ESPN Men's Basketball

By now, it's generally assumed that Kentucky guard Brandon Knight will keep his name in the 2011 NBA draft. Kentucky coach John Calipari essentially confirmed as much to our own Andy Katz after Knight interviewed with NBA executives at the first-ever Kentucky combine this week.

That doesn't mean Kentucky fans are done agonizing about the draft, though. Knight's teammate and potential fellow lottery pick, Terrence Jones, has given far fewer clues on the status of his draft decision, and scouts, general managers and Big Blue Nation have all heard whispers that Jones is closer to remaining in school than was previously assumed.

Leave it to Jones, then, to help clear the air. Sort of, anyway.

Late Thursday night, with two days remaining until the May 8 deadline, the forward tweeted that he was still torn between staying in the draft and returning to school. To wit:

For all BBN I'm still 50/50 at this point but I'll be letting you guys know my decision real soon much love to all y'all y'all the best!!

To the uninitiated, BBN stands for "Big Blue Nation," which is something you probably already know, but hey, just in case.

Anyway, Jones's indecision must be encouraging to the aforementioned BBN, if only because the slight chance Jones could return must leave Kentucky fans salivating at the prospect of a star-studded starting lineup. With Jones in the fold alongside Calipari's No. 1-ranked recruiting class, Kentucky is arguably the most talented team in the country heading in to the 2011-12 season.

Anxiety, salivation, fantasizing: Expect UK fans to experience a triple dose of the entry deadline symptoms before Sunday mercifully arrives.

Brandon Knight -- alongside teammates Terrence Jones and DeAndre Liggins -- has the next six days to make one of the most important decisions of his life. In six days, Knight, Jones and Liggins will decide whether to leave for the NBA or return to Kentucky for another season of college basketball.

So, where does Knight stand? Is he feeling the pull of the league, the pull of Big Blue Nation or both? Can a group of small-town Kentucky schoolchildren charm him into saying "yes" to a return for his sophomore season? According to Kentucky's Winchester Sun, those children gave it their best shot late last week:

The students chanted “one more year” as Knight was introduced and took part in a question and answer session with Conkwright principal Travis Earlywine. Knight smiled at the chant and indicated that he’s still undecided on whether or not he will return next season for his sophomore campaign.

“I’m still 50-50,” he said. “I haven’t really made a decision yet.”

As for coming back to Kentucky, Knight said he “wouldn’t mind it” and would embrace another opportunity to play for the Wildcats for one more season. “Kentucky is a great place and I’ve enjoyed being here,” he said. “That wouldn’t be a bad decision at all.”

Knight might be being just a tad bit generous to the eager kids; at this point, it would count as a major shock to see him return to college hoops for his sophomore season. The same goes for Jones. Both are slated as lottery picks or near to it at this point. Knight is likely to be the second or third point guard prospect chosen after Kyrie Irving and Kemba Walker; Terrence Jones' draft stock got a major boost with the confirmed returns of forwards Perry Jones, Jared Sullinger and Harrison Barnes earlier this month. Both are near-locks to receive guaranteed contracts, and both would be returning to crowded playing situations with hugely talented players at both of their collegiate positions.

Fortunately, both have a few more days to decide. They also have the benefit of what Kentucky coach John Calipari is calling the Kentucky combine. Yes, Calipari invited every NBA team to attend and view Knight, Jones, Liggins and senior Josh Harrelson in individual and group workouts in Kentucky's practice arena today and Tuesday. (Presumably, Harrelson will be working out in jorts.)

But hey: These are the kinds of positive, career-oriented things players and coaches can organize when they have more than a few days to withdraw their names from the NBA draft. Right, NCAA? What's that? You don't want to even get me started about the new entry deadline rule? Fair enough, then.

While there is uproar about the NCAA moving up the NBA draft early entry deadline, Kentucky coach John Calipari is citing an inadequate amount of time for testing the waters in announcing a "first-of-its-kind" combine for his draft-eligible players to participate in.

The Kentucky Combine, as Calipari is calling it, will allow Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, DeAndre Liggins and senior Josh Harrellson an opportunity to work out with NBA personnel, and every NBA team has been invited to the Kentucky campus next week to attend the event. Two days of private workouts are scheduled with accompanying one-on-one interviews with the players after they attend classes.

"My hope is this will allow our players to get direct feedback from NBA decision-makers and hopefully create a clearer picture of what their NBA potential may be," Calipari said in a statement. "Instead of us telling them what we are hearing, they can hear directly from the clubs."

Calipari said he preferred to be coaching Knight, Jones and Liggins next season, but the former NBA coach has never been shy about wanting to help his players fulfill their NBA dreams, and organizing such a combine shows that.

The NCAA's deadline for early entries to return to school was moved up last year to allow only about a week for NBA teams to conduct workouts, hampering the players' ability to gather as much information as they had been able to in years past before making final decisions.

Knight, Jones and Liggins declared for the NBA draft without hiring agents and can return to school if they withdraw their names by the May 8 deadline.

