucky's eighth) title team to campus, he also got them to play hard and unselfishly every night.

No easy feat, considering most of his players were underclassmen who'd been brought up as McDonald's All-Americans through the seedy underbelly of the AAU culture.

But with that experience under his belt, and another top-tier crop of talent at his disposal, Cal will find himself in prime position to win another title with the 'Cats.

And for the face of that team to distinguish himself by his hair, albeit on top of his head rather than on his brow.

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