Kentucky Loses Another Star Player After Immanuel Quickley Declares for NBA Draft on Monday Morning
By Thomas Carannante
The one-and-done factory that is Kentucky continues to lose star players, but this time around, John Calipari is seeing a wide variety of players declare for the NBA Draft. They've already seen Tyrese Maxey (freshman), Ashton Hagans (sophomore), Nick Richards (junior) and EJ Montgomery hire agents with hopes of going to the pros.
Now, sophomore Immanuel Quickley has followed suit.
The 20-year-old averaged 16.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.8 rebounds in just 18.5 minutes per game this past season. He appeared in 30 contests and started 20 of them, after starting just seven out of 37 games in 2018-2019.
Quickley was named SEC Player of the Year for the 2019-2020 season and was given First-Team All-SEC honors, so he's looking to carry that momentum into the NBA.
Calipari will once again need to find a cast of players to fill in for the mass exodus of his starting lineup, but he's proven capable of doing so year in and year out. If Quickley proved anything, it's that Coach Cal continues to develop his players extremely efficiently.