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Calipari Era: Point Guard #2

By Austin Sutcliffe

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John Calipari recruits the best and the brightest. When it comes to the point guard position, with out a high ranking placed by your name coming out of high school, it would be tough to get a call from Mr. Calipari.

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Last week I revealed the third best point guard, someone else who was highly regarded coming out of high school. You may have been watching him square off against his brother today. In case you missed it, Andrew Harrison locked up the number three spot.

"Andrew came back in year two a more confident guard that helped lead his team to a 38-1 record. Maybe the biggest change was the margin in assists to turnovers. Per 40 minutes, Harrison increased his assists by .6 and lowered his turnovers by .8.Nothing drastic, but still improvement none the less."

The second best point guard to command the offense for Coach Calipari was a score first guard. When the Cats would need a clutch basket, say a game winning lay up against Princeton or a jump shot to knock off the number one ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. He just received a max contract and his name is Brandon Knight.

Knight came into Lexington with a lot of high praise. Fresh off of a National Gatorade Player of the Year, he still had the likes of a John Wall shadow to move past.

Brandon never had the flash or speed of Wall, but what he did have was offensive consistency. With not much of another legitimate scoring threat on the offensive side, often times he would have to carry the team behind his all around scoring. In his one and only year at Kentucky, he averaged 17.3 points per game and could even dish it out with 4.2 assists per game as well.

It was not always fun and games for Knight and Calipari in 2010. Losing eight games in the regular season had many fans worrying how they would fare in the NCAA Tournament. Behind Knight, the Wildcats went on one of the most exciting March Madness runs in recent history. The wise words of Doron Lamb remind us of his March greatness.

"Knight, who knocked down a winner in Kentucky’s second-round victory over Princeton, drove to his right then hit a silky 15-foot jumper.“I think Brandon does it on purpose,” said Kentucky guard Doron Lamb. “I think he misses every shot in the first half then hits the game winner. If he keeps hitting the game-winner we’ll take that.”"

These shots became the legacy of Knight and won him huge love and support from the big blue nation. The final four finish was such a great surprise, and we owe most of that to the ice water in Brandon’s veins. Relive the great moments with Brandon Knight below and come by next week to see who received the number one point guard spot!

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