There are two in-game situations that will almost always divide fans and coaches alike.One is the debate over whether to call a timeout when you have the ball to win the game. The other is whether to foul when your team is up three to prevent a game-tying 3-pointer.Coach Cal found himself in both those situations against Michigan. First was when the Wolverines tied the game with 27 seconds to go and the Cats got the ball with a chance to win on the final possession. Under normal circumstances, Calipari would have let his guys play so the other team couldn’t set up defensively, but like he did against Florida in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, he called timeout.Calipari said after that game that he wanted to kick himself for calling timeout, but not this time around.”There was so much at stake here, we had to know what we were doing,” Calipari said on his weekly radio show Monday night. “And part of the reason is they had a foul to give, so I figured we had to start a little bit earlier so they would foul earlier so that we would still have a lot of time to get a shot off, which they did.”The timeout allowed him to call up a similar play to the one in the SEC Tournament finals, which was a handoff for James Young to take it to the basket; only this time it called for Aaron Harrison to get the ball.”I wanted it to be Aaron because he wouldn’t be afraid to miss,” Calipari said. “Not that James is, but Aaron now in the last five games has been an assassin.”Aaron Harrison had the option to dribble it or pull up. When he fumbled the handoff and the shot clock started winding down, he elected to go up with it. Once Michigan had called timeout and the officials reset the clock to show 2.6 seconds left, Calipari decided not to foul because there wasn’t enough time left on the clock. With only seconds left, he didn’t want one of his players fouling the shooter in the act.He also put Marcus Lee on the inbounds pass in hopes of tipping the pass and taking the shot out of the equation altogether.Bigger isn’t always betterDominique Hawkins doesn’t have the look of a lockdown defender – at 6 feet, he looks to be at a size disadvantage – but the Kentucky reserve re-emerged from the bench during UK’s two games in Indianapolis to help contain Louisville and Michigan’s best scorers.Against U of L, Hawkins locked down and limited Russ Smith in the second half, and against Michigan, Hawkins slowed down Nik Stauskas after his fast start.”We weren’t going to win that game until he guarded that kid,” Calipari said Monday of the Hawkins-Stauskas matchup. “And he was a pit bull.”Stauskas, who at 6-6 had torched his competition all year long because of an ability to shoot over most defenders, had six inches on Hawkins.”A lot of times, putting a little smaller guy on a bigger guy bothers ’em,” Calipari said. “I don’t know why. Just does.”Hawkins knows why. It’s the competition he goes against every day in practice. Matching up with players like Andrew and Aaron Harrison and James Young, he’s learned a few tricks to neutralize the length.”Those three, I feel like they could be the best player on any other team if they went on another team,” Hawkins said. “They help me out on my defense in practice a lot, so I feel like when I was guarding him that it was just like guarding James or Aaron or Andrew off the ball in practice.”One and done withFed up with the label that gets thrown on his program for allowing players to go to the NBA, Coach Cal said on the radio show Monday that he wished someone could come up with a new term that doesn’t have the negative connotation that “one and done” does.The Big Blue Nation listened and responded. Among some of the best responses from fans on Twitter:

• Succeed then proceed
• Learn and turn
• Learn before you earn
• Progressive freshmen

Of course, Coach Cal has not wavered in his stance on the current one-and-done rule. He has said he does not believe in it and wishes it would go to at least two years, but he’s also not going to hold kids back if they have an opportunity to leave. He just wishes the negative connotation of letting players pursue their dreams would go away.”I know some people can’t get their mind wrapped around anything other than a four-year program,” Calipari said. “Well, you also can’t get your mind wrapped around social media. And until this rule changes to two years, which I seem be one of the guys working real hard on it, we are where we are. ‘Well, you should care more about the programs than the kids.’ What about if it’s your kid? ‘That would be different then? Then I want you to care about my kid than the program.’ These are someone’s children.”An all-time runIt’s already been well-documented that UK’s road to the Final Four has been one of the all-time runs. Not only have the Cats knocked off the defending national champion, last year’s runner-up and an undefeated No. 1 seed, they’ve become the first team ever to knock off three of last year’s Final Four teams.  But according to Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo! Sports, UK’s run may be the all-time run.Eisenberg’s research says that the seeding tally of UK’s opponents (16) is only outdone by LSU in 1986, when the 11th-seeded Tigers beat the top three seeds in their region to reach the Final Four – the only team to ever accomplish such a feat.Eisenberg points out that LSU caught a break by playing its opening-weekend games in its backyard in Baton Rouge, La.Did Bo Ryan take a dig at BBN? Cal doesn’t think soOn Monday’s Final Four teleconference, some thought Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan was taking a dig at Kentucky fans when he answered a question about what basketball means to the Cheese State.”The people here in this state are crazy about basketball,” Ryan said. “They realize that they didn’t invent it like some other states believe.”Did he mean Kentucky when he said that? It goes without saying that UK fans are known throughout the country for their passion for basketball. Told Tuesday of Ryan’s comments, Calipari, who has a good relationship with Ryan, brushed it off.”Our people don’t think they invented it; they just made it better,” Coach Cal said. “And our fans do have all the answers to every issue concerning basketball. They’re crazy. They’re nuts. They watch the tapes more than I do. I bet you there are fans out there that have watched more Wisconsin tape than I have. There’s no question.”Bo knowsSome other notable gems from Ryan on Monday’s Final Four teleconference: On Kentucky …“For me to say Kentucky is good, I’d be slighting them. They are very good.”On the contrast in styles between UK and Wisconsin …“Kentucky’s trying to put the ball in the hole. We’re trying to put the ball in the hole. We’re trying to keep them from doing it. They’re trying to keep us from doing it. I didn’t know there were that many styles.”On why he doesn’t use a coaching board …“Have you ever watched a huddle, where the players’ eyes are while the coach is making 15 lines? You look at that thing and you swear it was your 4-year-old granddaughter who just made a drawing for you.”To bring you more expansive coverage, CoachCal.com and Cat Scratches
will be joining forces for the postseason. You can read the same great
stories you are accustomed to from both sites at CoachCal.com and
UKathletics.com/blog, but now you’ll enjoy even more coverage than
normal.