![]() Marquis Estill was a very skilled offensive player, and while he lacked the physicality of DeMarcus Cousins he was still a very above average to good defensive player. Meeks could play the point in a crunch, but would be best suited to come in for instant offense from deep when needed. Meeks lit up Tennessee for 54 points to set the school record, and he hasn't stopped since currently plying his trade for the 76ers in the NBA. So I picked four guys that had excellent UK careers and could fill in at multiple spots on the floor to give me a good set of guys off the bench when my starters needed a break up 50.Īnd what better way to start the bench then with the single game record holder for points, Jodie Meeks. I didn't want to name five guys to the bench, because at that point I might as well have a whole second string all decade team. Due to that and how good he was for Big Blue, Cousins has to be on the team. And at the rate he improved in the NBA last year and where he projects to be in the future, his impact on Kentucky cannot be measured at this time. While they were one game short of making the Final Four, Cousins helped leave a legacy that Kentucky should benefit from for years. And while he was here for just that one season, Cousins–along with John Wall-led Kentucky back into the limelight as the go to place for star players all across the country. The only other real possibilities were Marquis Estill and Randolph Morris.but truth be told those guys just don't compare to the absolute physical force that DeMarcus Cousins turned out to be.Ĭousins was a dominating center the likes of which Kentucky hadn't seen in years, and might not see again for some time. Kind of like the John Wall situation, you almost have to put Cousins here even if you don't want to have a one year guy on the team. Without Patterson, losing seasons were a very likely possibility for a couple of years and who knows what that would have meant for the UK program. Patterson was the first big time recruit to come to Kentucky in some time when he decided to matriculate in Lexington shortly after Billy Gillispie was hired at Kentucky.Īnd while Kentucky struggled in Kentucky's first two seasons, including an NIT trip in his sophomore year, it was largely due to Patterson that Kentucky stayed afloat at all and remained somewhat relevant on the national stage. ![]() When Patterson decided to come to Kentucky, the Wildcats had been mired in a years long recruiting slump that led to the downfall of Tubby Smith as the coach at Kentucky. But while Hayes was a terrific Wildcat and has had a very good NBA career with the Houston Rockets, Patterson was just on another level as a player and had a more significant impact on the program. Patterson was a close selection over fan favorite, and very good player, Chuck Hayes. So without further ado here is the All Decade team for the Kentucky Wildcats from the first decade of the 21st Century. But some of the guys from the earlier coaches of the decade had pretty good careers as well. That being said, Kentucky can still field one of the best All Decade teams in the country.and not all due to John Calipari and his first great class at Kentucky. The team was very good to great in a few of the years, but it was one of the few decades in Kentucky history that did not have a single Final Four team, and was a decade that saw the once promising career of Tubby Smith have a drastic fall and the disastrous hiring of Billy Gillispie. Seven NCAA titles, too many SEC titles to count, numerous All-Americans and the most wins in Division One history don't even begin to tell the whole story of the Kentucky program.īut this past decade was largely one of the lowest point in the history of the program. ![]() The Kentucky Wildcats have one of, if not the most, storied programs in the history of college basketball.
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