ESPN Men's Basketball

Wearing his trademark jean shorts and smile, Josh Harrellson tried his hand at tennis on Tuesday as part of a celebrity doubles match that included Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua.

The results were predictable, meaning Harrellson got laughs for the way he dressed and attempted to channel his inner Novak Djokovic in imitating a tennis player, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"I suck at tennis, so I at least have to look goofy," he said.

He wasn't kidding about his tennis skills, but he said the last time he played was in middle school.

Clearly not knowing the rules, Harrellson stumbled around while chasing balls all over the court, often hitting them into the net or out of bounds.

He barely made contact with the ball on one shot, which prompted him to jokingly complain about having a broken racket. He followed that up by launching a shot into the stands.

With the NBA lockout in full swing, Harrellson joked he might try other sports a la Chad Ochocinco and take up golf. Over the weekend, former BYU star Jimmer Fredette did just that at a American Century Celebrity Golf Championship and did something he doesn't do often.

The Jimmer finished last.

In fact, on the final day Fredette was paired up with the second-worst golfer there and heard trash talk from none other than Charles Barkley.

Fredette's best hole on Saturday was a bogey on the par-3 12^th. He stopped his 5-iron approach 10 feet above the hole, but three-putted to tie Barkley, who one-putted after a chip from across the cart path and through a stand of pine trees.

"You don’t have no short game like mine, so don’t be trying any of those shots," Barkley heckled Fredette after leaving himself a 5-footer for bogey.

It's good that Fredette and Harrellson are able to have some fun and laugh at themselves during an odd time in their careers when they've experienced the high of getting drafted and now have no contact with their teams.

Fredette will manage, of course. Shortly after his last-place performance, he held a kids camp and showed off the skill that made him famous.

Thanks to footage from BYUtv, even in the offseason, Fredette is scoring from Jimmer range.

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.

Josh Harrellson, the senior forward who helped take Kentucky to the Final Four, saw his role on team grow when the NCAA ruled freshman Enes Kanter permanently ineligible for accepting impermissible benefits.

Not only did Harrellson disagree with the ruling, but also he apparently thinks a double standard involving Kentucky and coach John Calipari had something to do with it.

Larry Vaught of The Advocate-Messenger asked Harrellson if he thought "the NCAA stuck it to Kanter because he was at Kentucky" playing for Calipari, and this was Harrellson's response:

"I think they did. I think if he had gone to Washington where he originally committed, he would have been playing all year. I think since he went to Kentucky and was playing for coach Cal and nobody wants us to get back to where Kentucky used to be, they took it out on him."

The notion that Kanter would not have been ruled permanently ineligible had he attended Washington instead isn't a new one. Dick Vitale has talked about it, and the NCAA has vehemently denied that Kanter was treated differently because he plays for Calipari at Kentucky.

Here's what NCAA president Mark Emmert, the former president at Washington told Seth Davis after the ruling was upheld in January in reponse to that particular charge:

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but that's ridiculous," he said. "By all accounts this is a very talented basketball player, but yet there were very few schools recruiting him. Why was that? Because everyone understood that there was a very large probability that he was not going to be deemed eligible. This has nothing to do with Kentucky or Coach Calipari. It has to do with a clear rule and a clear set of facts."

Harrellson, who recently began selling pairs of jean shorts on his website in honor of his nickname "Jorts," has his opinions. The NCAA has its stance -- the one that counts in the end.

That the discussion remains relevant in Kentucky four months after Kanter was banned for a player on the team that went to the Final Four speaks to how strong the perception of bias is.

One of the benefits for every player who exhausts his NCAA eligibility is that he is no longer subject to NCAA rules and can market his name and image however he likes.

For departing Kentucky senior Josh Harrellson, that means setting up the website jorts55.com to promote upcoming public appearances as part of what he's calling the "Jorts Tour" in honor of his nickname and in celebration of the Wildcats' Final Four appearance.

"I just want to thank you for everything you have done for me in my struggles in my good times and everything," Harrellson said in a promotional video on the site. "You've never let me down. You've always been there to be by my side. I just hopes everybody comes out and checks me out on my Jorts Tour I'm putting here in a couple weeks."

