Daniel Orton’s time at Kentucky may not have ended on a good note, but the former Wildcat wouldn’t trade his year in Lexington for the world. Ahead of his run with La Familia in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), Orton reminisced on what it was like to be on John Calipari’s first Kentucky team, which also included John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, and Orton’s La Familia teammate Eric Bledsoe. Despite losing in the Elite Eight, the 2009-10 team brought the program and fanbase back to life, an experience for which Orton will be forever grateful.

“One of the best times of my life, to be able to play with that many talented players, to have that chemistry that we had and develop so fast,” Orton said on KSR this morning. “And to have one of the greatest coaches of all time. It was just something that you couldn’t dream about.”

Orton and Kentucky have long since buried the hatched over his exit. Following the 2009-10 season, Orton declared for the NBA Draft and left school during the spring semester without finishing his coursework, which caused Kentucky’s Academic Progress Rating (APR) to take a hit. He apologized after the 2010 NBA Draft, in which he was selected No. 29 by the Orlando Magic. In the years since, Orton has rebuilt his relationship with the program and settled in Lexington, starting a basketball academy and coaching and officiating his son’s games in an elementary school league in Fayette County.

By giving back, Orton hopes to help kids reach their dreams of playing basketball at the college and professional levels, maybe even at Kentucky.

“Growing up, I watched my brother play at Oklahoma State so I knew a lot about Division I basketball and college atmospheres, but when I got here, it was just different. It was completely different.”

Orton, who was recruited by Billy Gillispie, recalled his first encounter with Kentucky fans at the start of his official visit for Big Blue Madness in 2008. The five-star recruit was very much on the BBN’s radar. By the end of his trip, Orton had committed to being a Wildcat.

“I landed at, I think 12:06, got to the hotel at 12:15, and heard the roar of people chanting my name as soon as I walked in the door. ‘Oh yeah, these people are absolutely insane.’ So to have that team that we had, and it being the start of Cal Era, I think the only way we could have finished it was to do it the right with the championship.”

Orton on the 2009-10 team: “We wanted to go undefeated”

Of course, thanks to West Virginia, that did not happen, which Orton says will “forever” make him hate the Mountaineers. The 2009-10 team didn’t want to just reach the Final Four; they wanted a title and even perfection.

“The first time I talked to Kentucky fans, they said, ‘We expect a 40-0 season, a championship.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s right along the lines that I’m thinking too.’ All the guys that we had, they were competitive and they knew what the challenge was, but we wanted to go undefeated. SEC Championship, that’s cute, but we wanted to win the national championship.

“So from day one, everybody had the same expectations. These fans have a high expectation of perfection. And so you walk in here knowing what the job is and you just gotta get it done.”

Orton said Patrick Patterson stepped up on the first day of practice and made the expectations and standards clear. Mark Pope might say he understood the assignment.

“He knew he set the tone from day one and we all knew from there on, okay, this thing is on and it’s real. And seeing the teams that we had, first team and second team just going at it at practice constantly, everybody knows some of those practices were better than all the games that we played.”

One of the highlights of those practices for Orton was watching John Wall and Eric Bledsoe battle it out in the backcourt, which inspired the rest of the team to do the same.

“Honestly, E-Bled over there had the most competitive edge and he was matching up with [John] and iron sharpens iron. So him and John going at it every single day was something special to witness, having that front-row seat.

“And then, nobody wants to back down from anybody, so me and DeMarcus [Cousins] is going at, me and [Patrick Patterson] going at it. And then you’ve got guys that were seniors battling for minutes, Ramon Harris, Perry Stevenson. So you’re going to get everybody’s best effort every single day and it prepares you for the season to come, where you’re gonna get every SEC team’s best effort every single game.”

Orton’s playing days may be over, but he’s still looking forward to suiting up and representing Kentucky again with La Familia on Friday night at Rupp Arena as they open TBT play vs. 305 Ballers — even if he tried to temper fans’ expectations a bit.

“I’m going to give my best effort,” he said. “My time is focused more on the next generation but I try to work on me occasionally.”