Thirty players were chosen between the time that Sacramento made its first and second selections in the National Basketball Association draft.

The Kings had their eyes on Virginia point guard Sean Singletary the whole time.

After using the 12th pick on Rider University big man Jason Thompson, Sacramento picked up Singletary at No. 42. The Kings used their final pick, the 43rd, on Georgetown forward Patrick Ewing.

"We took three seniors and all three have their college degrees," said Keith Drum, a former Durham, N.C., sports editor who is in his 13th season as a Kings scout. "When was the last time that happened? When do you think you'll see it again?"

Drum said that Thompson, a previously unheralded 6-foot-11, 250-pounder, was the No. 1 big man whom the Kings had targeted.

"After that, I can honestly tell you that Sean Singletary was the top small player that we wanted for the second round," Drum said. "That's a fact. After we made the 12th pick, we already had our list done and we said, 'We hope Sean makes it to [No.] 42 and, if he does, we're going to take him.'"

Drum wasn't surprised that Singletary lasted to No. 42, "but some people on our staff thought he looked too good in [Orlando's senior showcase] and that he might go higher," he said, "but little guys who slip into the second round, they tend to slip a little farther down than maybe they should.

"Some teams don't like little guards."

At the time of the draft, Sacramento could not be sure if it would retain the services of 2007-2008 point guard Beno Udrih and might have been tempted to take 5-foot-11 Texas point guard D.J. Augustin if he had been available at No. 12, but Charlotte landed Augustin with the ninth pick.

Some Virginia fans wondered how Augustin could have been so much more coveted than Singletary, a three-time, first-team All-ACC selection.

"Well, it's a very good question," Drum said. "When you look at it statistically, you would think they would be really close, and I'm sure Sean probably thinks it is.

"I guess what people look at is [that] Augustin played two years at Texas and they were a top-10 team both years. He actually was voted team MVP as a freshman, even though they had [Kevin] Durant. This past year, they won even more games without Durant, and he gets a lot of credit for it.

"Singletary had a pretty good junior year and the team was pretty good. This year, the team wasn't nearly as good, but he was just as good. About Augustin, his shooting numbers went down and his assist numbers went down his second year. But, Durant made all that easier."

Of course, Virginia didn't have a second proven scorer in the mold of J.R. Reynolds, a senior on the Cavaliers' 21-win team in 2007-2008.

And there were some mock drafts this year that didn't include Singletary in the second round.

However, an increasing number of mock drafts do not include a second round.

"It means nothing," Drum said. "Even if the people doing the mock drafts have some semi-reliable sources, nobody really talks about the second round. [Teams] hardly talk about it amongst themselves."

Many of the second-round selections are international players whom teams select with little or no intention of bringing to this country.

"I think the first guy in the second round has a three- or four-year deal before he can even come over here," said Drum, referring to Serbian center Nikola Pekovic, selected by Minnesota.

Other teams, like Detroit, drafted players like Virginia Tech's Deron Washington with the understanding that they would be sent to Europe.

That won't be the case with Singletary, although his path to a starting job isn't as favorable as it might have seemed before the Kings re-signed Udrih, their starter after Mike Bibby was sent to Atlanta.

"Even if we drafted a point guard in the first round, we were going to go after Beno or another veteran player," Drum said. "We really had no point guard under contract, so [Udrih's return] doesn't mean anything for Sean.

"His job is still to show us that he can compete for minutes and is worthy of being on the team. As the season went on, [6-7] Francisco Garcia played more and more as a back-up point guard and actually did fairly well. It's not his natural position, it's not his best position, maybe it's not the best thing for the team, but he does all right there."

Drum has been to Virginia on a fairly regular basis over the years, but his last trip to John Paul Jones Arena was in December 2007.

"I didn't see [Singletary] this season, but I'd seen him previously and I'm sure other people had seen him," Drum said. "He was in Orlando for the pre-draft camp, where he played well, and our whole staff was there. You know, we have television and various electronic devices where we can watch guys play when we aren't actually in the building."

True to his sportswriting roots, Drum has maintained a sarcastic streak, but he's nothing but bullish on Singletary.