This is an ESPN Insider article so you won’t be able to read the whole thing unless you are a subsriber, but you can read enough of it to understand the point they are making: “What’s the biggest theme to emerge in college basketball this season? Teams that have experienced players who are invested in their programs have established themselves as the elite teams in their respective conferences and in the nation. In contrast, some of the higher-profile teams that have struggled have done so in large part due to a lack of experienced, invested players.
The best example of the latter is the Kentucky Wildcats. If there was one program in the country that might be expected to overcome a lack of experience, it’d be the one that has hauled in the No. 1 recruiting class in three of the last four seasons. But while most fans probably credit super-freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (the top two picks in last season’s NBA draft) with being the biggest reasons for the Wildcats winning the national title, Kentucky would not have won it without the leadership of three upperclassmen who were invested in winning. Doron Lamb, Darius Miller and Terrence Jones helped coach the locker room and played with the sense of urgency you need to navigate the season.”