Citing an "unending desire to always be a players-first program," it is Calipari's hope that the Kentucky Combine will give his players more to think about from the feedback they'll be getting.

John Calipari has said over and over and over again that he runs a "players-first program" at Kentucky, but what exactly does that really mean?

In light of Wednesday's news that Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight and DeAndre Liggins were declaring for the NBA draft, Calipari today released a statement on his website to Wildcats fans outlining what exactly a players-first program is in his mind.

He talked about not making "outlandish" promises during the recruiting process, focusing on team play over individual play during the season, and helping players make good decisions after the season.

"I'm not trying to convince them to come back if that's not in their best interest," Calipari said in the statement. "Likewise, I’m never trying to shove anybody out the door."

Calipari included in his statement graphics and one with the caption, "The numbers don't lie." It lists his achievements, including three Final Four appearances.

"The Truth is that these top players in the country want to play for a certain kind of coach in a certain kind of program," Calipari said. "They are not playing for just any coach. They want to play with someone who has proven results.

"We've done pretty well in March. Winning a championship won't change me one bit; but it would change me if it came after I told a young man to return to school for my own selfish reasons."

Tuesday, after Doron Lamb announced his decision to return to Kentucky for a sophomore season, yours truly wrote a long, rambling post about the interesting personnel dynamic facing Kentucky this offseason. John Calipari's team -- as is the case almost every offseason, it seems -- is in transition. But how dramatic will that transition be? And can one team have too much young talent?

The scenario is such: If Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones decide to come back for their sophomore seasons, they could very well find themselves jockeying for time and touches with an insanely talented group of freshmen. Or they could enter the draft and never look back.

What are their respective decisions? The answer is ... well, we still don't know, exactly. Talk about anticlimactic.

On Tuesday, Kentucky announced via a release that Knight and Jones, along with junior forward DeAndre Liggins, would indeed enter their names into the NBA draft this spring. However, all three have decided to do so without an agent, meaning they'll be eligible to return to the college game as long as they withdraw their names by that still-silly May 8 deadline. In other words, they are, yes, testing the waters.

How will the swim feel? If current projections hold, both Knight and Jones should find the draft waters rather comfortable. Knight is currently No. 9 on Chad Ford's list of top 100 NBA prospects. Jones is currently No. 12. It's worth noting, too, that the list still includes Harrison Barnes, Jared Sullinger and Perry Jones, all of whom have announced their returns to school and all of whom are ranked above the Kentucky duo in the lottery. That could be a huge boon to Jones' stock, because teams in search of forwards would almost certainly have drafted each of those three players ahead of the versatile lefty in June. And if Knight manages to impress scouts, he could even leapfrog Kemba Walker to become to second point guard taken in the lottery.

In other words: Barring any scary talk about the lockout, both Knight and Jones will probably like what they hear.

Liggins seems to be in a tougher spot. The 6-foot-6 junior is an athletic, rangy defensive stopper whose excellence on that side of the ball ought to be attractive to NBA scouts in at least some form. But Liggins isn't listed among Ford's top 100 prospects. He is No. 55 on Draft Express' board. Either way, there's a reason plenty of folks in the Houston media room were a little surprised when Liggins was asked about his future following Kentucky's Final Four loss to Connecticut.

Frankly, Liggins isn't a top prospect -- he's already 23 years old, for that matter -- and unless he blows people away in his workouts, it's hard to imagine him being taken too near the first round. Meanwhile, the alternative -- coming back to Kentucky and fighting for playing time with the likes of Michael Gilchrist, arguably the best player in the incoming class -- is none too attractive, either.

Anyway, there you have it. All three will test the waters, see where they stand and decide accordingly in the first week of May. It's hard to imagine Jones and Knight turning down their shots at the lottery, given the talent arriving at Kentucky, and it will be interesting to see how Liggins weighs his present options against the possibilities of the future. But for now, Big Blue Nation will wait a little longer before it finds out which combination of insanely talented recruits is going to take the floor in 2011 and beyond.

HOUSTON -- It only took the officials a few minutes to double-check the monitors and ensure they had the appropriate number of ticks left on the game clock.

The few minutes felt like two hours for Shabazz Napier, who wandered around the Reliant Stadium court, glancing here and there.

First he looked into the stands behind the bench where he spied the anxious face of his mother, Carmen Velasquez.

“She looked so scared,’’ Napier said.

And then he purposefully avoided teammate Alex Oriakhi.

“He always makes me laugh and that was absolutely not the time to laugh,’’ Napier said.

No, it was a time for a lot of other things. It was time for Napier to exorcise the ghost of a March game that still haunted him -- one where he missed a free throw that would have allowed Connecticut to avoid overtime against Syracuse in the Big East Tournament. It was time for him to redeem what looked like a death blow of a turnover just seconds before. Ultimately, it was time to win a game.

That’s an awful lot of stuff swarming through the head of a 19-year-old who was about to make the biggest shots of his young life in front of 75,000 of his closest friends.

