Trio of Cats coming home
April 4, 2014
By Nick Gray | Basketball beat writer
The Final Four has some added incentive for three UK freshman starters.
Guards Aaron and Andrew Harrison, along with forward Julius Randle, will play the national semifinal against Wisconsin in their home state of Texas on Saturday.
It will be second time that the Harrisons, from Richmond, and UK will play at AT&T Stadium 284 miles from home. The Cats lost to Baylor there in December.
“After a loss, you always have to have some negative thoughts. It was just another game really,” Aaron Harrison said. “It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
That was many tweaks ago, and Andrew Harrison and the Cats have rid themselves of the “negative thoughts.”
“I’m so excited I can barely sleep sometimes,” Andrew Harrison said. “I just can’t wait. At the same time you’ve got to stay focused and realize it’s just a basketball game.”
Both players have said that more than 50 family members and friends have requested tickets for Saturday’s game.
“It’s kind of stressful,” Andrew Harrison said. “But it’s better than not having any.”
Aaron Harrison said he has had to turn some friends down throughout the week, but a good amount of the Harrison clan will be in Arlington to cheer on him and his brother.
“It’s amazing because all the family is there,” Marian Harrison, the mother of the twins, said. “With this being their first year in college, it’s amazing (that they’ve made it this far).”
UK head coach John Calipari said he appreciated how the Harrisons’ parents raised the twins throughout childhood and into high school.
“Mom and dad raised them and did right,” Calipari said. “They were coached and they are skilled. They just had to be challenged in a lot of different ways that they had never been challenged.”
Aaron and Andrew Harrison’s parents told their children that the journey was not going to be simple.
“They know there’s going to be good days and bad days,” Marian Harrison said. “You just have to work hard.”
And UK has started to win just as Andrew Harrison distributed the ball more (5.7 assists per game in the postseason, up from the 3.9 assists per game season average) and Aaron Harrison has hit shots in the final minutes.
The coaching has come from Calipari, but the foundation was laid early with their traveling team. The coach of that team just happened to be their father, Aaron Harrison Sr. He said nothing this season has surprised him, from the up and downs to Aaron Harrison’s tendency to make long shots late in games. But outside of expectations, Aaron Harrison Sr. has been proud of his children.
“Every father wants their kid to mature, and you’re going to have some trials and tribulations in life, not just basketball,” Aaron Harrison Sr. said. “You hope that they come out the other side. And they did.”
