Five Kentucky Wildcats — John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton — declared for the NBA Draft on Wednesday.

I’ve referred to these freshmen as “John Calipari’s band of mercenary one-and-doners,” but it’s not their fault. They’re just doing what they can under the current (broken) rules that the NBA has in place. Patterson is the only player to spend more than a season at Kentucky — he’s a junior.

It’s this kind of exodus that makes a mockery of the college ranks. After failing to make the Final Four despite being a #1 seed entering the tournament, Calipari now has to try to reload as five guys that played nearly two-thirds of his minutes are headed to the NBA. I’m assuming these players attended class regularly and got good grades, otherwise the term student-athlete really wouldn’t fit, right?

NBADraft.net projects all five players to go in the first round, with John Wall being the best bet to be the top overall pick. DeMarcus Cousins is very talented but has character questions, while Patrick Patterson played his way into the lottery with a very nice season. I think he’s going to make some team in the #8-#12 range very happy.

Photo from fOTOGLIF