But Napier is no longer the kid he was when he came to Connecticut.

With 1.7 seconds standing between him and UConn’s shot at a national championship, Napier calmly swished his two free throws and handed the Huskies the 56-55 win over Kentucky.

“I dream about that situation all the time, but honestly when it came around I was a little scared,’’ Napier said. “I didn’t want to lose this chance for the team.’’

Butler may have cornered the market on the improbability meter in this national championship game, but it is equally unlikely that Napier in this game would come away the hero.

Though his defense on Brandon Knight was sensational -- Knight shot 6-of-23 -- Napier's offense was abysmal. He hit just one field goal, missed all four of his 3-pointers and, only seconds before he became the hero, Napier was headed for a goat costume. With Connecticut up two and the clock draining below 20 seconds, Napier tried to dribble to his right and split two Kentucky defenders. Instead the ball bounced off his foot, and in the wild scramble, Knight scooped it up and Terrence Jones quickly signaled for the timeout.

“It was absolutely the worst feeling in the world,’’ Napier said. “I felt like I let my team down.’’

So there were the Wildcats, the team that twice in this NCAA tournament won games on buzzerbeaters, with the ball and 16.6 seconds left to figure out another hero finish.

“I was so concerned during the timeout that he’d be so concerned about losing the basketball, dribbling into traffic,’’ Jim Calhoun said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Coach, I’ll make it up next play.’’’

He proved prophetic. DeAndre Liggins' 3-pointer from the wing clanked off the front of the rim, and in the battle to grab the ball, it was Napier who came down the winner. He grabbed the rebound and waited until Jones fouled him.

“Usually I’d look to get the ball to Kemba,’’ Napier said. “But this time I just held onto the ball.’’

That sounds almost like heresy. In this postseason if there is anyone who should have the ball in an endgame, Walker is atop the list.

But the junior had no problem watching Napier walk to the line.

The Huskies are playing for a national championship not just because Walker has been unbeatable. They’re playing because a freshman class has grown into its own and become every bit as critical to UConn’s success as their junior guard.

When Napier is on the court and handling the ball, Walker is far more effective. In the past four games, Walker shoots 48 percent when Napier is in the game compared to 32 percent when he is not.

Walker’s confidence has spread like wildfire to the rookies, imbuing them with the same sense of self he possesses so effortlessly.

“I knew he’d make those, absolutely,’’ Walker said. “Shabazz is a tough kid and he’s grown up big time this year. I had no doubt he was making them.’’

Neither did Napier. After he looked away from Oriakhi -- “Kemba said 'don’t make him laugh,'’’ -- Napier smiled, soaked it all in. The atmosphere, his mom’s face, his own need for redemption. He collected himself, exhaled and put the game in the books.

“I just knew I wouldn’t miss,’’ Napier said. “I thought, ‘I have a chance to redeem myself. Why not at the free throw line? Why not me?'”

HOUSTON -- From the moment Kemba Walker took the floor at the Maui Invitational in November, we've spent this season in awe of Walker's ability, of Jim Calhoun's fire, of the Connecticut Huskies, who took the prospect of a down year, stomped it into oblivion and never looked back.

We'll end it that way, too.

Led by another comprehensive effort from Walker and buoyed by supporting performances from Shabazz Napier, Jeremy Lamb, Roscoe Smith and Alex Oriakhi, the Huskies have taken another step toward a national title. UConn topped Kentucky 56-55, and although the score is a bit deceptive -- a final last-ditch shot by UK guard Brandon Knight counted, but didn't affect the outcome -- the game really was that close.

The Huskies were helped by some brutal shooting by Kentucky. The Wildcats picked the wrong time to have one of their worst shooting performances of the season, including a 4-of-12 effort from the free throw line that was the second-worst of all-time in a Final Four game (minimum five attempts). But give UConn much of the credit. The Wildcats just kept coming and coming, and, much like their occasionally maligned coach, the Huskies fought off those advances, found a way to make the key plays and came away with the win in the final seconds.

If teams take on the personality of their coaches, then the best way to describe the 2011 Connecticut Huskies is resilient. Calhoun is. They are. And they're playing in the national championship because of it.

Turning point: The first true turning point came at the start of the second half. That's when Kentucky's shooters finally started finding nylon, and the Wildcats erased UConn's 10-point halftime lead within the first six minutes of the second. The run created an every-possession-counts slugfest down the stretch. With less than five minutes remaining, a pair of huge defensive stops by Oriakhi and Walker allowed the Huskies to build a narrow four-point lead. From there, although Kentucky was never more than a possession or two away, it was never in command of the game.

Key player: Walker. Even if this wasn't a vintage Kemba game -- he shot 6-for-15 and had four turnovers -- he still posted 18 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists and scored big buckets in key spots. He also forced Kentucky to focus on him at all times on ball screens and curls, and he made a handful of crucial defensive plays to steer his team toward a win down the stretch. Perhaps the biggest stop of the day came on Kentucky's penultimate possession, when Walker locked up Knight and forced DeAndre Liggins into an ill-advised final 3-pointer.

