[FONT=arial]UK fans have always enjoyed the SEC tournament. Not even a team of [/FONT][FONT=arial]bilingual nerds beating UK in the championship game can erase the [/FONT][FONT=arial]memories they had on Bourbon Street leading up to the game. UK fans [/FONT][FONT=arial]have long dominated the population of whichever city the tournament is [/FONT][FONT=arial]being held. In New Orleans, it was no different. So much so, “Go Big [/FONT][FONT=arial]Blue” could be heard in Cuba almost causing another missile crisis. [/FONT][FONT=arial]Everyone loves going to the SEC tournament….well, maybe not everyone.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial]Coach John Calipari has often stated he doesn’t like conference [/FONT][FONT=arial]tournaments because they don’t help seeding in any way shape or form. [/FONT][FONT=arial]You might be thinking “He’s right. Look at last year, we beat Florida [/FONT][FONT=arial]and they were still ranked higher than us in the tourney”. If that [/FONT][FONT=arial]were Cal’s main argument then you could understand where he was coming [/FONT][FONT=arial]from, however he said that even with his very first team here at UK. [/FONT][FONT=arial]“Playing 3 games in 3 days doesn’t prepare you for anything….Teams had [/FONT][FONT=arial]all season to play in [to the tournament]” Said Cal before Sunday’s [/FONT][FONT=arial]loss to Vanderbilt.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial]With everything Coach Cal says, you have to take it with a grain of [/FONT][FONT=arial]salt. Sometimes it’s not WHAT he is actually saying but the message [/FONT][FONT=arial]he is trying to convey. For instance, I don’t feel that the team was [/FONT][FONT=arial]getting too cocky or full of themselves, but Cal says they were. He[/FONT]
[FONT=arial]would know certainly better than I, but I haven’t seen any evidence in [/FONT][FONT=arial]my time observing the Cats this year. So when he basically says “The [/FONT][FONT=arial]fans love it and travel to see you, you feel obligated to play”, is [/FONT][FONT=arial]there an underlying message? No, not this time.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial]Cal has nothing to gain by downplaying the importance of the SEC [/FONT][FONT=arial]tourney. For almost 100 years UK has won the conference tourney and [/FONT][FONT=arial]UK fanshave enjoyed every second of it. Right there is one reason Cal [/FONT][FONT=arial]shouldn’t downplay it, the fans. You don’t want the UK fanbase to [/FONT][FONT=arial]turn on you at any moment, so the best way to do that is to not make [/FONT][FONT=arial]them mad. Now this doesn’t make them mad necessarily, but it is [/FONT][FONT=arial]perplexing. “Why would our coach not want to play in the SEC [/FONT][FONT=arial]tournament? Does he not care?”. I can say with full conviction that [/FONT][FONT=arial]he does care, he just cares more about the bigger prize, and maybe we [/FONT][FONT=arial]should follow his lead on this.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial]Since Team Turmoil in the early 2000’s, UK hasn’t been the same [/FONT][FONT=arial]juggernaut it had been in the late 90’s. Did you know the last SEC [/FONT][FONT=arial]tournament title UK won before Calipari came to Lexington was 2004. [/FONT][FONT=arial]During those times, perhaps UK fans got complacent and set their[/FONT]
[FONT=arial]standards a bit lower. Instead of shooting for the NCAA title, the [/FONT][FONT=arial]nation of blue was, at that time, just happy for their team to be [/FONT][FONT=arial]competitive in the SEC tourney. The Latter Tubby years and all of the [/FONT][FONT=arial]Gillispie years seemed to have set back the expectation level for [/FONT][FONT=arial]Kentucky fans. Calipari has now allowed us to look to the higher [/FONT][FONT=arial]prize and maybe we truly should.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial]While the SEC tournament is fun and a good way to spend an extended [/FONT][FONT=arial]weekend in March, maybe it should be just that. This doesn’t mean we [/FONT][FONT=arial]should root for our team to lose, but it does mean we should support [/FONT][FONT=arial]our Coach and team as they put their focus on the NCAA’s and an [/FONT][FONT=arial]eventual national title.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial]Its good to get mad at a loss because it shows you care. After seeing [/FONT][FONT=arial]the pictures in nation of blue’s photo gallery of the team at Cal’s [/FONT][FONT=arial]house, they look mad. Its Cal’s job to churn that anger into focus. [/FONT][FONT=arial]So maybe playing 3 games in 3 days doesn’t prepare you, but losing to[/FONT] [FONT=arial]an inferior opponent on the main stage just might. Will the Cats [/FONT][FONT=arial]learn from it, or have a repeat performance when the stakes are even [/FONT][FONT=arial]higher?[/FONT]
