Calipari explaining remark

Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari isn't taking back a statement he made during last Thursday's NBA draft.

He's just still having to explain it.

The Wildcats became the first team to produce five first-round selections when point guard John Wall went No. 1 to Washington, center DeMarcus Cousins went fifth to Sacramento, power forward Patrick Patterson went 14th to Houston, guard Eric Bledsoe went 18th to Oklahoma City and backup center Daniel Orton went 29th to Orlando. After history was made, Calipari told ESPN's Heather Cox, "I'd like to say it is the biggest day in the history of Kentucky's program."

"I wasn't talking to the past," Calipari said Monday during a Southeastern Conference teleconference. "I was talking to the future. It was a two-hour infomercial for our league and for the University of Kentucky, and it will speak volumes for the next five years or maybe longer, and that's what I meant by it."

Kentucky has racked up 2,023 career victories, more than any other school nationally, and its seven national championships rank second only to UCLA's 11. The Lexington Herald-Leader interviewed several former Wildcats about Calipari's comment, and they were not amused.

"The greatest day is whenever a program wins a national championship," Kyle Macy told the paper.

Dan Issel called the coach's statement "the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Calipari guided the Wildcats to a 35-3 record in his first season, but they were stopped short of the NCAA tournament's Final Four by West Virginia. Despite the mass exodus, Kentucky has signed a class that includes point guard Brandon Knight, shooting guard Doron Lamb and power forwards Enes Kanter and Terrence Jones.

Each of those players is rated by Rivals.com among the top four nationally at his position.

"We've got to figure out as a staff how we are going to deal with those last three games, the Elite Eight and the next two, with a young team like we had last year," Calipari said. "It looks like we're always going to have a young team, so that's the issue."

The 2011 draft

Several mock drafts for 2011 include Kanter, Knight and Jones among the top 15 picks. Georgia's rising junior tandem of power forward Trey Thompkins and guard Travis Leslie also have been pegged as first-round selections, as has Vanderbilt's Jeffery Taylor.

The 6-foot-7, 210-pound Taylor averaged 13.3 points and 5.2 rebounds as a sophomore this past season for the Commodores, who went 12-4 in SEC play and 24-9 overall.

"It would not surprise me at all if this was Jeff's last year in our program," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said.

Odds and ends

Forward Alex Tyus became the first player under Florida coach Billy Donovan to submit his name to the draft before electing to come back for his senior season. ... With Auburn losing 80 percent of its scoring and rebounding from last season's 15-17 team, first-year Tigers coach Tony Barbee said, "We're starting over." ... Former South Carolina guard Devan Downey wound up averaging 22.5 points last season, the most for an SEC player since LSU's Ronnie Henderson averaged 23.3 in 1995. ... Georgia coach Mark Fox on the optimism surrounding his second season: "We have an element of experience that we didn't have a year ago."