Cats Want To Have Fun and Embrace the Moment

A year ago Denzel Aberdeen was a key reserve on Florida’s national championship team.

So what kind of advice does the Kentucky senior guard have for his UK teammates going into NCAA Tournament play Friday against Santa Clara in St. Louis?

“Have fun and embrace the moment. It’s something everyone wants to be a part of. Something you dream of as a kid,” said Aberdeen. “So take it in, have fun and play hard whenever your position is called or your name is called. Really embrace being in the moment.”

Senior Otega Oweh says his message to younger UK teammates would be that the “sense of urgency”  has to be at the highest level.

“It is win or go home. So the details and the urgency we have to have is going to be on another level,” Oweh, UK’s leading scorer, said. “So in these types of situations you are getting every team’s best. No one is trying to go home. We have to come out there and have the utmost energy and be really sharp. We don’t want to finish the game and say, ‘Oh, we should have done this or should have done that.’ The urgency has to be super sharp.”

That should be easy for two seniors playing in their last NCAA Tournament to do.

“Knowing every game could be the last one, want to go out there and have no regrets, leave it all on the table — on the floor, I mean. We just want to go as far as we can. Prolong this run we are trying to go on and have fun in the moment as well, because this is the last time we are going to be able to do this,” Oweh said.

“Knowing it is our last run, trying to make the best of it. Trying to go all of the way,” Aberdeen said. “Playing for our teammates, playing for our brothers, every single one of us knows our dream and goal, knows what we want to do. We have to go on and strive for it.”

Could that increased urgency lead to players being too tight or nervous?

“If we are pressing too hard, I would rather press too hard than not enough,” Oweh said. “We have to go out there and be super confident. Just be urgent. I don’t think there would be any negatives or penalties for playing too hard or being in the moment too much. So in these situations you have to be all those things. So however urgent we need to be, that’s what we got to do.”

Aberdeen believes Kentucky has learned that its identity has to be to play hard and play for each other.

“We have to do everything we can to keep going in this tournament. Go as far as we can. We want to win it all. You will see a lot of us coming out stronger, hitting first, being more physical. That’s what we struggled with at the beginning of the season. I think we picked it up as time went on,” Aberdeen said.  “Just us being more physical and doing what we have to do to get wins.”

Oweh said UK is a “relentless group” going into NCAA play.

“This season I feel like we have had a lot of ups and downs, and we just never quit. We fought through it all. Could be down 20, we are still going to fight and try and win the game. So I feel like that’s our identity,” Oweh said. “We are definitely trying to limit those slow starts, but regardless of how it goes, we are still going to fight. I feel like that’s our identity.”