Kentucky fan Katie Hensley now lives in Boston and was recently in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for vacation with her boyfriend and his family to see the Colorado Rockies open the baseball season. She had lived in Colorado for a couple of years and thought it would be a fun trip in warm weather.

Since the NCAA Tournament was going on, she was looking for somewhere to watch games and the bar was full at the hotel where she was staying. Luckily, there was a hotel next door with a bar and grill.

“We were the only ones in there. It was kind of late,” Hensley, a 2014 UK graduate, said. “We asked our waiter if he could turn on the games. I was with a bunch of Duke fans and our waiter asked us who we were rooting for.”

When Hensley told him she was rooting for Kentucky to win the tournament, he told Hensley he was actually going to Kentucky next year. Turns out the waiter was quarterback Nik Scalzo, a UK signee. Of course, Hensley didn’t know that immediately.

“He didn’t mention he was a quarterback. I did recognize the name when he said it, but I don’t follow UK football quite closely enough that I picked up he was a football player,” Hensley said.

Turns out Scalzo’s father owns Sun Tower Hotel & Suites along with the Sand Bar Grill where the UK signee had been called in to work when another waiter couldn’t be there.

“During the summer I work four times a week so I can make money,” Scalzo said. “During the school year I just work when they need me to replace somebody.”

Hensley said he graciously let them stay late to watch games while he was sweeping the floor and doing other things to prepare for closing.

“We were just talking and I thought he was just going to be a UK student,” Hensley, 27, said. “I finally asked him why Kentucky and he said, ‘I am going to be the quarterback.’ He was so unassuming, but I remembered I had read about him and told him that.

“He was recovering from an ACL injury, but he looked fine. I went back up and read up more about him. I wish now I had asked him more questions.”

Scalzo said he normally doesn’t have time to talk as much with guests as he did Hensley and her party but because it was near closing time, he was able to have more of a conversation with them.

“Once she said she went to Kentucky, the conversation just went from there,” Scalzo said.

Hensley said her boyfriend’s father asked him who his game might remind them of and he quickly said Baker Mayfield, the former Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma who had a banner rookie season for the Cleveland Browns.

Scalzo is rated as one of the top 10 quarterbacks in Florida and led Cardinal Gibbons to a 32-6 record in his three seasons as a starter while completing 59.6 percent of his passes – 522 for 876 – for 6,471 yards with 74 touchdowns (both school records) and only 23 interceptions. He also ran for 613 yards on 147 carries with four scores.

Hensley said Scalzo didn’t brag on himself but did agree to take a photo with her that she posted on Twitter. The UK signee later retweeted it and Hensley was surprised by how much attention the tweet got.

She’s originally from Cincinnati. Her parents, Carol and Mark Hensley, are 1984 UK graduates who met their freshman year at UK. They have UK season tickets and she says she was “born and raised” on UK.

“I follow Kentucky big-time, but I never ever thought about running into a future UK quarterback in Fort Lauderdale,” Hensley said. “We could easily have just eaten dinner and gone our separate ways. Now I have to get to Lexington for a game to see him play. I need a new UK jersey.”

She says she needs a new UK jersey, so once she finds out his number – he hopes it will be No. 2 – she’s almost certain to buy that one.

“You just never know about the reach of BBN,” she said.

•••

I’m not sure whether it will take Kentucky players or fans longer to get over the Elite Eight loss to Auburn that denied UK a Final Four berth – and maybe even a national title. The loss stung so much because UK beat Auburn twice, including by 27 points in Rupp Arena without Reid Travis during the season.

However, that’s not the first time an SEC rival has done that in the Elite Eight. LSU did the same thing in 1986 after losing to UK three times that season. Kentucky won by two points at LSU, by 11 points at home and then by three points in the SEC Tournament before losing 59-57 in the regional final in Atlanta in Eddie Sutton’s first season as UK’s coach.

Point guard Roger Harden had 12 points on 6-for-8 shooting, five rebounds, five assists and one steal in 38 minutes in the NCAA loss. Teammate Kenny Walker had 20 points, seven rebounds, three steals and one assist in 38 minutes. Winston Bennett had eight points and 12 rebounds for UK, but was just 3-for-13 from the field. Guard Ed Davender went 1-for-6 and James Blackmon 5-for-12.

Sound familiar to some shooting numbers UK had against Auburn?

“Of all the teams I played on, even today at (age) 55 that is still the game that gets the biggest emotional reaction,” Harden said. “We decided as a team that it was important for the program to have a great year in Eddie’s first year.”