Key stat: Kentucky's shooting. This season, the Wildcats averaged 40.0 percent from 3, the seventh-best mark in all of college basketball. Saturday night, Calipari's team went 9-of-27 from 3 (the 27 attempts was a season-high), including a 2-for-12 mark in the first half that doomed UK to playing catch-up for the rest of the game.

What's next: The national championship game versus the Butler Bulldogs. Lame sports pun or not -- Huskies, Bulldogs, get it? -- Monday night's national title matchup is going to be a dogfight. Let the countdown to No. 1 begin.

HOUSTON -- Kemba Walker's performance in the Maui Invitational title game against Kentucky on Nov. 24 was remarkable.

Walker scored 29 points and was 10-of-17 from the field, 3-of-4 on 3-pointers and 6-of-6 from the free throw line with 6 assists, 2 turnovers and 2 steals.

The Huskies won handily, 84-67, and were up 50-29 at halftime.

“Kemba scored at will,’’ said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. “I call that his most magical week. Everything he threw up went in.’’

Brandon Knight's effort for Kentucky was much more forgettable.

Knight scored six points and had five turnovers to match his five assists. He was 3-of-15 from the field and missed all eight 3-pointers he attempted. The freshman was playing on the big stage for the first time and it showed.

“I was just trying to find my way and I didn’t know what to expect out there, not knowing how to play,’’ said Knight.

Walker went on to lead an inexperienced UConn team to an improbable Big East tournament title, winning five games in five days. In the West Regional, the No. 3-seeded Huskies continued their incredible run as Walker led them past the likes of San Diego State and Arizona and into the Final Four in Houston. Other Walker heroics this season include decisive shots to beat Texas on the road, Villanova at home and Pitt in the Big East tournament.

Knight has settled into a leadership role for coach John Calipari. Kentucky won the SEC tournament over Florida and survived the toughest of the four regions, winning the East as a No. 4 seed. Knight hit the game winner to beat Princeton in the second round (former first round), hit the winning shot to beat top-seeded Ohio State in the Sweet 16, and then made five critical 3-pointers in a win over No. 2 seed North Carolina in the Elite Eight.

Now Knight and Walker meet again, in the headline national semifinal Saturday night at Reliant Stadium.

“You can tell how much he’s matured as a leader,’’ Walker said. “He’s playing great. If we contain him, we’ll be fine.’’

Calipari said it just took time for Knight to learn the system.

“It was a tough challenge for him,’’ said Calipari, who has coached a slew of exceptional point guards in consecutive years, from Derrick Rose to Tyreke Evans to John Wall to Knight.

But Knight won’t have to contend only with Walker. Calhoun said freshman guard Shabazz Napier shut down Knight in the second half of the game in Maui. That means Walker won’t have to worry about getting worn down on the defensive end.

The pressure will be on Knight to deal with Walker and Napier, but Walker clearly has more of Knight’s attention.

“I’ve just got to try and slow him down,’’ Knight said of Walker. “We know he’s going to do a great job of scoring and getting his teammates involved. We want to disrupt him a little bit.’’

Added Calipari: “They have the most dominant player in the tournament on their team. It’s like Danny Manning out there. We’ve got to make it hard for him to get 25.’’

It’s hard to say which team has an advantage here. Yes, UConn beat Kentucky handily in Maui, but you can’t compare that Wildcats team with the one here in Houston. It’s also hard to match what the Huskies have become since Maui, given the development of Napier and, more importantly, Jeremy Lamb, who has turned into the perfect sidekick for Walker.

Walker and Knight’s matchup should be a duel, but it may not determine the outcome of this game. The decisive factor may be rebounding. Even if that’s the case, you can be sure Walker and Knight will have the ball in their hands more than any other players on their respective teams. If there’s a signature play to be made, the ball will likely be in their hands.

The NCAA ruling Turkish center Enes Kanter permanently ineligible due to receiving impermissible benefits didn't kill Kentucky's season after all. Out of it came the unlikely rise of forward Josh Harrellson, and now the Wildcats are going to the Final Four.

But Kanter, who's soon expected to be a first round draft pick, hasn't been completely left out in this postseason run. Players say he has made an impact as a practice player, with Harrellson going up against him every day.

"Going against him everyday makes me a better player," Harrellson told reporters. "Every day in and out just competing against him, doing drills with him, even if I am not going against him just watching him; I am just trying to match him. Just doing that makes me more confident and being able to stop him in practice make me go into every game knowing I am not going to play someone as good as Enes."

Wildcats guard Brandon Knight indicated that Kanter helped raise Harrellson's confidence, using the future NBA player as a gauge of what kind of offensive moves he could successfully make.

"He is one of the best big men in the country," Knight said. "For Josh to go up against him each and every day it helps (Harrellson) out. He knows what he can and can't do. When you do it against the best of the best, you know what you can and can't do. You can see how (Harrellson) got better."