Harrellson is also selling autographed memorabilia and even a line of clothing with the Jorts logo on the site, though no jean shorts appear to be available for purchase.

Have doubts on just how popular the forward could be after going from bench warmer to leading his team to a deep NCAA tournament run? Then you don't know Kentucky fans.

According to The Advocate-Messenger, an estimated crowd of 700 lined up for two hours in the rain on Monday afternoon to get autographs and pose for pictures with Harrellson in Harrodsburg, Ky.

"On the court I have grown up. Off the court, I am never going to grow up," Harrellson laughed and said. "I will be 50 and doing the same things I always do. It's on the court I have grown up. Off the court, there is no chance ever. No chance."

Kentucky senior forward Josh Harrellson spent the better part of the year crediting his improbable rise to his preseason meltdown on Twitter in which he complained about not getting enough compliments from John Calipari. The coach subsequently banned Harrellson from tweeting, made him run extra laps to get in better shape and turned him into an impact player.

Six months later and fresh off a strong performance in the NCAA tournament, it was Calipari who welcomed Harrellson back to Twitter, encouraging fans to follow @BigJorts55.

Harrellson probably could use a little cheering up after a rough couple of days. After Kentucky lost in the national semifinal, he suffered flu-like symptoms that caused him to withdraw from this week's Portsmouth Invitational Tournament -- a showcase for seniors looking for pro careers.

"I'm extremely disappointed that I won't be able to participate in the Portsmouth Invitational," Harrellson said in a statement. "I was really looking forward to showcasing my abilities among the top seniors in the nation. My focus now is on getting well and concentrating on my school work before working out for teams."

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."

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.

Click here for the full story.

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. -- Because they are creatures of habit and habitual studiers, UNC's Roy Williams and Kentucky's John Calipari will rewind the tape to Dec. 4.

They will watch intensely at film from the previous time their two teams played. They will look for tendencies and search for weaknesses to try to find any little edge that might give them an advantage.

But that tape might as well be a college basketball Zapruder film -- filled with unsatisfactory and inconclusive evidence.

Save one.

The same players who donned Kentucky and North Carolina uniforms three months ago will slip into their jerseys for the late afternoon tip in Sunday’s East Regional final. They will lace up their sneakers the same, go through their pregame rituals like always, and dance or chest bump their way through player introductions just like they did on that December afternoon.

And then the ball will go up and nothing will be the same.

The news has come this basketball season in rapid-fire staccato -- from Jimmer to Kemba to Butler, we’ve been inundated with the improbable. It makes it easy to overlook the subtle, to ignore the slow and steady transformation of two of the game’s name-brand programs.

Yet what Kentucky and North Carolina have done in a span of three months is no less remarkable and every bit as unlikely.

“Both teams are drastically different,’’ Williams said.

I was there for that first game in Chapel Hill. I saw Tyler Zeller's late-game heroics and came away thinking that, with a 75-73 victory, the Tar Heels had finally cured what ailed them. A team that looked so disjointed in both an NIT season a year before and a lackluster start to this season played great defense, stood tough and most importantly, played together.

I, like a lot of people, figured that it was the start of a season’s worth of good things for North Carolina.

Instead the nadir laid in wait, looming and lurking on a January day in Atlanta. It was there that the Tar Heels lost by 20 points to a lousy Georgia Tech team, their dysfunction laid bare for all to see.

“If you asked me then if I thought we’d have a chance at the Final Four, I would have told you I didn’t think we were getting in the tournament,’’ Zeller said.

I left Chapel Hill that same snowy afternoon impressed with Kentucky, even in defeat. Here was a team, with a median age barely old enough to vote, hanging tough in a hostile road environment.

That, too, ended up being little more than false hope. The Wildcats would win their final seven nonconference games before being hit with a serious case of road-a-phobia, losing six of their first seven road games in the SEC in the midst of a mediocre 7-6 start.

“We weren’t tough enough,’’ UK senior big man Josh Harrellson said. “We let a lot of games slip away from us in the late-game situation.’’

