ESPN Men's Basketball

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.

The nadir came three minutes into the game on a miserable January night in Atlanta. His Tar Heels trailing 8-2, Roy Williams went for a hockey line change, subbing his five starters in favor of five guys off the bench. The wholesale change signaled not just the coach’s disgust with his team’s play, but the state of North Carolina basketball.

And the Heels were in a state.

A year after the ignominy of an NIT bid, UNC was about to drop to a pedestrian 12-5 after what would be an embarrassing 20-point loss to Georgia Tech. Folks everywhere (present company included) wondered what was wrong with the Heels and questioned if this collection of players, like the previous year’s crew, lacked the gumption to come together as a team.

Aside maybe from preteen puppy love, there is nothing quite so fickle as the fate of a college basketball team.

With the announcement on Monday that Harrison Barnes will return to Chapel Hill for his sophomore season, the team left on the scrap heap less than three months ago will likely catapult to the top of many preseason rankings*.

(*That is, unless Kentucky’s DeAndre Liggins, Doron Lamb, Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight elect to remain and combine forces with John Calipari’s heralded freshman class. Then we’ve got ourselves a fun voting dilemma).

What separates the Heels (for now at least) from the pack is they possess the rare one-two punch in the college game -- experience and talent. Barnes’ decision comes in the wake of the announcement that Tyler Zeller and John Henson too will return to campus. That means UNC will have one senior, three juniors and three sophomores on its roster next season, a combination old enough to quality for AARP benefits in this day and age.

Mix in a freshman class rated fourth best by ESPNU Recruiting and Williams will enter 2011-12 with a Tinkertoy set to build with.

The irony here is delicious. It is Barnes’ decision to reject a first-round spot in the NBA draft that moves the meter on the Tar Heels’ potential from good to national championship contender. Yet back when things were seemingly coming undone, it was Barnes feeling the heat.

A freshman so highly regarded he made history by becoming the first rookie named to the preseason All-America team, Barnes was viewed in January as the personification of what ailed the Heels. Early in the season, people said he's too passive, he's lacking the fire in his belly. He averaged a decent -- but not All-America worthy -- 11.7 points following that Georgia Tech game.

But what Barnes & Co. proved is what is so often forgotten in this world of instant gratification -- a little patience goes a long way. Thanks to the NBA’s age limit, this game has become a game of young men, of players who, despite their dissected and bisected skills and ballyhooed talent, are still just a couple of months removed from fretting over who to take to prom.

Most need either the comforting cocoon of upperclassmen to shield them as they find their way, or that lost commodity of time to figure it out themselves.

After the debacle at Georgia Tech, North Carolina would win 17 of its remaining 20 games, claiming the ACC regular-season title and rolling to the Elite Eight.

Naysayers will point out -- accurately -- that the Tar Heels were ranked eighth in the preseason a year ago and had to tumble their way out of the top 25 before working their way back to finish at No. 7.

The burden of success and the spotlight of expectation are not easy to tote around but if Barnes’ announcement is any indication, the Heels now have both the talent and the wisdom to handle both.

“As a team we’re preparing for a special season,’’ Barnes said in his statement. “My offseason plans are to diligently work on honing my basketball skills in all areas with one team-goal in mind -- to bring the 2012 national championship home to UNC.’’

Kentucky guard DeAndre Liggins talks about the loss to UConn.

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 -- Kentucky guard DeAndre Liggins is plenty motivated going into his rematch with Connecticut’s Kemba Walker in the national semifinal.

He has reason to be.

The last time the two met in November, Walker torched the Wildcats for 29 points in the Maui Invitational championship game. Liggins, Kentucky’s top defender, is ready for his second chance.

“I’m a competitor, and that‘s what competitors do,” Liggins said. “You have to take on the challenge. I’m not backing down. I’m one of the best defenders in the country. If he comes out and he has the hot hand, then oh well, but I’m going to make him work for everything.”

Then there is Liggins’ inspiration, and it’s tattooed on his right arm for all to see -- an image of his late older brother.

Maurice Davis was a standout basketball player for Englewood High in Chicago when on Dec. 16, 2002, he was gunned down outside the school. Davis, 18, was shot in the back during a fight with another student. Davis’ younger sister was the student’s ex-girlfriend.

