Kentucky-Connecticut Postgame Notes

April 8, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery

Kentucky ends the season 29-11 overall, while Connecticut improves to 32-8.
UConn leads the all-time series the series 4-1.
The Wildcats lead the nation with a 116-47 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament.
UK is now 18-3 (.857) in NCAA Tournament games under John Calipari.
UK has amassed 18 tournament victories under Calipari which is the most of any school since 2010. Florida, Kansas and Louisville are next with 11 each.
Kentucky has appeared in 12 national title games. UK is 8-4 in such contests.
Tonight’s attendance of 79,238 is a national title game record. The total number of 158,682 fans over the two-day event is an NCAA record.

Kentucky’s starting lineup consisted of five freshmen in Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Dakari Johnson, Julius Randle and James Young. That lineup is 13-5 on the season.
Alex Poythress was the first sub off the bench for UK. It was his team-leading 24th time being the first called upon.
Andrew Harrison’s 3-pointer in the first half extended UK’s 3-point streak to 900 consecutive games. It is the second-longest streak in the country.
John Calipari coached teams are now 129-39 in the months of March and April.
Calipari is 43-14 (.754) all-time as a coach in the NCAA Tournament. His career winning-percentage is the first among active head coaches.
Kentucky had won 11-straight NCAA Tournament games entering tonight’s contest. That’s the most consecutive victories for a team in the NCAA Tournament since Florida won 12-straight en route to its national titles in 2006 and 2007.

UConn raced out to a 6-2 lead to open the half following consecutive fast-break opportunities.
A 7-0 spurt in under a minute of action gave UConn a 13-6 lead midway through the half. The lead extended to nine at 17-8 with 13:08 remaining.
A Shabazz Napier 3-pointer with 8:31 left gave UConn it’s largest lead at 24-12, but Andrew Harrison followed with a 3-pointer of his own on the following possession.
UK stared at its largest deficit of the NCAA Tournament when the Huskies went up 30-15, but a quick 5-0 run quickly cut the lead to 10 at 30-20 with 5:13 remaining in the half.
The Wildcats closed the half on a 16-5 run to cut the double-digit deficit to just four, 35-31, going into the break.
- UK is 6-9 on the year when trailing at the break, but 3-1 during postseason competition.

An Aaron Harrison 3-pointer on the first possession of the second half cut the UConn lead to 35-34.
After cutting it to just a two-point lead at 41-39, the Huskies scored nine-straight points to recapture a three possession lead at 48-39 with 10:59 to go.
An 8-0 run, over a 3:16 span, by the Wildcats made the score 48-47 with 8:17 to go. But Connecticut got back-to-back 3-pointers from Napier and Niels Giffee and UK got no closer than four points the remainder of the game.

James Young led the Wildcats with 20 points and seven rebounds.
- It was his ninth 20-point game this season.
- Earned Final Four All-Tournament team honors.
Andrew Harrison had eight points, a game-high five assists and three steals.
- Dished out four or more assists in 11 of UK’s last 13 games.
Pushing through on a gimpy ankle, Julius Randle totaled 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.
- Randle got 417 rebounds this season and passed Anthony Davis (415) for the most rebounds by a freshman in single-season school history.
- Earned Final Four All-Tournament team honors.

Related Stories