John Wall joined KSR for stories and memories from his "rock star" year at Kentucky

DrewFranklinKSR

Thursday’s episode of Kentucky Sports Radio was a nostalgic treat for its listeners as we welcomed a special guest, John Wall, for the first time. Now a proud father of two boys, Ace and Amir, and the host of a new podcast, “Point Game,” Wall took a trip down memory lane to catch up with his old blogger friends in Lexington. This was a moment fifteen years in the making, from when KSR was just a blog and there was no morning radio show or social media, as Wall recalled in the interview.

Wall shared with us many other memories from his one-and-done season at Kentucky, a time when he, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, and their teammates felt like “rock stars” as they resurrected the program with John Calipari in Calipari’s first season. “We started off 18-0,” he reminisced. “A lot of young guys were coming in, bringing some veteran guys back, and then having a new coach come into town. Everybody was super excited… I think we put Kentucky back on the map to a level where it’s at now.”

However, it still bothers him that Kentucky could not finish the job in the 2010 NCAA Tournament, bowing out in the Elite Eight in a heartbreaking loss. “I just wish I could have brought a championship there, you know, that was the ultimate goal. The way the fans was, the way they embraced us, the way we fell in love with it.

“I always try to come back and support, go to games, go to camps, just do anything like that because it’s a basketball town and they really love you and they give you that fun and make you feel like you’re not in college. We really enjoyed it. We felt like rock stars. For me, it’s the best college to go to and the best college to play for.”

Wall called his year in Lexington the most fun he’s had playing basketball. “You couldn’t get that joy back.”

More John Wall memories on KSR

— The SEC Tournament championship game in Nashville and the tip-in that forced overtime, where Kentucky beat Mississippi State for the school’s first SEC Tournament championship in six years. Wall insists he knew the game was tied, adamantly denying any accusations that he thought Cousins had won the game, not tied it.

— How his Kentucky team would’ve won it all if Jodie Meeks had made the same decision as Patrick Patterson to return to school to play with Calipari’s freshmen. As Wall remembers it, Meeks had a promised spot in the draft, to which Wall supported Meeks’ decision to leave UK and the potential national championship season in Lexington.

— Why DeMarcus Cousins was picked to represent the team on the famous phone call with President Barack Obama, the day Kentucky earned its first No. 1 ranking. He recalled losing to South Carolina later that night, too.

— His thoughts on this year’s team and his history with fellow North Carolinian Rob Dillingham. Wall spotted Dillingham at a young age, playing as a fearless middle-schooler against high-school competition in Wall’s home state.