John Calipari addresses extra pressure surrounding him in NCAA Tournament

If you’re the head coach of Kentucky, the month of March brings a ton of pressure. National championships are expected and at times, expected. John Calipari has not held his side of the bargain up in recent times. In fact, the Wildcats are in a serious NCAA Tournament win drought heading into Friday.

Calipari was asked about the potential added pressure on him, admitting he is going to be nervous heading into the Providence matchup. However, that’s not because of the win drought. He claims every coach is going to have butterflies heading into a tournament game, no matter the scenario.

“Every coach in this tournament has butterflies,” Calipari said. “Whether they lost last year or they won the whole tournament or they’re in the Final Four, they have butterflies. Their teams have butterflies. That’s part of what this is. I want this team to fully experience the NCAA tournament. Not deal with, well, what if and they’re saying this and that. No.”

While most of the heat is on Calipari, Kentucky players can hear the noise as well. Everyone in Lexington knows they need to get over the hump in a big way. But Calipari says it’s his job to make sure players are blocking it out and locked in from the get-go.

“My job is to shield them from all that stuff and make sure this is an experience that you go through that you’re fortunate to be in this and really enjoy the experience,” Calipari said. “Don’t listen to all the outside voices and — it doesn’t matter. You play the games. You play the games.

“What anybody says and, again, my job is to shield them from all that. The problem is some of them have phones, and they’ll read some of the stuff, and you try to tell them, it makes no difference what anybody says. You still play the games.”

Kentucky was last seen in Nashville, dropping a game to Vanderbilt. Even so, there is a sense of hope within the program. It’s amazing what a bracket can do to morale, loving how your team matches up against other potential opponents.

As the NCAA Tournament works though, only one game is important at a time. Calipari knows they will get the best out of Providence, no matter the pregame circumstances. Being mentally prepared is crucial.

“So I’ve done this a long time,” John Calipari said. “I mean, this is another tournament game for me, but my job is let’s get them in the right mindset. Let’s get them to understand who we are and what we are. You know we bring out the best in other teams.

“In my time at Kentucky, you’ve had teams play out of their minds against us at times, but we’ve done some good things too.”