Entering Tuesday Night’s game versus the Florida Gators the Kentucky Wildcats were on the bubble in terms of reaching the CBB Tournament this season. With Nerlens Noel going down with a torn ACL those hopes have lost a ton of steam and may be gone for 2012.

Last year the Wildcats enjoyed a team that was the best in all of College Basketball and with the help of Anthony Davis they won a National Championship for the first time since 1998. Noel has drawn similarities to Davis as they both were threats in the post and integral to the teams success on defense–Noel leads the country in blocked shots with 106.

Noel is set to miss 6-8 months due to the injury but, that is a ballpark estimate as he isn’t fully diagnosed and still hasn’t underwent surgery.

NBA teams already have the freshmen marked down as one of  if not the top pick this Summer but, this may decrease Noel’s draft stock come July. He has a tremendous amount of potential but, with recent players like Greg Oden taking a turn for the worse because of injury there may be a bit of hesitancy.

As of now the nation will wait to see if Noel indeed takes the plunge to the NBA after shattering his ACL in his only season at the collegiate level. If I was in Noel’s shoes I would stay in Lexington and come out after my sophomore year to not only boost my confidence level but to also show NBA teams he has overcame such an enormous setback.