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Five Kentucky underclassmen headed to the NBA Draft

APTOPIX Final Four Kentucky Kansas Basketball

Kentucky head coach John Calipari, center, celebrates with his team after the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game against Kansas Monday, April 2, 2012, in New Orleans. Kentucky won 67-59. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

AP

As we all suspected would be the case, five of Kentucky’s underclassmen declared for the NBA Draft on Tuesday evening.

Freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb are all going pro, but it wasn’t without some drama.

“Anthony, Doron and Terrence have decided to put their names in the NBA Draft,” Cal said of the three players sitting to his right before pausing, and finishing his statement: “Michael and Marquis have also decided to put their name in the NBA Draft.”

“I just wanted to scare some coaches out there,” he said.

This decision should not come as a surprise to anyone. This is the way that John Calipari runs his program. He brings in the best, he coaches them up to the best of his ability and he ships them off to the NBA when it is in their best interest.

Davis is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. Kidd-Gilchrist should be a top five pick, and Jones will likely join him in the lottery. Teague is a mid-to-late first round pick and Lamb has a chance to sneak his way into the back end of the first round if he has strong workouts over the next two months.

Senior Darius Miller also has a chance to be picked in the first round of the draft, meaning that if it feasible that Coach Cal’s team will break their own record for 2010 by getting six players guaranteed NBA contracts. Taken in conjunction with Kentucky’s 2012 national title, and this is the ideal for Coach Cal.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.