Liggins grew up in the projects and learned about toughness on the playgrounds in Chicago’s South Side. He looked up to his brother and said he became more focused on basketball after his death. “I just wanted to continue his dream, and that is what I am doing now,” said Liggins, who wears No. 34 just like Davis did.

At Kentucky, Liggins struggled in his freshman season playing for Billy Gillispie and didn’t play the first nine games last season under John Calipari. Over time, he developed into a better shooter and has led the team in steals this season.

“The biggest thing is he’s trusting,” Calipari said. “I love him like a son. I think he looks at us and says, ‘I trust these people.’ And probably for the first time in his life he’s saying, ‘You tell me what you want me to do, and I’m going to do it. I trust you.’”

Liggins has accepted mainly a bench role since late February, but did get the start in the East Regional final against North Carolina. The 6-6 junior came through with 12 points, including a key 3-pointer with 37 seconds left.

“I know my brother looks down on me,” Liggins said. “I am just very blessed to be here ... to not give up, to keep my head up, to be poised.”

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."

NEWARK, N.J. -- Clutching the regional trophy tight to his hip, Josh Harrellson stood amid the din of the Prudential Center, shaking his head in wonder.

This, he knew, wasn't supposed to happen. Not to him, certainly, and not to this team.

Kentucky was supposed to go to the Final Four a year ago, riding some of the best freshman talent ever assembled in one place.

That's long been John Calipari's game plan. He has built a career shredding the complexities of the college basketball game into one simple tenet: He who has the most talent wins.

And for the most part, his theory works. Calipari's teams win at a blistering rate, stockpiling victories like milk during a blizzard before the talent bolts for the greener pastures of NBA paychecks.

So how, then, to explain this: Harrellson, a guy who averaged all of 1.3 points per game last season, is going to the Final Four and DeMarcus Cousins didn't. DeAndre Liggins, a guy everyone told Calipari to run off when he took over for Billy Gillispie, hit the decisive bucket in the Wildcats' 76-69 win over North Carolina and not John Wall.

If basketball were a morality play, the moral at the end of this story might read simply: Talent isn't always enough.

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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. -- 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.

TAMPA, Fla. -- In the first half of Saturday’s East Region third-round game between No. 4 seed Kentucky and No. 5 seed West Virginia, Mountaineers guard Joe Mazzulla was lighting up the Wildcats, just like he did in the Elite Eight a year ago.

Mazzulla, who scored a career-high 17 points in the Mountaineers’ 73-66 upset of UK last year, had 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the first half of Saturday’s game.

At that rate, Mazzulla was going to be the most despised opposing player in the Commonwealth since Duke’s Christian Laettner.

“He was getting too many easy, uncontested layups,” Kentucky guard Darius Miller said.

With the Wildcats trailing 41-33 at the half, UK coach John Calipari made an adjustment.

UK junior DeAndre Liggins, a 6-foot-6 defensive stopper, was going to guard Mazzulla in the second half.

“In the first half, we let him do what he wanted,” Liggins said. “He had some uncontested layups. I just wanted to make it tough for him in the second half, which I did.”

With Liggins hounding him, Mazzulla scored only five points after the half, and the Wildcats ran away with a 71-63 victory to advance to next week’s region semifinals in Newark, N.J.

“[Liggins] absolutely [loves to play defense] and that’s what makes him special,” Kentucky assistant Orlando Antigua said. “He’s one of the better defenders in the country. We just told him to stay in front of [Mazzulla] and make it tough on him.”

More than anything else, Antigua said Liggins had to stay in front of Mazzulla.

“You’ve got to move your feet,” Antigua said. “[Mazzulla] is very crafty and a very smart player. He doesn’t beat you with speed; he beats you with his craftiness and angles.”

Mazzulla found it especially difficult in the final few minutes of the game. After UK went ahead 60-56 with less than four minutes to play, Mazzulla missed a layup and was called for a foul. On the Mountaineers’ next possession, UK senior Josh Harrellson and Miller blocked Mazzulla’s shot.

“They played Liggins on Joe, just put a little more size on him,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “We just got all balled up again. When we stayed spread, we had a better chance. We didn’t get wide enough. And when you start creeping in, your defense creeps in. They had good help on defense, but we didn’t spread them the way we spread them in the first half.

