INDIANAPOLIS – The T-shirts of the dream, the talk of perfection, the flirtation with 40-0 — John Calipari was a victim of the expectations as well. For the first time this season after dealing with the maddening aftereffects of failing to meet regular-season expectations, Coach Cal admitted that he too bought into the hype.”I had to accept that, too, now,” Coach Cal said Sunday after his Wildcats pulled off another memorable victory, a 75-72 win over Michigan in the Elite Eight. “I started reading what everybody was writing. I’m thinking: This is going to be easy.”Easy? This year might have been Calipari’s toughest.After the disappointing 2012-13 season, one that ended with a first-round loss in the NIT, Coach Cal came into the year a new man. He boasted about the increase in depth, which he said would give him the option to sit kids when they needed to learn from the bench. He bragged about the ridiculous talent and length that six McDonald’s All-Americans would bring. He spoke of the attitude of his new recruits and their will to win.Things were so different that Calipari caught himself singing in the car one day and “talking crap.” Order was restored, in his mind.”It’s back to where we were,” Coach Cal said in September.The program is back to where it was two years ago now, but it involved a whole lot more hardship than anyone could have imagined. “It was difficult because my choice coaching them was to allow them the body language, the effort less than it needed to be, the focus less than it needed to be, (and) at times, selfishness,” Calipari said Sunday.UK suffered 10 losses in the regular season, lost three of four late and hit rock bottom with an embarrassing loss at South Carolina. It was then that Aaron Harrison said UK would still write a “great story,” a prediction that has unbelievably come true, but it’s taken some pretty remarkable steps to overcome.It took Coach Cal looking in the mirror and realizing he needed to “tweak” some things. It took criticism – some nasty – that brought the players together. It took a lot of failing before the succeeding could happen.”This was very difficult for all of us,” Calipari said.Calipari faced major scrutiny late in the regular season when the wheels fell off in Columbia, S.C. The Kentucky head coach was ejected from that game, he was criticized for being too hard on his players, and many wondered if his approach of recruiting the most talented players regardless of age was a one-hit wonder in 2012.All the while, Calipari dragged along a hip that’s so bad that he’s had trouble getting up steps.But that’s what’s made part of this late-season turnaround — a run through the “region of doom” that’s included three teams in last year’s Final Four, a No. 1 seed and previously undefeated team and last year’s defending national champion – so sweet. Emotions were tested. Resolve was questioned. Supporters dwindled.And yet the Wildcats endured.”We never lost faith,” Julius Randle said. “There was never a point where I lost faith in the team or anything.”After listening to the outsiders before the season and falling victim to those weighty expectations, they learned to stop listening to everyone else when the criticism came crashing down upon them.”We never doubted each other,” Alex Poythress said. “Our coaches never doubted us. We always stayed a little family and our little circle. Just try to stay strong.” The consensus in the celebration of Sunday night’s ticket punching to the Final Four is that the turnaround happened just before the Southeastern Conference Tournament when Coach Cal made the now legendary — and still yet-to-be confirmed — “tweak.””Coach did a good job,” Randle said. “He simplified our roles. Everything just clicked on both ends of the floor.” Andrew Harrison said that humbling game at South Carolina seems like “forever ago,” but the reality of it is that loss was just one month ago. That’s a lot of soul-searching to do in a few weeks’ time and a whole lot of adjustments. “It’s a process,” Calipari said. “Every year it’s a process. Some guys get it quicker than others. It took these guys a little longer and it took me a little longer to figure them out. … It took us four months.”Four months later, they’re finally ready to be the team that garnered so much hype at the beginning of the season.”When they all just settled in and lost themselves in the team, the game became easier,” Calipari said. “They became better. They had more fun. They became more confident. And all of a sudden this is what you have.”One hell of a turnaround. One hell of a story.