Top talent defines this year?s Final Four

Lurking in virtually every corner of the Superdome this weekend will be lottery picks, some other NBA first rounders and assorted AP All-Americans.

Everywhere, that is, except the Louisville locker room.

This year?s Final Four features three teams ? Kentucky, Kansas and Ohio State ? all with their fair share of the most gifted players in the country, and a fourth with a coach who has squeezed the most out of the next tier of talent.

Does that make Louisville?s Rick Pitino the best coach, or say something about John Calipari, Bill Self and Thad Matta?

?A lot of coaches would agree that, at times, coaching teams with a ton of talent is probably more difficult because you?re constantly trying to get the maximum out of them,? said Matta, who has a star in AP All-American first-teamer Jared Sullinger, widely viewed as a top-15 NBA draft pick.

Which brings us to the Kentucky Wildcats, who play Louisville on Saturday in the first semifinal.

By choice, Calipari has developed a program so overflowing with top-level talent that he?s spending more time looking to replace players after a season or two than developing them over four.

Freshman Anthony Davis, another AP All-American, will likely be the top player in the draft should he leave after this season. Classmate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist won?t be far behind.

According to most lists, not a single one of Pitino?s players would get drafted by the NBA if they left this year. Pitino coaxed his sixth Final Four trip out of a team that reminds him in many ways of his first ? an undersized, underappreciated group of players at Providence in 1987, headlined by Billy Donovan.

Kansas has this year?s only unanimous all-AP selection in junior Thomas Robinson, who figures to be an NBA lottery pick if he leaves.

He could spend much of the night Saturday matched up against Sullinger, who sat out with back spasms when these teams met in December and Kansas won 78-67.