Kentucky earned its NCAA Tournament win. And Jacob Toppin enjoyed his shining moment.

Three-hundred and sixty-four days after Saint Peter’s shocked Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and one day before the Wildcats were set to return to March Madness with a game against Providence, one of UK’s most important players — Jacob Toppin — looked back on that stunning defeat and looked forward to the Friars all at the same time.

To exorcise the past, Toppin explained, the Cats simply needed to turn the page.

“We can’t get too tense,” he said Thursday. “We gotta live in the moment and have fun. At the end of the day, it’s just basketball. So we just gotta have fun. I feel like last year we just got tense and we were too worried about the outcome. And I feel like this year everyone’s in a great mindset. Everyone’s understanding what it’s going to take, but they’re not too worried about the outcome. We’re just worried about taking it possession by possession, living in the moment, and understanding that we gotta play winning basketball for 40 minutes.”

Those 40 minutes against the Friars on Friday night weren’t always pretty. But at the end of those 40 minutes, the Wildcats had indeed played winning basketball. Kentucky defeated Providence 61-53 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the program’s first March Madness victory in four years.

The win came on the one-year anniversary of UK’s loss to Saint Peter’s, and while the Peacocks will live forever in NCAA Tournament lore, these Cats have moved beyond that unthinkable night.

And Toppin was a catalyst.

His first words from the postgame podium after his first NCAA Tournament victory?

“It was a big relief, obviously.”

Oscar Tshiebwe grabbed 25 rebounds — one shy of the modern NCAA Tournament record — and Antonio Reeves scored 22 points and made some huge shots throughout the game, but Toppin had as much to do with this win as anyone.

The jubilation that followed Friday’s victory was the highest high of Toppin’s roller-coaster season. He began his senior year with outsized expectations of a breakout campaign, and while he had his moments, it became clear rather quickly that it wouldn’t be the star turn many had hoped for. A few weeks into the season, things hit rock bottom.

Four points against Yale. Five points (on 2-for-10 shooting) in a loss to UCLA. Four points against Florida A&M and then a scoreless 13 minutes in an embarrassing loss at Missouri.

Before the next game — against rival Louisville — John Calipari met with Toppin and doubled down on his personal belief in the 22-year-old’s ability. Calipari re-inserted Toppin into the starting lineup, and the Wildcat had the game of his life.

Afterward, Toppin spoke candidly about the mental struggles he’d been going through during the season and the support he’d received from Calipari and his teammates along the way. Over the past two months, he’s scored in double figures in 15 of Kentucky’s 16 games, established himself as a rebounding force and — somewhere along the way — found his voice as a leader.

It all came together Friday night.

When Kentucky couldn’t buy a shot in the opening minutes of the game, Toppin was there to keep it close. The Cats made just four of their first 16 attempts. Toppin had three of those makes.

“I’m a team-first guy, and I understand I need to do certain things for this team to win,” he said. “And going into this game, we understood that I could drive the ball and get to the rim easily, so that’s what I did. I’m always going to do what this team needs me to do, and that’s what I did tonight.”

He finished with 18 points and six rebounds in 37 minutes, but his biggest contributions might have come on the other end of the court, where Toppin was the main man tasked with stopping former teammate Bryce Hopkins, who blossomed into Providence’s star player after transferring from Kentucky last summer.

Hopkins scored just seven points on 2-for-9 shooting. And with their best player neutralized, the Friars struggled mightily on offense. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the game came amid that matchup.

Reeves had just nailed a three-pointer to give UK a 33-25 lead, and Providence was in its halfcourt offense. Hopkins left Toppin in the dust at the perimeter and streaked toward the rim. The former Cat received a pass about a step from the basket and leapt up for what looked like it might be an uncontested dunk.

“He caught me. I’m not gonna lie,” Toppin said. “He caught me on the slip. And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I can’t let him get this dunk.’ So I just went up for it and got the block.”

At the same time, Reeves had come from the corner to try and block Hopkins from behind. Toppin basically bodied him out of the way as he soared toward Hopkins and the ball.

“Psssh, it was ridiculous,” Reeves said. “I jumped first and I tried to block the shot, but Jacob just came in all over my back and stuff. And beat it off the glass. I’m like, ‘What is goin’ on?!’ So I looked back and saw that he blocked the shot, and then we were out in transition.”

Toppin swatted Hopkins’ attempt off the backboard, leaving his former teammate on the ground and the Cats hustled back up the court. Reeves hit a three in short order to give UK an 11-point lead. Providence called a timeout, and the mostly blue crowd in Greensboro went wild.

A few days ago, Calipari announced to the team that he was naming Toppin and junior forward Lance Ware his captains for the NCAA Tournament. Ware, he said, was a veteran player that others listened to. Toppin, he said, needed the added responsibility to realize his own potential.

“I’m putting this on Jacob because we need him to be more,” Calipari said on Selection Sunday. “And when he’s more, we’re pretty good.”

Ware is Toppin’s roommate this weekend in Greensboro, and he said after Friday’s game that he could tell Toppin was ready for this one.

“That might have been a master plan by Cal,” Ware said. “If that was his plan, he succeeded.”

Toppin has been through a lot over the past year. The Saint Peter’s loss. The buzz surrounding his senior season. The letdown that came when he didn’t quite live up to those expectations and the despair that followed. And then his personal rally, on and off the court. And now this.

Kentucky’s 2022-23 season hasn’t gone quite according to plan. Neither has Toppin’s. But they’re still playing. And, at this time of year, that’s all that matters.

“We’re not worried about the outside noise,” Toppin said. “We’re worried about this team. And we’re still writing our story. So let’s continue to write it.”

Sunday

No. 6 seed Kentucky vs. No. 3 seed Kansas State

What: NCAA Tournament round-of-32 game

When: 2:40 p.m. ET

Where: Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum

TV: CBS-27

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Kentucky 22-11; Kansas State 24-9

Series: Kentucky leads 9-1

Last meeting: Kansas State won 61-58 on March 22, 2018, in NCAA Sweet 16 in Atlanta

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The streak is over. Kentucky beats Providence for first NCAA Tournament win in four years.

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Box score from Kentucky basketball’s 61-53 win over Providence in the NCAA Tournament