Kentucky players stayed up reminiscing until 6 AM following Sweet 16 loss

Just how close was this Kentucky team? The Wildcats didn’t want their season to end, so they decided to stay up until 6 o’clock in the morning the night of the Tennessee loss, reminiscing on a historic year.

Mark Pope opened up about the aftermath of the game in Indianapolis, leaving that teary-eyed postgame press conference and open locker room session to go back to the hotel where they let all of their emotions out.

The staff shared some final thoughts with the team before the players went on their separate way.

“I think it was a beautiful relationship. That’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what’s supposed to be in Kentucky, and our guys understood that,” Pope said. “They took it really seriously. They cared, they care, they will always care. It was fun to hear the guys’ comments postgame about refusing to give back their jersey, refusing to take off their shoes. There’s some realness to that, it was a special group.

“I love how they bonded with BBN and I love how they bonded with each other. It’s pretty extraordinary. The guys were just absolutely devastated after the game — ton of tears, ton of emotion just on so many different levels, sadness. We finally made it back to the hotel. We were together for about a half an hour as we had the guys go through just some last things.”

From there? A players-only meeting in a single hotel room that stretched into the early hours of the morning.

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Or just the normal morning for most working adults. Either way, it was something Pope had never seen before in his decade-plus of coaching.

And that’s fitting, because this Kentucky team is something he’s never seen before in his decade-plus of coaching.

“Then the guys just all migrated up into one of their rooms and the whole team was in there till about 6 o’clock in the morning, telling stories about the season and teasing each other. I’ve never seen that on a team before. It was exactly the right kind of last night for those guys. I’m really proud of them.”

This team was undoubtedly one of a kind.