Kentucky is a fixture of the March Madness experience, having made the NCAA tournament a record 62 times. But nearly as soon as their 2024 run started, it came to a stunning end when the No. 3 seed Wildcats were upset by No. 14 seed Oakland in the opening round.
And so Kentucky's season is over, and they will reload with more prospects and try to make another run next season. Despite the disappointing loss, there is no doubt that Kentucky is a historic program. They've produced the most NBA/ABA players, with 132 players claiming Lexington as their stomping ground. Kentucky Coach John Calipari has continued the expected excellence—28 players from Kentucky currently play in the league.
This group has MVP candidates, All-NBA performers, and future stars. We'll rank the top 10 based on this season and show some love to the great players who missed the cut.
10. Tyler Herro, Miami Heat, Kentucky 2019
Tyler Herro makes the extensive cut of outstanding Kentucky guards. There's no denying how good he's been to start his NBA career.
Unfortunately, injuries continue to pile up, but Herro can get hotter than Franks when he gets going. He's shot 39% on seven 3-point attempts for his career. His slight increase in threes over the past two years suggests he's on track to become a high-volume 3-point guy.
Herro's midrange and off-the-bounce play add another element to his game. Herro passes up contested threes to get into the lane with quick squatted-low in-and-out dribble moves when tasked with being the primary scorer. He's adept at keeping defenders in jail and getting midrange shots off freely.
When Herro is off the ball, cooking hopeless defenses, he is fearless with contagious confidence. He can shift momentum with deflating deep bombs. His excellent stroke is reflected in his FT shooting as he led the league in FT% in 2023 (93%).
There's not much he can do to improve his negative wingspan and slight build, but one cannot question his effort defensively. The others ahead of him are better two-way players, but the next player is in the same tier defensively.