Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: A Look at Where the Wildcats Stand
Mar 7, 2013; Athens, GA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs forward Donte
The chances that we will be rooting for the Wildcats in the NCAA tournament are as slim as they have been all season long. It doesn’t look good for the Wildcats.
Jeff Borzello of CBS states that Kentucky MUST beat Florida on Saturday:
"LosersKentucky: The Wildcats had played themselves back into the mix a couple of weekends ago by beating Missouri, but they will need another monster win in the season finale to have any at-large chance. After losing at Arkansas over the weekend, beating Georgia on the road was a must — and the Wildcats couldn’t come through with a victory. They are now 20-10 overall, with an 11-6 record in the SEC, heading into this weekend’s showdown at home against Florida. Kentucky absolutely needs to beat the Gators, or it will likely be NIT-bound come Selection Sunday. The one win over Missouri is nice, and victories over fellow SEC bubblers Tennessee and Ole Miss also help, but it’s just not a great overall profile. Moreover, Georgia was Kentucky’s first sub-100 loss of the season."
Jason King from ESPN agrees:
"John Calipari has tried numerous tactics in recent weeks to light a spark within his Kentucky basketball team. One afternoon, he even staged an impromptu dodgeball game to loosen the mood and improve chemistry.Nothing has worked.Thursday’s 72-62 loss at Georgia marked the fourth defeat in the past seven games for the Wildcats, who will probably need to beat Florida in Saturday’s regular-season finale to have any shot of making the NCAA tournament."
And John Calipari says there is nobody but himself to blame for the mess of a team that he is coaching:
"The biggest thing is: I am so disappointed in the job I’ve done with this team, I can’t even begin to tell you. I look at a team – I’ve done this 20-something years; I’ve never had a team not cohesive this time of year. Every one of my teams (was) cohesive. Every one of them had a will to win more than how they were playing. Every one of them had a fight. Well, if this team doesn’t have that, that’s on me. What in the heck did I do? I’ll tell you: I’m going to go back and evaluate how we practiced, what I accepted, because they’re giving us what I’ve accepted – which is, ‘It doesn’t matter whether we win or lose, I’m going to play the way I want to play"
So where do the Wildcats go from here? I wish I could answer that question.
On the up side, Kentucky will be a top three seed in the NCAA and will have a bye from the first game. They should have a relativity easy road to the championship game. Also, the games will not be true road games, which has been crippling this group from the beginning of the season.
On the down side, nobody knows what the hell to expect from this team. They can look great (Missouri) and then they can look absolutely clueless (Arkansas, Georgia).
Tomorrow’s game against Florida will tell us all how they will respond in the SEC tournament.