What has changed since that game and what happened to make the teams better?

Calipari will glean nothing from that December game tape as he tries to prepare for what makes the Tar Heels tick now.

Carolina’s most important player barely got on the floor in that first game.

Kendall Marshall logged only 10 minutes, stuck behind Larry Drew II as a backup point guard at the time. The 10 minutes weren’t exactly stellar, either. Marshall had zero points, three turnovers and two fouls.

It took another month-plus before Williams would make the most critical personnel move of the season: inserting Marshall into the starting lineup. The decision would cost Williams his original starter -- Drew transferred out not long after -- but he managed to salvage the season.

North Carolina is 17-2 with Marshall as its starting point guard, losing only to Duke.

“I don’t think it was me that made some magical change for this team,’’ Marshall said. “I think it was all of us. We all bought in.’’

Kentucky’s changes were more subtle. The players remain the same. The rotation hasn’t changed. But there is a new sense of self and purpose.

In December, Calipari spent more time teaching his team how to box than to play basketball. Convinced they weren’t tough enough -- and worse, they didn’t know what tough was -- he laced them into boxing gloves and hung heavy bags for them to punch. He tried to teach them what sort of ferocity they sorely lacked.

“I liked this team from the beginning, but there was a time where I believed in the guys more than they believed in themselves,’’ Calipari said.

If there is a personnel change worth noting, it is the one in the middle. When Kentucky played North Carolina that first time, it was less than a month after the NCAA ruled big man Enes Kanter permanently ineligible.

Kanter never played a minute for the Wildcats and so his stature only grew to mythical proportions around the commonwealth, making it impossible for Harrellson to live up to the task.

Today, the Missouri native is a steady presence for the Wildcats, a player so beloved he has made the unforgivable fashion faux pas of jorts-wearing somehow acceptable.

In that early game film, he’s a vampire. He doesn’t show up. Saddled with foul trouble, he played only 21 minutes, scoring just four points while Zeller and Henson went wild.

Two nights ago, he notched 17 points and snagged 10 rebounds against Ohio State and Jared Sullinger.

“He did this,’’ Calipari said. “It’s not what I have done. It’s not about me coaching him up. He did it. He changed.’’

And along the way, he brought Kentucky with him. This is a team that has grown up. They have turned their inability to win close games into an art form of gut-check game winners.

These aren’t your December Wildcats any more than they are your December Tar Heels.

Don’t believe it?

Just check the game film.

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.

NEWARK -- A look at the matchup between the Wildcats and Buckeyes:

No. 4 seed Kentucky (27-8) vs. No. 1 seed Ohio State (34-2), approx. 9:45 p.m. ET (CBS)

How they got here: Brandon Knight became the hero in the first round, scoring one bucket in the game -- the game-winner against Princeton. A game later, Knight poured in 30 as the Wildcats’ ousted their nemesis from a year ago, beating West Virginia.

Ohio State comes to Newark looking like a No. 1 seed should -- clobbering everyone in its wake. The Buckeyes beat up on UT-San Antonio in their first game and easily dispatched George Mason, winning the two games by an average of 30 points.

Storyline: Kentucky wears the unfamiliar mantle of underdog, going up against the top-seeded Buckeyes, a team John Calipari said has made him stop and say, ‘Oh my goodness,’ while watching game tape.

These, however, are not your typical underdogs. Along with their tradition of success, the Wildcats have plenty to latch onto this season. UK won the SEC tournament, spent the entire season in the top 25 and rides an eight-game win streak into this game.

The NCAA road has been considerably kinder for Ohio State, an easy walkover from Cleveland to Newark with two easy games. But the Buckeyes, who have carried with ease the burden of a No. 1 ranking for a decent chunk of the season, aren’t fooled.

“I think it’s just the heightened awareness of how good your opponents are,’’ OSU coach Thad Matta said. “I think that these guys have done a much better job of not buying into all of the hype that goes along with this.’’

What to watch: What happens on the perimeter. Both teams are pretty good from behind the arc. Ohio State leads the nation, knocking down 42.4 percent of its 3-point attempts.

