Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky basketball’s loss to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament on Friday didn’t impact their seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The tournament committee placed John Calipari’s team in the South Region as the No. 3 seed and 11th-ranked team overall.
After the team’s loss on Friday night, many assumed the Wildcats would drop to a No. 4 seed and potentially be forced to face one of the four No. 1 seeds in the Sweet Sixteen. Instead, Kentucky enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed with a slightly more favorable draw than expected.
That draw begins with a No. 3-No. 14 matchup against Oakland on Thursday night in Pittsburgh, PA. The Wildcats have opened as 13.5-point favorites and are set to tip off at 7:10 PM ET.
A favorable matchup isn’t a guarantee, though, especially considering Kentucky’s recent track record in the postseason.
It was two years ago yesterday when the No. 2-seed Wildcats went down to No. 15-seed Saint Peter’s.
Last year No. 6-seed Kentucky was able to win their first game against No. 11-seed Providence, but fell short in the Round of 32 to No. 3-seed Kansas State.
It’s been four years since the Wildcats made it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. While both the Southeastern Conference and college basketball as a whole have become much more competitive (in large part due to NIL), that’s still far short of the standard for Kentucky basketball.
So many players have come and gone over the last half-decade, but John Calipari has been here for each postseason and his time to make a statement to the program’s fanbase is now.
4 Responses
The next 1, 2, 3 games (if applicable) for UK will be the biggest and most defining of the FRAUD’s career here, and you can bet the eyes of the entire nation will be all over it. They know what’s up. There will never be more pressure than this coming Thurs/(SAT). The most since the original era ended back at the end of 2015. Hmm, Coach, I wonder, do these games matter? We, the fans, should publicly come out and say these games don’t matter. Better yet, start with that next year when the new season starts: let’s we, the fans, decide "ehh these games don’t matter". Lets make the decision the whole season doesn’t matter, and let’s allow that to show up in Rupp Arena. Let’s make the decision our tickets no longer matter. Let’s send the statement to chicken-sh** Barnhart that this no longer matters. Let’s start a fund for a billboard that reads: DEAR MITCH……..FREE BBN: FIRE CAL NOW!!!!
I really like your billboard idea!!! The pressure has to be ramped up by making it available for all the public to see and not just chat sites.
This is another 10-loss season and the BBN was relentless in calling for TLT (Ten Loss Tubby) to be sent packing until he finally fled under the cover of darkness. TLT motto “the FF doesn’t matter” and the TLF (Ten Loss Fraud) motto “SECT does not matter” are both in defiance of what they are paid to do – prepare and play to win EVERY game.
The prefect combo – “
Fire the Fraud & Fire his Financial Minion AD”
LB: Thanks for the shout-out and the support! Alot of people just think you’re crazy when u write messages like this, but I’m dead-sane and dead-serious—–my opinions and feelings just come from a life-long passion and love of UK basketball that I was raised on and that goes back 4 generations in my family before I was born—so it’s important and it matters to people in the state. Maybe we get a little crazy over it–sure–i know its not life for us–BUT it is a PASSION for us–its something that as Tom Leach has said "has been relentlessly followed for generations". The thing that has changed is the tradition and the pageantry going away with today’s culture, and in my opinion, CAL has played a huge role in doing away with that because he encourages this modern-day culture with his own mentality and his own belief system. He makes it about individuals instead of team success. Again, did u ever think u would live to see the day any KY coach would say "any game doesn’t matter"? Or the NBA draft night was "the greatest moment in KY BBALL history"? Some of us are not afraid to say "F that, CAL". That’s NOT what KY BBALL is all about. Do we cheer for professional success for our guys in the NBA or any other career field after they have left UK? ABSOLUTELY WE DO!!! But WHILE THEY ARE AT UK, all of that is not supposed to b put ahead of what they are trying to accomplish for the success of UK–AS A TEAM!!! while u are at KY, u compete and play for the success of KY BBALL, and the harder and more u play for your teammates and for the success of your team, the more success u will open up for yourself individually, and the greater u will open up success for yourself on the professional level!!! These kids today are not taught the basic common values and ideals of team sportsmanship and athletic competition–unfortunately, the culture has changed to reflect a more