Guard DeAndre Liggins said he senses Kanter, who is not listed on Kentucky's official roster, wants to be on the court during the postseason. "It's hard for him to admit that, but that is just the way it is," Liggins said.

He also thinks Harrellson changed his mentality after the NCAA made its ruling.

"It kind of got me down a little bit," Harrellson said. "I wanted him to play more than anybody. I would have given up anything for him to come out and play, but he was ruled ineligible and from there I got better as the season went on. Some people are happy now that he didn't play because I have taken full advantage of my opportunity and have done a lot of great things with it. I still wish he could have played though."

Kentucky coach John Calipari knows Big Blue Nation is going to invade Houston later this week, but as Wildcats fans celebrate the team's first Final Four appearance in 13 years, he also hopes for some relative peace and quiet.

In other words, please, Kentucky fans, for the good of the team, no autograph and photo requests in Houston. No mobbing of Brandon Knight or Terrence Jones or asking Josh Harrellson to sign your jean shorts. He needs his players in tip-top shape going into Saturday's semifinal game against Connecticut.

Calipari sent the message out under the headline, "Coach Cal Requests Space on Business Trip to Houston" on his website, CoachCal.com.

"If we take care of our business, there will be plenty of time to get autographs and personal photos beginning next Tuesday," Coach Cal said. "We have the greatest fans in America and we want to reward them with our players’ undivided attention, focus and peak physical condition."

"You can scream at them, cheer for them in the open practice and take pictures from afar -- but in order to make sure they -- and our staff -- doesn't get worn down by thousands and thousands of requests at the hotel and in public, I'm just asking that you'll give us all our space while we're in Houston," Coach Cal said. "I mean no disrespect at all and I know you all understand that we take pride in being The Commonwealth's Team. But this is a business trip for these young men and our program. Let's take care of business first and then we can have some fun later."

Kentucky freshman point guard Brandon Knight talks about his team's road to the Final Four.

The NCAA tournament had plenty of excitement when it came down to crunch time. Let's look back at some of the memorable late-possession moments from the first two weeks:

In the East:

• Luke Hancock's 3-pointer with 21 seconds left capped a George Mason comeback win over Villanova in the second round.
• Brandon Knight's driving layup with two seconds remaining gave Kentucky a two-point win over Princeton in the second round.
• Darius Johnson-Odom's 3-pointer with 27 seconds left helped push Marquette past Syracuse in the second round.
• Washington's meltdown against North Carolina in the final few possessions that prevented the Huskies from tying the Tar Heels at the end of regulation in the third round.
• Knight's 15-foot shot that sent Kentucky past Ohio State in the Sweet 16.

In the West:

• Tennessee quit on the game in the second half and lost by 30 to Michigan.
• Duke's Kyrie Irving made his only field goal against Michigan with 32 seconds left as he gave the Blue Devils a lead before the Wolverines' Darius Morris missed a game-tying runner at the buzzer.
• Arizona's Derrick Williams blocked a potential game-tying bucket by Memphis in the final seconds.
• Williams converted a three-point play with 9.6 seconds remaining to upset Texas after the Longhorns committed a five-second violation on an inbounds play.
• Temple's Juan Fernandez nailed an off-balance 18-foot shot to beat Penn State in the second round after Talor Battle hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 12.2 seconds left.

In the Southwest:

• Down by two to Louisville, Morehead State's Demonte Harper went for the win and got it with a 3-pointer with 4.2 second left to beat the Cardinals in the second round.
• VCU's Bradford Burgess converted a layup off an inbounds pass with 7.1 seconds left in overtime to knock off Florida State in the Sweet 16.

And in the Southeast:

• Butler beat Old Dominion on a layup by Matt Howard at the buzzer.
• Butler beat Pitt after Nasir Robinson fouled Howard on a rebound off a missed free-throw at the buzzer when the game was tied. Howard hits a free throw to win the third-round game.

And in the First Four:

• UNC Asheville's Matt Dickey hit a 3-pointer with 10.5 seconds left that sent the game against Arkansas-Little Rock into overtime before Asheville won.

NEWARK, N.J. -- A quick take on Kentucky's 76-69 win over North Carolina on Sunday at the Prudential Center:

What It Means: Kentucky, the No. 4 seed, wins the NCAA tournament East regional and advances to the Final Four by knocking off the No. 2 seed, North Carolina. For the Wildcats, its their first Final Four since 1998 -- ending the longest Final Four drought in the history of the program. The Cats had lost in the Elite Eight four times since then, including last season.

North Carolina fails to advance to the Final Four for what would've been a record-setting 19th time. The Tar Heels had faced the Wildcats twice before in the NCAA tournament -- both times in the Elite Eight -- and had won both times.

