Alone they may have faltered. Together they were strengthened. For as long as they can remember – really since they day they were born – the Harrison twins have been there for each other, by each other’s side through everything they’ve done. They rose through the basketball ranks together, blossomed into young men together and decided to go to the same college together. They’ve done everything you’d expect twins to do — as one.But their relationship last year came in handy when they faced the most difficult year of their lives.As the point guard and floor general of the team, Andrew Harrison probably took more heat than Aaron did last season when Kentucky failed to meet regular-season expectations, but both felt the brunt of UK’s struggles and – fairly or unfairly – took the blame when there was plenty of it to go around.”We struggled,” Andrew Harrison said in preseason interview last month. “It was tough, but at the same time it makes you a man.”The Harrison twins arrived on campus last year heralded as saviors following the highly disappointing 2012-13 NIT season. Their tough-minded approach and distaste for losing were supposed to be two key character traits that wouldn’t let recent history repeat itself. In everyone’s mind, the twins wouldn’t tolerate anything like what happened the season. As a sign read in Rupp Arena during the 2013 NCAA Tournament that UK wasn’t included in, “Keep calm, the twins are coming.”The underlying message of the sign was loaded with expectations. What no fan wanted to realize is even the twins weren’t ready to carry the burden of redemption.Part of it was because they still had some growing up to do and part of it was they were freshmen. But overlooked in all of UK’s regular-season struggles a season ago was just how significant the twins’ absence during summer workouts was to the team’s overall development. John Calipari didn’t want to make a big deal out of it at the time – and what coach would when you’re trying to build confidence in your team – but it stunted the growth of the twins and the Wildcats.”Killed them,” Calipari said. “Killed them. And what it killed was their conditioning. It took them until the middle of January to really–think about the play–couldn’t run back, didn’t want to keep playing so they’d do a body language thing. And then they’d look, is anybody watching? Because they were trying to stop. … It was a killer for them.”By midseason, people were calling them busts. They were slip-sliding down NBA Draft boards faster than a bobsled on ice.”Andrew was really criticized last year,” Aaron Harrison said. “I think one of the most criticized players in the country, so we just had to stick together.”Easier said than done.Among the biggest criticisms the Harrison twins’ faced was their body language. When things went south or something didn’t go their way, they were prone to react negatively with scowls on their faces and noticeable defeat in their shoulders. They let one play affect the next, and sometimes it was contagious to their teammates.That criticism of the Harrison twins, Calipari will tell you, was fair. What wasn’t fair was the association it connected them to. Just because they were reacting negatively on the court, some people began to question their character. Unfairly, some people labeled them as bad kids.”I feel like people just put that out there before,” Andrew Harrison said. “All you can do is prove them wrong and just play basketball. You can’t really focus on what other people say about you.”But truth be told, who wouldn’t be bothered by that? Under the strict guidance of their parents, the Harrisons were brought up with impeccable manners that belied the bad-boy rumors.

