UK's Kidd Gilchrist Going to Enter 2012 NBA Draft?

As we all have come to appreciate, especially in the Calipari era, March and April bring both excitement and concern. Excitement over the chance for UK to finally get the elusive eight championship and concern over who may, and most likely may not, stick around for another year.

This year we made it two games into the tournament before the NBA draft rumors starting coming out starting with MKG. According to ESPN, several sources are stating MKG has already decided he will throw his name into this years draft. As you may recall, it was just a couple months ago MKG told reporters he would be back next year and that he was going to graduate, only to come out on Twitter a few hours later and state he was not completely certain about his future and would have to make the best decision for his career when the time was closer.

MKG quickly came out on this issue too and stated he had not made a decision and was only focused on winning a championship with his mother backing this up as well. One has to wonder what the truth actually is in this situation. According to many NBA recruiters, MKG is already a top 5 lock which is something extremely tough to pass up on. There is also the chance people are jumping on a rumor in order to throw UK off right before they go into a huge game that gives them a chance to revenge a last second upset by Indiana in December.

Just like with the Calipari to NBA rumors, I think all we can really know for certain is that in the end, both Calipari and the players do what is best for them. I don't doubt at all that Calipari occasionally flirts with the idea of going to the NBA and that sometimes the rumors we hear about him doing so are true. Calipari is a master at playing mind games though and in the end does what is best for him and his family. We can always count on the players to do the same, just like we would all do in their shoes.

Personally, I'd say we lose him along with Davis, Lamb, and Jones when the season is over, keeping only Teague and Wiltjer from the 11-12 class. As we saw last year though, sometimes players throw us a surprise like Lamb and Jones did so we will just have to wait and see until we have a definite answer. That's an issue for another day though. Today we focus on payback against Indiana!