The Skinny: Kentucky dominated the first half of the game. After falling behind 4-2, the Wildcats were the much better team -- leading by as many as eight, which was the halftime margin, 38-30. Kentucky's swarming defense held North North Carolina to 36.7 percent shooting (11-for-30), and power forward John Henson picked up his third foul with 6:39 left before intermission. On offense, UK did not slow it down against the run-and-gun Tar Heels, as many expected it would. Instead, the Wildcats looked to attack on the fast break, and did so effectively. They also drained six of their 11 first-half 3-point attempts.

It took Kentucky almost three minutes to score its first point of the second half, but once it did, it jumped out to its largest lead of the game, 47-36, with 16;02 left. North Carolina kept making comeback runs, and Kentucky kept answering the bell. The Tar Heels actually tied it up at 67 with 3:18 remaining on a pair of Tyler Zeller free throws -- but they were never able to take the lead. A Brandon Knight trey with 2:51 remaining gave the 'Cats the lead for good, and the biggest shot of the game was a DeAndre Liggins trey with 35.6 seconds remaining that pushed a 70-69 lead to 73-69.

Star Watch: Knight -- who hit two game-winning shots in the first three games of this tournament, including on Friday night against Ohio State -- was the best player in this game, scoring 22 points, including five 3-pointers. Four other Kentucky players chipped in 12 or 11.

For North Carolina, Zeller had 21 and Harrison Barnes finished with 18, but Barnes really struggled with his shot.

Number Crunch: Kentucky made 12 of 22 3-pointers (54.5 percent) -- shooting even better from beyond the arc than they did inside of it (48.2). That was the difference in the game. North Carolina made just 3 of 16 from beyond the arc.

What's Next: Kentucky will play UConn -- the No. 3 seed from the West region -- on Saturday night in Houston, with a spot in this year's national championship game on the line. North Carolina heads home to Chapel Hill -- its season is over.

NEWARK, N.J. -- A quick look at the East Regional final:

No. 4 seed Kentucky Wildcats vs. No. 2 seed North Carolina Tar Heels, 4:55 p.m. ET

Storyline: Kentucky and North Carolina -- two of the most storied programs in history, the aristocracy of basketball that rank first and third in the all-time win column -- meet with a berth in the Final Four on the line. North Carolina last made it to the final weekend in 2009, when Tyler Hansbrough took the Tar Heels to the national championship.

In between, though, UNC had a very un-UNC-like year, missing the NCAA tournament and settling for a run in the NIT.

“The older guys talk about that all the time, about playing in Starkville, Mississippi,’’ freshman Kendall Marshall said, referring to the Tar Heels’ second-round NIT game at Mississippi State. “Guys were talking about how they were in this old hotel, with twin beds, their feet dangling off. Now it’s four-star hotels and everyone wants to be your friend.’’

The drought is a little longer for Kentucky. It has been a Saharan stretch, by Lexington standards, of 13 years without a spot in the Final Four.

The Wildcats have made four regional finals since that 1998 run.

How they got here: North Carolina cruised past Long Island in the opener, survived a wacky finish against Washington and rolled easily past Marquette to reach the regional final. Kentucky’s path has been slightly more arduous.

The Wildcats twice needed Brandon Knight's late-game heroics: first against Princeton in Kentucky's opening round and then on Friday night to oust top-seeded Ohio State. In between, the Wildcats slipped past West Virginia.

Rich history: If there were a Mt. Rushmore of college hoops, the mascots for both of these teams would be on it.

There’s plenty to pull from the college basketball annals about these two programs. They rank in the top five in some of the most important NCAA records on file: most NCAA tournament appearances (UK first with 51, UNC second with 42); most tournament games (UK first with 149, UNC second with 144), most tournament wins (UNC first with 105, UK second with 104), most NCAA championships (UK second with 7, UNC fourth with 5), most NCAA Final Fours (UNC first with 18 and UK fourth with 13).

“Most of us up here weren’t here for many of those games,’’ John Calipari joked. “We got to 2,000 [wins] and I think we were here for nine of them. So this is at the point, yes the names on the front, Kentucky-Carolina, wow. The history of both these programs is wow. But I don’t think they are worried about that and I’m certainly not. I know they are going against terrific players and I’m going against a Hall of Famer. That’s what I know.’’

What to watch: Josh Harrellson's magical senior season continued against Ohio State, where he handled Jared Sullinger well enough to get Kentucky into the Elite Eight.

Now he’s got another tall order, this one times two. Harrellson will have to handle both Tyler Zeller and John Henson, two guys who may lack the bulk of Sullinger but make up for it with their height.

The Tar Heels lead the nation in rebounding, averaging 42.5 boards per game and Zeller and Henson are responsible for much of that. Henson averages 10 boards a game to Zeller’s 7.1.

“Zeller is a 7-footer, so I have to just try and play big,’’ Harrellson said. “Like keep my hands high without fouling, keep him away from the basket, make him make hard catches and not get easy looks.’’

North Carolina’s first order of business will be containing the Kentucky backcourt. The Wildcats have players who are terrific at creating their own shots and can beat teams off the dribble. When the two teams met earlier this season, Larry Drew II handled Knight but he has since left the program.

