Once Kentucky regained possession down two in the closing seconds of Saturday's Final Four matchup with UConn, coach John Calipari had to make perhaps the most important decision of his two-year tenure in Lexington.
Would the Wildcats turn to point guard Brandon Knight to bail them out with a clutch shot as he's done so many times already this season. Or would Kentucky put the ball in someone else's hands since Knight looked gassed much of the second half and couldn't find the range on his jump shot?
Nobody should have been too surprised Kentucky played through Knight yet again, but this time the freshman point guard had no magic left.
The combination of UConn hedging on a high ball screen and then Kemba Walker's fierce defense prevented Knight from finding a lane to the rim, so he passed to teammate DeAndre Liggins spotted up behind the arc. Liggins missed a heavily contested 3-pointer over the outstretched arms of Jeremy Lamb, enabling UConn to secure a 56-55 victory and advance to Monday's national title game against Butler.
"What we said was, 'Brandon, look, we're going to play through you,'" Calipari said. "'You got a bunch of scorers out here. If you can't get it to the rim or get something you like, give somebody a shot.'"
It was a logical decision for Calipari to put the ball in Knight's hands because he'd shown a knack for hitting clutch shots in those situations. In the NCAA tournament alone, he'd shaken off a poor game to score a game-winning layup against Princeton with two seconds left and also buried the go-ahead 16 footer against Ohio State in the Sweet 16 a week later.
For Knight to look for Liggins wasn't a poor decision since the junior hit a game-sealing 3-pointer in the regional finals against North Carolina and knocked down another to trim the Kentucky deficit to three moments earlier against UConn. Asked about the final shot, Liggins acknowledged he didn't have a great look and that he might have been better off driving at the rim.
"I thought I had the hot hand a little bit," Liggins said. "It was a good shot, but it fell short."
The possession was the culmination of a rough performance from Knight in what could be his final collegiate game. He still managed to score 17 points but shot 6 of 23 from the field, consistently leaving jump shots short perhaps from the fatigue of playing all 40 minutes.
Calipari acknowledged he'd like to have given Knight a blow but also pointed out that the freshman has played that kind of minutes most of the season. Instead he attributed Knight's poor late-game shooting to nerves from playing on college basketball's biggest stage.
"There's some anxiety that goes along with this game that may have gotten to him a little bit," Calipari said. "Because I can't remember one or two games where the last three minutes he wasn't at his best."
Katherine Heigl Lorri Bagley Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price
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