There has been no shortage of storylines in this fantasy of a season for Kentucky basketball.
Freshman phenoms Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were headline-grabbers from the moment they set foot on campus. Darius Miller was UK‘s steady senior leader who went from passing up every big shot to the Wildcats’ crunch-time killer. Terrence Jones weathered December struggles en route to approaching his nearly limitless potential down the stretch.
Among the six players John Calipari calls his starters, there’s only one player missing in that above group: Doron Lamb. Lamb, UK’s second-leading scorer, simply went about his business while public fascination dwelled on his talented teammates.
John Calipari, though, sensed Lamb was going to be impossible to ignore when the spotlight shone brightest for the national championship game.
“At the shoot-around, when I watched him, I said he’d get (25 points) tonight,” Calipari said.
Lamb had to settle for 22.
“It feels great,” Lamb said. “My sophomore year, a championship, my (freshman year) to the Final Four, can’t get no better than that.”
He led all scorers in a 67-59 win over Kansas in the national championship game, connecting on 7-of-12 field-goal attempts and 3-of-6 3s. Lamb played the way he’s capable of doing, the way Calipari demanded for every second of his two years as a Wildcat.
“He is as good as any guard in the country when his motor is moving,” Calipari said. “He can play multiple positions. He shoots it. He makes free throws. He’s good with the ball. He’s crafty.”
Lamb was important as UK built a lead over the Jayhawks that ballooned to 18 points in the first half, but he was more instrumental as Kansas made its run down the stretch. Nearly midway through the second half, Kansas was on an 8-2 run to trim UK’s lead to 48-38. Lamb then drained back-to-back 3s in 33 seconds to lift the lead by to 16 in the blink of an eye.
Kansas, though, true to the form it has shown all NCAA Tournament, wouldn’t go away, cutting UK’s lead to five points with 1:37 left, but the Cats held on. Fittingly, Lamb scored the last two points of the college basketball season on a pair of calmly drained free throws.
“I don’t care who gets the spotlight really,” Lamb said. “I just go out there and play hard and try to win the game.”
