7-7-10 —     John Wall won’t be the only ex-Wildcat basketball standout living in the Washington, D.C., area.

    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 very 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.

   

    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.