After Kentucky lost to West Virginia in the elite eight on March 27 the question on the minds of all the Big Blue faithful was “how are we going to reload next year?”

No announcements have been made yet of players bolting for the NBA, but it seems all but inevitable that at least a few Wildcats will be lottery picks in this year’s draft.

In NBAdraft.net latest mock draft they have four Wildcats being selected in the top 20 picks of the first round. The mock draft has John Wall being selected at pick one, DeMarcus Cousins being selected at pick four, Patrick Patterson being selected at pick nine, and Eric Bledsoe being selected at pick 18. Wall, Cousins, Patterson, and Bledsoe are all underclassman and have college eligibility left should they choose to use it.

It is widely considered that the trio of Wall, Cousins, and Patterson will all bolt for the league. Whether Bledsoe will return to Lexington or not remains more of a mystery.

Kentucky will lose three seniors to graduation in Perry Stevenson, Ramon Harris and Mark Krebs. This is not earth shattering though; Stevenson, Harris and Krebs played a combined 21.4 minutes per game last season.

The possibility of losing six to seven players are big losses for any program to take and even elite programs such as North Carolina and Connecticut can’t always reload. John Calipari is doing his best though to make sure Kentucky fans will have plenty to be excited about once “Big Blue Madness” rolls around next October.

Calipari still will have talented holdovers to work with from last year’s roster. Highly touted freshman Daniel Orton only averaged 3.4 points per game last season and played second fiddle to Cousins and Patterson. Orton though is built strong at 6-10, 255 lbs. and was rated the 22nd best prospect in his high school class by rivals.com (Eric Bledsoe was rated the 23rd best prospect). I expect him to be a much bigger part of coach Calipari’s game plan next season. The Wildcats will also have a trio of talented juniors holding down the backcourt in DeAndre Liggins, Darius Miller, and Darnell Dodson.

Another reason why I do not see the Wildcats making a significant drop off is because of Coach John Calipari’s recruiting prowess. It is no secret that Calipari needs a talented point guard to be the general of his fast paced offense. The last three years he has signed a McDonald’s All American to run his offense and like clockwork each player has enjoyed great success. In 2007 he signed freshman Derrick Rose out of Chicago to lead his Memphis Tigers and Rose went on to be the number one pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. He reacted to Derrick leaving for the NBA by signing five-star freshman Tyreke Evans; Evans is now averaging 20.2 points per game in his rookie season for the Sacramento Kings. His latest point guard protégé John Wall did not disappoint during his freshman season in Lexington.

Coach Cal is hitting the recruiting trail hard looking for his next stud, because it seems as though John Wall is destined to be a lottery pick in June. He is focusing his efforts on the sunshine state in search of his next gem; more specifically Ft. Lauderdale. That is where Brandon Knight is finishing up his high school career; Knight a point guard is the number one rated prospect in the class of 2010 by rivals. He is considering Kentucky, Florida, Kansas, Syracuse, Connecticut, and Miami [FL]. Knight has been offered a scholarship by all six of those programs. I do not know the specific of coach Calipari’s recruiting plans for the next couple of months but I would wager they include a couple of stops to Ft. Lauderdale.

Along with Knight; Calipari and is coaching staff are actively pursuing a number of the other top undeclared incoming freshman. They have offered and are recruiting the following prospects as rated by rivals.com: Josh Selby (4th rated prospect), Terrence Jones (13th rated prospect), C.J. Leslie (14th rated prospect), and Doron Lamb (21st rated prospect).

I expect Calipari to land a couple of these prospects to go along with committed prospects Enes Kanter and Stacey Poole.

So fear not Big Blue faithful John Calipari has some good holdovers from last year’s squad and is actively traveling the country recruiting his next superstars. This is good news for fans who don’t react kindly to coach speak such as “patience” and “rebuilding”.