"We had to deal with Coach Cal": Aaron Harrison reflects on turbulence, losses during Kentucky's 2013-14 season

Aaron Harrison played two seasons of college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats under John Calipari. Harrison had come to Lexington in the summer of 2013 as one of the highly touted recruits in the country.

Harrison, now competing as a professional in Mexico, told Theo Pinson on the Run Your Race podcast, about his time playing ball at Kentucky. He recalled his freshman season playing alongside Julius Randle, James Young, Dakari Johnson and Marcus Lee and remembered how much talent there was on the team.

"Like maybe as a freshman team — one through five — I think we were probably the most talented team in the country at the time," Harrison said (41:36). "Just talent-wise but the least experienced. Talent can only do so much. You gotta get in there and lose a couple fights, lose a couple battles. "And I think that’s how we really started to get along too. Like — 'cause y’all been through it. We’re going in there like, man, we gotta deal with this crazy man together — Coach Cal. We gotta deal with these losses, the mood on campus."

Aaron Harrison added that all the players started to lean on each other because they knew that they had to go through tough situations together.

Harrison averaged 13.7 points and 3.0 rebounds as a freshman, leading the Wildcats to the national championship game, where they lost to the UConn Huskies. They also suffered defeat in the SEC Tournament final against Florida. So, the season wasn't all smooth sailing for the Wildcats.

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Aaron Harrison reveals how John Calipari's methods helped him become a leader

For two years when Aaron Harrison was at Kentucky, he and his twin brother, Andrew Harrison, were two of the most polarizing players in college. They led the Wildcats to back-to-back Final Four appearances but always seemed to shoulder the blame when things went wrong.

"Coach Cal made us practice for three hours because we lost three in a row," Harrison said in the same podcast (34:40). "When you lose in college, life is miserable — everybody knows that. It’s terrible. "So, who is going to still be the leader? Who’s going to be able to take most of the criticism and all the blame? ... And I think that’s how me and (Andrew) established ourselves, got our respect and became the leaders of our groups that we had. Because when it was time, we just took the criticism."

Harrison went undrafted in 2015 but carved out a successful professional career overseas.

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Edited by Bhargav