Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Harrellson's Comments on the evening
It was a storybook ending for a blue collar player who has evolved into an unlikely leader as a senior. Harrellson finished with eight points and nine rebounds in his final home game.
Calipari couldn't help but laugh a little when asked if Harrellson would have been able to give that kind of effort after 36 grueling minutes a year ago.
"He wouldn't have been in the game a year ago," Calipari said.
This season, the depleted Wildcats haven't had much of a choice.
With the crowd in full throat every time Harrellson touched the ball, it was the play of his younger teammates that helped stake the Wildcats to a 40-29 halftime lead.
Jones, who has slumbered through slow starts recently, appeared energized. He wasn't the only one. Taking a cue from Harrellson, the Wildcats attacked the offensive glass relentlessly. Even freshman guard Doron Lamb and center Eloy Vargas got involved.
"We just knew we had to be active," Jones said. "We wanted to do this for Josh."
Lamb came into the game with seven offensive rebounds on the season but had two in the first half. The little-used Vargas elicited a fist pump from Calipari when he collected a miss by Miller and laid it in to put Kentucky up 13-8.
Though Ezeli and Tinsley did their best to keep Vanderbilt in it, the Commodores looked rattled in the charged atmosphere. Vanderbilt turned it over eight times in the half and Jenkins simply couldn't get going.
He was fouled by Lamb on his first 3-point attempt but the Wildcats grew wise after that, failing to bite on Jenkins' pump fakes. He badly missed his other two attempts of the half and Kentucky appeared on its way to a second straight perfect season at Rupp. The Commodores rallied, but it wasn't enough to keep Harrellson from walking off the court pounding his chest after the final horn as the crowd - some of them wearing the jeans shorts that is Harrellson's off-the-court trademark - roared.
"Josh fought like heck," Calipari said. "What a great thing."
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