By Joshua Huff

[email protected]

The basketball team that suited up less than a week ago against Wisconsin barely resembles its former self as seven players hung up their UK jerseys on Thursday for the promise of chasing the NBA dream.

Dakari Johnson, Devin Booker, Willie Cauley-Stein, Karl-Anthony Towns, Trey Lyles and Aaron and Andrew Harrison will forgo their remaining years of eligibility after UK completed one of the program’s most historic seasons.

“I meet with each player after the last game, and truly its the morning after the last game. I ask, and this is every year, ‘Do you want me to explore your options?’” head coach John Calipari said. “They all said yes. A few said no.”

For the players that said yes, Calipari and his staff gathered information from around 20 NBA teams and let the parents talk directly to the organizations to dispel any confusion. But in the end, the decision ultimately came down to the players.

“We’ve done that and now it’s time for these young people to let us know what they’re going to do,” Calipari said to the throng of family and reporters that attended the event at the men’s basketball practice court.

Then the coach addressed the seven players who were seated at a long table. “If you decided to put you name in the draft, why don’t you stand up.”

All seven stood up.

Only six players remain from the team that went 38-1 this season: Tyler Ulis, Marcus Lee, Derek Willis, Alex Poythress (who was out for most of the season with a torn ACL), EJ Floreal and Dominique Hawkins. All stood off to the side and looked on as UK lost 85 percent of its scoring.

For the players leaving, the opportunity to play in the NBA has been a dream since childhood.

But that dream will encounter the harsh reality of professional basketball as the fight to secure a place as one of the top picks begins.

Towns and Cauley-Stein are the only UK players who are currently slated to be drafted in the Top 10, according to ESPN.com. Towns is expected to go No. 1 or No. 2, while Cauley-Stein is slated anywhere from picks 6-10. Lyles and Booker are projected to go within the Top 25, and Andrew and Aaron Harrison may fall into the second round, along with Johnson.

The seven players leaving UK is unprecedented, even in the one-and-done era, but Cauley-Stein was not surprised to see his six teammates follow him into the draft.

“If you’re in a position and you have done the things you need to do and you have an opportunity to go, you should go,” Cauley-Stein said.

And go they will, but not before reflecting on some of their fondest memories at UK.

“The fans and your teammates,” Cauley-Stein said on what he will remember the most of his time at UK. “Being at Rupp Arena, traveling, I’m not going to forget about those things.”

The NBA will hold this year’s draft on June 25.