Knight had 15 in that game.

“The truth is, we don’t know who we’re going to match up on him,’’ Williams said. “In the past, if the point guard was quicker, more of a penetrating point guard, we’ve made some switches and put Dexter [Strickland] on him and Kendall on the 2-man.’’

Who to watch: The Wildcats are going to need Harrellson to play big against the Carolina big men. They’re going to need Doron Lamb to knock down 3-pointers. But what they’re really going to need is for Knight to shepherd this team through what could be a quick-paced game.

The point guard has been terrific in keeping his team focused even when his own shots haven’t fallen -- a la Friday’s game against Ohio State. He’ll need to be all that, plus perhaps a scorer against the high-octane Heels.

Zeller was the difference when the two teams met earlier this season (he had a career-high 27) and needs to be again. The Tar Heels need to exploit their inside advantage with Zeller and Henson. Zeller has been sensational in this NCAA tournament and has averaged 27 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

Validation: Like a quarterback without a Super Bowl ring, a college coach without an NCAA championship is often viewed as lacking. For years Bill Self was known as the man who couldn’t get to the Final Four and Jim Boeheim was known as the coach who couldn’t win it all.

And now that both coaches have accomplished those feats, somehow all the questions and worries have disappeared.

Calipari will be coaching in his fifth regional final in the past six years Sunday night. Yet his resume lacks that final exclamation point.

Which means what, exactly?

“You can’t put that label on someone in my opinion,’’ said Roy Williams, who has two national title rings in his pocket. “I coached against a couple of guys that I thought were great coaches. Norm Stewart at Missouri never even made a Final Four and I thought he was a great coach. Gene Keady at Purdue, a great coach, never made the Final Four.’’

The difference now for Calipari, of course, is location, location, location.

At Memphis, he engineered a program back into national prominence. Now he’s at a university where there is but one standard of excellence -- a national title -- and anything less is failure.

“You put that ‘Kentucky’ on front and it changes things,’’ he said. “It makes it a little bit harder, a little more pressure-packed. Buildings are a little fuller. The kids are playing harder, jumping higher, making more shots than they normally make and you better be ready to ball. Coming to Kentucky is a man’s decision. You can’t be a boy here.’’

Of note: It’s a busy weekend for the Zeller family. Tyler Zeller scored 27 in the Tar Heels’ win against Marquette on Friday. Younger brother, Cody, played Saturday evening in Indiana’s 3A state championship. Tyler will be back in action on Sunday in the regional final and on Wednesday, it’s back to Cody, who is part of the McDonald’s All-American Game. … Knight and Marshall went against one another in the 2010 McDonald’s All-American Game. Knight drained a 3-pointer late in the game when Marshall tried to get a charge call. “I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to get a charge call in an all-star game,’’ Marshall said.

What they’re doing: It’s not easy to kill time when you’re not a starter or someone the media is clamoring to interview. Inside the Kentucky locker room, players curled up on the benches to catch a nap. The walk-ons in the Carolina locker room enjoyed a heated game of Catchphrase.

What they’re saying: “The one thing is we will not change anything on how we prepare for a team. Our players will not watch tape of North Carolina until the pregame meal. They will not get a scouting report. There will be a meeting in my room tonight, which will last 15 or 20 minutes. We’ll have an hour on the basketball court, where I will go through some of their stuff. I want them worrying about us. Let’s play our best. If that’s not good enough, it’s been a heckuva year.’’ -- Calipari on his team’s preparation.

“Last year was a horrible year, in my opinion, for my career, for my basketball livelihood. But I think what it’s done is made me realize that the things we had done previously were pretty doggone good. And I think it really made me appreciate how this team handled adversity. So it just made me appreciate this group of kids in a wonderful manner.’’ -- Williams on the challenges of last season.

Line of the day: “Does the NCAA only have two microphones? A $10 billion contract and they only have two microphones and no cookies back here." -- Williams during the team’s news conferences, where, yes, there were only two microphones to handle reporters’ questions. And no cookies.

NEWARK, N.J. -- The whippersnappers steal the limelight. It’s what kids do. They come in all shiny and pretty like a new penny, and everybody pays attention to them.

Even here, they surrounded the freshman after the game, the whiz kid who struggled again all night only to make the impossible shot, the game winner.

It’s not that Brandon Knight didn’t deserve the attention. His leaner, a rise-out-of-the-ashes, over-a-defender shot that deserved extra points for difficulty, once again saved the day for Kentucky.

Twice now in the tournament he has struggled for 39 minutes only to make up for it in a flick of a wrist, beating Princeton on a drive to the hoop in the opening game and now ousting No. 1 seed Ohio State 62-60 on a jumper with five seconds remaining.

“Brandon does that on purpose,’’ teammate Doron Lamb deadpanned. “He misses them all in the first half and the second, and then makes it at the end. We call it the okie-doke.’’

The okie-doke technically decided the game, but this game wasn’t really won by Knight.

