Is Devin Booker on the verge of a feat no ex-UK basketball player has ever achieved?
Fast-break points from Wiz Khalifas tour bus:  21. Devin Booker. The Phoenix Suns star famously never started a game during his one season (2014-15) playing for John Calipari at Kentucky. 20. The second guess. Now that the 6-foot-5, 206-pound Booker has emerged as one of the NBAs elite players (averaged 25.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists in 2020-21), people question why UK did not start him. 19. A logical reason. In 2014-15, Kentucky returned seven of its top nine players from the team that lost in the 2014 NCAA championship game  including its starting backcourt of Andrew and Aaron Harrison. 18. Platoon system. With four high-level freshmen joining his teams veteran nucleus, Calipari initiated a legitimate two-platoon system. Booker logged regular minutes with his platoon without starting  and Kentucky won its first 38 games. 17. With Phoenix up 1-0 on Milwaukee in the NBA Finals entering Thursdays Game 2, Booker was three wins from becoming the 16th former Kentucky player to win an NBA championship. 16. Well ...  15. Paul Noel. In 1950-51, Noel, an ex-Kentucky forward, became the first former Cat to win an NBA championship while playing for the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings). 14. Also a one-and-done. Like Booker, Noel, a 6-4 product of Midway, played only one year at UK (1942-43). Rather than exit to immediately join the NBA, Noel left school after one season to help out his family after his father, a tenant farmer, died. 13. In his book Kentucky Basketballs Big Blue Machine, the late UK sports historian, Russell Rice, lists Noel among the main reserves for the 1942-43 Wildcats. I could not turn up games started statistics for that UK season. 12. So the answer to whether Booker would be the first ex-Cat to win an NBA title after never starting a game at UK hinges on whether Noel, who died in 2005, made even one start for Adolph Rupp in 1942-43. Story continues  11. Cats with NBA titles. The 14 ex-Wildcats besides Noel with at least one NBA title  Frank Ramsey, Lou Tsioropoulos, Cliff Hagan, Pat Riley, Larry Steele, Kevin Grevey, Rick Robey, Nazr Mohammed, Derek Anderson, Antoine Walker, Tayshaun Prince, Rajon Rondo, Jodie Meeks and Anthony Davis  were all starters at UK. Devin Booker is seeking to join Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis (3) as the second player recruited by John Calipari to Kentucky to win an NBA championship. Bookers Phoenix Suns had a 1-0 lead on the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2021 NBA Finals entering Thursday nights Game 2. 10. NBA titles broken down by UK coaches. Of the 15 former Kentucky players to win NBA crowns, six were recruited to Lexington by Adolph Rupp, three each by Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith, two by Joe B. Hall and one by John Calipari. 9. The Directors Cup. Kentuckys finish of 12th in the final Learfield/IMG College Directors Cup standings for 2020-21 was the third-best in school history  UK was 10th in 2016-17 and 11th in 2013-14. 8. A letdown. In a school year in which UK won two team national championships (rifle and womens volleyball), not cracking the top 10 in the Directors Cup standings  a measurement of overall performance of athletics departments  stung. 7. The mens basketball factor. The competitive collapse in 2020-21 by UKs signature program, mens hoops (9-16), cost Kentucky. Had the Wildcats mens hoops team just made the NCAA Tournament round of 16  which it has done 27 times since 1975  UK would have finished seventh in the Directors Cup. 6. The Capital One Cup. In a different measure of all-around athletics strength for 2020-21, Kentuckys womens teams finished fourth in the nation in the Capital One Cup, while UKs mens programs finished tied for 49th. 5. EKUs OVC exit fee. The presidents of the Ohio Valley Conference schools voted  unanimously, league officials say  in 2017 that schools leaving the OVC and giving less than two full years notice before departing would pay a $1 million exit fee. As of July 1, both Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State have left the OVC under those conditions. 4. No plans to pay. OVC Commissioner Beth DeBauche said last Friday that both EKU and Jacksonville State notified the league office of their intentions not to pay the $1 million exit fee. 3. A firm line. DeBauche says the presidents of the OVCs 10 remaining schools expect payment of those fees. ... It will be very important to this conference that their obligations be honored.  2. We will take time with this. We hope there is the ability for some level of resolution, DeBauche said. 1. If the disagreement enters the legal system, you would essentially have the OVC, whose membership still includes two Kentucky universities in Morehead State and Murray State, litigating against a third commonwealth school, EKU. As dynamics go, that would be equal parts regrettable and fascinating.