He was that kid.

Brandon Knight was the one in the driveway playing one-on-zero, the imaginary clock counting down in his head, the imaginary defender with a hand in his face.

“I think every kid does that when they are growing up outside,” Knight said. Just five, four, three, two, one and shoot it.”

If he missed, Knight kept shooting. One day, he might end up shooting them for real. That’s what every kid thinks.

“Normally step-back jumpers where you are holding your follow-through … And then when you finally make it, you can just go inside and chill,” Knight said.

Going inside and chilling hasn’t been the follow-up to game winners lately for Knight. He hit one in UK’s first game of the NCAA Tournament to beat Princeton by two points. He hit another against Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen, after which Knight most certainly did not chill.

“It looked harder than it felt,” Knight said, comparing watching the shot versus the actual shot. “When I watched it, it was a lot faster than I thought. It felt slow. I didn’t really see a hand [Aaron Craft’s, the defender on him]. I just saw the basket and shot it.”

And though he faltered on a couple tries earlier in the season, missing potential game-winning shots at Arkansas and Florida, Knight remained undeterred. Part of that was past performance — he hit the game-winning three-pointer in the 2010 McDonald’s High School All-American game, a pull-up over future North Carolina guard Kendall Marshall.

But Knight isn’t necessarily the one whom UK clears out to let shoot. While Knight is looking to shoot and has his move planned, he’s aware of the other players on the court and is ready to pass to them if a higher-percentage shot is available.

“You have the option to shoot it yourself, you have the roll guy, and then you always have a lot of spot-up guys, so there are always a lot of options,” Knight said.

Even as he missed, head coach John Calipari had confidence in him because of the amount of work put in. Calipari said Knight was the one who would be icing his knees in the gym at 6 a.m. and be the last one out. DeAndre Liggins conceded his work ethic wasn’t on the same level as Knight’s. Harrellson, who went through the well-covered training regiment after the Twitter incident, didn’t try to compare it.

“He is always working harder than anyone else always in the gym late at night, getting extra shots,” Harrellson said.

Now, Knight goes up against Kemba Walker, who has his own highlight reel of game-winning shots.

“Some of those shots you make, some of the shots you don’t,” Knight said. “All I can do is thank God that I was able to make those in the big time games of the tournament.”

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