Meet the Cats: Kentucky's Aaron Harrison enjoyed the thrills but knows it's time to move on from NCAA heroics

Of course, Aaron Harrison will forever be identified with the end of last season. Making the deciding shot in three straight games, especially three straight games deep in an NCAA Tournament, tends to immortalize a player.

Yet, it might be what Harrison did before last season began — or, more correctly, what he did not do — that also is a telling footnote to his Kentucky career.

In order to complete requirements for academic eligibility, Harrison and his twin brother, Andrew, did not arrive at UK last year until late August. So while their teammates gathered on campus in late spring, they missed the bonding time, the offseason conditioning routine, the greater chance to smooth the transition from high school to college and extra opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses.

"I think being here this summer just showed me that I would have really benefited last year from being here," Harrison said.

When asked how he would have benefited, Harrison said, "Physically, I would have been a lot stronger, jumping higher and (running) faster. I'd have just been more mentally prepared."

Andrew Harrison echoed the sentiment. "It set me back a lot," he said of the late arrival.

Apparently, that was putting it mildly.

A question about how the late arrival affected the Harrisons drew a direct and emphatic answer from UK Coach John Calipari.

"Killed them," he said. "Killed them."

Calipari drew a line starting with the late arrival and continuing through the well-chronicled frowns and slumped shoulders.

"What it killed was their conditioning," Calipari said.

It took the Harrisons until mid-January to become fit enough to compete at a sustained level, he said. They got tired and "didn't want to keep playing, so they did a body language thing."

By the end of last season, the Harrisons' play improved because of better fitness, Calipari said.

Kentucky expects a carryover, especially with the Harrisons having lost weight and gained endurance since last season.

"A lot further ahead than I was last year at this time," Aaron Harrison said, "because I have been here working all summer."

Except for the championship game loss to Connecticut, the way last season ended marked a personal triumph for the Harrisons. Andrew improved his assist average from 3.5 per regular-season game to 5.4 in the postseason.

Aaron had those high-arcing shots that enabled Kentucky to beat Louisville, Michigan and Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament.

Perhaps surprisingly, Harrison did not warm to an invitation to reflect on fulfilling the backyard dream of every child who ever mimicked the three-two-one dream of making a game-winning shot. In triplicate.

"It's pretty cool," he said with noticeable restraint, "just to be a guy to hit a last-second shot at the end of a game, and your teammates dog-pile you and stuff.

"It's all over now."

Yes, pretty cool, indeed.

But this wasn't just making a last-second shot, which is fairly common (Indiana's Christian Watford and Duke's Christian Laettner come immediately to mind).

Yet, what player has ever made such a shot in three straight games?

"I guess so," Harrison conceded. "It's cool just being part of that. But it's over now."

Yes, he said, he receives verbal pats on the back "every day."

He's not weary of taking bows. It's simply not rest-on-your-laurels time.

This story was originally published October 4, 2014 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Meet the Cats: Kentucky's Aaron Harrison enjoyed the thrills but knows it's time to move on from NCAA heroics."