Redemption? Keith Bogans doesn’t want to hear anything about it.

For those who follow UK hoops, redemption was delivered unto the 6'5" junior wing in the form of 21- and 19-point games for the Tourney’s opening weekend. But Bogans, who went from possible NBA pick to college backup in the spell of nine months, is still searching. “This doesn’t make the season I had right,” he says.

Last spring, Bogans decided two years in Lexington was enough. Whoops. After clanging his way off the draft boards at Chicago’s pre-draft camp in June, he returned to Lexington and watched his numbers go NASDAQ. He had 15 games in which he scored in single figures, an unthinkable drop for someone whose 17 points per game in 2000-01 was the highest average for a Wildcat since Ron Mercer’s in 1996-97. The only category in which he led UK this season? Most turnovers in a game (six).

	Cruz: Brandin Knight & the Panthers are on the prowl. Palmer Steve Blake makes it all work for Maryland. Keown: Jared Jeffries is turning it on for the Hoosiers. Wickersham: Keith Bogans is back on his game, making the Cats a scary team. Gustafson: Trevor Huffman is out to prove the Golden Flashes are the real deal. Kirkpatrick: Channing Frye is quickly becoming the beast of the Big Dance.

Bogans hit bottom against LSU on Feb. 9, when he was benched after firing a shot instead of dishing to a wide-open Tayshaun Prince. Before he took his seat, he jawed with Tubby Smith in plain view. “It was so embarrassing, how bad I was playing,” Bogans says.

Determined to get his swerve back, he stayed at practice longer. He watched more film. He clipped newspaper articles describing how awful he was, hoping to use them as motivation. None of it worked. “I always had the faith that things would turn around for me,” he says. “At least, I always thought they would.”

As the outside world was closing in, Bogans opened himself up to those on the inside. Always quick with a joke, he put raw chicken meat under his teammates’ beds and let the rotting stench drive them crazy. He also gave several players new nicknames: Junior forward Jules Camara, for one, is now known as Egghead, owing to his angular, shaved pate. “What people don’t realize about Keith,” says frosh guard (and handle-free) Rashaad Carruth, “is how much he cares about people.”

Junior forward Marquis Estill knows. When his father, Larry, died on Jan. 5, nobody handed out more “hang-in-theres” than Bogans. He did whatever he could to keep Estill strong, talking with him until the wee hours of the night, dropping little notes and pats on the back. “I thought I was having it rough,” Bogans says. “But then I saw what Quis was going through.”

Armed with a new perspective, and with a little push from Coach, Bogans quietly started repairing himself. After South Carolina dispatched Kentucky in the second round of the SEC tourney, Smith approached Bogans in front of the entire team, leaned down so their eyes met and said, “Whatever you’re giving, you need to give more.” Bogans blinked. Smith said it again. This time, Bogans didn’t blink.

He still hasn’t. He scored 21 against Valparaiso in the first round, and he was everywhere against Tulsa -- dunking one minute, drilling threes the next, feeding Camara for a dunk, dishing to Prince (41 points). Bogans scored 19, grabbed 3 boards, handed out 3 assists and had 2 steals. No turnovers, either.

After the second win, as the team whooped and danced and slapped, Smith quieted the locker room and brought in a guest. She told them all how proud she was, then looked to Bogans and gave him a sweet smile on her way out. He smiled back.

Getting the nod from Ashley Judd -- now that’s redemption.

This article appears in the April 1 issue of ESPN The Magazine.