2010-11 Roster

So after the addition of Justin Knox, it looks like Roy Williams and co. are done recruiting for the upcoming season. Kadeem Jack is said to be headed back to prep school, and I haven't heard word about Kevin Noreen over the past week, or two. So, with all that being said, here's what the Carolina line-up shakes out to be next season (in order of class and minus walk-ons):

PG - Larry Drew II, Kendall Marshall
SG - Justin Watts, Dexter Strickland, Leslie McDonald, Reggie Bullock
SF - Will Graves, Harrison Barnes
PF - Justin Knox, John Henson
C - Tyler Zeller

As we can all see, we're a bit light in the frontcourt. Zeller has been injury-prone since getting to Chapel Hill, so it's difficult to believe that this year will be any different. If Zeller, Knox, or Henson go down, look for Barnes and Graves to split time at the four, just to cover the bases. I bet we'll see Graves pick up more minutes at the four anyway, as he was a complete defensive liability last year on the perimeter.

I'd imagine that the starters at the beginning of the season will be: Drew, Strickland, Barnes, Henson, and Zeller. But, look for Reggie Bullock to push hard for the starting 2 guard spot, especially since he's 6'6", and a good rebounder. Kendall Marshall might even give Larry Drew a go at the point, but I bet Drew remains the starter throughout, with Marshall picking up more and more minutes as the season progresses.

New Harrison Barnes Highlight Reel

Basketball should be this easy to everyone.

Surprise, Surprise

As if everybody didn't know how much of a snake John Calipari was already, here's a little more fuel to add to the fire. In a Lexington Herald-Ledger report, the UK men's basketball team posted a cumulative team GPA of 2.02, worst of the nine SEC teams that reported their GPA's to the newspaper. Two players on the team had GPA's of 1.67 and 1.76, and two other players were either at 2.0, or below. UK mandates that athletes at the school must have a cumulative 1.8 GPA at the start of their sophomore seasons, so it only makes sense that the players with 1.67 and 1.76 GPA's were freshmen. Keep in mind that four of the five freshmen on this year's team made themselves eligible for the upcoming NBA Draft. Jon Hood will be back for his sophomore season, and Calipari stated that John Wall had all A's and B's during the fall semester, so that leaves Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton, and Demarcus Cousins. Only two players posted a GPA of higher than 3.0.

Sandy Bell, who is UK's senior associate athletic director, stated that the switch from Billy Gillespie to John Calipari as head coach, and the adjustment process of coming to college was the reason behind the low team GPA. I guess classes got much, much harder when Calipari came to town. Come on Sandy, who are you trying to kid here?

I did a little research of my own, and I found that UK is rated by US News as the 128th best university in the country in terms of academics. Is a GPA of at least 2.5 that difficult at a school that accepts 78% of applicants? And, remember that athletes on track for an NBA future don't exactly get too involved in genetics, chemistry, or hard-core business courses. If this isn't another reason to get rid of the bulls*** NBA one year rule, then I don't know what will force the NCAA's hand in speaking up. But, John Calipari has seemingly come out clean in every instance of NCAA investigations, so it appears that nothing will change anytime soon.