NEW ORLEANS — Kentucky is loaded with future NBA lottery picks, but could this current team beat an NBA club?
Say, the woeful Washington Wizards?
“This team would not beat one NBA team, not one,” Kentucky coach John Calipari, who coached in the NBA with the Nets, said here Thursday at the Final Four.
“The worst team in the league we could not beat.”
Kentucky senior Darius Miller agrees.
“I necessarily don’t think that we can beat any NBA teams, but it is good people feel that way about us,” he said.
Kentucky features three potential lottery picks in Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Terrence Jones, as well as future pros Marquis Teague, Doron Lamb and Miller.
With the exception of two losses, they have steamrolled competition this year and are the prohibitive favorite to beat arch-rival Louisville here Saturday and then to cut the nets down Monday.
All of that prompted former Maryland coach Gary Williams to tell a Washington radio station that he thought the Wildcats could beat the NBA’s Wizards in one game at Rupp Arena.
“Look, it’s absurd,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters Wednesday before his team lost to the Knicks. “I mean, people will say, ‘Oh, Kentucky you know’s got four NBA players.’ Yeah, well the other team’s got 13.”
Van Gundy said the talent level, experience and age of the players would favor the NBA team, even one as bad as the Wizards (11-38).
“Could anything happen on a one-night thing? I mean, I suppose, you have major upsets all the time. So maybe, but it’d be rare and in a series it’d be a joke,” Van Gundy said. “It wouldn’t be close. That’s just the way it is. John Calipari’s got a lot of talent, he does not have 13 NBA players. He just doesn’t. And even if those guys all are, they’re all NBA rookies. I mean, when has that ever been a success in the NBA? So no, they’re not going to win.”
Even Calipari agrees on that point.
(The AP contributed)
