Kentucky remains confident heading into NCAA Tournament

Saturday’s semifinal game at the SEC Tournament didn’t go as planned for the Kentucky Wildcats. Tennessee was in control and on top on the scoreboard for the final 37 minutes of the game as Kentucky’s rival sent Kentucky’s plane home early from Tampa with yet another loss to the Volunteers. The defeat cost the Cats a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and gave Rick Barnes another win over Calipari in the head-to-head rivalry.

Currently, the mood around Big Blue Nation is not great. It’s a sad scene here in Tampa as fans wallow in misery and sadness due to the early exit from everyone’s favorite spring vacation. Adding to the pain, Vols fans are pounding their chests around the postgame scene here on location and online. Congratulations to the better team today.

Some good news, the people whose emotions actually matter–John Calipari and his players–aren’t beating themselves up over the loss. They’re disappointed, yes, but still confident in their abilities heading into the real tournament next week.

Keion Brooks said, “We’re still in great spirits. Looking forward to what we got coming up next week. We were really, really happy with the way we continued to fight. We could have gave up, and we still pushed it, and still had a chance to win the game, so it’s a tough loss. We hate to lose, but we’re still in good spirits moving forward.”

Discipline and focus will be emphasized in the week ahead, Brooks said.

Oscar Tshiebwe added, “I think we just have to stay focused and locked in, be ready for the next tournament. I’m pretty confident with my teammates, with everything. This was kind of an off day for us. We didn’t really make a shot. We still have our confidence, and we’re going to be ready next week.”

Calipari: “I think we’re in really good shape.”

Calipari seemed very unbothered by the loss in his postgame comments from Amalie Arena. He was ready to get home, he admitted, and put the SEC Tournament behind him.

Moving forward, Calipari still likes his team going into the one tournament he really cares about.

“I think we’re in really good shape,” Calipari said. “We got three guys at every position, so what I told them — I was going to tell them — and I did tell them before this tournament, you don’t have to play great because I’ll just play somebody else. I don’t even have to get mad. If you’re not ready to go, I’m just going to play somebody else. Just be ready next game.”

He’ll watch the tape when he gets home, but won’t put too much stock into what it shows because it was just one of those days. His best shooter was ice cold, Oscar Tshiebwe played only eight minutes in the first half, and the team as a whole shot 10 percent on 20 attempts from outside.

“I believe in this team,” he said. “Let me ask you, if we would have pulled this off, what would everybody in the country say? Oh, my God, they just played like that and won? You do not want to play them. That’s what I told them after. We’re fine. Let’s go home. I would like to be home by 8:30 to see my dogs, kiss my dogs.”