CJ Fredrick is confident UK will respond to another disappointing loss with better play in the NCAA Tournament. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky goes into the NCAA Tournament having lost two of its last three games, both to Vanderbilt.
Coach John Calipari had owned Vandy but not this year after beating the Commodores by 16 points in Nashville earlier in the season. However, for this Kentucky team, losing a second time might be the best way to go into NCAA play because it seems like UK has played its best when things looked the worse.
“That’s what we’re going to talk about right there. Every time we’ve taken a spill, the whole country jumps on us, it seems like they come back with a vengeance. That is the plan. We got beat,” said Calipari after Friday’s loss.
“Some of the games we got beat, it’s not like we got beat by a 100. It’s a bucket here or a bucket there, you get beat. But learning how to win is a big part of this, too. We’ve won some really good games against really good teams. There are teams across the country in their tournaments losing.”
Calipari is thankful his team won’t have to open NCAA Tournament play against a SEC opponent.
“It’s going to be nice to play somebody that doesn’t know us that well. This is the third time we’ve played Vandy. They know us, we know them,” Calipari said. “You know what it’s going to be, the physicalness of the game. Get in the tournament, it’s not that way.”
Guard CJ Fredrick is on the same bandwagon that coming off a subpar effort will be perfect motivation/inspiration for UK in NCAA play.
“Right now this sucks. We wanted to come out and perform better than this and compete for a championship this weekend,” Fredrick said after Friday’s loss to Vanderbilt.
“We still got some basketball left. We have to fight through that. This team has been through a bunch of adversity. I think that will be a point of emphasis going into the tournament.
“Everything we have been through, believing in each other and getting back to that brand of basketball. When our backs are against the wall we respond. Probably people are down on us right now and that’s when our backs are against the wall and we come together and play our best.”
4 Responses
A final four run now would be an aberration…not a redemption of this team. We have lost to teams we should never lose to. We have lost home games to unranked teams including the Vandy loss on Senior Night. Tennessee is the only ranked team we have beaten. We did not win the SEC regular season or the SEC tourney…losing to Vanderbilt AGAIN! We have double digit losses AGAIN and will enter the Big Dance unranked. We had talent that was misused or not used at all. Now we go into the NCAA tournament only to be embarrassed AGAIN with a first weekend loss. The Calipari way is not working and he is too arrogant to change. It’s time for UK to make a change and that needs to include moving on from Barnhart for creating this mess. I fear that we are very close to becoming another Indiana if change doesn’t happen right away. I have bled Blue all of my life, but my Blue blood has almost bled out. Dr. Calipouto, please step in and make these changes before it’s too late. Not doing so makes me wonder if this is a deliberate attempt to remove our program from the national stage…permanently. Please prove me wrong.
No final 4 run with this team..no way..I can see perhaps sweet 16 because of a very favorable draw. But game to game minute to minute possession by possession focus just isn’t there.
It will definitely be interesting to see how Bryce Hopkins does against us. And I can’t help but wonder why he left.
I’m not worried about Hopkins, I bet he doesn’t score 15 pts.. worry about the player who never scores or rebounds or hardly does anything, this type of player is who generally kills us..from out of nowhere type player.