Like making out with somebody at a bar on St. Patrick’s Day, the SEC Tournament (although fun and exciting) is essentially meaningless for the Kentucky Wildcats. At this point UK is only competing against themselves and with themselves. Whether they get upset by arch-rivals Florida later today, or they run the table in Nashville, they’re still the NCAA Tournament‘s #1 overall seed.
It’s really only about the historical achievement of a perfect season at this point. But it don’t mean thing without that ring. Just ask the 2007 New England Patriots, who went 16-0 in the regular season, but got upset by the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.
John Calipari met the media at the team hotel, situated in very close proximity to the campus of conference rival Vanderbilt. (The Commodores have already been eliminated from the SEC Tournament by the way)
“The real part starts when Sunday we hear how tough our bracket’s going to be,” said Calipari.
“That’s when the real stuff starts. This is three days—three games in three days, if you can win. And it will not change our seed. It never has.”
“Whether we’ve won this thing, maybe if we lose it’ll change it. But I don’t know. I don’t believe so.”
Kentucky, if (more like when) they beat Florida, will get the winner of LSU and Auburn. Then it’s the SEC conference tournament title game. And although most of us find this week to be essentially meaningless for the Kentucky Wildcats, Coach Cal does not see it this way.
Calipari says this weekend has meaning for a lot of fans.
“Let’s have a ball for the fans, let our fans know that we’re here doing this for you and we’re going to have fun and play as hard as we can. We can’t guarantee you that we’ll win, but we understand that fans can’t get in Rupp Arena come here,” Cal said.
If you’re a fan of a NCAA Tournament bubble team, be upset if/when your bubble bursts on Sunday. However, don’t get too upset. Remember the Kentucky Wildcats are just going to DEMOLISH everybody in the end anyway.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. You can read Banks’ feature stories and op-eds in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and hear his regular guest spots on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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