Six of first 10 picks in Thursday’s NBA draft Thursday night will be college rookies, including UK one-and-done Julius Randle.

Question: Who said, “One and done is the single worst violation of student-athlete relationships?”

“Kids don’t go to class the second semester. They come in and play basketball a year and leave. I have no quarrel with kids wanting to go play basketball, [but] I think they should have to stay a couple or three years.

“I don’t know anybody who likes it, There’s one small set of people. Agents, representatives for NBA players.”

Answer: John Skipper, President ESPN.

Skipper might have added to the small set list –names of ball coaches who use one-and-done to enrich themselves shamefully. Wait a minute, he did, citing John Calipari at Kentucky plays the system.

And, he might have announced how many games his network will air that feature one-and-dones.

√ Lexington. Money for VIP suites for Rupp Arena stalled again. Back to the back-burner again.

√ We-Own-You still. Indiana’s high school hoops all-stars dominated Kentucky again.

√ Bowling Green. 14-team Conference-USA has five bowl game tie-in opportunities for Jeff Brohm’s Hilltoppers this season WKU football will make television appearances three times or more, and has on schedule next year: Vanderbilt, Indiana and LSU, with a first-ever SEC home game in 2015, Vandy. Good for fans, good for recruiting.

√ Richmond. A keep-track story – Ex-Eastern Kentucky leading scorer Glenn Cosey is going to graduate school. Sort of. Cosey’s post-grad classrooms will be in France, playing professionally for ALM Evreux, a B-level team. Off-court, opportunity-of-lifetime to travel, see, hear and partake in other cultures. Priceless.

Beyond Planet Kentucky …

√ Waco, Texas. We ought pause and consider. Baylor star Isaiah Austin received a telephone call of a lifetime last week, not about where his name will be announced at the NBA draft this week, but news that his is a one-in-5,000 victim, diagnosed with Marfan syndrome.

Option? Be a college junior at Baylor and forget – but for the NBA Players Association’s 19-year-old minimum rule, (leading to one-and-done), he might have been on an NBA roster two years ago and have couple million dollars in the bank.

√ World Cup. This close. Team USA is getting there, but not quite ready for (Final Four) prime time.

√ Chapel Hill. A sordid drama of alleged academic fraud whistle blown by ex-Tar Heel Rashad McCants has caused a hissing sound in UNC’s athletic department. Hasn’t happened yet, but could be prelude to this bombshell: NCAA official letter of inquiry. Investigate possible academic fraud and/or lack of institutional control in men’s basketball program.

Bit of irony, a Kentucky fan weighed in on the UNC flap last week with a statement we’ve heard before with different names.

“… wonder whether the NCAA will do anything to Carolina?” he wrote. “If (it) does, at the glacial speed the NCAA moves, (coach) Roy Williams will be retired and everybody associated with this scandal will have moved on.”

In this tale replace McCants with Bearup, then Joe B. Hall for Roy Williams and we have the mid-1980s.

Brett Bearup was the whistle blower, Joe B. Hall retired in 1985 and three years on, UK took the NCAA hit (two wins erased and SEC regular season and tournament titles nullified). More punishment came for academic fraud during Eddie Sutton’s tenure and cost his job. Next, a magazine cover Kentucky Shame.

Deja’vu all over again?

√ Oakland, California . NCAA president Mark Emmert testified in the O’Bannon versus NCAA antitrust trial last week. In the Show-Me-The-Money crowd testimony nobody wanted to hear, Emmert was steadfast that a primary reason why fans embrace college sports is because they’re attached to a school and community.

“To convert college sports into professional sports would be tantamount to converting it into minor league sports,” he added. “And we know that in the U.S. minor league sports aren’t very successful either for fan support or for the fan experience.”

Amen.

View here: This case will go to U.S. Supreme Court with a judgement forthcoming in say, 2018, with a ruling that mandates student-athletes should be compensated.

That outcome will mark the end of college sports golden goose era, followed by Power Conference affiliates (SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-10) who will compete for markets alongside the NFL and NBA, compete for television money and endorsements.

Best case scenario: So-called mid-major college programs will rise as a new option for fans. Caliber of play may not be power league level, but fans who can still believe they’re watching amateurs, and paying reasonable ticket prices, will embrace the competition, leaving the money-grubbing professionals to their fate.

JUST WONDERING DEPT.

Has Formula One race driver Danica Patrick ever won anything? Or, is this a case of unabashed market cash-in on eye candy?

And so it goes.