It was won by three upperclassmen, a commodity as rare as “I Love Louisville” T-shirts in the city of Lexington.

Josh Harrellson, DeAndre Liggins and Darius Miller put Kentucky into an Elite Eight blue-blood battle against North Carolina.

Ohio State brought five seniors to the floor to the Wildcats’ one (Harrellson). The powerful Buckeyes, with longtime starters William Buford, David Lighty, Dallas Lauderdale and Jon Diebler, owned a depth and breadth of experience Kentucky simply doesn’t have.

Sure, the UK players have logged plenty of time on campus, but not quite so much on the floor.

Yet together the trio scored 39 of the Cats’ 62 points and had 19 of their 32 rebounds.

And as good as those statistics are, they alone don’t tell all of what those three did. It was their ferociousness, their attitude that changed this game in Kentucky’s favor.

“Our freshmen were OK today,’’ coach John Calipari said. “Our veteran players who were not significant a year ago, who have now taken over this team, that’s why we’re still playing. It’s because of those guys.’’

Frankly, Ohio State is not playing anymore because its guys didn’t deliver. The Buckeyes, a team that looked absolutely unstoppable a weekend ago against George Mason, looked overwhelmed.

OSU shot just 33 percent for the game and was 7-of-27 outside the paint. Buford, who missed a jumper as the buzzer sounded, was only 2-of-16; Diebler drained four 3-pointers, but besides the final one, which would have sent it to overtime were it not for Knight, they were largely unimportant; Lauderdale didn’t take a single shot; and Lighty was only 5-of-12 from the floor.

“It hurts because we felt like we could make a run at the championship,’’ Diebler said. “Obviously every team wants to finish in Houston. You can’t take away what we did this year in the regular season, but it does kind of hurt to end like this.’’

Kentucky knows the pain of finishing before you’re supposed to. A year ago, the Wildcats -- with more NBA talent than the current Cleveland Cavaliers roster -- were predestined to a weekend in Indianapolis. West Virginia halted those plans a game early, upsetting UK in the Elite Eight.

Most of that roster pocketed that bad memory in their suitcases on the way to the NBA, leaving only Harrellson, Miller and Liggins to remember it.

“You can’t rely on freshmen in games like this,’’ Liggins said. “This was on us. We were the guys who knew what it felt like to play in a game like this and lose.’’

Still, these three aren’t supposed to do this. Harrellson dominated the conversation at the start of the season because of who he is not -- namely Enes Kanter. When the Turkish player was declared ineligible by the NCAA, it was practically a statewide day of mourning in Kentucky.

There is no longer mourning. Instead, Harrellson has more than ably filled the void, bolstering his numbers from 1.3 points per game last season to 7.3 this season.

Against Ohio State, in a matchup in which he was supposed to lose his lunch, he stood toe to toe with Jared Sullinger, putting up 17 points and 10 rebounds to Sullinger’s 21 and 16. It was the big man’s third double-double in his past five games.

And then there is Liggins.

When Calipari took the job at Kentucky, he said, everyone told him to get rid of Liggins, that he wasn’t good enough or worth the effort to keep around. Instead, Calipari elected to keep him, reaping the rewards for the decision Friday night.

Liggins spent the night before the game unable to sleep. He was anxious, not anxious as in nervous, but anxious as in ready -- ready to silence the doubters and ready to prove that this Kentucky team, far more a work in progress than the last, was every bit as good as the last.

“I knew everybody was picking us to lose,’’ Liggins said.

And probably even those picking UK to win didn’t figure Liggins for the hero. He had 11 points combined in the first two games of the NCAA tournament and had been good defensively but forgettable offensively for much of the past few weeks.

Against the Buckeyes, he either scored or assisted on 12 of the Wildcats’ final 18 points.

“DeAndre carried us,’’ Miller said. “If he wasn’t scoring, he was creating for someone else. We would have gotten blown out if it wasn’t for him.’’

Instead, the Wildcats stayed neck and neck with a team that looked like an offensive juggernaut only a weekend ago. Kentucky completely forced Ohio State out of its comfort zone, using its speed to fly to the ball and its length to contest every shot. By halftime, virtually the entire UK roster had two fouls, yet the Wildcats kept coming, blocking 11 shots and forcing OSU into just 6-of-17 shooting from beyond the arc.

Which was why when Diebler drained a 3-pointer with 21 seconds to play, there was a momentary sense of dread.

“I was so down on myself,’’ said Liggins, who was defending Diebler.

And then along came the kid, the one who doesn’t know any better, doesn’t realize how rare it is to make a game-winning shot in the NCAA tournament, let alone two -- who doesn’t understand that when you’re two of your previous nine, the likelihood that you end up the hero is rare.

“It was like in the Princeton game; Coach just had faith in me,’’ Knight said. “I had a lot of confidence. It felt good when it left my hands.’’

The ignorance of innocence and the value of experience.

Perhaps Kentucky has found the combination to success.