The recently-chosen No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick, Wall will be playing for the Washington Wizards and the 6-4 guard will join at least a couple of residents from the nation’s capital -- former UK players Kevin Grevey and James “Jim” Duff.
Grevey, who played at Kentucky during the early 1970s, was a two-time All-American sharpshooter for coach Joe B. Hall, leading the Wildcats to the 1975 NCAA championship game. He later became a success in the NBA, playing 10 years, mostly for the Washington Bullets.
Grevey, along with his wife Sandy, currently owns and operates a well-known restaurant and sports bar, called Grevey’s, in Falls Church, Virginia. Grevey, whose Wildcat jersey has been retired by UK, still does some radio commentary on college basketball for a couple of networks.
Duff is another ex-UK player who lives in the D.C. area.
A member of one of the nation’s most famous freshman basketball teams ever, Duff helped the 1971-72 Kittens post a perfect 22-0 mark in his role as a backup guard, playing with Grevey, Jimmy Dan Conner, Bob Guyette, Mike Flynn, G.J. Smith, among others.
Duff, an attorney who is a graduate of UK Honors Program in 1975, is currently the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. He was appointed to his federal post in 2006 by Chief Justice John Roberts.
For several years during the late 1990s, Duff served as then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s administrative assistant.
And both Duff and Grevey were high school classmates in Hamilton, Ohio (near Cincinnati) and they have remained friends. They are optimistic about Wall’s arrival in Washington.
“My family and I are very excited that John Wall is about to be drafted by the Washington Wizards,” Duff wrote in an e-mail shortly before the annual draft. “We went to UK to see him play in a couple of games last year and we’re hoping to get to see him more often here.
“He has a rare combination of talents in that he can make spectacular plays with electrifying speed but he also is a team player who distributes the ball well. He was very mature and calm as a freshman and I expect that he will adjust well to the pro game because of his year with Coach (John) Calipari.”
With Wall playing in Washington, Duff said he now expects to follow the Wizards more closely.
“I have not attended many Wizards games since my friend Kevin Grevey retired, but we will certainly go see John Wall play and wear our UK colors,” said Duff, whose parents were from Owsley County in the eastern Kentucky mountains.
Duff also agrees the Wizards couldn’t do any wrong in selecting Wall. Most observers are confident that Wall will be a top-flight NBA superstar.
Ironically, Duff and Wall wore the same jersey number at Kentucky.
“I also wore No. 11 when I was a freshman!” added Duff.
You can certainly expect many Wildcat faithful, including Duff and Grevey, to cheer on Wall this coming season at the downtown 20,674-seat Verizon Center, which by the way will also host the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament in 2011.
And Washington could be a very (and more) interesting place to visit during the March Madness for the Big Blue fans if Calipari’s Cats are marching toward the capital.
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The Kentucky Kernel, the student daily newspaper at UK, has recently published an impressive-looking paperback about Kentucky’s memorable 2009-10 basketball campaign.
The title of the 144-page book is “Blue is Back,” which is filled with outstanding color photography and write-ups by the student staffers on Calipari’s 35-3 squad.
You may want to take a look at it in the Lexington-area bookstores when you get a chance. It’s also available on the Web site, www.blueisback.com.
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If the pre-season college football yearbooks are correct, the 2010 season won’t be all that pretty for the local fans who either cheer for UK or UT.
The Sporting News’ yearbook, as usual, has produced a fine collection of team stories or previews, and tidbits on college football, including recruiting reports on most major teams.
Five SEC teams are ranked in the magazine’s pre-season poll, including No. 1 Alabama, which has Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram back, and No. 5 Florida.
In the SEC’s East Division race, Tennessee and Kentucky are expected to finish at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, according to the Sporting News.
Nashville-based Athlon Sports’ also has come up with a fine-looking yearbook, including an interesting article on nation’s coaching jobs by managing editor Mitchell Light where it ranks every program (from first to worst) based on the attractiveness of the job from a coaching perspective.
In addition, the magazine has “Extra Points” section which is loaded with tidbits on nearly everything, including the coaches on the hot seat, conference rankings, top new assistant coaches, top transfers, among others.
In Athlon’s Top 25, it has six SEC teams, including the top-ranked Crimson Tide who are favored to repeat as the national champion.
Athlon has UT and UK at fourth and fifth place, respectively, in the division race, just ahead of lowly Vanderbilt.
Jamie H. Vaught, whose syndicated sports column currently appears in Kentucky newspapers, is the author of four books about UK basketball. He is currently a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro and can be reached by e-mail at CatsUpClose2008@yahoo.com.
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