Kentucky has had issues with Friday nightcap at SEC Tournament

After finishing the season 25-6 (14-4), most years that would win Kentucky a regular-season SEC title. Unfortunately, that is not the case in 2022.

Thanks to the conference having four top-15 teams to go along with two other top-25 caliber clubs, the SEC was a survival of the fittest this season. Due to some unbalanced schedules, Kentucky received the short end of the stick on tiebreakers and will have to begin the SEC Tournament in the nightcap as the No. 3 seed this weekend in Tampa.

The Wildcats have not had to play in this time slot much in recent years. However, the results have not been pretty when the late Friday game has arrived in the past.

Nolan Richardson finally beats Kentucky in SEC Tournament

Once Arkansas joined the SEC for the 1991-92 college basketball season, the Razorbacks would become rival No. 1 for Kentucky in the league. The two powerhouse programs won three national titles and went to five Final Fours from 1994-98. During that time, the schools met four times in the SEC Tournament and the Wildcats won each matchup.

Nolan Richardson finally broke the streak in 2000.

Despite entering the SEC Tournament in Atlanta with a 15-14 (7-9) record, the Hogs and freshman phenom Joe Johnson shocked Kentucky in the nightcap on Friday in the Georgia Dome with a 86-72 victory. Arkansas would follow that up with wins over LSU and Auburn to claim the program’s only SEC Tournament title.

South Carolina stuns Kentucky

Two years later, Kentucky against finished second-place in the SEC East and found itself playing in the Friday nightcap at the SEC Tournament. However, the bracket appeared to open up for the Wildcats in 2002.

Both No. 17 Georgia and No. 11 Florida lost games in the afternoon session leaving No. 8 Alabama and No. 12 Kentucky as the only two ranked teams remaining in Atlanta. Meanwhile, the Wildcats drew sixth-place South Carolina after the Gamecocks upset Ole Miss on Thursday night.

Despite sweeping the regular-season meetings, the Gamecocks knocked off Kentucky 70-57 to give the tournament its third huge upset of the weekend. South Carolina would lose the very next day to Alabama. However, the upsets were not finished as unranked Mississippi State would knock off the Tide in the SEC title.

Kentucky was known as “Team Turmoil” that season as the Wildcats went from No. 4 in the preseason to a team that dealt with numerous off-the-court issues, injuries, and uninspired performances. Kentucky would make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual national champion Maryland in the Sweet 16.

South Carolina would use that SEC Tournament momentum to go on a run in the NIT that ended with a loss to John Calipari’s second Memphis team in the championship game at Madison Square Garden.

Tornado hits the Georgia Dome

In Billy Gillispie’s first season at Kentucky, the team bounced back after an awful non-conference run to go 12-4 in conference play and finish No. 2 in the SEC. Once again, Kentucky drew the late Friday game in the 2008 SEC Tournament.

We all know what happened next.

After Georgia upset Ole Miss on Thursday night, the Bulldogs and Wildcats were set to meet before a tornado arrived in Downtown Atlanta. The game was moved to Georgia Tech the next day, Perry Stevenson got a technical for blocking a free throw, and the Bulldogs won three games in two days to win the SEC Tournament and claim the conference’s automatic bid in a stunning weekend performance.

Kentucky has not had great success in the late Friday tips at the SEC Tournament.