Aaron Harrison shows poise beyond his years
March 31, 2014
By David Schuh | Men’s basketball columnist
Aaron Harrison is just a freshman. He has played at UK for five months, and for just 38 collegiate games.
But he has already hit two of the most iconic shots in program history, the second of which on Sunday sent the Cats to their 16th Final Four.
Friday’s shot was simple. Down by one point to the University of Louisville with under a minute to play, Harrison stood in the corner, ready to shoot.
When he caught the pass from freshman forward Julius Randle and made his third 3-pointer of the game, the Cats surged ahead of their in-state rival, beating the Cardinals for the second time this season to advance to the Elite Eight.
Sunday’s shot was on another level. With 10 seconds left in a tied game against the University of Michigan, Harrison took a handoff from his brother and dribbled out toward half court.
“(Calipari) told me to give Aaron the ball, to be honest,” freshman guard Andrew Harrison said. “Yes sir, you don’t have to tell me twice.”
Aaron took three dribbles and launched a 25-footer.
The moment will be remembered in UK basketball lore. On the back of Aaron Harrison, the Cats won the Midwest Regional.
In three days, Harrison performed time and time again in key moments.
His first make, a 3-pointer, came with eight minutes remaining and gave the Cats a 58-55 lead they would never lose.
His fourth, the biggest of them all, won the game with 2.3 seconds left.
“I wasn’t really sure how much time was left … I just tried to take the best shot I could take and it fell,” Harrison said. “Making that shot and seeing my teammates so happy and running at me is the best feeling in the world.”
It takes something special to rise up in those moments. It takes a certain stoic fearlessness to want to be the one who has the ball with the game hanging in the balance.
Twice, with UK’s season nearing its last moments, Harrison hit the shot that saved it.
“You cannot be afraid to miss,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “That’s the whole thing about making those kinds of plays.”
For a freshman who has been through a season full of ups and downs, it shows a lot about Aaron Harrison to come up big in these moments. He has struggled at times, as has his team, and the fact that the Cats are even still playing is remarkable.
They wouldn’t be playing without him. When every game is the biggest of the season, a freshman has made the biggest plays of the game — the shots that veterans on the other side could not.
