LEXINGTON, Ky. — Reid Travis needed to play one more year of college basketball.

A Stanford senior, Travis had been working out privately last spring in anticipation of the N.B.A. draft. But an invitation to the combine never came. A few teams had him work out, but the message was clear that he would not be among the N.B.A.’s precious 60 draft picks.

Six feet 8 inches and solid, but used to playing near the rim, Travis said he was told he needed to add another dimension to his game — “be more versatile, become a better passer, decrease turnovers, become more athletic.” Given that, he suddenly had to decide whether to stay at Stanford as a graduate student or to pursue a graduate degree in basketball somewhere else.

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And thus was created a different kind of one-and-done at college basketball’s top finishing school: John Calipari’s Kentucky, the famed lair of uber-talented high-schoolers who play one N.B.A.-mandated season of games before entering the draft.

“Granted I’m four, five years older than these guys,” Travis said last month, sitting in a lounge outside the locker room of Kentucky’s practice facility. “But I am here for a year, similar to them.”