Heralded UK freshmen arrive on campus
It's about to begin.
All four Kentucky incoming freshmen have arrived on campus and their careers as UK student-athletes are set to begin when classes start up later this week.
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Devin Booker, Trey Lyles, Karl-Anthony Towns and Tyler Ulis all arrived in Lexington either Monday or Tuesday and moved into their dorms at the Wildcat Coal Lodge.
The four commits helped UK's recruiting class finish No. 2 in the 2014 rankings, just behind Duke.
Lyles, Towns and Ulis make 22 five-stars for John Calipari since he took over in Lexington in 2009. The trio will join five other five-stars on the court next year.
👌 pic.twitter.com/UmGKwFfr1w— Devin Booker (@DevinBook) June 10, 2014
Booker is Calipari's eighth four-star at Kentucky.
And although Booker is the only commit who didn't reach five-star status, he averaged more points of his senior year of high school than the other three freshmen.
Booker averaged 33 points per game and had a handful of double-doubles his senior season at Moss Point (Miss.). High School.
Settled in nicely here in Lex!! pic.twitter.com/pEKsCakQfh— Trey Lyles (@TreyMambaLyles) June 10, 2014
He also set a record for scoring at his school.
The three other commits averaged anywhere from 21 points to 24 points per game. Both Towns and Lyles averaged double-doubles, with Towns collecting a few triple-double games.
Ulis averaged 23.3 points, 6.8 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game.
All four players made both the McDonald's All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic.
Also, unlike last season, all four commits will be on campus for the early summer school session, a rarity for Calipari recruiting classes at UK.
The last time all four freshmen arrived early was 2011. Kentucky went on to win a national championship that season.
The four freshmen will have to compete not only for starting spots -- another rarity for Calipari freshmen -- but the quartet will have to fight for playing time.
UK returns 60 percent of its scoring from last season, and returns its starting point guard, shooting guard and center.
Lyles power forward position is the only spot where the Cats will have an opening, but even at the four UK has Marcus Lee who played valuable minutes in the NCAA tournament.
But fans won't have to wait until Big Blue Madness to check out these Cats. Once every four years teams can take foreign trips. In 2010 Kentucky traveled to Canada for exhibition games.
This season the Cats will head south to the Bahamas for exhibition games in Nassau.
The trip will take place in August, likely without junior center Willie Cauley-Stein, allowing Towns and Lyles to get more time on the frontcourt.
But for fans wanting to check out Lyles, fans can possibly see him play in Lexington this weekend.
The Kentucky vs. Indiana All-Star game is set to take place at Transylvania University this weekend. But Lyles has been held out of practices over the past few weeks because of meningitis.
Towns will wear No. 12 in college, Booker No. 1, Ulis likely will wear No. 3 and Lyles will have a choice to wear his high school No. 41 or his team Canada No. 10.