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Are the Harrison twins leaning towards returning to school?

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Willie Cauley-Stein and Marcus Lee have both announced their intentions to return to Kentucky for another season, which is always good news.

When you can keep a pair of tall, athletic athletes with first round potential on campus for an extra season, you don’t complain about it.

But in all honesty, it’s not that big of a deal for Kentucky. Their front line was already going to be loaded, particularly if Dakari Johnson makes the decision to return to college as well.

The key for the Wildcats will end up being the decisions made by Andrew and Aaron Harrison, and it’s not because those two are certified first-team all-americans in 2014-2015. It’s because Kentucky just does not have that much depth on their perimeter without them. If the Wildcats don’t lose the Harrisons and can’t find a way to land a transfer that’s eligible immediately or one of the talented perimeter recruits that have reopened their recruitment after the coaching carousel, we’re looking at a situation where Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker will bear the brunt of the back court minutes along with Dominique Hawkins, who is not exactly the kind of recruit we expect out of this Kentucky program.

According to Chad Ford, the Harrisons may be leaning towards returning to school:

As for the Harrison twins, they’ve wanted to go to the NBA all season. I know they’ve been talking to agents and trying to figure things out. The challenge for them is that the feedback from the NBA hasn’t been what they want to hear -- even with their strong play in the tournament. If they want guarantees they are first round picks, not sure either will get it. So ... it might push them to come back. I think they could really help their stock if they played one more year in Lexington.

My take? The Harrisons are never going to be great NBA prospects. They’re not overwhelming athletes, they’re not great defenders, they have all kinds of red flags when it comes to their attitudes and neither one of them does anything offensively at an elite level. They are what they are, whether they leave now or in a year.

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