In search of answers for the persistent late-game questions, the Kentucky men’s basketball shouldn’t have to look too hard to find some examples worth molding itself after.Take the Florida basketball team, which meets the Cats on Saturday at 4 p.m. in Rupp Arena. The Gators are 9-3 this season in games decided by six points or less, including 6-1 in Southeastern Conference play and 3-0 in SEC overtime games. One of those close matchups included a two-point regulation win over Kentucky earlier in the month.The nail-biting decision to Florida was just one in a pattern of heartbreaking losses. UK, following a one-point overtime loss to Arkansas, is now 0-6 in games decided by five points or less. “We’re not making the plays down the stretch,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “We don’t make that basket, we don’t get that one stop, we don’t come up with that one rebound. One of the things I said to them yesterday is ‘It’s almost like each of you are expecting the other to do something. You’re all hoping someone does something just so it’s not you.’ You can’t play that way.”Opportunities to make “the play” in the game in Fayetteville, Ark., were plentiful. UK allowed Arkansas guard Julysses Nobles to get an offensive rebound off his own miss to tie the game in regulation. Then, leading by one with the ball in the final minute, Brandon Knight turned the ball over on an errant pass, setting up Marcus Britt’s deciding layup with 17 seconds.Even so, UK had three shots in the final seven seconds, all taken by Knight, and all of which failed to go down. “I’m just waiting for us to make that play, that shot, that tip-in,” Calipari said. “Now, Darius (Miller) made an unbelievable 3, so there are signs that we’re doing it; we’re just not all doing it.”Calipari, visibly a bit more tense and frustrated since the Arkansas loss, said after Wednesday’s loss that he didn’t have all the answers. He looks more dumbfounded than he ever has in his time in Lexington.The answers for him and his team may lie just down the hall in the Joe Craft Center. Making the play at the right time seems to be the UK women’s basketball team’s M.O. The women are 4-2 in games decided by five points or fewer, including Thursday night’s gripping late-game comeback against Arkansas.The Cats trailed by five points with a little more than a minute to play, only to rally with a furious comeback in the final minute. A’dia Mathies capped the comeback with a left-handed layup with 4.4 seconds left. Two weeks ago, the UK women stunned LSU just before the buzzer when Mathies drove into the lane and dished to Brittany Henderson for the game-winning shot with 1.1 seconds left.In most cases this year, Mathies has been the common thread in the close wins. “She’s very talented, so she can do a couple different things,” UK women’s head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “She made three 3-pointers last night. She can make a midrange jumper. She can get all the way to the basket. So it’s not like a player that you can just jump out there and play one way. If you step up and help, she’ll dump to Brittany Henderson for the game winner.”To borrow a cliché, she seems to have ice in her veins.”I think her demeanor and not being real excitable helps in those situations,” Mitchell said. “It drives me nuts in other situations, but I think I’ll take her in those situations.”Does the men’s team have someone like Mathies, someone who is confident and capable of taking and making the last shot with the game on the line?Last year it was obvious who was going to take the shot for the men’s team. John Wall made numerous late-game winning plays for the 2009-10 team, a group that went 6-0 in games decided by five points or fewer.The obvious candidate on this year’s squad seems to be freshman point guard Brandon Knight, who took the final three shots in the loss to Arkansas. Knight also took the final attempt against Florida, a missed 3-point shot at the buzzer.”Those are good looks (for us), they just didn’t go down,” said Knight, who conceded they may be physically tired at the end of games from a lack of depth. For a coach like Calipari who has stressed “demonstrated performance,” it’s reasonable to believe a lack of demonstrated success could have a frustrating, contagious effect.”We’re not pressing,” Knight said. One thing everyone can agree on, from Calipari to Mitchell and Knight, is UK’s lack of success in the closing minutes is not from a lack of blind fortune.”I think you create opportunities,” Calipari said. “I don’t know if there is a whole lot of luck to it.”In the women’s game Thursday, it was a full-court press, not luck, which changed the game for the Cats. Mitchell’s team forced three turnovers in the final 52 by leaning on the team’s staple for the whole season.”There wasn’t a lot of luck going into that,” Mitchell said. “You have to be able to work hard to be able to get a five-second call on the sideline. That doesn’t happen all of the time. The kids did a really good job with that. You have to work hard for that. Victoria Dunlap had to make two free throws in a very, very pressure-packed situation and step up there. And then to get the turnover so A’dia could make it – hard work went into those last 50 seconds. That’s a credit to those kids.”Comparing the two UK basketball teams and their late-game success can be like comparing apples and oranges, especially when three of the four close wins for the women have been at home and all six of the men’s losses have been on the road. But that would be ignoring the fact that one team is simply getting the job done when the game is on the line and the other one isn’t.Calipari said they could point to all the what ifs and almosts if they wanted, but he said the Cats are what their record is. In close games, that’s 0-6.In the end, it may just come down to playing harder.”You’ve got to try harder than the other guy is trying,” Calipari said. “You’re begging, you’re cajoling, you’re grabbing, you’re kissing, you’re punching, you’re doing whatever you can – just compete,” Calipari said. “If that’s not good enough, I’m fine. If that team is better than us, if they’re more skilled, execute better, fine. But not 22 offensive rebounds, 14 in the second half, five in the last three minutes. Don’t tell me that.”Liggins admits overreaction on technical: Junior guard DeAndre Liggins is a quiet kid off the court, but he may be earning a very different reputation on the court after two critical technical fouls in UK’s last two road losses. The latest came in the Arkansas loss when Liggins was whistled for showing his displeasure for a foul on Rotnei Clarke. Liggins’ technical was part of a 10-0 Arkansas run.”I guess I overreacted,” Liggins said.Liggins said he didn’t say anything to the officials but certainly didn’t agree with the call.”I was shocked he gave me a tech because I didn’t say anything to him,” Liggins said.Calipari said he’s talked to Liggins about letting the calls go.”We’ve talked to him about you’ve got stop with any kind of any arm waving or anything like that because these guys will do it to you,” Calipari said.Liggins did open his mouth when he was assessed a technical in the Vanderbilt game.”I said, ‘He can’t guard me,’ to (the Vanderbilt) bench,” Liggins said. Cal’s draft evaluation: NBA scouts and draft gurus may have a couple of UK’s highly touted freshmen on their mock NBA Draft boards, but Calipari didn’t offer a ringing endorsement for the current future of his players Friday.Asked if he would encourage any of his players to enter the NBA Draft if the season ended today, Calipari said, “If it were today, probably not, but we’re still a month away.”

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