At the time, Kentucky was lurking at No. 8, with two top-40 prospects (Archie Goodwin and Willie Cauley) in the fold. UCLA was at No. 10, as Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams were the only ones committed to the Bruins.

Barring another program picking up two five-star players, Arizona looked destined for the No. 1 spot.

Unfortunately for Miller and the Wildcats, that’s exactly what happened – with both Kentucky and UCLA.

Perhaps he is not quite a legend in his sport yet, but he is a deity in the state he currently calls home. If John Calipari asked for a flash mob to assemble at Rupp Arena at noon on Friday, businesses and schools would have to shut down. If he said he liked purple tulips, they’d arrive at his doorstep by the truckload. 

That’s why Mitch Barnhart — or whoever is the Kentucky athletic director when Calipari calls it quits — has the toughest job in college basketball. 

And even though he wasn’t quite ready to buy a home in the Big Easy, there’s a good chance he’ll be the one heading to the podium when commissioner David Stern announces the first pick of the draft.

With his athleticism and game-changing defense, Davis helped Kentucky win a national championship in his lone college season. Now he’s poised to join Bulls star Derrick Rose as the second Chicago product in five years to be taken with the No. 1 pick.

Yes, Kentuckians on and off press row know how intently Kidd-Gilchrist competes. In his one UK season, he breathed life into one of Coach John Calipari’s pet phrases: Will to win.

That label stuck to Kidd-Gilchrist as he and 60 other prime prospects for the June 28 NBA Draft met with pro teams and reporters this week in what the league calls its combine.

It’s likely that by June 28, the night of the draft, Jones will have fulfilled both missions. He already helped hang UK’s eighth national championship banner in April and, based on the latest projections, Jones will be an NBA lottery pick — a distinction bestowed on the first 14 selections — in a little more than two weeks.

“Oh, yeah,” Calipari said. “We had a good idea where he would have gone last year, and he’s in a better position. He knew he wasn’t ready to go, so he helped himself. He came back and now he’s mature. He helped himself, no question.”

In a one-on-one interview with KyForward sports editor Jon Hale, Calipari took time from a satellite basketball camp at Campbell County Middle School to talk about his future at UK, his scheduling philosophy, the NBA draft, next year’s team and a host of other topics.

After 34 years on the UK cross country track and field staff, the last 28 as head coach, Weber has retired.

“For pretty much a full year, unless I was really occupied with a task, I couldn’t help this running through my head,” Weber said. “And I didn’t want even the possibility of ‘I might not be here’ to leak out, and the complications that would cause. So I pretty much kept it to myself.”

Patrick isn’t coming into Kentucky making any big boastful statements like I’m going to be the man from day one. But he does come in with a perfect attitude about what his ability brings to the table.

“Yes sir. Any, being the competitive person that I am, I’m not going into go into a situation and put 50% effort into it. My goal is to get the starting quarterback job. It’s been that since I, a year ago since I committed. I’m going to go down there and whatever I possibly can so that on September 2nd, I’m the starting quarterback against Louisville.”

Woods, the former UK point guard, has been Morehead State’s coach almost a month. In that time, he’s spoken to alumni groups in Maysville and Ashland. He participated in a fund-raiser Saturday, two days after giving the keynote speech to a Morehead Chamber of Commerce event.

Of the 25 or so interviews he’s given, Woods talks of building on the success of his predecessor, Donnie Tyndall, who made Morehead State a regular participant in the NCAA Tournament.

DeMarcus Cousins believes he can do this. Actually, he believes he will do this: Dominate the competition during Team USA’s training session early next month in Las Vegas. Impress coach Mike Krzyzewski. Defy the odds, overcome the skeptics, and convince USA Basketball czar Jerry Colangelo to slip him a plane ticket to the 2012 London Games.

Right-hander Alex Meyer served up his best performance as a professional with six innings of shutout baseball Tuesday night, allowing just two hits. Meyer struck out five Hickory Crawdads and walked just one in a 4-0 Hagerstown victory in a rain-shortened affair at Municipal Stadium.