Two Kentucky Wildcats make ESPN's Top 25 College Players in past 25 years

MrsTylerKSR

On3 image — 02 APR 2012: Head coach John Calipari and forward Anthony Davis (23) from the University of Kentucky celebrate following the Championship Game of the 2012 NCAA Photos via Getty Images Men's Division I Basketball Championship Final Four held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome hosted by Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. Kentucky defeated Kansas 67-59 to claim the championship title. Ryan McKee/ NCAA Photos via Getty Images.

Kentucky has had plenty of star power during the John Calipari Era, but how do the Wildcats stack up against the rest of college basketball over the past 25 years?

Today, Myron Medcalf — who will guest host KSR in the coming weeks — launched ESPN’s new offseason series examining the past 25 seasons of college hoops. The first installment focuses on the top players in the sport between the 1998-99 and 2022-23 seasons. The ESPN college basketball staff chose players based on talent, skill, dominance, and impact during college. Some Kentucky Wildcats made the cut but maybe not as many as you would expect.

Anthony Davis is No. 2 on the list behind Kevin Durant (Texas, 2006-07). During his year in Lexington, Davis won the Wooden Award, SEC Player of the Year, and Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament and helped lead Kentucky to its eighth national championship.

“Davis gave John Calipari his lone NCAA title as a two-way force who made 65% of his shots inside the arc and led the nation in blocks (186),” Medcalf wrote. “That season, the decorated Wildcats lost just two games (on a buzzer-beater at Indiana, and against Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament) and beat their NCAA tournament opponents by an average of 11.8 PPG.”

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Hard to argue with that. John Wall is the only other Wildcat on Medcalf’s list. John Calipari’s first Kentucky superstar is No. 21, right behind Kemba Walker (grr). Wall won SEC Player of the Year and was a First Team AP All-American in the 2009-10 season.

“Wall lived up to the hype as Kentucky’s top recruit the year John Calipari arrived from Memphis, leading the program to a 35-3 record and the Elite Eight. He struggled as a shooter from beyond the arc, but shot 51% from inside it. He also had a pregame dance that went viral.”

Obligatory John Wall dance break:

Because this list is based on college performance, not pros, I think it’s reasonable to leave Karl-Anthony Towns, the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, off it. You could make an argument that, by the same logic, Oscar Tshiebwe deserves mention for his dominant 2022 run, which ended with a sweep of the national player of the year awards, but I’ll leave that to you guys in the comments and KSBoard.

Check out the entire Top 25 over at the Worldwide Leader. Way too many Duke players for my liking.

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