John Calipari's message to fans after another early SEC Tournament exit

With tonight’s 97-87 loss to Texas A&M, Kentucky’s record in its last six SEC Tournament games dropped to 1-5. For the first time in program history, the Cats are 0-1 in the event in consecutive seasons. John Calipari has long preached that the SEC Tournament doesn’t matter and that the NCAA Tournament is what he wants his players to focus on the most; however, another early exit from an event Kentucky used to dominate is hard to swallow.

This year was supposed to be different. The Big Blue Nation flooded Nashville, with 90% of the fans in Bridgestone Arena and thousands more on Broadway. Fans saved and spent hard-earned dollars to come to an expensive city to cheer on the Cats and revel in what was shaping up to be the program’s return to postseason glory. To his credit, in addition to telling reporters that he wanted his team to use the event to improve their NCAA Tournament seed, Calipari said he regrets that fans who made the trip will be headed home early.

“You know what this is, this was about seed. It was also about our fans. I told them that. We got a lot of people that traveled, spent money. This is their opportunity to watch this team. But this tournament for us was about the seed. You got to win and you got to advance to improve your seed.”

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When Kentucky gave them reason, the fans made Bridgestone Arena even better than Rupp. The roar when Reed Sheppard stole the ball and scored early in the first half was one of the loudest I’ve heard in my lifetime as a fan. Unfortunately, Texas A&M answered every Kentucky bucket with one of its own, making it impossible for the Cats to string together a run.

“They wanted to win this game,” Calipari said of the players. “They were frustrated and disappointed. I felt for the fans. I said it to Tom [Leach] after on the radio. You want to win for them. They put everything into being here, all that. You want to win for them.

“But our kids did, too. I told them, When you walk in this arena, you’re going to think you’re in Rupp Arena. Let’s go play for ’em, have some fun, let them see who we are. Some of these people can’t get in Rupp Arena. Let’s go.”

When it comes to seeding, Calipari’s main objective in the event, Kentucky didn’t do itself any favors. With a win tonight and potentially more on Saturday and Sunday, the Cats could have climbed as high as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, Kentucky will likely remain on the No. 3 seed line or fall to No. 4 depending on the other results of the weekend.

“We had every chance,” Calipari said. “All that’s going around the country, we had our chance. But we had to go and play well today. You do know how many games my teams have won in this thing, championships? Like 16. We are playing to win. But we’re playing for a bigger picture, which is that seed.”

We’ll find out Kentucky’s seed on Sunday night. Sadly, it comes after another disappointing trip to Nashville for an event the Cats haven’t won since 2018. This early exit only raises the stakes for next week.

“We got some stuff to figure out,” Calipari said. “But this is an unbelievable group that I’m coaching. All I told ’em is they got to stick together now. We’ve been on a run, it’s all been fun, you win. All of a sudden you get dinged and now the real stuff starts next week. We’ve got to be in the right frame of mind.”