Anthony Davis: Star and Teammates Set Dangerous Precedent at Kentucky

Anthony Davis and his band of underclassmen accomplished something very impressive this year when they managed to win a national title. They proved that, in some cases, skill outweighs experience.

But winning a title with a team full of freshmen isn't something that happens every day, and to believe it's easy—or even commonplace—is naive. 

When Davis and the four other Kentucky starters declared for the NBA draft on Tuesday, head coach John Calipari talked candidly about his ability to win with three freshmen and two sophomores in his starting lineup. His feat was undoubtedly impressive, but is it the standard? Can a team of underclassmen tear through the NCAA tournament with abandon every year, the way the Wildcats did this season?

Unlikely. 

CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish wrote that during Tuesday's press conference, Calipari said, "Anybody that tells you in one or two years you cannot create a bond, they're crazy."

Can you do it? Yes. Will it happen every year? Definitely not. 

The reason Kentucky was so unstoppable this season wasn't so much about the fact that they had a bunch of talented freshmen—the reason they were unstoppable was because they had one particular freshman. Anthony Davis. No, you can't win a title with just one player, but the matchup problems Davis created simply by stepping foot on the court immediately made all of his teammates that much better. 

If opponents could take Davis out of the game—which took enough effort as it was—they still had four more dangerous players to contend with. If they couldn't take Davis out of the game, they lost. That's not to undermine the impact of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb, who are all great players in their own right—but could they have won the national title without Davis? No. 

In late March, Parrish and his colleagues spent several days talking to coaches who opposed Kentucky, and though many of the coaches talked about Kentucky's abundant weapons, when they were asked how to stop the Wildcats, it all came back to Davis. 

Just like unstoppable freshman Carmelo Anthony was the key to Syracuse's tournament victory in 2003, Davis was the key to this one. Next year's Kentucky team may be stocked with talent, but unless it has that one unstoppable player that can't be matched by any other player on any other team—maybe Nerlens Noel can be that guy—it won't be able to repeat. 

It's impressive what Calipari did with this young team in 2011-12. It wasn't easy or simple; it just worked out that the Wildcats had Davis, who made everyone around him a whole lot better. 

Stocking a roster with one-and-done's is a dangerous trend for Kentucky moving forward because this—a championship—won't happen every year, no matter how many diaper dandies are on the team. More often than not, teams with chemistry that have had years to develop are the ones that win it all. Establishing a precedent at Kentucky where it's OK to only stay one year is a slippery slope that will do more harm than good. 

You can have as many good freshmen on a team as you want, but unless you have that one spectacular player—whether he's a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior—that team is not going to win in March. This year's spectacular player just happened to be a freshman.