Kentucky isn’t far behind. A year after the Wildcats were done in by their lack of perimeter game, they now rank 12th in the nation, draining 39.6 percent of their 3-point tries.

Sometimes basketball isn’t confusing. Whoever is able to make more from long range could have the upper hand.

Who to watch: This will depend a lot on how UK chooses to defend Ohio State. If the Wildcats double Jared Sullinger, Jon Diebler will be key. When he’s on, he’s lethal. Diebler has sunk 110 3-pointers and is shooting 50 percent (yes, you read that correctly -- 50 percent) from the beyond the arc.

Josh Harrellson has had a terrific and unexpected senior season, surprising even himself he admitted on Thursday.

There’s no question that this will be Harrellson’s tallest order. It’s critical that he stays on the floor, something plenty of people have had a hard time doing against Ohio State and Sullinger. The Buckeyes big man averages just 2.4 fouls per game.

“I never thought I would be where I am, doing the things I am capable of now,’’ Harrellson said. “And going against Jared Sullinger will be a tough task. One of the best big men in the country, if not the best big man.’’

Of note: Ohio State is 345th out of 345 teams in fewest fouls per game. The Buckeyes commit just 14 fouls per game. OSU has shot 348 more free throws than its opponents and has made 126 more than its opponents have attempted. … Kentucky doesn’t make mistakes, a huge advantage against a team as savvy as Ohio State. The Wildcats average 10.6 turnovers per game. Only 11 teams in the country take better care of the basketball.

What they’re saying:

“With freshman starting and with veterans who really don’t have a lot of experience, the interesting thing for us is I really have no idea how they will play.’’ -- UK coach John Calipari

“They are athletic; they get out and run, they push the pace. They have bigs, they have wings and they have a guard who can pretty much do it all. So if we don’t come ready to play, it’s going to be a long night for us.’’ -- OSU senior David Lighty on what makes Kentucky difficult.

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.

TAMPA, Fla. -- A look at today's games in Tampa:

No. 5 seed West Virginia (21-11) vs. No. 4 seed Kentucky (26-8), 12:15 p.m. ET (CBS)

Kentucky player to watch: Junior Darius Miller doesn’t get as much attention as freshmen Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones, but he might have been UK’s most important player down the stretch. In the past 10 games, Miller is averaging 15.6 points. He had 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting in the Wildcats’ 59-57 victory over No. 13 seed Princeton in the second round on Thursday, after a solid performance in three games in the SEC tournament. At 6-foot-7, Miller is a tough defensive matchup for opponents. He can shoot from the perimeter, score off the dribble and post up in the paint. WVU coach Bob Huggins might assign John Flowers, his best defender, to guard Miller because he’s a three-way threat.

West Virginia player to watch: Senior guard Casey Mitchell is West Virginia’s leading scorer with 13.7 points per game, but he’s been noticeably quiet over the past few weeks. Mitchell scored only nine points on 2-for-8 shooting in a 67-61 loss to Marquette in the Big East tournament, and then had only four points on 2-for-6 shooting in an 84-76 win over Clemson in an NCAA second-round game on Thursday. Mitchell makes 37.8 percent of his 3-pointers, but he isn’t playing with much confidence right now.

Stat that matters: 1-8: Kentucky coach John Calipari’s record versus West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.

Three things to watch:

1. West Virginia’s defense: The Mountaineers upset the Wildcats 73-66 in the Elite Eight last season, earning their first trip to the Final Four since 1959. West Virginia struggled to guard UK with a man-to-man defense early in the game, so Huggins switched to a 1-3-1 zone. UK never solved the zone, missing its first 20 3-point attempts before finishing 4-for-32 from behind the 3-point line. Of course, West Virginia had longer wing players like Da’Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks to defend the perimeter a year ago.

“[Last year], a lot of their shots were contested, under duress from the 1-3-1,” Mountaineers guard Joe Mazzulla said. “We got them off of the 3-point line and probably a few steps back. That’s just what we’ve got to do tomorrow. We can’t let them get standstill shots and we can’t let them set their feet. If we can make them rush their 3-pointers, and if we can get a hand in their face, then hopefully it’ll be the same result.”