Soft spoken as they can be, you would be hard-pressed to have a conversation with them without hearing “yes sir” or “yes ma’am” a half-dozen times. “It’s my parents,” Andrew Harrison said of their manners. “They instilled it in me. I can’t help it. Sometimes people say, ‘Don’t do that,’ but I can’t help it. I have to say it to everybody.”Knowing that side of his twin guards and hearing some of the stuff he heard from outsiders last year irked Calipari.”What happens with some of you guys,” Coach Cal said, “is you have an opinion and then you’ve got to prove that opinion right, so you’ll never change. ‘Here’s my opinion.’ Well, are you not watching? Hmm. ‘That’s my opinion. I’m not watching. I’m not. Then let me tell you why it’s right.’ So those two have been hit with that some. Like, what are you watching? How can you say that? ‘Well, ’cause it’s what I said six months ago and I’m sticking with it. That’s my story.’ But the good news for them is hopefully they’re comfortable and they know we have your back.”They had each other’s backs as well.”We both had some low points last year and we kept each other going,” Aaron Harrison said.Andrew Harrison said their relationship was not only crucial to their eventual success last season, it strengthened and even changed their relationship with one another.”It changed just because of the pressure and the microscope you’re under when you go to Kentucky,” Andrew Harrison said. “Now that you’re used to it, you can relax and play.”Leaning on one another during the difficult times helped them amend the narrative of last season and their outlook going forward. They hung in long enough to see their season turn around in the postseason. Both flourished during UK’s NCAA Tournament run. Aaron Harrison obviously stole the headlines with the game-winning shots, but Andrew’s turnaround was just as dramatic. Calipari instituted what he called a “tweak” in Andrew Harrison’s game, and suddenly he became a different point guard in March.”Most point guards, if you’re a freshman point guard, you come in with two juniors, a senior and a freshman. He was trying to come in and play with all freshmen that didn’t know any more than he did,” Aaron Harrison said of his brother’s responsibilities. “So it was really tough. I mean, it’s not really fair, but everything’s not fair.”It’s worth noting that most of Calipari’s previous point guards had to go through similar growing pains before finding their stride.”I’ve always said the point guard for Coach Cal is the hardest to play,” said walk-on Brian Long, who seen and watched a lot of solid point-guard play during his three-plus seasons at UK. “I think (Andrew Harrison) coming back for his sophomore year, I think he can take off.”Of course, Andrew Harrison wouldn’t have been able to keep the development going without his brother’s timely shots, the magnitude of which Aaron didn’t come to grips with until several weeks after. Only now does he realize that he’ll forever be a part of UK lore for what he did during that run in March.”You sit back and you think about all that and you think about hitting the big shot like that in a big game, it’s really unreal,” Aaron Harrison said. “The shots are cool and all, but we were celebrating because we had another game to play. We didn’t win the last one, so, I mean, it’s not really the way we wanted to finish it. I mean, yeah, I still have some good memories about the shots that I made, but if we would’ve won our last game it wouldn’t have even compared to that feeling.”Now, after the way the two played in the postseason and the way they built off the momentum during the Big Blue Bahamas tour, the Harrisons’ stock is on the rise again. In Nassau, they seemed to carry themselves in a different manner, as if this is their team. The slimmed-down twins looked more comfortable, more confident and better equipped to lead.”I feel like I’m one of the leaders on this team and I can definitely lead this team in the right direction,” Andrew Harrison said. “I have some experience and stuff like that, so I feel like the guys can listen to me. I know what they’re going through and I see stuff on the court that I can help them out with.”Andrew Harrison’s teammates notice a different vibe with him this year.”It’s crazy what one year can do for someone,” sophomore Derek Willis said. “Definitely he’s gotten better. He’s more vocal. There’s just so many little things that people don’t notice that he does. When he’s bringing the ball up it’s not, ‘I’m bringing the ball up.’ It’s running up, then stopping, then getting into our set. He’s leading.” Ironically, given how they leaned on each other last year, Calipari would like to see a little bit of separation of the two going forward. The way he sees it, if they are going to make individual careers for themselves in the NBA, they will have to show NBA personnel that they can do it without one other’s help.”I told those two (for pickup games), ‘Don’t always play with each other. Play opposite,’ ” Coach Cal said.  “You don’t want to be labeled that you have to be on the same team. You’ve had guys like that before. It hurts them.”Calipari was just as surprised as everyone else when the Harrison twins decided to come back for their sophomore seasons – he learned of the news while he was sitting on a plane and getting ready to head out of town – but now that they’re back, he’s not ready to settle for the progress they made at the end of last year. He believes they can and will get even better. “They’re still growing right now,” Calipari said. “You still have to coach them and guide them. They, you know, they still have some habits that they flow back to when it gets crazy and nutty. But I’m just – they’re great kids. They’re both great kids. They’re both, you know, in the best shape right now they’ve been in, but I’m telling them it’s not good enough. They’ve got to get to another level.”