individualistic way of thinking. However, even with all that, u look around college bball, with all other 350 teams dealing with these same changes, u still see most teams out there competing for the success of their team, playing in their conf tournament like it MATTERS (ex: NC ST), playing in the NCAA tournament like it MATTERS: (ex: St Peters in 2022) wonder if they felt that game against KY that year mattered? CAL is a gas lighter: he makes the very comments that he knows stokes the fires because he knows he can get away with it, and in reality, he despises and looks down on this fanbase, so he takes the opportunities when he can get them to take shots at us. That’s why he is always making everything about the players and not ever taking any accountability or responsibility for himself: he believes he is KING, and UNTOUCHABLE—to him, UK stands for UNTOUCHABLE KING. So instead of just being a bball coach and taking responsibility for his team and program game by game like every other coach in the country does, he plays the role of Godfather–and it’s like he is protecting his guys from the "BIG BAD WOLF THAT IS THE UK FANBASE". he reacts to everything as if everybody is out to get him and his players. Always on the defensive. He talks down to the fanbase as if we are stupid and beneath him when he is doing his postgame shows in Rupp, and during media sessions. He has no respect for any of the fanbase or the state. It’s just all a game to him. He views our passion as a disease and a sickness. Well, that sickness has been going for over 120 years thru multiple generations, multiple coaches, thousands of players—CAL, good luck vanquishing BBN–u may think u are KING now, but that’s not going to last–u are temporary–BBN is forever! Remember, KING begins with a K, not a C! KING–as in KENTUCKY, not CAL!!!!
LB: Im glad u like my billboard idea. U got the idea of it: we have to get this message OFF the website boards on the computer and INTO the public venue and public space, where it would get real attention and real reaction. And all these people who worry abt who we would get: Billy Clyde is gone, so shut up Abt him. Idk why more people don’t like the thought of Scott Drew. There are solid options and candidates out there, you’re not going to convince me there aren’t. People have to realize: no, of course we are not going to get someone on the level that CAL was when we hired him, and what he accomplished his first 6-8 years here. There is nobody out there who Is currently maybe a future Hall of Famer–its a new generation of coaches, and alot of new up-and-comers who are out there making names for themselves and accomplishing good things. We all have to realize that, yes, there would be a transition and maybe even a dropoff for awhile–we have been thru that before and always came back. But that was usually under the clouds of NCAA probation or sanctions. It wouldn’t be on that level or as lengthy as those times. And have we not already experienced a major dropoff these last 5 yrs? So how much worse can it get if a change were to b made? We have already experienced the NIT, the worst record in the history of KY bball, and the worst streak in the SEC and NCAA tournaments in school history under the current coach–thats about the lowest point u can go by KY BBALL standards. The so-called winningest program in the NCAA and the "GOLD STANDARD" under KING KAL. remember, we don’t move the needle, we ARE THE NEEDLE! my point is, if we r gonna go 9-16, I would rather experience that with a coach whose priority is just at least to be trying to win for the success of UK BBALL, and coaching his players up the actual "game of bsketball", the fundamentals, the bball IQ, focused on each opponent game by game and how his team matches up with each team played during the season and the tournament, coaching each game as if it actually MATTERS, and not directing his team on the premise of preparations for the NBA draft–I would rather go 9-16 on that type of philosophy because at least at the end of the day, i would know the coach’s intentions for KY, and intentions for HIMSELF, were SINCERE and GENUINE. That’s where KING KAL fails in my book–that, and the mind games that he plays with the fanbase, and the level of disrespect aimed our way. That’s why I don’t mind publicly advocating for a billboard. Put it somewhere that u know Little Mitch would be able to see it every day. I think it’s funny how he has no hesitation in pulling the plug on Kyra Elzy after two straight losing seasons–he had no problem doing that, did he? KING KAL could put together TEN STRAIGHT LOSING SEASONS, and Little Mitch STILL wouldn’t pull the plug on him. Hey, at least Kyra did something the KING hasn’t done in the last 7 years: WIN AN SEC CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!
Oakland is not a team of bruisers, but they can shoot. If both offenses are clicking, it should be a shoot out. We could not have gotten a better seeding and draw. It’s time for the FRAUD to produce!