UK tops Michigan to advance to Final Four
March 31, 2014
By Nick Gray | UK basketball beat writer
INDIANAPOLIS — UK is going back to the Final Four.
Fittingly, it took an up-and-down ending to do so.
Freshman guard Aaron Harrison’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 2.6 seconds left completed UK’s improbable march to the Final Four. The Cats won 75-72 over the University of Michigan on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
It was yet another late-game 3-pointer for Harrison, who also hit the go-ahead shot against the University of Louisville. It was his fourth made field goal of the game, one that answered the Cats’ prayers in a tournament that has been college basketball’s most winding roller-coaster ride of the year.
“You can’t be afraid to miss,” UK head coach John Calipari said about Harrison’s mindset. “If (he does) miss, I’m making the next one, and I will shoot the next one. That’s where he is right now.”
Harrison’s game-winning shot was the result of what senior guard Jarrod Polson called a piston action. Calipari called for freshman guard Andrew Harrison to hand the ball to his twin at the far corner.
“Aaron, just step back and shoot a deep 3,” Calipari told his freshman shooting guard. “They won’t guard you.”
Michigan did step up and guard him, and Harrison let the shot go several feet away from the 3-point line over the stretching hands of a Michigan defender.
“It was in the air so long,” said UK sophomore forward Alex Poythress, who had eight points and three rebounds. “When it went in, I think I jumped from the bottom (of the elevated Lucas Oil Stadium floor) to the top.”
With 2.6 seconds remaining on the clock, Michigan, known as a 3-point shooting team on offense, drew up a play for sophomore guard Nik Stauskas, who finished with a game-high 24 points. The Cats held him to just seven points in the second half on 1-of-8 shooting.
Stauskas got a running start at a desperate final heave from half-court as the clock ran out. His shot did not reach the rim. UK players, including injured sophomore forward Willie Cauley-Stein, made a dog pile on the court as the final buzzer sounded.
Cauley-Stein was out on Sunday and came to the bench wearing his jersey over a sweatshirt sporting crutches, two days after an ankle injury knocked him out of the first half in the Sweet 16 game against Louisville.
UK moves on to the Final Four, where the University of Wisconsin awaits at 8:49 p.m. Saturday in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Several players said that no stage is too big for the Cats, a team that played seven freshmen Sunday.
“We’re just a group of tough young guys. It doesn’t matter about the age or anything anymore,” Aaron Harrison said. “We just try to go out and fight and keep our heads down and swing the whole game. We just fight hard.”
