TAMPA, Fla.—That’s it. UK has reached its March Madness quota on day one of the best annual sporting event.

UK head coach John Calipari said on Wednesday that he wasn’t sure what to expect from his youthful team in the second round matchup with the Ivy League champions (really, it was the first round, but I’ll play by your rules, NCAA).

It’s safe to assume that hardly anyone expected Princeton, a team without a bound media guide, jerseys without names and more accustomed to playing in high school-like gymnasiums would take mighty UK, and its array of regular and postseason media guides, and Nike jerseys to the brink in the St. Pete Times Forum on national television.

In the same afternoon the Cats’ biggest rival, fourth-seeded Louisville, was victimized by Morehead State senior Demonte Harper’s game-winning pull-up 3-pointer in the closing seconds of a 62-61 win for the Eagles, the Cats almost got bitten by the Madness bug themselves if it weren’t UK freshman guard Brandon Knight bailing out his team with a game-winning layup with two seconds left in the game.

“You have to have at least one close game in the Tournament,” UK senior forward Josh Harrellson said of UK’s 59-57 win. “Hopefully we got ours out of the way.”

One close game. Check that off the Tournament to-do list.

But, should this close result be cause for concern? For another team, perhaps. For this year’s UK team? A close seesaw battle that was won by UK signals something has changed and might actually be more encouraging than anything else.

UK repeatedly failed to close games away from home this season: five of UK’s six road losses came by four points or less and many resulted from failed or faulty execution down the stretch.

Knight may have hit the game-winner on Thursday, but recall that his potential game-winning shots in the closing seconds against Arkansas and Florida went begging. These were games that Knight had actually hit a shot before attempting the game-winner, too, unlike his final shot attempt on Thursday.

Furthermore, Harrellson and UK’s other veterans, juniors Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins—the three players Calipari said were primarily responsible for the win—have continued their strong form from the end of the regular season and conference tournament.

All three players have done a brilliant job of keeping UK afloat, especially in recent games when Knight, and fellow freshmen Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb, have struggled mightily at times.

“We never panicked,” Liggins said with a smile. “You can’t be concerned, you can’t panic in the Tournament because that’s how you’re going to lose.”

Therefore, the very fact that UK remained composed and managed to win a close game that it was expected to win easily (something UK was also expected to do versus Ole Miss, Alabama and Arkansas), should prove that this young group is maturing and that the once little-relied upon veterans are becoming more comfortable in their ever-important roles.

“No matter what happens, just move on you can’t stick with what you did earlier, you just got to move on,” is what advice Liggins said he gave to the freshmen before they began their first Tournament run.

Now Liggins and the rest of the veterans that have been carrying the team need to follow the advice he gives to the freshmen. After all, a win is a win and no team can be expected to win six games in the NCAA Tournament all in a beautiful manner.

“Our main thing is winning, two points, 20 points we just want to make sure we win,” Knight said.

The Cats accomplished the “main thing” by winning; they’re moving on to the third round, which means their last game effectively means nothing against their next opponent, West Virginia, the team that knocked UK out of the Tournament last year.

Even so, the Cats, as they have shown the past two-and-a-half weeks, can (and better) improve their play on Saturday because the Cats may also have used up their good fortune quota one game into March Madness, too.