Valentine’s Day came early this year. It arrived at the beginning of the week in two phone calls to two people I had never spoken to before. It was love at first sound.
The first call was to Cincinnati guard Sean Kilpatrick of White Plains. The more I listened, the luckier I felt to be doing this sports-writing gig. I told him I would call his mother, Regina Williams, later that day and ask if there was any message to deliver. Kilpatrick’s response was a quick as his release.
“Tell her I love her,’’ he said.
“I love you’’ are arguably the three best words in any language.
Regina chuckled upon hearing Sean’s message.
“I love both of my boys,’’ she said of Sean and Travis Williams, 18. “When they were growing up, they were with me all the time. All the time. If people saw me without either one of them, they would stop and ask, ‘Where are your boys?’ Is everything OK?’ ’’
“We did everything together, go to the movies, everything,’’ she said. “Some boys wouldn’t want to go to the movies with their mom, but not Sean.’’
Sean Redell Kilpatrick is going places on his own these days. The redshirt sophomore arguably is the most improved player in the Big East this season, averaging15.4, up from 9.7.
In a 127-second span of the second half of Cincinnati’s 76-54 victory over St. John’s Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, Kilpatrick put on a dazzling offensive performance, scoring 10 straight points to turn a 34-24 lead into a 44-27 wedge.
He opened with a steal and layup, knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers that went through the nets so quietly you could hear a sleeping baby breathe, and finished with a wing jumper. He ended up with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Kilpatrick leads the Big East in 3s made per game (2.8) on 39.5-percent shooting, 11th best in the league, remarkable considering that the 6-foot-4 Kilpatrick came out of Notre Dame Prep (after becoming the leading scorer in White Plains High history) as a scorer but not a shooter.
He redshirted his freshman season to work on his game and his academics. The Cincinnati coaching staff broke down his shot and rebuilt it. Kilpatrick forged it with hundreds of jumpers every day.
“I’ll tell you one thing that’s sort of a lost art,’’ said Cronin. “A reporter asked Kevin Garnett how he comes out with great energy every game and he said it was easy. I hit pause and I asked the guys what they thought about that.’’
“I told them Garnett’s wrong,’’ continued Cronin. “Because if it was easy for guys to come out and practice and play hard, everybody would to it. Sean Kilpatrick does it.’’
Sean does it because Regina always has preached that nothing is impossible with hard work and high goals. When he entered White Plains, the coaches wanted to put Kilpatrick on the varsity as a freshman behind Devon Austin, who would go on to play at Manhattan.
Sean and Regina had a heart-to-heart. They agreed he would benefit more from playing as a freshman than sitting on the varsity bench. It made the decision to sit his first season at Cincinnati a lot easier.
“I’ve always told Sean to never give up at anything you want to succeed in,’’ Regina told The Post. “You’ll always wind up in a good place. If you give up you’ll fail and failure is not an option.’’
It hasn’t been for Kilpatrick. He scored 21 points in his freshman debut last season. His 3 at the buzzer gave the Bearcats a win at UConn earlier this season. His 10-point spurt left St. John’s in the dust.
“My mom taught me to challenge myself to the fullest,’’ said Kilpatrick. “Sometimes it’s hard to get there. But if you do that, it always works out. You end up where you meant to be.’’
Regina and Sean were meant to be together. It’s a heck of a Valentine’s Day story.
lenn.robbins@nypost.com