Ramel Bradley, Joe Crawford, Derrick Jasper: Who Will Replace Them?

The Kentucky Wildcats basketball program had taken a pretty big hit in the offseason with the loss of senior guards Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford, but then the transfer of junior-to-be guard Derrick Jasper hit all Kentucky fans right where it hurts.

With the loss of Bradley, Crawford, and Jasper, the Wildcats lose two of their top three leading scorers.  But the Wildcats do return sophomore Patrick Patterson in the post, plus junior guard/forward Jodie Meeks, who had a season full of injuries with a groin pull and a sports hernia and only got to play sparingly last season.

The Cats' backcourt is very much depleted and will have to turn to new players, besides Jodie Meeks, to step up and lead the Cats.  But Coach Billy Gillispie has a very good and very deep class coming in to address the backcourt problems in 2008.

The Cats picked up three very good guards to help the backcourt.  JUCO transfer guard Kevin Galloway (6'7") can play both the guard and forward spots.  Kentucky's Mr. Basketball and highly anticipated incoming freshman Darius Miller (6'7") can also play both the guard and forward spots and will instantly help the Cats' backcourt, as well as incoming freshman guard Deandre Liggins (6'5").

Liggins is having trouble qualifying for UK, but all the news that I have heard on Liggins indicate that he is on track to get into UK and will qualify.  I can only hope so.

All three of these very good pickups by Coach Gillispie will step in immediately and help the Cats instantly—and in a very big way.

With the addition of these three players, along with Jodie Meeks, Patrick Patterson, Perry Stevenson, and the rest of the deep Kentucky bench, the Cats have the talent and the coaching to have a much more successful season than last season and the previous seasons.

Nevertheless, the loss of Ramel Bradley, Joe Crawford, and Derrick Jasper will hurt the Cats.  But Gillispie picked up three very talented players that can and will step in and help the Cats immediately.

Look for the Cats to have a much more successful season in '08-09.  It may be a slow and rocky start to the season, but once the very talented incoming class gets used to the system and style of play, the Cats will be very successful.