The soft-spoken Davis is typically bland in what he says, but he created a stir when he called out Kobe Bryant shortly before the combine during a radio interview. Asked on The Dan Patrick Show whom he was anxious to face, Davis chose Bryant.

“He’s a monster,” Davis said. “I just want to go out there and play my hardest. There’s a lot of guys that can’t stop Kobe, so if I stop him, I could be one of the guys that say, ‘I shut Kobe down.’?”

If he deals with his stammer the way he and his hyper-protective family have confronted and conquered everything else — his premature birth, his father’s murder, a surrogate father’s death on the day he signed with Kentucky, the daily 154-mile commute throughout high school — Kidd-Gilchrist figures to overcome it soon enough.

“I’m not worried about [the stammer] anymore,” he said. “I’m happy with everything.”

Perhaps the NBA should, at least for this year, rebrand the noteworthy “green” room, where Thursday night’s top draft prospects and their families gather while awaiting word about their professional destinations.

It could quite easily be the “blue” room in 2012, with five players from the University of Kentucky’s national championship team in the running to be lottery selections.

Michael Kidd-GIlchrist awaits his fate Thursday’s NBA draft.

While there’s little doubt that power forward Anthony Davis will be the first Wildcat selected, the second, third or fourth overall pick will be Kentucky small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

Opinions vary on what type of player Jones will be in the NBA, but there is little doubt he is a first-round lock. Some mock drafts have him going as high as seventh, to the Golden State Warriors, while others have Jones slipping all the way to the late teens. But after wildly successful high school and college careers, Jones is eager to start the next chapter of his life — wherever that may be. 

“I’m going to be blessed and happy to play for whatever team that drafts me,” Jones said, when asked if he hoped to play for the hometown Trail Blazers. “It doesn’t matter to me where I go; playing in the NBA is a dream come true.” 

Two days before Terrence Jones expects to hear his name called in the first round of the NBA Draft, he was helping put a giant smile on the face of a friend in Lexington.

Literally.

With the aid of the former Kentucky forward, William Bolden — a 22-year-old UK basketball superfan who has developed a bit of a YouTube following with Wildcats-oriented videos posted under his nickname “Stone Cold Willow” — got extensive dental work at no cost to him.

Another NBA draft, another Indianapolis-area player likely to be selected in the first round.

If Pike High School graduate Marquis Teague is taken among the top 30 picks of the draft Thursday night — he’s projected to go somewhere between No. 16 to Houston and No. 30 to Golden State in most mock drafts — it would mark the seventh consecutive year a player from the area has been ?selected in the first round.

Brian and his wife Nicole are understandably very proud of their son, who they have followed closely in Lexington and on the road throughout his career.

“Well, things have settled down some for now, but June 28 (NBA Draft night) can’t get here fast enough for us. We’re anxious and nervous about where Darius is going to go but the main thing is we want him to go to a team where he can play and get an opportunity,” Brian said. “Nothing will surprise him, he’s already won three AAU titles, a gold medal, a state championship and a national championship.”