Patterson’s decision to stay at Kentucky _ rather than bolting for NBA _ pays off for Wildcats

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Patterson’s decision to stay pays off for Kentucky

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — If Patrick Patterson had no regrets about passing up an opportunity to enter the NBA draft last year, the Wildcats forward certainly isn’t second-guessing his decision to stay at Kentucky now.

In retrospect, the junior forward wouldn’t trade the experience of playing on a dynamically talented young team that’s coached by John Calipari, and is one win from the Final Four, for just about anything.

“The decision to come back has definitely paid off,” Patterson said Friday, a day before the top-seeded Wildcats (35-2) face the second-seeded Mountaineers (30-6) in the East Regional final. “This has been my best year so far.”

Statistically, that’s not entirely the case. No longer the go-to player on a team that features star freshmen John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, Patterson’s scoring average of 14.5 points per game ranks third among the Wildcats and is nearly three points off his career average.

Emotionally, it’s a different story altogether. Here’s a player who pushed aside both his ego — Patterson has no problem deferring to Wall and Cousins on offense — and the unhappy memories of spending two tumultuous seasons under former coach Billy Gillispie, for a chance to help Kentucky reclaim its place as a national power.

“The first reason I came back was I talked to my academic adviser and he said I can graduate in three years,” Patterson said, reflecting upon his decision to forego entering the NBA draft last year. “The second reason was coach Calipari’s dribble-drive offense that’s definitely helped improve my game.”

And the third?

“Winning a national championship,” he said.

All three objectives are within reach for the communications major, who is projected to be a first-round pick in the NBA draft if he declares himself eligible after this season.

That means the next game could be his last for the Wildcats.

“I definitely think about it,” Patterson said. “None of us want it to end, and we want a championship.”

There’s another subplot for Patterson in facing the Mountaineers. From Huntington, W.Va., he chose Kentucky over a chance to play for his hometown team.

“I think it motivates me a little more,” he said. “I don’t want to lose to West Virginia.”

Though his role has changed, Patterson earned the respect of his teammates and remains the Wildcats’ unquestioned leader.

“He knows that the team is more than just being Patrick,” Wall said. “And the freshmen coming in knew it was going to be more than just being us freshmen trying to do it. We had to come together as a team. And Patrick did a great job. … He’s stepping back and letting us do our thing, but he’s also helping our team win.”

Kentucky’s 35 wins are one shy of matching the program record set by the Adolph Rupp-coached team in 1947-48, and five fewer than the Wildcats won in Patterson’s first two years combined.

That’s quite a turnaround from last year, when the Wildcats were relegated to the NIT. Patterson’s freshman season was cut short by an ankle injury that prevented him from playing in the NCAA tournament.

Despite the NBA’s lure, Patterson had unfinished business to attend to. He elected to return after Gillispie was fired in March and replaced by Calipari.

Though Calipari said he had little say in influencing Patterson’s decision, he was impressed by how the player accepted his new role.

“He could have come back and said, ‘This is my team and I’m shooting all the balls,’” Calipari said. “Well, guess what he does? He scores less points, gets less rebounds, and his stock has gone through the roof.”

Along with being able to share the spotlight, Patterson also developed other dimensions of his game as a defender and an outside shooter.

“You want players to know if you give up a little bit, it ends up helping you anyway,” Calipari said. “The thing that you learn is, ‘If I help this team as the tide rises, all the boats rise.’ And it’s happened on this team.”