Almost exactly a year ago, 364 days, Kentucky basketball was at a low ebb, after a season-opening humiliation against Duke. A year later, when Kentucky found itself back in the Champion’s Classic, ranked No. 2 in the nation, ready to take on No. 1-ranked Michigan State, the Wildcats were not about to repeat last year’s failure. Not if Tyrese Maxey had anything to say about.

In his first college game, under the bright lights of New York City, Maxey seemed to take a page out of the Sinatra playbook. If you can make it here, kid, you can make it anywhere.

Maxey made the difference in Kentucky’s 69-62 victory Tuesday night, scoring a game-high 26 points and taking control down the stretch. Kentucky, which grabbed the lead late in the first half, stretched it as far as 13 points midway through the second half of a pair of 3s from Kahlil Whitney and Nate Sestina.

But the biggest shot came when State had climbed to within 2 points at 62-60 on a Cassius Winston 3-point play. Maxey took the best shot from the State All-American, and calmly answered. He dribbled outside the top of the key, found enough space to launch, and fired a deep 3-pointer, probably about 28 feet out. When it splashed through, former Kentucky guard John Wall, not for the first time, leaped to his feet at midcourt. This, Wall seemed to say, is how I used to do it.

It was an odd pair of games, this year’s Champion’s Classic. Recently, national analysts Jeff Goodman wrote a column about how Kentucky and Duke’s rosters didn’t seem to contain a single NBA lottery pick. Goodman might want to run that one back up the NBA flagpoles this morning.

Maxey had 26 points, hitting 3-of-7 3-point shots, and went 9-for-10 at the foul line. He also had 5 rebounds, which was fairly crucial for a Kentucky team that played its best when Maxey, Hagans and fellow guard Immanuel Quickley were on the floor together.  Nobody on Kentucky’s team was as sharp as Maxey. The Wildcats shot 38%, and scratched to a 30-30 tie on rebounds despite subpar efforts from big men Nick Richards and E.J. Montgomery.

But the story in Madison Square Garden was Maxey.

Maxey driving, Maxey shooting, Maxey taking away those memories from a year prior when Kentucky looked hopeless against a squad of Duke alpha dogs. A surprised John Calipari admitted of Maxey’s play, “What I saw today is what I saw in high school. I had not seen it to this point.”

Kentucky found its alpha dog — er, Wildcat. A star was born in New York City. And even if it feels like that happens every day in the Big Apple and almost as frequently in Lexington, this one felt extra special.