UofL and UK 2014-15 starting lineups

Well NBA draft season is off to an interesting start in the Commonwealth. On Monday, both Louisville forward Montrezl Harrell and Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein announced that they would return for their junior seasons.

Both players projected as first-round draft picks, and both of their decisions came as a surprise. Louisville and Kentucky would be good even if Harrell and Cauley-Stein had left, but their returns will once again vault the teams into the Final Four discussion next November.

For Kentucky, the good news might continue to flow, as plenty of other underclassmen have yet to decide. Julius Randle and James Young figure to leave, but there is a real chance that Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Alex Poythress and Dakari Johnson could return--although Cauley-Stein's return could affect Johnson's decision.

Anyway, considering it's April and we don't have much else to talk about, let's consider the potential starting lineups of each school. Since UK's situation is still in flux, we'll go with a best-case scenario, just because.

Louisville:

G Chris Jones--He could ultimately leave to play in Europe and had an interesting Tweet that might have alluded to his future this week, but the guess here is that he comes back

G Terry Rozier--Cards counting on him to make the jump to stardom.

F Montrezl Harrell--This will be Montrezl's team. In addition to being a freakish athlete, he has rare heart and desire.

F Wayne Blackshear--Wayne could be the X-factor. Wait, you've heard that before? Now he's a co-captain, and this is his last chance

C Mangok Mathiang--Some have said he could take a Gorgui Dieng-style jump. I'm not sure it's coming next year, but he'll show improvement and will fare just fine in the ACC.

U of L is bringing in an excellent freshman class, too, and it wouldn't be shocking to see a player like Shaqquan Aaron slide into the starting lineup if Blackshear's struggles continue next year. I think Ballard High's Quentin Snider is going to be very good, too.

Kentucky: (Again, we're going best-case-scenario here, so this lineup will be scary good.)

G Andrew Harrison--Seemed to become a new player when NBA pressure lessened and he became more of a distributor.

G Aaron Harrison--Struggled from deep--until the postseason, when he etched his name in UK lore. Would come back brimming with confidence

F Alex Poythress--Cal would probably feel more comfortable with a shooter here, but goodness look how athletic this lineup would be.

F Karl Towns--I know Towns is a natural center, but all indications are he has the skills to step in as a 4, too. And this is make-believe, anyway.

C Willie Cauley-Stein--Assuming his ankle injury isn't something that will linger into next season. Has a chance to start annihilating shot-blocking records

And then that leaves UK with the deepest bench in the nation: Dakari Johnson (if he returns), Trey Lyles, Marcus Lee, Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker, Dominique Hawkins. To quote my good friend and UK beat writer, Kyle Tucker. "Mercy." You could pluck a top-15 starting five out of that group.

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