Maybe now, everyone understands why Kentucky coach John Calipari kept DeAndre Liggins around. The quiet, unassuming junior forward from Chicago has never been the star, even under former coach Billy Gillispie. Most critics wondered where he would fit into Calipari’s system, one that seems to rely so heavily on one-and-done freshman phenoms. It turns out…
Brandon Knight scored 22 points and fourth-seeded Kentucky restored some order to the Final Four with a 76-69 win over second-seeded North Carolina on Sunday in the East Regional final. The Wildcats (29-8) will play Connecticut in Houston on Saturday night after turning back a late surge by the Tar Heels (27-10), who erased an…
Brandon Knight swears he doesn’t pattern his game after the other great point guards John Calipari guided in recent years, but the freshman sensation understands he can garner some useful information by watching how they operated. Calipari helped mold talents such as Derek Rose and Tyreke Evans at Memphis and most recently John Wall in…
Darius Miller hasn’t forgotten Kentucky’s upset over Ohio State Friday night. The Kentucky junior also knows the Wildcats can’t dwell on the team’s most recent accomplishment heading into Sunday’s East Regional finale against North Carolina. “We all tried to get over it this morning,” Miller said Saturday. “We know we have an extremely talented team…
In an NCAA tournament filled with stunning upsets and unlikely party crashers, the East region has provided an oasis of sanity. Kentucky. North Carolina. College basketball bluebloods whose gyms are ringed with national championship banners and whose fan bases are disappointed any time a season ends without confetti and celebratory newspaper fronts on the first…
In 2009, Josh Harrellson played so passively in a game at Vanderbilt that then-Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie, in a motivational ploy, ordered the then-sophomore out of his sight during a halftime speech. Rather than wait out in the hallway, as Gillispie assumed he would, Harrellson decided to head into the bathroom and take a seat…
The hulking country boy from Missouri who didn’t play organized basketball until high school was an afterthought entering this season. He was hidden behind the buzz surrounding Turkish import Enes Kanter, a freshman center and consensus top-five recruit. Now, the overlooked center is the ever-increasing center of attention. UK senior Josh Harrellson’s rise to prominence…
The absence of Enes Kanter was supposed to be the downfall of the Kentucky men’s basketball team this season. It turns out it may be the inspiration of UK’s second consecutive run to the Elite Eight and the seeds of turning a young man’s mediocre college basketball career into the stuff of Kentucky lore. Surely,…
Ohio State was the been-there, done-that team. The Buckeyes were, minus freshmen Jared Sullinger and Aaron Craft, the team loaded with experience with David Lighty, Jon Diebler William Buford and Dallas Lauderdale. They were supposed to be the unshakeable group, the guys that had played in tight games, overcome second-half hurdles and hit the game…
Boxscore and Game Notes: Kentucky vs. Ohio State