March Madness a 'dream come true' for Kentucky players on Selection Sunday

Everything comes down to this, the work the players have done since first arriving on campus back in June bringing us to Selection Sunday. Today the Kentucky Wildcats will find out the who, what, when and where of their NCAA Tournament path as the bracket is revealed at 6 PM ET on CBS. Every single scholarship player on the roster will be experiencing this moment for the very first time, March Madness as a blue blood hooper.

The SEC Tournament didn’t go as planned, needing a game-winner to survive and advance to open the event, followed by a 29-point loss in the quarterfinals, but that’s the beauty of fresh starts. You get to move past everything up to this point and tip off with a clean slate in a win-or-go-home format.

You wait your entire basketball career for this opportunity, and now, the Cats have it.

“I’m super excited, really. I can’t wait to get there, honestly, just trying to move past this (Alabama) game,” Koby Brea said after the SEC Tournament loss. “I really feel like we still have a chance to do some special stuff. I wish it could be here tomorrow.”

“It’s what you wait for as a kid, it’s what you dream of, what you watch growing up,” Collin Chandler added. “I’m excited to experience it, just on the playing field this time.”

It’s a shot at redemption, getting your starting point guard back after losing him in the first half against Oklahoma and missing him entirely against Alabama, Kentucky just not having enough in the tank to pull off the shorthanded upset. It was a blowout with little fight in the second half, leading to a third straight loss to the Tide.

Frustration was clear in the locker room after the game, using that performance as fuel going into the Big Dance.

“It was embarrassing, to be honest,” Chandler said. “I think everyone feels that way, and we think there’s — I would hope there’s gonna be a fire coming into practice this next week and into the tournament.”

“We haven’t come this far just to go down the way we have,” Andrew Carr added. “Obviously, we’re frustrated with the way it went tonight, but we’re a good team and we know that. We’re going to show that again.”

They have no choice but to learn from that SEC Tournament experience — because if they don’t, they’ll be going home and the season will be over.

“It’s a fresh start in terms of, like, we’re playing different people, but we still gotta — this loss can’t go in vain,” Otega Oweh said. “We gotta learn from it and kind of have an edge because now it’s win or go home.”

If there is a positive to Kentucky’s hurdles throughout the season up to this point, it’s that there isn’t much you could throw at them that they haven’t seen. Every roster restriction or lineup change you can think of, the Wildcats have dealt with it.

When facing adversity, this group has responded time and time again. That’s the potential payoff going into March Madness.

“It helps us a lot. We’ve faced everything you can think of this year, but we just continue to turn toward each other and continue to come out on top every single time,” Carr said. “We’re battle tested and we’ll be ready for the NCAA Tournament.”

Just like the SEC, there will be no cupcakes in the field of 68. Every team is capable of winning on any night — as Ansley Almonor experienced personally, knocking off No. 1 seed Purdue as a No. 16 seed at Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023.

“Every team we play is gonna be a champion. They’re gonna be a champion, they’re gonna be a team with a winning DNA,” Almonor told KSR. “It’s not gonna be any anybody to be taken lightly. You gotta be able to go and play every second — not even just possession, every single second on the court. Once the ball is tipped up, you gotta play like your life is on the line, because that’s how they’re gonna play.

“It’s just gonna be a tough game. It doesn’t matter who we play, it’s gonna be a tough game. We gotta be able to be prepared for it and try to win.”

Game prep will begin this week. Until then, the Wildcats are getting excited for the Selection Show on CBS.

“I am, for sure. Definitely (excited for it),” Amari Williams said. “Just traveling the country, don’t know where you’re going to play with the Selection Show. It’s going to be a fun experience.”