ATLANTA — One month ago, Kentucky was a close-game punching bag for the Southeastern Conference.”Step right up, take your best shot,” the UK players wanted to shout, chests bulging out, confidence overflowing. Only when teams pushed Kentucky when the games were on the line, they soon learned it was all a facade.The Cats wouldn’t push back. They’d usually fall down. The SEC road losses mounted and the close-game defeats became infuriating. Somewhere along the way, a switch flipped. UK won its fourth straight game Friday — all of which were the slug-it-out-variety — outlasting Ole Miss 75-66 in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. The win avenges the loss to the Rebels from a month ago and advances the Cats to Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinals against Alabama.”We had some guys not play some of their better games and we hung in there,” UK head coach John Calipari said of the win. “(Brandon Knight) didn’t play one of his better floor games. I know he’s a better player than he played today, but he did what he had to do to help us win.”Kentucky notched the win despite one of the more forgettable performances from UK’s leading duo, Knight and freshman forward Terrence Jones. Knight and Jones combined to shoot just 9 of 28 from the field, but Knight came up with the key plays down the stretch to preserve the victory.After letting a 12-point lead melt away, Knight made two key jumpers, grabbed four last-minute rebounds and sunk five free throws in the final minute. “I was saying this is the greatest thing for us,” Calipari said. “We need to be in more close games because we’re going to be in a bunch of them to finish this out and we’ve got to make plays. I need to know who the men are. We need to know who is going to get the big rebounds, chase down a ball, who is going to make the big block, who’s going to make the and one, who’s going to make the free throws who is going make the open 3, who is going to drive the ball instead of settling for jump shots to make us finish this game off.”Kentucky appears to finally have a few tough men. Every time the Rebels pushed Kentucky, the Cats pushed back.In a game eerily similar to the six losses by five points or less the Cats have suffered this season, it seemed like just about everyone had a hand in holding off a pesky Ole Miss team.When Knight struggled to score, he found his big man Josh Harrellson (13 points) for open layups and dunks. When Darius Miller got into early foul trouble, he picked his spots, scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds. When Ole Miss gave freshman Doron Lamb open looks, he took advantage, knocking down 7-of-10 shots for a team-high 19 points.”Today we showed toughness,” junior guard DeAndre Liggins said. “This is the time when you’ve got to be tough.”He’s right, but where in the world did it come from though? For a team that was questioned for its heart and its inability to secure narrow victories, the players are suddenly thriving in grind-it-out situations. Some of the toughness was built during times of adversity and close losses. Some of the confidence was cultivated in the road win at Tennessee. But maybe — just maybe — Calipari had a point a while back when he said that, for all the talent Kentucky has in its youth, this UK team would live and die by its veterans. Because, for as clutch as Knight was down the stretch and as smooth as Lamb was with the ball in his hands, victory could not have been achieved Friday without the unshakeable play of Miller, Harrellson and Liggins.”Our older guys are really starting to step up,” Knight said. Remember, it was the Ole Miss loss where Miller may have hit an all-time low. The junior scored just three points in that February loss and passed up a potential game-sealing 3-pointer in the final seconds of the game.Now, Miller wants the ball with the game on the line, and Calipari has the renewed confidence to give it to him. With 1:22 left in the game and the Cats nursing a three-point lead, Miller went one-on-one with Chris Warren and overpowered the smaller guard for a 7-foot jumper.”We’ve definitely talked to each other about stepping up and being a bigger part of the team, especially during tournament time,” Miller said of the veterans’ play. “These (freshmen) really haven’t experienced anything like the tournament. It’s something that you have to go through. We’re just trying to lead by example.”Since that first Ole Miss game, Miller is averaging 13.7 points. “What he’s done the last three weeks, you think of the big shots we have made, he’s made probably half of them,” Calipari said.Liggins only scored four points to go along with six rebounds, but he continued the type of nasty, do-whatever-it-takes play off the bench. In his highly publicized rematch with Warren, Liggins didn’t let Warren get the “best of him” this time.No, this time around, Warren struggled to get the ball over the much-taller 6-foot-6 Liggins. Sure, Warren finished with 20 points, but it took him 20 shots to get it.”DeAndre was a big part of our win today with his intensity,” Knight said. “Every time he steps on the court, there’s intensity. His play and his passion lift our team up. Without him, a lot of our wins wouldn’t be possible. Without him we wouldn’t even be in a lot of games.”Liggins has helped Kentucky develop an edge that didn’t exist a month ago. Take for instance the end of the game.As the teams exited the floor and walked down the exit ramp, Liggins and Ole Miss forward Reginald Buckner got into very public altercation. It was hard to tell what started the commotion — Liggins believes it stemmed from when Buckner was called for a travel and Liggins took the ball from him — but things got very chippy on the way to the locker rooms.No punches were thrown, but Buckner had to be held back as Liggins backed away. The SEC contacted both teams and is looking into the exchange.”I maybe said something wrong,” Liggins said. “I just said, ‘Y’all going home,’ or something like that, and he got mad.”Maybe it wasn’t Liggins’ finest moment and perhaps he’s walking a fine line, but what he’s doing is certainly working. He’s managed to stay on the right side of the line to this point, get under the skin of his opponents and rub off on his teammates.Clearly, everyone is responding to the newfound tough act.”We’re trying to come together as a team,” Liggins said. “This is the time to come together, at the end of the year.”