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Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t remember the 2011 NBA Draft. It was painfully forgetful.
Duke’s Kyrie Irving, who was injured most of his freshman season, was the No. 1 pick. Arizona forward Derrick Williams went next.
Who went third? No, it was not Michael Jordan. That was 1984, or two NBA lockouts ago.
The draft was a washout because college basketball underclassmen were being advised to stay in school as an NBA lockout became more probable.
“I told players, their families and coaches, ‘Imagine it’s November and your school is on ESPN in a national televised game and you’re sitting at home on your couch watching it on TV,’” agent Mark Bartelstein, who owns Priority Sports Entertainment, told The Post. “That would be a disaster.”
The NBA’s disaster is the NCAA’s windfall. Consider the five players on The Post’s preseason All-America team. Four play for the teams occupying the top four spots in the preseason national polls.
All five are sophomores. One can make a strong case that all five would have gone in the top half of last April’s draft, if not the Top 10.
Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger and North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes almost surely would have gone in the Top Five. Kentucky’s Terrence Jones, perhaps the least-polished of the five, was kept abreast of the NBA labor strife by his cousin, Damon Stoudamire.
Asked recently if the potential for a lockout was on his mind at the time he decided to return. Jones said, “Yeah.”
“I just didn’t see a point of sitting I could be playing,” Jones told Kentucky.com. “That’s just what I like to do: play basketball.”
The Post spoke to several agents who explained how the probability of an NBA lockout affected the decision-making process last spring.
One agent, who handles mostly NFL players, said his company did not recruit any players last season for fear of a lockout. He explained the economics didn’t make sense to represent an athlete during a lockout.
“If you’re player gets drafted and there’s a lockout, what is that player going to do?” said the agent who asked not to be identified. “He’ll say he wants to go what we call paradise, a training facility where there are nutritionists and trainers, everything you need to become a better player. We have to pay for that and there’s no return until the lockout is settled.”
Another agent who handles some top college players changed his approach.
“In the past we have given players all of the information — finances, where they might go in the draft, which teams would be a good fit — and then gave them our opinion,” said Seth Cohen, a New York native and the co-owner of Original Creative Representation. “Last year we gave them all the information but didn’t offer an opinion, because of the possibility of a protracted lockout was uncharted territory.”
Returning to school was chartered territory. The games are guaranteed. The training table is open. The medical staff and weight room is available. The room and board are free.
So Barnes returned, as did Sullinger, Jones, Connecticut’s Jeremy Lamb and Baylor’s Perry Jones III, in part to mature and work on their games and in large part because there was no place else to go.
“It was choosing between the known and the unknown,” Cohen said.
There’s no doubt that the five of the schools represented on The Post’s All-America team would win had their sophomore studs gone pro. But there would be a drop off, in some cases a significant one. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said North Carolina, without Barnes, would have dropped from No. 1 to just inside the Top 10.
“He’s a difference maker,” Bilas said. “Not many players can get 40. He can get 40.”
No. 2-ranked Kentucky brings in another outstanding recruiting class led by 6-foot-7 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and 6-foot-9 Anthony Davis. Kidd-Gilchrist could replace Jones in the starting lineup on paper.
“Jones is a first-team All-American,” Bilas said. “You don’t replace a first-team All-American with a freshman.”
Third-ranked Ohio State lost fifth-year senior David Lighty and sniper Jon Diebler. Sullinger, who averaged a double-double, has learned to step away from the basket, making him an even more complete player.
If Sullinger had come out, it “would put Ohio State down several pegs,” Bilas said. “They’re a young team even with Sullinger. They would be really young and without a go-to player.”
Connecticut’s Jeremy Lamb emerged in the NCAA Tournament as Richard Hamilton’s clone, a silky smooth player. The fourth-ranked Huskies will need that scoring with the loss of Kemba Walker.
“Without Lamb they would be outside the Top10,” Bilas said. “I was at Connecticut the other day and [coach] Jim Calhoun introduced Jeremy as the next great Connecticut player.”
Baylor, ranked 12th, will put one of the nation’s most athletic teams on the court. Jones III is the freak.
“I think Percy is ready to have a Len Bias-like breakout season,” Bilas said. “The improvement in his game and body are going to amaze people.”
Thanks to the lockout, basketball fans could have another amazing hoops experience to look forward to — next year’s draft, which will have the stars of 2010-11 and 2011-12.
“It’s going to be one of the most heralded drafts in years,” Cohen said.
Fans might even remember who was drafted third.
MADNESS FORECAST
Final Four
Louisville: Peyton Siva emerges as an elite point guard, and coach Rick Pitino gets back Jared Swopshire, who missed all of last season with a groin injury. Top recruit Wayne Blackshear (shoulder) could be back by Christmas, but there’s plenty of depth.
Syracuse: This is coach Jim Boeheim’s deepest team, which is saying something. He has experience in the backcourt in Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche. Fab Melo is ready to take the next step. Is Kris Joseph? If yes, the Orange could party in New Orleans.
North Carolina: The NBA lockout is being celebrated in Chapel Hill because Harrison Barnes, the game’s best all-around player, and 7-foot skilled center Tyler Zeller returned. PG Kendall Marshall seemingly got better with every game the second half of the season.
Vanderbilt: History tells us there is at least one team (Butler, VCU, George Mason) that makes a run. This year that team is Vandy. Kevin Stallings is an excellent coach. For the first time in 13 years he has all five starters back. John Jenkins’s J is poetry.
lenn.robbins@nypost.com