2. Kentucky freshman Brandon Knight: The UK point guard was one of the country’s best freshmen, leading the team with 17.5 points and 4.2 assists per game. But Knight has struggled from the floor over the past couple of weeks, shooting only 32.4 percent in his past six games. Knight hit the winning shot with two seconds left in the victory over Princeton, but missed his first seven shots in the game and never looked comfortable.

“At the beginning of the game [Thursday], guys around me were knocking down shots,” Knight said. “A lot of guys were finishing. Darius was on a roll. So at that point in the game, I didn’t really have to shoot the ball a lot. We were doing just fine.”

3. Kentucky’s bench: The Wildcats really use only six players, with five players averaging 30 minutes or more and senior Josh Harrellson playing about 28 minutes per game. Reserves Eloy Vargas and Jon Hood rarely leave the bench. West Virginia’s bench is about four players deep, as nine Mountaineers average 8.5 minutes or more. WVU’s reserves -- guards Mitchell, Jonnie West and Dalton Pepper and forward Deniz Kilicli -- combined for 28 points in the victory over Clemson.

No. 7 seed UCLA (23-10) vs. No. 2 seed Florida (27-7), approx. 2:45 ET (CBS)

Florida player to watch: Senior forward Chandler Parsons was named SEC Player of the Year without even leading the Gators in scoring. He was third on the team with 11.5 points per game, but led UF with 7.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. During the Gators’ 79-51 rout of No. 15 seed UC Santa Barbara in the second round, Parsons finished three rebounds short of recording a triple-double. In 27 minutes, he had 10 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists.

UCLA player to watch: It’s impossible to miss freshman center Josh Smith, who is 6-10 and 323 pounds. The Washington native lost 40 pounds during the offseason and is averaging about 21 minutes per game. After playing off the bench during the past 10 weeks, Smith started against Michigan State on Thursday and had 14 points, three rebounds and two steals in the Bruins’ 78-76 victory.

“I think when you see somebody that big physically and that strong, the feeling is maybe they don’t move quite as well or they can’t jump as well,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “But he really does a terrific job moving his feet for a guy that size. I also think the other thing that makes him a special player is he’s got great hands. I think when balls are up on the glass, he’s going to grab it.”

Florida’s big men -- Vernon Macklin, Erik Murphy, Alex Tyus and Patric Young -- will have their hands full trying to handle Smith.

Stat that matters: 0 -- Points scored in NCAA tournament games by UCLA’s players before Thursday night’s victory over Michigan State.

Three things to watch:

1. Malcolm Lee’s defense: The UCLA junior is one of the country’s best defenders and will gladly accept the challenge of slowing down Florida guards Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker. In the Bruins’ narrow victory over Michigan State, Lee harassed Spartans senior Kalin Lucas throughout the game. Lucas missed his first 10 shots and had four turnovers. He finished with 11 points on 4-for-14 shooting in his final college game. Lee is playing with a slight cartilage tear in his knee and even needed staples to close a wound on his scalp on Thursday night.

“I’ve said before I think Malcolm is the best defender at his position in the country,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said.

2. UCLA’s foul shots: The Bruins shot foul shots well at the end of the regular season, but their work at the foul line nearly cost them a victory over the Spartans on Thursday night. The Bruins made only 30 of 47 free ones against MSU, missing 13-of-28 in the second half. In the final 5 minutes, 19 seconds, UCLA went 12-for-22 from the foul line, which helped allow the Spartans to nearly come back from a 23-point deficit. The Bruins are shooting 68.1 percent from the charity stripe as a team, and forward Reeves Nelson and Smith are both shooting about 61 percent.

3. Florida’s experience: The Gators start three seniors, although they hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game until routing the Gauchos on Thursday night. The Bruins, who have been forced to rebuild after losing a boatload of players who helped them reach three straight Final Fours from 2006 to ’08, don’t have a senior on their roster. The Bruins sometimes make mistakes typical of young teams, like turning the ball over and missing foul shots. Can Florida’s veterans take advantage of UCLA’s youth?