St. Charles High Grad Harrellson Aiming for NCAA Championship

There is a direct link between the NCAA basketball mayhem happening this weekend and .

When the University of Kentucky plays top-seeded and top-ranked Ohio State on Friday in Newark, NJ (at 8:45 p.m. on), one of the key players on the floor will be Kentucky senior Josh Harrellson. The 6-foot-10, 265-pound center played his high school ball at St. Charles High.

In his senior season during the 2005-06 campaign, Harrelson averaged 18.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.6 blocks for the Pirates. He led St. Charles to a 23-8 record and the Class 4 state semifinals that season under head coach Gary Wacker.

Now, he is aiming to leave Kentucky as a national champion after a long, difficult journey.

Harrellson left high school with the intention of playing for Western Illinois. A coaching switch changed his mind and he nullified his commitment. Harrelson then played one season at Southwestern Illinois Community College in Belleville before landing at Kentucky.

In his first two seasons in Lexington, Harrellson rarely played. He sat out complete games. Often. He averaged just 1.3 points per game last season. But, everything has drastically changed over the course of the past 12 months.

The Wildcats lost five players to the 2010 NBA Draft, including four freshmen, which opened the door for more minutes for Harrellson in his senior season. He was making solid progress, and played really well in a preseason scrimmage last October. In a story that was splashed across sports blogs everywhere, Harrellson complained via Twitter that despite getting 26 rebounds in that scrimmage, he could not earn any praise from head coach John Calipari.

Calipari responded famously with his own Tweet, saying Harrellson "won't be Tweeting until he's responsible enough to handle success and failure.”

Harrellson continued to work hard, and after a slow start, began to play more minutes throughout the season, including a 23-point, 14-rebound outburst against rival Louisville on New Year’s Eve.

In Wildcats NCAA Tournament wins over Princeton and West Virginia last week, Harrellson averaged 15 points, 9 rebounds and 2.5 steals while shooting 14-for-18 from the field. He has been exceptional, except for his 2-for-9 free-throw shooting. He had made 24-for-36 from the line before those two outings.

"What he's done is he's changed all his habits, he's changed his body, he's changed his mentality, so the result has changed," said Calipari to NCAA pool reporters following the win over Princeton.

TV commentators have mentioned his nickname, Jorts. In case you are wondering, that is a reference to Harrellson frequently wearing jean shorts. Harrellson averaged 6.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game before the tourney.

If he continues to lift the Wildcats toward a national championship, jean shorts may become a staple in Lexington, and Harrellson may very well become one of the most unlikely basketball legends to play at one of the elite programs in the nation.