John Calipari has his team playing for something bigger than a SEC title. (SEC Photo)
It’s not fair but that’s true with any conference scheduling that is not a true round-robin format. Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee are all now 12-4 in Southeastern Conference play with two games left. Auburn leads the league at 13-3. Those four teams are a combined 64-1 at home this season but Kentucky is the only one of the four that had to play the other three teams on the road.
If Kentucky can beat Mississippi Tuesday and Florida Saturday, it will be assured of finishing no worse than third in the SEC since Tennessee and Arkansas finish the season playing each other. But if UK drops a game this week, it could find itself the No. 4 seed in the SEC Tournament despite being a top 10 team nationally.
“It’s a lopsided schedule compared to the other teams. It just is. But that’s okay. We’re playing for something bigger than just a seed or a league championship,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said after Saturday’s 75-73 loss at Arkansas.
“You know we always play bigger than that. We’ve had teams finish fourth in this league and we’ve played in the last game (NCAA title game). We’re going to keep trying to get better. Whatever the schedule is, we still have a game at Florida. We have a tough road to hoe.”
It wasn’t just Kentucky that lost Saturday. So did No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 2 Arizona, No. 3 Auburn, No. 4 Purdue, No. 5 Kansas and No. 9 Texas Tech. That broke the record for most top 10 upsets in a single day in the history of the Associated Press rankings according to ESPN Stats. It was the first time every team in the top six lost on the same day and just shows how chaotic postseason play could be.
ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi noted Sunday that the upsets did not really impact his NCAA seedings. He said Baylor, which beat Kansas, was the only top 10 team to improve its seeding as the Bears went from sixth to fourth. Gonzaga, Arizona, and Kansas — who have all lost to a SEC team — are the other No. 1 seeds currently.
“Auburn, Kentucky, and Purdue all slipped a single spot on the seed list. The only seed to change was Auburn, which fell from fourth overall to fifth and a No. 2 seed in the bracket. Kentucky and Purdue only slid within the 2-seeds. So the so-called damage was relative and, in essence, minimal,” Lunardi said.
Kentucky does have one area it needs to clean up now before March Madness starts. The last four games UK has been down by 10 or more points in the first half each game. Kentucky is 2-2 in those games.
“I don’t know if (it’s a coincidence). I may switch around who I’m starting just to change it. I’ve got to watch the tape and see why it was. What it was. What did they do? What did we do?” Calipari said Saturday.
“We could have won the game. Now we go home. Got a home game, got a road game, then it’s over. We start tournament play, which is why we do what we do.”
3 Responses
The SEC front office definitely stacked the schedule against us, but that is nothing new as they are trying to get more teams in the Dance. Often times that is done at our expense. Our challenge now is not that of getting healthy, but of defining and accepting roles that give us the best chance to win. Grady and Mintz need to go back to being shooting guards. Wheeler needs to be an offensive facilitator first and foremost, being satisfied with open layups and freethrows as they come. Ty needs to play the point too. He is the only one who makes post passes to Oscar. It also allows him to get his shot as he is looking to set up others. We are not throwing enough lobs and need to be running out more. When we do this at a high level, we win, but it does not present Sahvir in a way that improves his NBA chances which are almost nonexistent anyway. Will Sahvir make the sacrifice to help this team?
Happens all the time
Bottom line => The more SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament the more $$$s for the SEC. It’s now a business operation and not a sporting event.
Why not take some of that money and hire some referees who can:
(1) Read a rule book.
(2) Understand a rule book.
(3) Enforce the rule book.
I know it won’t happen and we will continue to have to watch football without the pads.