“We’re just too small not to spread people. We just get swallowed up with size if we don’t spread people.”

Mazzulla had a hard time spreading the floor because Liggins was always in his way.

“I think DeAndre is the best defender in the country,” Harrellson said. “He can guard anybody from one [point guard] through four [power forward] and can guard a couple of big men. He’s always there when you need help and he’s always there to take a charge.”

Kentucky freshman Brandon Knight, who scored a career-high 30 points against the Mountaineers, said Liggins’ intensity inspired his teammates.

Liggins finished with three points on 1-for-2 shooting, but also had nine rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.

“It was big-time,” Knight said. “It was just as important as Josh’s play and rebounding. His length, his intensity and tenacity spreads to the rest of us.”

TAMPA, Fla. -- Kentucky got its revenge and is headed back to the Sweet 16.

A year after West Virginia knocked the Wildcats out of the Elite Eight, No. 4 seed Kentucky returned the favor on Saturday, defeating the No. 5 seed Mountaineers 71-63 in an East Regional third-round game at St. Pete Times Forum.

Kentucky missed its first 20 3-point attempts against West Virginia’s 1-3-1 zone defense in a 73-66 loss last season. But freshman Brandon Knight knocked down a couple of early 3-pointers on Saturday, and then the Wildcats rallied from an eight-point deficit at the half before pulling away late.

Turning point: Kentucky freshman Terrence Jones tied the score at 55 on a dunk with about 6 ½ minutes to play. After a defensive stop, UK senior Josh Harrellson grabbed two offensive rebounds and scored a layup to make it 57-55. Then junior Darius Miller made his first shot of the game, a 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 60-55 with 4:10 remaining.

Player of the game: Knight, who had been mired in a shooting slump, scored a career-high 30 points on 9-for-20 shooting. Knight, from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., went 3-for-8 on 3-pointers and also had three rebounds and four assists. Knight scored 16 of UK’s 33 points in the first half.

Key stat: 2-8: Kentucky coach John Calipari’s record against West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.

Miscellaneous: Harrellson, a seldom-used forward before this season, scored 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. He had to leave the game for a couple of minutes late, after being cut over his left eye. … UK's Jones had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. … Joe Mazzulla, who had 17 points in last season’s win against the Wildcats, scored 20 on Saturday. He scored only five points in the second half, after UK junior DeAndre Liggins began guarding him.

What’s next: The Wildcats advance to next week’s East Region semifinals in Newark, N.J., where they will play the winner of Sunday’s game between No. 1 seed Ohio State and No. 8 seed George Mason. West Virginia finishes the season with a 21-12 record.

ATLANTA -- Despite another day of sub-shooting performances by freshman stars Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones, Kentucky is headed back to another SEC tournament championship game.

With the Wildcats’ veterans and supporting cast provided much of the production, UK blasted SEC West champion Alabama 72-58 in the SEC tourney semifinals at the Georgia Dome on Saturday.

Kentucky advances to the SEC tournament championship game on Sunday.

Turning point: When the teams took the floor. Kentucky avenged its 68-66 loss at Tuscaloosa on Jan. 18 and led this one from wire to wire. After leading by 14 points at the half, UK led by as many as 26 late in the second half.

Key players: Senior center Josh Harrellson continues to play well for UK, scoring 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting with 10 rebounds. Freshman Doron Lamb scored 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting, and reserve DeAndre Liggins had 14 points and shot 3-for-3 on 3-pointers.

Key stat: 50 percent: Kentucky made 27 of its 54 shots from the floor, after shooting only 37.7 percent in the first meeting against the Crimson Tide.

Miscellaneous: Liggins and Lamb both left the game in the final minutes with apparent ankle injuries. Liggins ran off the floor with a noticeable limp; Lamb was helped off the floor by trainers.

What’s next: Kentucky will play the winner of Saturday’s semifinals game between Florida and Vanderbilt in Sunday’s championship game. Alabama, which has a 21-11 record, figures to have anxious 27 hours or so as it waits to learn its postseason fate. The Crimson Tide went 12-4 vs. SEC foes this season, but their unsightly computer profile leaves them sitting on the NCAA at-large bubble.