Kentucky Basketball: Comparing the Current Team to the 2009 Team

Many years ago, five of the top basketball recruits decided to play together.

They came close to winning two national championships and were the most media-covered college basketball team in the nation.

That was the Michigan Wolverines' Fab Five. Based on their success it is a wonder this precedent of top talent joining together has not been repeated in abundance.

That is, until John Calipari's Kentucky tenure. His first team there had a record five players drafted in the first round of the 2010 NBA draft. His third team could eclipse that. 

Dana O'Neil was asked, during her chat on SportsNation, which of the above Kentucky teams is the best? This was her answer:

"

I like the fact that this team has some key returning cogs like Terrence Jones. Think a little experience goes a long way. So maybe this year, but that's a really tough one.

"

Jones is an above-average rebounder and a prolific scorer, when his confidence is up. His season of experience should count for something.

Doron Lamb and Darius Miller are the other key cogs—two players that would make some noise for Player of the Year in any other team.

The four incoming freshmen are the best at their respective positions in the 2011 recruiting class.

Power forward Anthony Davis is the best overall recruit. Marquis Teague is the best point guard, and Michael Kidd-GilChrist is the best small forward.

Kyle Wiltjer is arguably the third-best power forward in the class (the second being James McAdoo of UNC) and arguably the best shooting big man.

Most of these players will more than likely enter the draft after the next season. It is no wonder that the only team that they can be compared to are their 2009 brothers in blue.

That class was just as talented, even even though the ESPN rankings was not favorable to them.

ESPN had Avery Bradley (Texas), Derrick Favors (Georgia Tech) and Xavier Henry (Kansas) in front of Kentucky's John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.

Retrospectively, we can easily conclude that those players in front of Wall and Cousins were overrated.

All five went to the NBA early, even though Bradley and Henry's college performances were underwhelming.

Wall would eventually beat Cousins for NBA Rookie of the Year. While in Lexington, they were the most covered college basketball team and they lived up to the hype. 

Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton completed that recruiting class. Orton was a top-five center in the 2009 recruiting class, and Bledsoe could easily have been rated the second-best point guard.

Just like this current Wildcat team, the 2009 team had some returning experience in the form of Patrick Patterson, one of the top post players in the SEC the previous season.

Kentucky fans would probably savor both teams—Wall's team for returning the Wildcats to the top of college basketball and Marquis Teague's team for continuing that tradition.

If I had to chose either of these teams, I would consider Wall's team at length. That team had four of the five things required by a great team: size, athleticism, quickness and luck. Shooting derailed them.

The current team has everything except luck. That's something will be proven throughout the season.