NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The old Marquis Teague would have panicked. Unsure of himself, his teammates and in what his coach wanted out of him, the moment would have swallowed him whole. It's what happens to freshman point guards on the big stage.

Marquis Teague had eight assists and only one turnover in Kentucky's win (Photo by Darrell Bird)

A month removed from people questioning whether Teague had the chops to engineer a potential championship run for Kentucky, he found himself in the type of situation that silences the critics.

Teague did just that.

The 6-foot-2 point guard made two of the most important offensive plays of the night for Kentucky down the stretch, helping push the No. 1-ranked Cats to a statement-making 69-63 victory over Vanderbilt in Memorial Gym. Whether it was the deft drive and floater to give UK a 61-57 lead with 6:00 left or having the wherewithal to find a cutting Darius Miller for the game-sealing bucket while simultaneously losing his footing, this was the version of Teague that UK has been waiting on.

“I thought he was outstanding,” UK coach John Calipari said. “Outstanding.”

It wasn't long ago that word would have been blasphemous in describing Teague's play. The flashy high school star had struggled with the adjustment to distributor and director of the Cats' talented cast. He tried to do too much. He pressed. He beat himself up. He read the papers.

Then the kid Calipari calls a 'pit bull' took a step back, surveyed the landscape and re-emerged a different player.

“When you start getting drilled in the paper and everybody is killing you on the
Internet, on the blogs, 'This kid this ...'” Calipari said. “They were telling us to start Doron Lamb (at point guard), were they not? 'Why are we starting this kid for?' You start reading that as a player, and you're like, 'What?' Then he says, 'It's not working. Let me do this right.'”

The results have been undeniable. In the Cats' last eight games – including his 13-point, 8-assist, 1-turnover against Vanderbilt – Teague has dished out 46 assists against just 17 turnovers. He's scored at times, rebounded at others, but he's put teammates in positions where they can succeed and defended like his livelihood depends on it.

“I’m feeling real comfortable,” Teague said. “I’m playing with some great guys. They make easy for me. I give them the ball and they knock down the shots. They make it real easy for me. We’re just trying to pick and choose when to go and when to find somebody else. Try to control the tempo, and we just keep getting wins.”

“Marquis is playing great so far at the point guard position,” Lamb added. “He’s finding everybody, making me score a lot, making the right decisions and scoring for himself.”

With an ESPN “GameDay' audience watching nationwide, the kid who was once considered a liability for this team showed he may ultimately be the driving force as Kentucky chases its eight national championship and first in 14 seasons.

“He's very coachable. He's very tough,” Calipari said. “I call him a bulldog. He's a bulldog. I have so much confidence in him as a player. I did when I saw him as a (high school) sophomore. I looked at this kid and said, 'Oh my gosh, look at this kid.' Size, athleticism, he's smart.

“In the last month he has really focused and really listened and practiced hard, and all the sudden, he's transformed into what one of our typical point guards plays like. Now all of the sudden he's running the team, he's defending, making layups, making good decisions, getting us into offense.”

All things the old Marquis Teague couldn't – or wouldn't – have done.