Wiedmer: Harrellson continuing to amaze for Kentucky

COLUMN

ATLANTA-Midway through Saturday afternoon's second half, with Kentucky already 21 points up on Alabama - that's three touchdowns to most Bama backers - UK center Josh Harrellson drove from the top of the key on Crimson Tide All-SEC performer JaMychal Green.

Now the 6-foot-10, 275-pound Harrellson looks more like an offensive tackle than a starting center for the nation's No. 15 basketball team. Conversely, Green has the appearance of "maybe the best post player in the conference," according to Harrellson.

Nevertheless, the big Cat scored then and finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds, a blocked shot, a steal and an assist - easily the most complete game turned in by any UK player in the 72-58 SEC tournament semifinal win.

"Did you see Josh catch it at the top of the key and score a layup?" asked an excited UK coach John Calipari, whose Cats face Florida at 1 p.m. today in the SEC title game. "Are you kidding me?

"He played 35 minutes (actually 88) all last year. Now he's playing 35 minutes (actually 27.4) a night. Here's a kid who's now going to be a professional basketball player. I'm so proud of him."

It's the kind of story all sports fans love: Harrellson, the career practice player so lacking in accomplishment that former UK coach Billy Gillispie once angrily banished him to an equipment van for a return trip from Vanderbilt.

Then Calipari arrived two years ago with his dribble-drive offense, preference for high-profile freshmen and little need for a ham-and-egger from St. Charles, Mo., who averaged less than four points and three rebounds a game for an NIT team a year earlier.

"I thought about quitting," Harrellson said a couple of weeks ago. "A lot of us did. But when Coach got here I decided to stick it out."

But it got worse before it got better. Pushed to the end of the bench by a roster filled with five future first-round NBA draft picks last season, Harrellson's already meager numbers fell to 1.3 points and 1.2 rebounds a game.

When the Cats signed super recruit Enes Kanter last spring, Harrellson's chances for much playing time as a senior appeared over before it began.

That's when Harrellson's luck began to turn, however. The NCAA ruled Kanter permanently ineligible for having been paid to play on a Turkish professional team. Almost by default the player called "Jorts" by his teammates for wearing blue jean cutoff shorts became a starter.

"It's been fun," he said. "When Enes was ruled ineligible, I started working hard, and it's paid off."

It's paid off so well for the player whom teammate DeAndre Liggins calls "the hardest-working guy on our team" that Harrellson finished second to freshman teammate Terrence Jones in rebounding for the entire Southeastern Conference. He averaged 8.7 to 9.1 for Jones.

Beyond that, he has averaged 13.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in the Cats' two SEC tournament wins, numbers that could place him on the all-tournament team if UK defeats Florida.

Funny thing is, Harrellson probably is where he is today because of where he shouldn't have been before the season - lashing out at Calipari on Twitter.

"It was after the Blue-White game," Harrellson said. "I'd gotten 26 rebounds but he made some joke about it. So I wrote, 'Why can't I ever get a 'good job' or 'good work'? He wasn't happy about it."

Calipari took away Harrellson's Twitter privileges and ordered 30 days of grueling pre-practice workouts.

"Twenty suicides for 20 minutes a day for 30 days," Harrellson explained. "There was other stuff, too, like push-ups and longer runs. But mostly it was sprints."

But an amazing thing happened to Harrellson along the way. Losing 12 pounds and roughly seven percent of his body fat, he started to feel better, look better and play better.

"So after the 30 days I just kept doing it," he said. "I did it for more than three months. I didn't stop until about three weeks ago. It's made me such a better player. If you'd told me before the season that I'd be playing 30 minutes a game, I'd have laughed at you."

Said Calipari: "Josh learned how to work. It wasn't what I did - he did it. He changed."

And mostly because of that change, Kentucky has won five straight games and seven out of eight. Win a few more and jorts could become the Bluegrass State's most popular clothing item by the close of the NCAA tournament.

Just don't expect any tweets from Harrellson encouraging the Big Blue Nation to purchase a pair until the Cats' NCAA run is done.

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