TAMPA, Fla. — When the Kentucky men’s basketball team plays 13th-seeded Princeton on Thursday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, nobody really knows what to expect of yet another freshman-dominated John Calipari team – not even the coach himself.”When you’re starting three freshmen and three players who were inexperienced prior to this season and you jumble them all together, they can get off kilter at any point,” Calipari said.Who truly knows what will happen with this UK team.As is the case with any Kentucky squad, it will be expected to make a deep postseason run. That’s just how life goes when you play for the all-time winningest program.But is this team capable of a deep run? Does it have the experience, the depth and the right draw to make a Final Four journey?Those are all questions that will have to be played out over the next few days and maybe weeks, but Calipari and his players enter the NCAA Tournament with the confidence of a six-game winning streak and an SEC Tournament title. The winning streak is the longest since winning seven consecutive games in December and January.”What I’m comfortable with is we’re playing as well as we’ve played all season,” Calipari said. “What I’m comfortable with is individual players are playing better than they have in their careers. That I’m comfortable with. How they’ll respond to this situation, I have no idea.”There was both a feeling of calmness and excitement in the UK locker room Wednesday, a day before the second- and third-round games begin (the added play-in games in the NCAA Tournament are now called the first round).The few veterans that have legitimate NCAA Tournament experience – juniors Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins – appear comfortable with what’s about to happen. But freshmen and leading scorers Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight admitted a little nervousness and anxiety on the eve of their first career NCAA Tournament.”I’m excited,” Knight said. “Just ready to start playing and go out and perform and have our team do well.”There’s a notion among some talking heads that youth can’t win an NCAA Tournament. Michigan’s Fab Five never did it, last year’s Kentucky team came up short in the Elite Eight, and recent national champions, in a day and age when one-and-dones rule the individual college basketball scene, have been dominated by experience.  Of Kentucky’s primary six-man rotation, three are freshmen.”I really don’t think that’s a big deal, honestly,” Miller said of UK’s lack of veterans. “We had freshmen last year and we made it pretty far. I don’t think that’s going to be a big focal point or anything like that. If we come out and play like we can, we’re one of the best teams in the country.”Even senior forward Josh Harrellson, who has brought an invaluable veteran and leadership role to this year’s team, has never really experienced the spoils (and pressures) of postseason play. Entering the 2011 tournament, Harrellson has logged just six minutes of NCAA Tournament time.”I’ve never really been a starter or a significant player,” Harrellson said. “Coming out here playing multiple minutes is going to be new to me. Hopefully I can carry over what we did in the SEC Tournament.”So why is it that, with such limited experience in a one-and-done format, this team believes it can be a dangerous one at this time of the year?”Just how we’re playing right now, especially defensively,” Miller said. “We’re playing really good defense. We’re starting to take pride in it. If we keep playing defense the best we can, we should be a hard team to beat.”UK has stifled opponents recently, holding its three opponents in the Southeastern Conference Tournament to 37.9 percent shooting. For the year, Kentucky is yielding only 39.1 percent of the opposition’s shots to find the bottom of the net. That mark ranks ninth in the country.But what makes the players so upbeat and so optimistic of a tourney run is how they say they’ve come together and defined their roles.”(Coach) says the best team is going to win it,” Knight said. “It’s not the people with the best players but the best team, so that’s what we’re trying to focus on is being the best team.”Said Jones: “It’s one of the most important parts of the season. It really tells the type of team you are and how much together you are as a team.”Kentucky received no favors from the NCAA Selection Committee when it landed in Ohio State’s bracket – three of the top seven RPI teams are in the East Region – but most of the players say they’ve moved on from the disappointment of a four seed.Now the focus has turned to a Final Four and even a national title. How realistic that will be with a freshman-laden team, we’re about to find out.”It should be every team’s mindset that they’re going to win it,” Harrellson said. “If it’s not, then I don’t think they should be here. Our mindset is we’re going to come out and play hard and try to win everything.”

 

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