This team was different.After the star-studded 2009-10 edition of the Kentucky Wildcats met its end in the Elite Eight largely due to a paltry shooting performance against West Virginia, these Cats stormed their way to a Final Four berth. It was a different kind of team, one that made opponents pay from the perimeter.As well as UK had shot and played leading up to a matchup with Connecticut, the Wildcats were left singing an all-too familiar tune following a 56-55 national Final Four defeat in Houston on Saturday.”We just couldn’t knock down shots when we needed to,” freshman guard Brandon Knight said. “They just weren’t going in.”Kentucky managed just 21 of 62 (33.9 percent) from the field, including just 9 of 27 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc. Particularly in light of the fact that the Wildcats nailed 12-of-22 3-pointers in an Elite Eight win over North Carolina, this one is hard to swallow.”We’re a great shooting team, but you can’t make every shot,” freshman guard Doron Lamb said. “You can’t shoot well every game.”Making matters even worse was the Wildcats’ poor performance from the free-throw line, where UK managed to hit just 4-of-12 shoots, including a number of missed front ends of one-and-ones.Freshman forward Terrence Jones was 0 for 5 from the stripe and was unafraid to look in the mirror when asked about what happened at the line even though he couldn’t explain it.”Me, mainly,” Jones said. “I don’t know. I just didn’t make them.”His miss at the stripe at the front end of a one-and-one with 2:09 left and UK trailing by six proved to be the most costly.It’s not much of a stretch to think that if only a few of those opportunities had been capitalized upon, Kentucky could have prevailed in a nip-and-tuck affair.The Wildcats managed to hang around with the Huskies in spite of a putrid first half that left them trailing 31-21, the team’s largest deficit of the NCAA Tournament. Although the Cats have been on some big stages over the course of this season, they came out of the gate tight, seemingly affected by the pomp and circumstance of the game’s biggest stage.”We were tight in the first half,” coach John Calipari said.The Wildcats were a horrendous 9 of 32 (28.1 percent) from the field and just 2 of 12 from 3-point range in the opening half.”We’re used to playing in front of large crowds at home,” senior forward Josh Harrellson said. “We sell out every game, 24,000, but this was triple that. I guess we weren’t expecting everything that goes on with the Final Four, all the pressure and everything. We just came out and let it get to us.”Coming out of halftime, Calipari had his team playing inspired basketball and the shots, at long last, began to fall. UK reeled off an 11-2 run, with Knight, Darius Miller and Doron Lamb all connecting from deep to propel the Cats to a 35-33 lead with just over 15 minutes to play.The two teams played to a standstill over the following eight minutes and the game was tied at 48 with 7:17 remaining in regulation. What followed was nearly five consecutive minutes of play without a whistle, during which Calipari and Connecticut coach John Calhoun called timeouts to try rest tired legs. The Wildcats found themselves down six at the end of the stretch and fatigue played a factor.
“I just think we were a little tired and didn’t fight to get close to the rim the last four minutes because we were tired,” Jones lamented.Knight, in particular, was only 6 of 23 from the field, missing several key shots down the stretch. Neither Knight or Calipari were sure how much that early second-half effort took the legs out of UK’s point guard.”There was some anxiety to this game now,” Calipari said. “I kept saying it’s another game. I could say that all I want, but there’s some anxiety that goes along with this game that may have gotten to him a little bit because I can’t remember one or two games where the last three minutes he wasn’t at his best.”And I think he was a little bit fatigued. But again, if I had the chance, I would have taken him out one other time before the eight-minute mark but teh game never stopped. It just kept going and going and going.”The Wildcats may have settled for some tough outside shots late, but they still were in a position to make a play in the final minutes to come away with another victory. They had possession with 16.6 seconds remaining down just two, but a long DeAndre Liggins 3-pointer was no good.The play wasn’t drawn up for Liggins, but he had hit a big trey seconds earlier and was confident with the ball in his hands.”It wasn’t (designed for me),” Liggins said. “I should have drove it, but I hit a 3 and I had the hot hand a little bit. It was a good shot, but it fell short.”Calipari, in spite of the loss, had plenty of reasons to be proud of his team, particularly with the way they battled in spite of missing shots they were accustomed to making.”I’m really proud of these guys,” Calipari said. “The way we played in the first half, to give ourselves a chance to win the game (was impressive).”As hard as they fought, their uncharacteristically poor shooting spelled this team’s end.”I’ve been doing this a long time,” Calipari said. “If you come in this thing and you miss free throws, a lot of them, and a bunch of 3s, it’s hard to advance.”It’s the second year in a row he’s had to say that.