Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari has insisted that Karl-Anthony Towns has all of the tools necessary to be a success in the NBA for many years.

Towns is expected to be taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the first pick in Thursday's NBA Draft, and Calipari, who could see seven of his former players drafted in Brooklyn, is convinced that the 19-year-old will become a star of the league.

"He's developed into a player," the Wildcats coach told reporters. "He had no real post game. Like I told him, 'You're going to be a post player who can play out on the floor. You're going to learn how to play pick-and-roll defence. You're going to have an idea how to keep a quicker guard in front of you and block shots and still play that way. You will fly up and down this court. You have the chance to be the number-one pick.'

"At this point, he's going to have the opportunity it appears. But [he's] one of the nicest people you're ever going to meet. He can shoot threes. That's not going to be who he is, but you're going to have to guard him in pick-and-pops or if he's trailing in the break.

"All of a sudden, he became unstoppable late in the year, and I've had good ones, but he's right there with those guys that when you look back and say whoever picks them, they'll never get traded. There's only a few of those in the league."

Kentucky will set a record for the most selections from a single school in one year if all seven Wildcats are drafted.