It was the kind of game UK might not have won in January, that gritty, comeback win against West Virginia.

Not when they didn’t value the importance of every possession, no matter the stage of the game.

“We let certain balls get away,” Brandon Knight said of the team’s play earlier in the season. “I think going through those times helped us, let us know, that key possession could have won us that game if you would have got us. Now guys are going after that, like, this could be the game winner.”

Not when they didn’t stay true to the game plan at the end of the game.

“We panicked more in the clutch than we do now,” Terrence Jones said. “We aren’t afraid of making mistakes.”

Not when they were hesitant to talk to each other, to get on each other when mistakes were made.

At one point in UK’s win against West Virginia, Knight looked at head coach John Calipari, wanting the coach to direct Terrence Jones to get in the post. Calipari told Knight to tell his teammate that himself.

“They love each other so there’s no big deal about it, and they can laugh about it later, but that’s what a good team can do,” Calipari said. “They can get on each other; they know it’s not personal.”

The transformation even stretched to toughness – something Calipari has implored his team to develop throughout the year. Facing a team that prided itself on outworking opponents to compensate for a lack of athleticism, UK was the one fighting for everything.

“Coach used to talk about us not being tough, or tough enough, he would say,” Darius Miller said. “He actually called us tough after the game today. That’s a big step for us.”

It’s certainly felt like a bit more realistic growth time frame an inexperienced team. The road losses were blows to the psyche of the team, but Calipari continued insisting that UK would end up where it needed to be come March. It’s looked that way recently, with the SEC Championship Tournament title and two wins in the NCAAs.

They were learning losses all. Not closing down the stretch, a hesitancy to take (and make) the big shots, a maddening disposition to turn the ball over when points were needed. Following one of those losses, at Florida, Calipari was frustrated and bewildered. But the day after, he maintained that the loss was good – it let the team know that it HAD to improve, rather than thinking the wins would continue with that type of play.

So now, in two games in the pressurized lose-and-go-home setting, UK is doing what it’s had to do to set up a matchup with either Ohio State or George Mason.

“Our main thing is, survive and advance,” Knight said. “And we did that today. Hopefully we can continue to do that.”