The first NBA game of the season took place Dec. 3, in Lexington, Ky. No, LeBron & Co. weren't on hand. But 12 NBA prospects competed in an epic matchup between North Carolina and Kentucky.
I joined a handful of NBA GMs and a number of NBA scouts in Lexington on Saturday to watch the most NBA talent I've ever seen on the floor in one college game.
The game included the No. 1 and No. 2 players on our Big Board, six NBA lottery picks, eight players in our top 20, nine players in our top 30 and a whopping 12 players ranked in our Top 100.
Over the course of the past week, I've been scouring our databases to see whether I could find a game in past seasons with more NBA prospects. I can't.
Kentucky won the game 73-72 in what's sure to become an instant classic. But what's the value of one game in terms of NBA scouting?
On one hand, it's easy to overvalue a game like this. This is just one of roughly 35 games these players will play this season. Furthermore, the game was in early December when players, especially young ones, are still getting their feet underneath them. In March, virtually all of the players on the floor this weekend will have matured their games.
On the other hand, scouting games like this is invaluable. It's rare that we get to see the top prospects in college basketball go up against other NBA-caliber players. Whether it was Anthony Davis versus John Henson or Harrison Barnes versus Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Kendall Marshall versus Marquis Teague … we got a good look at how each player will fare against elite NBA talent.
Normally on Tuesdays we run our weekly stock watch rounding up the best pro prospects in college basketball. But with so many prospects in just one game, the matchup is worthy of its own stock watch. Here's a look based off my personal observations and the insights of NBA GMs and scouts on all 12 draft prospects in Lexington on Saturday.
Kentucky Wildcats
Anthony Davis, F, Fr. (Top 100 Rank: 1)
Line score: 34 min., 3-6 FGM, seven points, nine rebounds, two steals, two blocks
You could argue that Davis was a disappointment in this game. Coming off an amazing 15-point, 15-rebound, eight-block game against St. John's earlier in the week, most of the people that tuned in Saturday were expecting greatness. What they got, especially in the first half, was Davis being weirdly invisible.
