Koby Brea, Andrew Carr don't want to take off their Kentucky jerseys

A lopsided loss to Tennessee was not the way Kentucky wanted the season to end, but as we’ve seen since they arrived on campus, the gratitude the players have for being able to wear the Kentucky jersey trumps all. In the postgame press conference, both Andrew Carr and Koby Brea said they weren’t looking forward to the moment they had to take the jersey off; Brea joked that he’s not giving his back.

“Yeah, I don’t know who is in charge of the jerseys and all that, but they’re going to go through some trouble to get mine,” he said, drawing a laugh from the media members in the room, “It’s still surreal every time I walk in the locker room, and I’m able to put this jersey on. Just from everything I have dealt with, everything I have been through, where I come from, just to put it on, it’s super special.

“Just to have my brothers, we were all strangers when we first got here, and we didn’t have a lot of time really to bond and get to know each other and make this possible, what we just did. We’re all a big family now, and BBN has been amazing. They made this dream a reality for real for me. Ever since I stepped onto campus, they have greeted me with open arms and been amazing to me and my family. It’s been everything I have wanted and more.”

“Certainly very difficult,” Carr said of the season being over. “Don’t want to untie my shoes. Don’t want to take off this jersey. Definitely shout out BBN and all the fans. It’s like nowhere I have ever experienced, and really have just had the most fun playing basketball this season, and I really appreciate them and caring about us more than just basketball players. You’re welcomed into the Kentucky family, and it’s a family for a reason. It’s an amazing experience that hurts right now, but as we continue to get older, to look back and be more and more proud as time goes on.”

Lamont Butler echoed his teammates, thanking Kentucky fans for embracing them from the start.

“This is a special place with special people around. The whole program. The fans, they’re out there every day. Even when I got here, greeting me with love and greeting everybody with love. People were coming up to our dorm and getting autographs and stuff like that. It was kind of surreal when we got here, the fan love, but just the bond that we were able to create this year was amazing. In one year, you usually don’t get teams really connected like that, usually it’s two or three years, but we bonded really quick.”

“Coach Pope brought together guys I will call brothers for the rest of my life. I’m grateful God gave me the opportunity to be around these people.”

Of course, you’d love to hear this stuff after your team wins a national championship, not after a loss to your rival in the Sweet 16, but this team’s legacy extends past one game. When asked if he learned anything about himself under the spotlight at Kentucky, Pope thought for a minute and shared something he heard a few days ago, which he believes applies to his first Kentucky squad.

“I heard this the other day, and I actually think it’s true and these guys have been incredible examples of this, something that goes like this: If the spotlight on you is brighter than the light that comes from within you, then it’ll destroy you. A roundabout way to answer your question, these guys have an amazing light coming out of each of them. At the end of the day, it’s not about them. I feel the same way. It’s not about us. I think that’s the space where we live.”

Pope said that by keeping the focus on helping others, he and his players have been able to rise above self-doubt, which we’ve seen time and time again this season as the team has faced adversity.

“So when you live that way, of course we all have doubts every single day, we do, but when it’s about something more important than just ourselves, man, those doubts seem to blur a little bit, and you just spend all your time trying to figure out how we’re supposed to make a difference, how it’s supposed to be, how we’re supposed to serve, how we’re supposed to make an impact. That’s what these guys have done, man.

“What they did on the basketball court is incredible, but what they did for each other and this community is bigger, and it’s going to last longer and mean more.”

It may be hard to see it right now, but the fun they brought back to Kentucky Basketball will outshine the sad final chapter.

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